A Child’s Psychological Development

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Kohlberg’s Stages Of Moral Understanding
Exploration Activity
Hypothetical research question
Teenager’s perception and passage to adulthood
Conclusion
References

Introduction

A child’s psychological development is of paramount importance to be able to understand the various needs of children and how to handle them. This paper deals with the various stages of reasoning encountered by a child through life and also examines the modern adolescent and compares that with the traditional one. It also contains an analysis of a research paper on the development of children and their reaction to fear and how to handle the emotions involved.

Kohlberg’s Stages Of Moral Understanding

This part will analyze two letters directed to the editor of Vancouver Sun. both of these individuals, I would say, belong to the Postconentuional or principled Kohlberg’s level of reasoning. The two of them base their moral convictions on some preconceived ideas of what ethics should constitute and the need to obey the rules not necessarily because there is a higher authority that would punish them, but because, given their situations, it is the most probable and reasonable thing to do.

The first writer is a lady explaining the plight of a single working-class adult woman when it comes to sex life. She is explaining the many challenges faced by such women and the conflict that arises with the need on one hand to sustain a career and their physical needs on the other hand such as having children or even who they go out with. The reason I picked up on this letter is that it is a very real representation of what happens in real life. It states things as they are and does not try to hind behind the curtain of the ideal good morals but rather as they happen (Kate, 2011, par 6).

A second writer is a young man, probably a father, who is complaining about the kind of programs that the media presents to the public. According to his moral beliefs, some scenes should not be publicized to the whole world regardless of age. He thinks some programs should be censored for the public good. (Asha, 2011 par 12)

Exploration Activity

Research analysis Summary

This paper analyses the research paper of Liat Sayfan and Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, Child Development: Scaring the Monster Away. This was research on a child’s ability to distinguish between the imagined world and the real physical surroundings depending on his level of development. It was conducted to demonstrate that the early years of development of a child in school enhance their ability to differentiate between dreams and reality and how much it affects their understanding of emotions such as fear as they encounter different individuals with different beliefs and conceptions of life.

It covers those areas that other researchers have neglected, particularly children’s idea of what causes fear and how to avoid or manage it when it comes to living things. It enlightens us, by looking into children’s minds, the fact that people’s ways of regulating their emotions id determined by not only the particular situation but also their mental conditions, their understanding of things, and their characteristics.

A sample of children and adults were presented with a situation where a child or an adult was involved in a threatening situation and were told to describe the emotions of each of the characters. They responded by giving their opinion on the character’s emotions and intensity.

Methodology employed

The researcher conducted his research by using 48 children between the ages of four, five, and seven years and dividing them into three groups according to their age groups. Both male and female children were involved and they were from a diverse middle-class backgrounds. They listened to a series of short stories and pictures to illustrate the scenes, in which the character was of the same age some with adult companions, who were in a situation deemed frightening to the participant. The stories were arranged in order of their imagined scariness. The participants were first explained the procedure and were made to imagine the character was them before proceeding to the experiment. They were later asked about ways that the character could manage his fear or how they could help the character, (Sayfan & Lagattuta, 2009, p 1756-1774).

Questions tackled

The research sought to clarify whether a child’s prediction of emotion varied by age or gender and the number of times a child predicted in the same kind of frightening situation would react differently. It was meant to show whether children can be able to differentiate between imagined situations from the real world in which they live. It also examined the strategies given by the participants and compared the behavioral, approach, avoidance, and between real and positive pretense strategies.

Findings

The results showed that fear reduces with age and level of knowledge and understanding of things. Young people believe there are differences in levels of fear experienced by males and females. Further, the younger the child the easier it is to cope with stress, that is age and gender contribute to different degrees of fear emotion. The research also showed that most of the children predicted unafraid reactions half the time. There is a relationship between knowledge about reality and the ability to cope with fear; A seven-year-old was better endowed to handle fear than a four-year-old. It, therefore, portrayed the implications of debates and information on the ability of a child to distinguish between fantasy and reality.

Limitations

It was found that the children did not take into account the presence of an adult companion when determining the character’s intensity of fear. That means that the research did not achieve its objective of the effect of an adult companion, which would most obviously alleviate the fear emotion in a child. In addition, the scenarios used were those thought to frighten children from an adult’s point of view, which may not necessarily scare children. A different sample of children should have been asked what would work for a child and used for the research.

Hypothetical research question

Research should be done on how effective the strategies suggested can be applied and real-life and whether they work. The research should be conducted using two groups as those used in the present research.

One group of the participants should be subjected to real physical situations that are considered to be frightening to a child of the specific, first on their own and subsequently with an adult companion. For example, they should be subjected to harmless wild animals but should not know that they are harmless. Their reaction should then be observed by experts to indicate the intensity of their fear. They could also be questioned on the same subject to say what they feel. Later on, after the incidents, they should be placed in an observation room for quite a while to see how they cope and what they engage in to deal with the fearful situation.

The second group should be placed at a distance, close enough to watch the first group but not close enough to be affected by the real subject matter of fear. They should be made to understand how those involved directly feel and react to the situation. They should then be given a chance to spend some time with the first group and try to make them feel better the way they would do it. The effects of that should then be quantified.

This research would further the present research by ensuring that the strategies suggested in this group work and also put the children in a real situation where they will need to use their knowledge and experience to deal with fear. Their development level will also enable us to understand how much age affects the intensity of fear experienced and the ability to cope.

Teenager’s perception and passage to adulthood

Today, a seventeen-year-old child is still considered as a child who has a long way to go before he can be burdened with responsibilities. Teenagers are allowed to do all manner of crazy stuff while being dispensed with words like ‘he is just acting his age. However, this is to a great extent dependent on other external matters. A child who comes from a humble home for example will be expected to take up responsibilities very early in life, as there are no domestic workers as opposed to those with a wealthy background who get everything done for them by workers. The effect is substantially the same for those who live in poor geographical areas.

In the traditional times, there was less industrial evolution and more formwork. Technology was not very well developed and therefore more people for labor were required as compared to modern times, (Enright, Levy, Harris and Lapsley, 1987). In the same respect, since most of the labor required was manual, people never saw the need for high education and therefore settled for less education. Children started working on the farm when they were young and were taught to take up responsibilities when still young. For one to prove his worth as a man, he had to have some property at least in his early twenties.

As machines were developed and factories needed skilled people to handle them, people started taking education seriously and aiming higher than just high school education. This of course was necessary to get a job since jobs are hard to find anyway. Unfortunately, this meant prolonged stay at home since there are few jobs for people with low education and thus few responsibilities for youth, as they have to be taken care of by my parents. Further, the cost of owning a house is quite expensive, and buying one for youth can be quite a hustle if not almost impossible. Now thirty-year-olds stay at home, drive their parent’s cars, use their parent’s money to go out and stay out late and not to mention be clothed by their parents. This was unheard of in the olden days when one had to work hard and be able to take care of a family at that age.

According to me, being an adult is more than just finishing school or getting a job. Separation from parents could slightly show that you are now becoming an adult but it is not the ultimate qualification for becoming an adult. Being an adult is more psychological than physical but it can be evidenced through subjective results. It is the urge that you want to be responsible for yourself and everybody else that may need you such as a child, a wife, etc. it is the feeling that you want to do everything right regardless of who is watching and the ability to forego your interests for the sake of another’s. An adolescent could also be an adult except that these qualities increase with age.

Conclusion

Child development is an important area of study since we all have to deal with children most of the time. It helps us understand their development process and the things that affect them at every stage of development. It is important to understand this since children should be handled with care. More research should also be conducted to verify most of the developmental needs of children.

References

Asha, M. (2011). A Letter to the Editor: Censoring Films And Ad., Times of India. Web.

Enright, et al. (1987). Genetic Psychology: New York. Macmillan Publishers

Kate, L. (2011). A Letter to the Editor: Re: Is Sex Passe (Erica Long). New York Times. Web.

Sayfan, L and Lagattuta, H. K. (2009). Scaring the Monster Away: What Children Know About Managing Fears of Real and Imaginary Creatures, University of California, Davis, Volume 80, Number 6, Pages 1756-1774

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