Critique of Infant Determinism Do experiences during early years solely determine later development? In the second chapter of his book "Three Seductive Ideas" (1998), Kagan questions the overemphasis on the first two years of an individual's life. While not doubting its importance, Kagan suggests that perhaps more crucial to human development is the construction of experience, perception, and comparison of ourselves to others which begins during the fifth or sixth year of life. His argument is a valid one, regarding the fact that infant determinism overrates the importance of first two years in a person’s whole lifetime. As Kagan argues, infant determinism is rather a political theory that conceals the effect of social class on development …show more content…
Kagan points out, “Those who favor infant determinism do not award sufficient power to the events of the later childhood and adolescence, many of which are correlated to social class” (Kagan, 1998, p.147). Although the foundation of today’s society is based on the idea of everybody being equal, differences in social class and socioeconomic status are inevitable. All men being equal only exist in theory: in the real social structure there exists lower working class, middle class, and upper class. A person’s perception and development is largely influenced by the experience that comes from this social structure. People living in poverty are more likely to experience greater amount of hardships and less amount of education than others do, and these conditions tend to continue. Kagan emphasizes the impact of this “continuity” on one’s life: he says the reason for high rate of adult morbidity in lower class, for example, is because of the continuity of the poor living condition over the many years (Kagan, 1998, p.128). However, discussing the existing inequality between social classes is such a sensitive issue. It is hard to relate all the unpleasant outcomes to the differences in behavior in social classes when everyone is supposed to be equal and well. Therefore, if there are differences between children of upper class and lower class, blaming the past is easier than blaming the social class itself. Kagan argues, “Though a child’s social class is the best predictor of future vocation, academic accomplishments, and psychiatric
As much as society tries to deny the fact that the family that one comes from determines their fate, in almost every case this very fact is true. Today, we see how infants who are born into wealthy families are treated differently than children who are born into drug and disease-stricken poverty. Higher classed people stand out in society on both a local and national level much more than the average middle class working family.
Besides race, the scholar also reveals how childhoods are unequal based on social class. Drawing from the American society, there are several social classes. For each class, there are unique pathways of lives followed and these usually influence both the educational and work outcomes. To ...
The child has not been perceived like an individual until the work of eighteen century philosophers Locke and Rousseau, who expressed their thoughts on paper about the child's ability to interact with the surrounding world (Cunningham, 1993). The research on child development has commenced followed by the observational work of changing behaviours in organisms by Charles Darwin.
For my reflection paper I chose to write about chapter 9 that talks about lifespan development. This chapter grabbed my attention and I found it most interesting. In the textbookit discusses how there are certain factors that uncontrollably make us who we are. Those factorsare "unique combination of genes you inherited from your biological mother and father. Another is the historical era during which you grew up. Your individual development has also been shaped by the cultural, social, and family contexts within which you were raised." (Pg.352) The patterns of our lives are because of developmental psychology. "Developmental psychology is a scientific approach which aims to explain growth, change and consistency though the lifespan. Developmental
Adler’s birth order plays a significant part in how we perceive our lives. Birth order is defined as “is not a deterministic concept but does increase an individual’s probability of having certain set of experiences” (Corey, 2013, p. 108). When we are born there is an automatic label that is placed upon us. We are the oldest or youngest or somewhere in between. Society fosters the idea of birth order and treats us accordingly.
...as an individual, still finding a sense of closeness with their caregiver. The perceptions that are formed as an infant are progressively construed to structure who we are, what we do, and why we do the things we do. These long-term effects appear to grow and are constructive as internal working models which shape our behavior, self perception, sense of self, and our expectations of other people.
(262). Dalton goes forth and argues no matter individuals are born into a gloomy social class; he or she can still can breack though and go up in class. Dalton’s idea could happen to anyone but, the possibility is very slim. It’s a hard reality a person in lower class doing proficient in school having the likely hood of attending a University and also a full ride. In reality, the group who has more resources has the greater opportunity than those with less assists.
Babies come into this world with physical, and emotional dependencies to others and learn about the world around them, including about themselves through early human interactions. The role of the parents is to provide a solid, supportive foundation to facilitate interactions creating a secure, loving environment for the child to grow. At the core of the infant’s healthy social development is the mother-child relationship. Parenting style and how well the mother respond to child’s sensory social signals, effect child’s aptitude to bond to others including to their peers. However, other factors are important, such as father involvement, mother’s mental state and peers support.
from the same class, and the same goes for middle and high socioeconomic status. This period in a child’s life is cr...
arly privation. In The nature-nurture debate: The essential readings (In S. Ceci & W. Williams ed., pp. 108-133). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Erikson’s first stage of psychosocial development occurs between birth and one year of age and is the most fundamental stage in life. Piaget’s theory is similar his first stage (sensorimotor) happens between birth and two years of age. They both believe that infants start to get an understanding of life during their first two years of life. In these stages infants began to learn to trust and mistrust. Piaget and Erikson first stages can impact the infant's life for a lifetime. Both Theorists express their stages in a similar manner, Cognitive development also takes place with language being understood in the first few years of life. Psychosocial development is when security and safety at younger ages lead to a better view on the surroundings of a
In her work on childhood development, The Invisible Heart, Nancy Folbre writes that, "The child's personality evolves as a composite of all things social...but a child's character is based entirely on the home." Later she elaborates by adding, "The first four years of a child's development are more crucial then her next fifty; no school curriculum can correct the patterns of thought that develop during infancy"(119). The practices and beliefs of the family are critical since the first six years of a child's development are spent almost entirely within the house, where family ties form the boundaries of the child's socialization. With the outside world completely unknown, the baby relies solely on its family to learn how to
Berger, K. S. (1980). 4: Prenatal Development and Birth. The developing person (pp. 93-121). New York, N.Y.: Worth Publishers.
Infants and Children: Prenatal Through Middle Childhood. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Cooper, J., Masi, R., & Vick, J. (2009). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Social-emotional Development in Early Childhood.
Developmental Psychology is an area which studies how we as humans change over the period of our life span. The majority of the focus is broken into three categories: cognitive, physical and social change. The creation of who we are today comes down to the everlasting debate of nature versus nurture. This ongoing debate of what makes us who we are and which one is the driving force in development may be so simple that it’s complex. Rather than it being a conflict of nature “versus” nurture, it is very well possible both play an equal part in the development of us as humans. In the beginning, we start off as single cell in the form of a zygote. In that moment, where the DNA begin to form and the first seconds of life take place, the zygote is already experiencing interaction with the womb. In the process of determining why we are who are it is better to look more at the interactions of nature and nurture, analyzing how both have shaped us.