Human Growth and Development, Reaction Paper Example

Psychological Theories

Piaget

Piaget peered into how children arrived at answers to questions especially questions on tests and “observed how children reasoned as they tried to solve problems.” (Passer and Smith, 2004). Piaget postured that children’s thinking changes with age and further changes qualitatively and is different than that of adult thinking. He further postured that a child’s cognitive thinking results from the brains maturation and personal experiences developed in life. The brain has a way of building schemes through patterns of though and experiences in life. This scheme is the guide that interacts and guides our future interactions with the world in which we live and operate. People assimilate new information and incorporate these new experiences into their new schemes in life. Secondly people accommodate new schemes into their life by allowing new schemes to “cause existing schemes to change” in order to accommodate reality that is comfortable for people to accept in their lives. (Passer and Smith, 2004). Hence in order for a person to have a positive cognitive growth experience they must be able to assimilate new experiences as well as be able to change their thinking to allow new experiences to fit into their lives when they do not particularly fit their normal pattern of life.

According to Piaget, there are four major stages of cognitive growth: (1) Sensorimotor state in which a child at birth to age two experiences physical touch and motor skills. Around the age of eight months a child no longer believes in the concept of ‘out of sight then out of mind.’ By this stage the child is able to understand the concept of ‘object permanence’ realizing an object will still exist even when it can no longer be seen.

Piaget’s preoperational stage “reflects an inability to view the world in the eyes of someone else’s perspective.” (Passer and Smith, 2004). This is not a selfish stage rather the children actually believe other people share the same views as they do.

From ages seven to age twelve is the Concrete Operational Stage where children can “perform basic mental operations concerning problems that involve tangible objects and situations. An example is that a child in this stage is able to draw maps to represent direction. Children at this stage often have difficulty with reasoning or thinking with hypothetical thinking situations.

The formal operational stage is the stage in which young adults are able to think logically and come up with concrete and abstract answers to problems. They are further able to test a hypothesis in a formal way with a systematic form and come to a reasonable conclusion. This ability commences about the age of eleven or twelve.

Elkind

“Elkind proposed that adolescent egocentrism; a self-absorbed and distorted view of one’s own uniqueness and importance has two subparts: adolescents overestimate the importance of their uniqueness of their feelings and experiences which Elkind names the ‘personal fable’. Examples are: “My parents can’t possibly know how I really feel.” Secondly, adolescents feel that they are always the center of the stage and being looked at. Elkind views this as oversensitivity to social evaluation as being called “imaginary audience” that simply does not exist. Hence Elkind proposes egocentrism is broken down into (1) personal fable and (2) imaginary audience.

Erikson’s stages of development are composed of the Infant Stage where trust versus mistrust develop, the Toddler Stage where Autonomy v Shame and Doubt come about where a toddler “struggles to maintain consistency with his physical environment while maintaining self-esteem.” (“Patient Teaching, 1990). The next stage of development is the Pre-Schooler Stage where Initiative versus Guilt is formed hence a child begins to imitate other and further “begins to develop a conscience and sexual identity.” (“Patient Teaching, 1990”). School-aged Children progress to the Industry versus Inferiority Stage where they attempt to refine their learned skills in order to develop their own unique sense of self-identity. The next stage in Erikson’s theory of development is the Identity versus Role Confusion Stage. This is the stage where a young adolescent attempts to portray many roles under one self-image such as an athlete, student, caregiver, etc. The next part of Erikson’s stages move forward into the Adult Stages including the Young Adult, Middle Aged Adult and the Older Adult. In the Young Adult Stage is where a person first experiences Intimacy versus Isolation and learns to make a special commitment to another person in terms of a personal relationship to a mate. In the Middle Aged Adult Stage where Generativity versus Stagnation is present is where a person focuses on their career, family and extra-curricular interests. The Older Adult Stage is where a person is embarked in Integrity versus Despair. It is in this stage that a person looks over their accomplishments that they have made in life and prepares for their final journey to death. They further make preparation for their death physically and spiritually.

James Marcia theorized four identity statuses of psychological development. The main idea he was attempting to portray is a person’s sense of identity is largely determined by the choices they make with regards to personal and social traits. He focused on adolescent development which was an extension of Erikson’s theories of development. Marcia further postured that an identity is neither resolved nor confused, rather degreed to the exposure level of religion, vocation, gender, values and choices in life, etc.

Carol Gilligan postured the Moral Development Theory and stated that we learn what right and wrong from more than looking is at posits of justice. She stated that moral development is influenced by gender differences. “Girls are more concerned with care and relationships” as stated by Lefton (2000). There is a huge turmoil within women with the relationship with the self.

Kohlberg’s theory is nearly the same as Gilligan’s but it does not take into the context of gender differences.

Evaluation of one of the main characters according to Piaget, Erikson and Marcia

I choose John Bender, the bad-boy stereotyped character that had trouble getting along with anyone in life. Putting him in a closed classroom with other disobedient teenagers was a struggle for him because he was used to reacting and getting his way. Growing up in a family where he did not get the attention he needed at home, he sought out attention at school , attention through negative impact. He did not get depressed but he created a false world for himself so that he could cope.

All of the children were stereotyped and stereotyping  can be the most detrimental to a person’s development when used to categorize people in a negative effect. If a person is using stereotyping to judge one by his appearance that can be very negative and stay with a person through his/her developmental years well into adulthood. Because appearances are seen as a way to help people develop their personalities a negative hit on a person’s appearance during developmental stages can cause injury to the youngster’s ego. Children and teens often stereotype amongst each other and that is natural but to misrepresent a group of teens and punish them for detention is a whole new ball game that can hinder teens for life.

What did you learn from the film?

I learned from the film that people’s views are often misrepresented even if they are viewed in groups. People often try to hurt others to gain more self-esteem for themselves. It is through the recognition of these instances that one can avoid allowing these instances to permanently affect their psychological growth. Putting children or young adults with different personalities in one room can be difficult but they can learn to get along with proper guidance and working things out themselves. Teacher Vernon gave them the tools necessary to work out their personality clashes and see they could all contribute to each others goals.

The assignment and activity taught me the basics of psychology and emotional growth from birth to adulthood which is important to know if pursuing a field in psychology and to maintain a healthy psyche. We all have common goals of which are to succeed and to be loved in life.

Whom would you recommend to view this film and why did you choose them?

I would recommend this film to any psychology student and to any family because it is passionate, informative and full of change.

References

Patient Teaching (1990) Erikson’s Development Stages Retrieved April 7, 2010 from, http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/erikson.htm

Real Life Dilemmas April 7, 2010 from, http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/Gilligan.htm

The Breakfast Club Retrieved April 7, 2010 from, Movie Script http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/breakfast_club.html