The Blank Slate Or Empiricism Theory

As the study of child development has evolved, so has many theories of how a child develops. Throughout the centuries three main theories came about to describe child development: original sin, innate goodness and blank slate, with other theories having their roots within these three. Depending on the ideas of Psychologist Old has on child development, his advice to Teacher New would vary between many theories. One of the aforementioned theories is the Blank Slate, or Empiricism theory which was coined by John Locke in the 17th century. This theory suggests that at birth a child is "entirely devoid of any ideas or other mental content” (Buck, 794). Due to this, a child’s development is based solely off of that child’s experiences. Locke further believed that a person or child’s knowledge was based solely off of education and experience.If Psychologist Old believed in John Locke’s Theories he would

Watson is most know for his ideas on classic behavioralism. In a study Watson did, known as “The Little Albert Study”, he introduced objects to a nine month old to test how he would react to it. Using white, fluffy objects, such as a rabbit or cotton, produced no negative reactions from Albert. However, when he paired those objects with another stimuli, a loud noise, Albert reacted in a fearful way. This lead to an overall fearful reaction to white fuzzy objects (Plucker, 2669). He used this experiment to show how even things that come to human naturally, emotions, can be manipulated by ones environment to produce a different outcome. Thus proving that a person or child’s environment has a significant role in development. To advise Teacher New on this approach, Psychologist Old would suggest creating an environment where students can interact in a positive way with their learning material and peers to create maximum development in