20th Century
Analysis of Child Development
Theories and Methods
Anthropology.
•
• When we move into the 20th
century we begin to see the
division between the various
disciplines.
• Anthropologists-Make their
contribution by studying
various cultures.
•
Malinoski (1921)• Looked at primitive cultures
such
as
natives
of
the
Trobriand Islands.
•
• Looks at how children are
education into basic manual
skills
and
techniques
and
development
into
a
moral
culture.
Margaret Mead,
• . Coming of Age in Samoa
broke
down
categories
of
socialization
-looked
at
maternal care, obligations to
siblings,
rights
and
responsibilities.
•
Benedict(1934)
• Patterns of Culture- showed
how socialization is a
mediation process between the
personality and culture.
Individual of a particular
society learns certain
cultural configurations
Modern anthropologists
Continue
to
look
at
simpler
cultures to understand:
• a. institutional arrangements
• b. alternative arrangements and
the plasticity of human nature
• c. relatedness between cultural
change and personality
• d. correlations between specific
cultural arrangements (religion,
magic, art) and personality.
•
Sociology
• One of the most significant
sociologists
was
Charles
Cooley and his notion of the
"looking glass self"
•
• -The
self
is
ultimately
social- the self becomes self
by interacting with others.
•
Dewey
•It
was
who
modified
this line of thought by
arguing that organism
is not a fixed thing
but
is
constantly
changing and developing
through
interaction
with its environment
George Herbert Mead
(1934)
• Mind, Self, Society
• - then went a step further• -The self is in constant
interaction with the self and
the environment;
Mead on `the self’
• -The self is self reflective;
sees itself as subject and
object.
• -The self is concerned withmeaning of objects
•
-courses
of actions
•
-choice
-pros and cons
C. H Cooley
• The Looking Glass Self
• For Cooley the self becomes
social through role taking the ability to look upon
oneself from an outsider's
perspective.
•
•
•At the same time in
sociology
we
see
a
number of studies in
the
Chicago
school
tradition in the mid
1930's that incorporate
theories
into
their
empirical research.
Social Constructionism
• A third sociologist Blumer
(1969)
attempted
to
make
modification
to
earlier
sociological
theories
of
child.
• He argues that the human is
an active and reactive agent
-humans are involved in a
constant
process
of
appraisal,
reapprasal
and
interpretation.
•-
Blumer (1969)
•the
individual
considers situational
contingencies
to
derive maximum profit
(exchange model)
Chicago School Studies
• Middletown
(1929)
devoted
five
chapters
to
child
rearing practices
•
• Methods
of
Discipline,
division of chores, parental
authority,
kitchen
table
conversations, the school and
the family, church and the
family.
Saint Dennis
• Horace Miner's Saint Dennis
is an example of a Canadian
study of this type that looks
a French Canada.
• A parish town teaches French
Canadian values:
fatalism,
communalism, obedience
• Values of `la survivance’
Symbolic Interaction Periods
Stage One: Formative
• 1890-1932-pragmatism emerges as a valid
theoretical perspective-debates against
postivistic science
• 1933-1950-empirical theoretical periodPolish Peasant, Chicago-interactionist, Park
and Burgess, Louis Wirth, Everette Hughes
Stage Two Radical Period
•
1951-1962-a fusion of European Social
Theory and Social Psychology
•
1963-1970-Hippy Social -Goffman,
Becker-radicalizes studies-Goffman,
Garkfinkel-ethnomethodology.
Stage Three: Greying
• 1970-1980-Ethnography-down to earth
sociology-studies of Urban Life:Qualitative
Sociology
• 1980-1990-The Greying of Interactionism-postmodern critiques of methods, approaches,
concepts
• 1990 and beyond-building on older theories look
at issue of the day including aging, feminism,
sexism, racism….multiple realities.
Psychology
• Psychologists
in
the
twentieth century held that
an individuals mental content
rooted in biology is shaped
by interaction with other.
• Classic psychologist
emphasized personality
theories based on
physiological change while
various other theories
diverge somewhat from a
biological base along a
continuum.
Psychology and Cognition
• Another theme in psychology is to
look at language, cognition and
child development.
•
• Lastly,
psychologist
throughout
the twentieth century have become
heavily involved in experimental
research
using
sophistication
analysis.
•
•
Information
processing,
• They are looking into things like
information processing,
• They are looking into questions
such as Does a child's ability to
search for information change with
age?
• To what extent does a child's
current knowledge help him to
learn more?
•
Ethology
• Looks at adaptation -Do children
adapt to the world in restrictive
time periods?
• They look at whether child who
have been deprived of food or
physical and social stimulation
are deprived.
•?
•
• Borstein (1969) for example,
developed the concept,
sensitive period to refer to
the time optimal for certain
capacities for speech,
development of motor skills
etc.
Ethological Theory
• Ethological theory borrows a great deal
from Darwin’s theory of Natural
Selection.
• It holds that certain patterns of social
behaviour are the product of
evolution.
•
Ethological example
• Consider for example, the bond between
mother and child. For the ethologist this
bond exists because it helps the species
survive-certain aspects of behaviour are
said to be the result of natural instincts.
• Human beings are biologically wired to
emit responses….ie babies are wired to
keep them close to mother (the cry) mother
is wired to love and look after infants.
•
Aggression Ethological
• One of the most controversial theories of
the ethologist is regarding aggression.
• According to this school of thought
aggression has an instinctual basis.
Innate Aggression
• Aggression is an innate drive that may be aroused
when an individual encounters frustration or
threat.
• The individual is automatically directed towards
the goal of injuring or destroying the source of
irritation. Furthermore, when the aggressive
drive is aroused energy is
Ecological Systems
Theory
•
• -Developed
by
Urie
Bronfrenbenner,
is
a
classical psycholical model
emphasizing
how
certain
biological
dispositions
combine
with
environmental
forces to mould development.
•
Systems micro meso, exo
• His theory looks at the micro
system,
mesosystem,
and
mesosystem.
•
• The microsystem-refers to the
child's immediate environment
•
• The
mesosystem
-encompasses
broader agents of socialization
such
as
home,
neighbourhood,
daycare center.
•
• The exosystem- involves social
settings
beyond
the
childs
environment that effect the child
in some way. These might include
work schedules, maternity leaves,
sick pay etc.
•
Trait Theory
• Trait theorists conceptualize personality in
terms of how much an individual possesses
each of several behavioural predispositions
or traits such as intelligence,
aggressiveness, conscientiousness,
achievement motivation.
n-dimensional space
• Each person have an n-dimensional space,
with n referring to the number of
independent personality traits that each
theorist considers important for variability
in social behaviour.
Personality profiles
• Trait theorists use statistical analysis to
chart personality profiles which may then
be compared with others.
• For example, a person’s inventory might
be “above average on extraversion, average
on dependency.
psychometric movement
• Trait theory is associated with the
psychometric movement which favours
statistical analysis. By establishing group
norms, traits are seen as relatively stable
and enduring predispositions that are fairly
generalizable..
•
Criticisms of trait theory
• Criticism of trait theory are as follows:
•
• a. They pay little attention to how
children develop greater or lesser amount of
various traits.
• b. Trait theorists are only interested in
internal qualities (not a great amount of
focus on external stimuli)
Trait theorists
• c. Trait theorists expect cross situational
consistency -ie. A boy who is aggressive at
school will be aggressive towards parents,
peers, teachers etc..
• Research has not supported this.
Hawthorne and May (1929) found little
evidence of a consistent moral pattern
across situations
• d. People are variable on most
behavioural dimensions thus
behaviour cannot be predicted on
the basis of generalized traits.