Child psychology is a scientific approach in study centred on children and young people’s (CYP) development and behaviour from birth to adolescents, Focusing on why, when and how CYP develop the way they do. Studies are often divided into sections under physical, cognitive, social and emotional development, concentrating on familiar changes in development and behaviour and how it is shaped by internal and external influences. Studies within this discipline focus on childhood because this time is when most changes happen. The Nature (genetic) vs Nurture (environment) is continuous debate between CP .However it does play important role in child development, but how much is because of nature or due to nurture is unclear. Psychologist Francis Galton, coined the terms nature versus nurture. Galton believed intelligence was innate,he even went as far as suggesting that society should encourage intellectual individuals to procreate and less intellectual members of society should not.Most studies on nature vs nurture debate have been conducted on twins and also the feral children,seeking ...
.Standardisation
Both experimental and non-experimental research can make use of observations and interviews as a way of measuring responses.
Method
description strengths weakness
Observation Lab controlled quick to conduct which means that
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Piaget theories suggest that children develop in 4 stages which correspond with their age (sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages).Piagets work has been significant in developing educational policy and teaching practice. One such review was to primary education in 1966 by the UK government. The result of this led to the publication of the Plowden Report
The cognitive aspect utilizes Piaget’s theory of development. Piaget’s theory includes four stages: The Sensorimotor Stage, The Preoperational Stage, The Concrete Operational Stage, and The Formal Operational Stage (Siegler et al.,135). For children, ages 0 to 6, the stages focused on are the sensorimotor and preoperational stages. Piaget’s focus was on nature and nurture to encourage cognitive development. Nurturing is the everyday interactions that a child experiences not only with parents but with other children and community members. Nature is a child’s biological development and their ability to learn and make perceptions of the world around
The nature vs. nurture controversy is an age old question in the scientific and psychological world with both camps having evidence to support their theories. The controversy lies in which is more influential in the development of human beings. While there is no definitive answer for this, it is interesting to look at each of them separately.
“The term “nature versus nurture” is used to refer to a long-running scientific debate. The source of debate is the question of which has a greater influence on development: someone's innate characteristics provided by genetics, or someone's environment. In fact, the nature versus nurture debate has been largely termed obsolete by many researchers, because both innate characteristics and environment play a huge role in development, and they often intersect”. (Smith, 2010 p. 1)
Child psychology, also known as child development, is the study of psychological growth of children; how these mechanisms develop from infancy to adolescence and why they deviate from one child to the next. Child development is associated with biological, psychological, and emotional diversity that occur in humans. Although there is a different advancement for each child, these developmental changes may be greatly determined by genetic factors and experience during prenatal life. The early years of a child’s life are very important for his or her health and development. Parents, health professionals, educators, and others can work together as partners to help children grow up to reach their full potential.
The third stage is the Concrete Operational stage (7-11 years); this is when children are starting to solve problems mentally and develop concepts and are beginning to get better at understanding and following rules. Piaget’s fourth and final stage is the Formal Operational Stage (11 years and over); this stage is where the child is able to think not only as in the terms of the concrete, but also think in the abstract and is now able to think hypothetically. Piaget’s theory is one where children learn in a different manner to that of adults as they do not have the life experiences and interactions that adults have and use to interpret information. Children learn about their world by watching, listening and doing. Piaget’s constructivist theory has had a major impact on current theories and practices of education. Piaget has helped to create a view where the focus is on the idea of developmentally appropriate education. This denotes to an education with environments, materials and curriculum that are coherent with a student’s cognitive and physical abilities along with their social and emotional
The nature versus nurture debate is an old issue within the field of psychology. “The nature-nurture issue is a perennial one that has resurfaced in current psychiatry as a series of debates on the role that genes (DNA) and environments play in the etiology and pathophysiology of mental disorders” (Schaffner) The debate is essentially about what is inherited (nature) and what is experienced by environmental factors (nurture) and how they affect human development. Naturally, the nature versus nurture debate relates to many controversies such as intelligence, gender identities, violent behaviors, and sexual orientation. There are countless studies on whether intelligence is an inherited trait or if it is influenced by environmental factors.
“The influence of Piaget’s ideas in developmental psychology has been enormous. He changed how people viewed the child’s world and their methods of studying children. He was an inspiration to many who came after and took up his ideas. Piaget's ideas have generated a huge amount of research which has increased our understanding of cognitive development.” (McLeod 2009). Piaget purposed that we move through stages of cognitive development. He noticed that children showed different characteristics throughout their childhood development. The four stages of development are The Sensorimotor stage, The Preoperational Stage, The Concrete operational stage and The Formal operational stage.
Both Piaget and Vygotsky agreed that children's cognitive development took place in stages. (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P.149). However they were distinguished by different styles of thinking. Piaget was the first t reveal that children reason and think differently at different periods in their lives. He believed that all children progress through four different and very distinct stages of cognitive development. This theory is known as Piaget’s Stage Theory because it deals with four stages of development, which are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. (Ginsburg, Opper 1979 P. 26).
Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development suggests that children have four different stages of mental development. The main concept of Jean Piaget’s theory is that he believes in children being scientists by experimenting with things and making observations with their senses. This approach emphasizes how children’s ability to make sense of their immediate everyday surroundings. Piaget also proposed that children be perceived to four stages based on maturation and experiences.
One of the hottest debates is and has been nature vs nurture for years, but what is the difference between the two? Nature is what people think of as already having and not being able to change it, in other words, pre-wiring (Sincero). Nurture is the influence of experiences and its environment of external factors (Sincero). Both nature and nurture play important roles in human development. Scientists and researchers are both trying to figure out which is the main cause in development because it is still unknown on which it is. The best position to side with is nature. Nature is also defined as genetic or hormone based behaviors (Agin). Regardless of the involvement in everyday life, or nurture, this argumentation centers around the effect genes have on human personalities. Although it is understandable on reasons to side with nurture, nature is the better stand in this controversy. Reasons to side with nature is because of genes and what genes hold. Genes is what
“{No theory of cognitive development has had more impact than the cognitive stages presented by Jean Piaget. Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, suggested that children go through four separate stages in a fixed order that is universal in all children. Piaget declared that these stages differ not only in the quantity of information acquired at each, but also in the quality of knowledge and understanding at that stage. Piaget suggested that movement from one stage to the next occurred when the child reached an appropriate level of maturation and was exposed to relevant types of experiences. Without experience, children were assumed incapable of reaching their highest cognitive ability. Piaget's four stages are known as the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages.
Development across the lifespan is one of the most interesting areas of psychology. The word development refers to human development which can be defined as “the scientific study of changes that occur in people as they age from conception until death.” (Ciccarelli, & White, 2009)Psychologists study this developmental change over time through several different methods. The book highlights three: Longitudinal design, cross-sectional design and cross-sequential design. Longitudinal design is a research design “in which one participant or group of participants is studied over a long period of time.” Cross sectional design differs from longitudinal design because cross-sectional designed research studies “several different age-groups of participants are studied at one particular time.” (Ciccarelli, & White)Cross-sequential designed research is a combination of the other two types; the cross-sequential research design studies participants by means of a cross-sequential design but they are also followed and assessed for a period of time no more than six years. A controversial topic associated with development across the lifespan is the theory of “Nature versus Nurture”. Nature versus nurture refers to the relationship between development and heredity and environmental factors. The answer lies on a spectrum between environmental factors and heredity. Psychologists on the environmental side are called empiricists. Empiricists believe that human development is fully influenced by a person’s environment. On the opposite side of the spectrum are the nativists. Nativists are psychologists that believe a person’s development is based completely on genetic factors. The facts are divided in relation to the two theor...
The study of nature development refers to the inherited characteristics and tendencies, these are genetic, and these which are inherited help influence the development through childhood. Some inherited characteristics appear in virtually everyone, For instance, almost all children have the capacity to learn to walk, understand language, imitate others, use simple tools, and draw inferences about how other people view the world. The coding of genes in each cell determine the different traits which we have, more dominantly on the physical attributes like eye colour, hair colour, ear size, height, and other traits. However, it is still not known whether the more abstract attributes
In the study of child development, nature and nurture are two essential concepts that immensely influence future abilities and characteristics of developing children. Nature refers to the genetically obtained characteristics and abilities that influence development while nurture refers to the surrounding environmental conditions that influence development. Without one or the other, a child may not develop some important skills, such as communication and walking. The roles of physiological and psychological needs in a person’s life are also crucial for developing children. Humanistic psychologist, Abraham Maslow, suggested that humans don’t only aim towards survival, but also aim towards self-actualization (Rathus, P. 94).
“Nature refers to the genes we receive from our parents that influence our development” and “nurture refers to the wide range of environments, both physical and social, that influence our development.”