Child development and social learning theories

The three theories that I want to talk about are social learning theory, psychoanalytic theory, and psychosocial theory. These are three theories that have related to me in so many ways. However, there were also quite a few discussion questions, which related to some of my experiences in life. Throughout this course, I also will talk about what have learned taking this course. One assignment being experiential learning this assignment made me think about what I have accomplished and different experiences that I have a lot through over the years with my family and how I am raising my children

Child development focuses on sciencetific studies and processes of stability in human children. There are many changes that children go through during development or being domains of development that consist of physical,cognitive,and psychosocial development. Psychical development is a child that may have problems with development of their motor skills, for example, a child that may not learn how to walk until they are two years old. Cognitive development a child whom has problems with speaking around others may have tendencies of being shy. Psychosocial a child that may have low self-esteem and social acceptance, these three domains are very important during child development that is why it is very important what children see and do during these stages this has a major affect on their lives.

Influences on development

There are many different influences on children many influences come from heredity are culture, race, and religon. The environment is also a major influence on children being raised in poverty can have a big influence on children most children think beyond and in their adult lives they become successful and many children settle for less and continue to live their lives in poverty. Culture has a lot to do with influence for example Jehovah witnesses they do not celebrate many holidays and being a child raised around this type of environment will look at the world with different perspectives.

Basic theoretical issues

However, basic theoretical issues many children are active and passive in their development. The English professor John Locke held that a young child is a tabula meaning blank slate at how they look at society. Children have their own internal drives and needs that influence development there are five major perspectives and theories of child development. Psychoanalytic learning, cognitive, contextual, and evolutionary, this considers evolutionary and biological underlings of how a child behaves.

Psychoanalytic

Psychoanalytic are views development of the unconscious forces that motivate human behavior that is referred to as psychoanalysis. The unconscious mind lies outside vague and boundaries of consciousness these things are too painful to remain in the conscious part of the mind. That are considered as repressions this is the egos defense mechanism. this could be many different things that people are unaware of these are thing that lead to serious mental behaviors in my earlier discussion question I said that these are things that trigger OCD patients they are so used to doing things like washing of the hands so much they are unaware that they are doing it too much. According to Freud2008, the ego is an aspect of the subject that emerges from the id that are biological, inherited, and unconsciousness of sexual drives and irrational impulses. The ego also develops the ids acceptation with the world. The stages of child development would include super ego is placing rules and demands of reality. The ego demands both the id and the superego that may be called constructive acceptance that are demands made both by id and super ego these are important to mental health. Self identity and gender identity are also important stages the child realizes to identify them self of who they are and who they are going to be gender identity would be the child would be the child realizing if they are boy are a girl they are developing of self concept.

Psychosocial crisis at different stages of development

Crisis that develops at this stage of development would be depression the child has to much pressure to meet certain expectations and feeling to overwhelmed or the child has permissive parents that have made the child feel ashamed about what he or she is supposed to be doing. Low self-esteem child has no self worth about what he or she are doing they may also have identity crisis not really knowing who they are in this world. This is the main reason why we have so many children that commit suicide it is very important that we show our children love and support no matter what they may be doing in during this stage of development this will matter as they grow into adults.

Social learning theory

However,learning is very important during child development this learning comes from observing others behavior. Social learning is a transition between learning theories and cognitive learning theories. Observational learning is learning by choosing models to imitate when a child has watched someone do something for instance, my daughter has watched me fold the linen over the years now she helps me fold this is because she has learned from watching me since she has been a baby. Observational learning is very important this is a very critical time in a child’s life they want to learn and do everything possible. Bandura makes a distinction between learning through observation and imitation of what has been learned. There are four conditions that are used before a person can model behavior paying attention being able to remember having the ability to replicate and motivation being able to show what they have learned throughout the observation process.

Modeling behavior

Modeling teaches new behaviors influences frequencies and encourages many different behaviors. Self efficiency plays a big role in learning the child has to be able to believe in themselves in order to have confidence to succeed towards the learning process this affects behavior because if they do not believe in their self they will not feel successful in doing certain activities. Self-regulation is also important this is when one has their own ideas of choosing what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior setting standards and goals. Self-instructions are strategy that teaches learners instructions to guide their behavior this would be cognitive modeling, external guidance, selfguidance, and self-instruction.

Associative learning, and Psychosocial tools

Associative learning are two kinds of learning operant conditioning, and classical conditioning classical conditioning being would be fearing something this fear would be from something that has happened to someone for instance a tornado if you have experienced something like this every time you hear strong wind this can make you become fearful that another tornado may hit. Operant conditioning would be for example, if a child is rewarded for good behavior in school, it is most likely that the child will always show good behavior to receive rewards. Classical conditioning is a natural process of learning different from operant conditioning this learning involves voluntary behavior learning from consequences.

Cognitive learning theory

Cognitive learning focuses on the thought process and a behavior that reflects on these processes J Piaget (1896-1980) described to processes used by the individual in its attempt to adapt assimilation and accommodation. Both of these processes are used in life as the person increasingly adapts to the environment. Assimilation is the process of using or transforming the environment and placing them in to structures. There are four stages of development in cognitive development the sensiormotor stage this is a period of development when thie child demomstrates activities and knowledge of the world. Pre-operational stage is when the child demonstrates the usage of the memory and imagination. Operational stage is when the child shows actions that can be reversed. Formal operational stage the child begins to use egocentric thoughts intelligence is demonstrated. At this stage of development it is very important that we challenge our children ablilities during this developmental stage.

Infromation processing

Information is a process that explains cognitive development by analyzing the mental processes that are involved in perceiving and handling information. This processs consist of usage of the brain. Vygotskys(2008) “ theory says that the brain is similar to the computer.” This approach helps researchers to estimate the intelligence of a child. Different studies are put into place to see how much data can be stores in the brain. This is put into place to study and to put a handle on the conscious an uncouncious parts of the memory for example, the child memory is very difrrent from the adult memory for instance there is generic memory that comes from remembering basic routines that a child may do on a daily basis. Script would be from repeated or familiar events that take placethis could be a family gathering. Episodic memory are longterm memories this is a family vacation. Autobiographical memorys are events that take place in a persons life that have special meaningthis could be a memory that had negative affects on the child and is always remembered because of that. Memories have a lot to do with information processing if a child is unable to remember this can affect the way that they learn, and also affect the developmental process.

My experience taking this course

This course has taught me a lot about child development new things that I have never thought about before. I will be able to utilize these new skills when I am done with this course. For instance, you think about things that may be going on in your everyday life you also a good understand about child development, experiential learning was one of my favorite assignments. For example, experiential learning for me is the best way to learn I am the kind of person that if you show me something one time I take it and run with it. I also enjoyed talking about Psychoanalytic perspective I learned from this perspective that there are th ings that people do on a daily basis without even realizing that this is being done this has a lot to do with the unconscious part of the brain.