Category: Developmental Psychology

Apert syndrome is a rare genetic disorder, which is characterised by a broad range of physiological and emotional symptoms. According to the National Organisation for Rare Disorders (2012), Apert syndrome incorporates numerous signs and physical complications: skull abnormalities, brain deficiencies, a range of mental problems such as profound retardation, and facial problems like exorbitism.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the level of development in a girl with Apert syndrome to the behaviours, which all children are expected to display at this stage of cognitive development.

Comparison

Stages of Development

According to Jean Piaget, the process of cognitive development in children covers four essential stages. First, the sensor monitor stage is the period of infancy. At this stage, children rely on motor activity and the use of symbols (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). Second, the pre-operational stage of development covers toddler years and early childhood. During this period, children improve their language skills and develop better imagination and memory. However, they continue to rely on egocentric thinking (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

Third, at the concrete operational stage of cognitive development, children become more logical and intelligent in their interactions with the world, and operational thinking gradually replaces egocentrism (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). Fourth, the formal operational stage coincides with adolescence and transition to adulthood, when the use of symbols becomes more logical, speeding up the development of formal thinking (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

Comparing Stages of Development across the Developmental Milestones

Cognitive development

M. displays the signs of mild mental retardation, which are characteristic of Apert syndrome. She does not meet the cognitive-developmental criteria for her age. The girl has not passed the formal operational stage of development, as proposed by Piaget (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). The analysis of the behaviours and decisions displayed by the girl suggests that she is still at the concrete operational stage of cognitive development.

At this stage of development, children develop and improve their logical thought (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). M. has not yet entered the formal operational stage of development. She displays poor higher-order reasoning capacity. She cannot make logical inferences or think creatively. M. can make a purchase but does not understand why she receives the change back. It is an example of higher-order logical thinking, which is characteristic of the formal operational stage of cognitive development (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

According to McLeod (2010), children as old as M. are capable of ordering and classifying things, as well as combining facts and items to make more sophisticated conclusions. M. does not meet these developmental milestones. She cannot make simple calculations and does not know how to match the number of coins received with the amount printed on the receipt.

Such cognitive problems are further exacerbated by the deficiencies in the fundamental intellectual functions. M. has problems with abstract thinking, reasoning, and judgment. Apart from the problems noted above, M. does not understand why, while washing her hands, she must necessarily rub the back of her hands. Another example is when she uses her fingers instead of the utensils while eating. The abovementioned problems indicate the lack of abstract thinking  M. cannot imagine the results of her actions (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

She does not identify or understand the relationship between different things, such as rubbing the back of her hand and the ways in which her actions influence the quality of hand washing. M. also displays poor money management skills. She can count from 1 to 20, but she finds it difficult to use this knowledge and may even skip numbers.

In other words, M. fails to use her logical symbols effectively, as children at the formal operational stage usually do. Her actions are more characteristic of the concrete operational stage of development when the basic capacity to manipulate simple logical symbols develops and improves (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

Language

The formal operational stage implies the development of excellent abstract thinking abilities and skills, and it comes as no surprise that children at this stage of cognitive development are expected to possess exemplary language skills. More specifically, children will not use symbols and abstract concepts logically and effectively unless they develop sufficient language abilities and skills (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

Numerous examples confirm that M. meets the language milestones for her stage of cognitive development. First, she constructs and speaks long sentences without any obvious difficulties. It means that the girl can think logically and use her thinking skills to build complex sentence structures. It may also indicate her willingness to assume complete responsibility for personal decisions and actions, as she speaks the language of adults (CDC, 2014).

Second, M. can express and describe her feelings openly. She is very social and ready to build effective relationships with other people. Based on the developmental milestones described by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (2014), friendships are extremely important to the normal cognitive development of the child during this period. It is possible to say that the social relations built with others will speed up the cognitive and emotional maturation of M., even despite her diagnosis.

Unfortunately, the girls speech becomes less clear and more confusing when she is emotional or frustrated. However, these problems cannot be attributed to any language deficiency or the absence of effective abstract or logical thinking skills. Such language problems can be detected in children without any signs of mental retardation, even when they have enough reasoning capacity to draw inferences from the relationships among abstract concepts/phenomena.

Gross and fine motor development

Overall, the girl meets the criteria of gross motor development for her age, although the problems she is facing about fine motor skills cannot be ignored. The latter is the direct results of her diagnosis  M.s fingers are fused to the extent that does not allow developing effective fine motor skills. Such physical problems have profound implications for the way M. manages objects.

On the one hand, because her upper and lower extremities are fused, she finds it difficult to put one object on the top of another one and cannot always pick up coins or use utensils. According to the CDC (2014), children of this age should be encouraged to participate in a variety of social and physical activities, but these activities are mostly unavailable to M. because of her physical disease.

On the other hand, the girl has acquired essential motor skills such as dressing herself, making her bed, making her laundry, and others. Still, these skills are more characteristic of the children at the concrete stage of development rather than those who have entered the formal operational stage. To a large extent, it is due to her physical deficiencies that M. fails to meet the developmental milestones for her age, particularly in terms of physical development.

Social relations and play with other children

Overall, the girl meets the developmental milestones for her age, when it comes to socialisation, relationship building, and plays with other children. CDC (2014) suggests that children of this age seek to become more independent in their relationships with family members.

At the same time, they want to build stronger and more productive relations with peers. Peer pressure increases considerably when children enter the formal operational stage (CDC, 2014; Huitt & Hummel, 2003). As children are getting ready to start middle or junior high school, their desire to become more independent looks quite logical. Below are some of the many examples, which show how M. meets the social developmental milestones for her age.

First, M. constantly interacts with peers and invites them to join her activities. Second, she displays solid leadership skills and always wants to be the first in all social activities involving peers. The fact that she does not like and does not accept others advice implies that egocentrism is still a characteristic feature of her cognitive and emotional development (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). However, at the formal operational stage of development, egocentrism usually gives place to socialisation and active engagement in social activities with peers.

The signs of egocentrism are equally obvious in M.s relations with adults, as well as her group activities. M. seeks attention, cries, and stumbles her feet when the group decides to act in ways that differ from her decisions and orientations. She walks in between people within groups without any excuse. It is possible to assume that, when it comes to socialisation and relations with adults, M. is somewhere between the concrete and formal operational stages of cognitive development (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

Early in this period, there is a return to egocentric thought (Huitt & Hummel, 2003, p. 27). Still, she acts like a cognitively mature adolescent who is capable of making independent decisions and can rely on peer relationships and groups.

Conclusion

In conclusion, developmental milestones provide important information on how children develop and acquire essential thinking and social skills. At the centre of this comparative analysis is the figure of M., a young girl with Apert syndrome, who has almost finished the concrete operational stage of cognitive development but has not entered the formal concrete stage, according to Piaget.

The patterns of M.s cognitive development have been analysed along several different lines, such as cognitive development, gross and fine motor skills, social relations, and relations with adults. M. displays the signs of mental retardation, which are characteristic of Apert syndrome. Her abstract thinking and reasoning skills are rather limited. M. faces difficulties with using abstract notions and predicting outcomes of her actions. At the same time, she has wonderful language skills.

The girl builds and speaks complex sentence structures. As any child of her age, M. is socially oriented. She shows the level of independence needed to build effective relations with peers. Unfortunately, egocentrism remains a predominant feature of her actions and decisions. This is still one of the brightest elements of the concrete operational stage, as proposed by Piaget (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

References

CDC. (2014). Middle childhood (9-11 years of age). Web.

Huitt, W. & Hummel, J. (2003). Educational psychology interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University.

McLeod, S. (2010). Formal operational stage. Web.

National Organization for Rare Disorders. (2003). NORD guide to rare disorders. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Introduction

Developmental psychology is a branch of psychology that targets the development of people and their behavior over time. The research in this field touches upon various theoretical areas, including biopsychology, social psychology, studies of emotions, and cognitive psychology (McLeod, 2012, sec. 1). Despite being a relatively new approach, developmental psychology has many applications and can be used to explain various processes in both children and adults.

History

In 1882 a German physiologist William Preyer published his book The Mind of the Child, which marked the start of developmental psychology as a separate discipline (McLeod, 2012, sec. 2). In the next few years, developmental psychology has spread across Europe and North America with more scientific publications (McLeod, 2012, sec. 2). The most influential developmental psychologists of that time are Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and John Bowlby. Jean Piaget proposed his theory of development, according to which children proceed through four distinct stages in their development from birth to adulthood (Feldman, 2011, p. 405). Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky, on the other hand, suggested a substantial influence of culture and environment on childrens development: Vygotsky argues that cognitive development occurs as a consequence of social interactions in which children work with others to jointly solve problems (Feldman, 2011, p. 409). Finally, John Bowlby developed a theory of attachment, which argues that children are biologically programmed to form attachments to a caregiver due to the need for security (Gleitman, Gross, & Reisberg, 2011, p. 564).

Focus

As evident from the history of this approach, developmental psychology focuses primarily on childrens development. Indeed, a huge part of a persons growth occurs in early childhood, and there is little to no development in adulthood (McLeod, 2012, sec. 1). However, recent research has expanded the field, allowing scientists to focus on the development of people from the moment of conception to the day of death (Feldman, 2011, p, 380). Most importantly, however, developmental psychologists are devoted to exploring and analyzing the interaction between the biological factors affecting human behavior and the environment: They ask how our genetic background affects our behavior throughout our lives and whether heredity limits our potential. Similarly, they seek to understand the way in which the environment works withor againstour genetic capabilities (Feldman, 2011, p, 380). Such focus requires a range of methods to be employed in developmental psychology research. The most popular methods are cross-sectional, longitudinal, and sequential research (Feldman, 2011, p, 384). A combination of the three methods allows studying peoples development at various stages in life, which in turn provides an opportunity for expanding the range of applications of developmental psychology.

Conclusion

The main application of developmental psychology is in the field of education and learning. Pourchot and Smith (2004) state that exploring not only childrens development but also the developmental patterns in adults and elders makes this approach crucial to the creation of effective learning strategies for adults (p. 69). The extensive knowledge of child psychology and the processes through which children evolve into adults allows developmental psychologists to work in childrens educational institutions as counselors, or independently as a child or family therapists. Overall, developmental psychology is a flexible approach that has various practical applications, as well as extensive research potential. The progress of theoretical research in this field could cause a significant improvement in areas such as education and family therapy, making developmental psychology a valuable approach that could help to improve our everyday life.

References

Feldman, R. (2011). Understanding psychology (10th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Gleitman, H., Gross, J., & Reisberg, D. (2011). Psychology (8th Ed.). New York, NY: Norton.

McLeod, S. (2012). Developmental psychology. Web.

Pourchot, T. L., & Smith, M. C. (2004). Some applications of life span developmental psychology for adult education and learning. PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning, 13, 69-82.

Introduction

Cognitive learning theorists developed the idea of information processing to understand better how people learn and remember new information. The theory of information processing is often credited as the brainchild of George Miller who found that the average human beings working memory has room for seven objects (Vuong et al., 2022). Further, he developed the word chunking to characterize the properties of short-term memory (Vuong et al., 2022). Three parts of the minds cognitive system work together to make information processing possible: memory stores, cognitive processes, and metacognition. It is predicated on the notion that people do not only react to environmental cues but also analyze the data they get.

Sensory Memory

In sensory memory, unprocessed environmental cues are temporarily stored until processing occurs. While the capacity of sensory memory is essentially infinite, any trace of an experience that is not processed almost instantly will rapidly fade. It has been hypothesized that visual memory can hold information for 1 second and auditory memory for 2 to 4 seconds (Ormrod, 2017). Processing builds on the foundation of sensory memory. For instance, if the first words of a phrase were forgotten before reaching the end, the reader would be unable to interpret the meaning of the sentence in their mind. It is a temporary storage space until the data is transferred to working memory.

Working Memory

Humans have a conscious aspect of the information processing system called working memory, which has a finite capacity and lifespan. Also known as short-term memory, information on this site is structured in a way that is meaningful to the person (Fox et al., 2021). For instance, working memory facilitates mental visualization in arithmetic class, allowing students to picture the teachers spoken numbers. There is no guarantee they will retain those numbers until the next lesson or class, or possibly 15 minutes later. However, this is not a problem since their working memory has served its purpose by enabling them to complete the current task. Additionally, it aids in the brains organization of fresh data for long-term preservation.

Executive Function

The executive function serves several purposes, the most important of which are those of self-control. The executive function handles things like paying attention, making plans, organizing thoughts and actions, completing tasks, responding to challenges, and keeping ones emotions in check. This is somewhat within the persons control ( for example, those with ADHD have greater problems staying focused) and partly under the control of the information and the current task (for instance, is it fascinating) (Pineda-Alhucema et al., 2018). Executive functions also prevent people from acting in an undesirable manner. The inability to self-monitor and self-regulate is a hallmark of those with deficiencies in executive functioning.

Long-term Memory

The knowledge a person learns during their lives is stored in their long-term memory, which is a massive and robust database. After the information has been processed and arranged in working memory to be understood by the person, it is encoded into long-term memory, where it can be accessed and integrated with new sensory input. Some things that may be stored in long-term memory include the specifics of a persons most recent summer vacation, the fact that London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom, and the information about how to drive a car. Many of these pieces of information are preserved as schemas or ordered bundles of data and play a significant role in the cognitive processes involved in language understanding.

Prelinguistic Communication

By the time they reach the pre-linguistic speech stage, newborns have already begun to develop the foundations of both their receptive and expressive language skills. During this period (26 weeks), they begin to make sounds to communicate with others and respond to the world around them (Slater & Bremner, 2017). Cooing and other vocalizations (e.g., ooh and aah) common in infants, as well as more vegetative noises like sobbing and burping, are the first steps to full-fledged speech. Infants coo involuntarily throughout the first 26 weeks of life, but by the time they are two months old, they can do it on purpose, although they have no idea what these noises represent.

First Words

The first-word period of language acquisition occurs between six months and two years. Babbling and the first words stage may occur simultaneously, and the phrases toddlers create at both stages may be similar (Slater & Bremner, 2017). Nonetheless, as infants reach this phase, they start to give the phrases they use actual meaning. They may use yes as a positive response. A toddler this age has a broad sound recognition than production and will frequently replace sounds they can create with those they cannot. When toddlers have trouble pronouncing a particular letter or letter combination, they may substitute another sound for it, for instance, [w] for [l], resulting in [wajk] for like rather than [lajk] (Slater & Bremner, 2017).

Two-Word Utterances

Children start using two words at the age of two and use them for roughly 26 weeks. They can make more sounds, and rudimentary grammar is starting to form. Throughout this stage, vocabulary grows quickly, but toddlers utterances are constrained by their restricted vocabulary and maybe by their limited worldview (Slater & Bremner, 2017). Since infants have a limited vocabulary at this age, they may resort to overextension. Toddlers do not yet comprehend the terms horse, sheep, or bunny. Therefore, any animal they encounter may be called a dog. Additionally, there might be cases of under-extension when a term like kitty is applied to refer to the kids pet, although not to other creatures of the same species (Slater & Bremner, 2017).

Birth to 6 Months

A newborns first few months are spent adjusting to their new environment and learning to trust and connect with their primary caregivers. They show you they require attention and affection by smiling, crying, grasping, clinging, sucking, making eye contact, and sucking motions with their mouth (Slater & Bremner, 2017). They thrive on one-on-one interactions, fostering a sense of belonging and deepening bonds with primary caregivers and others. Young infants respond positively to physical contact, and their cries decrease. This will make them feel loved and secure without spoiling them. They glance away, move their heads, or become fidgety in your arms to signal that they need peace (Slater & Bremner, 2017). The ability to play alone and be content for increasing lengths of time is a hallmark of a babys maturation.

7 to 18 Months

Older infants like touching, grasping, and placing items in their mouths as they explore the surrounding. They take pleasure in observing people and their environments. Older infants may become fearful of strangers and loved ones they do not see as frequently (like grandparents) as their bond with their primary caregivers deepens (Slater & Bremner, 2017). Their primary caregivers proximity and focus comfort them. Older infants discover their identity as unique beings from their primary caregivers by investigating their nearby environment. They may draw links between a persons facial expression and speech tone, for example, a joyful face and a gentle tone or a worried face and a harsh tone. As they realize that their primary caregivers are not often immediately accessible, older infants start to learn how to control their emotions by calming themselves via behaviors like thumb-sucking and using play to divert their attention (Slater & Bremner, 2017). They learn about their emotions and how to control them more rapidly when carers react promptly, proactively, and sympathetically.

18 Months to 3 Years

Toddlers are developing a strong sense of autonomy and a desire for autonomy. They display many behaviors, from complete self-reliance to complete dependence on others, aggression to calmness, and helpfulness to stubbornness (Slater & Bremner, 2017). These shifts may occur rapidly. Everyone else is ignorant of them since they can only see things from their perspective. This is why children often test primary caregivers limits; it is a way for them to make sure that the limits their parents have established are still being enforced. Angry and frustrated children can act out with tantrums and other behaviors (Slater & Bremner, 2017). They react well to hugs, hugging, stroking, patting, soothing words and music, and a peaceful environment.

Play is a way toddlers communicate their emotions and begin to learn how to control them. They begin to express an interest in the emotions of others and identify a range of emotions, including joy, sadness, anger, and fear (Slater & Bremner, 2017). Toddlers may learn more about their own and others emotions via creative activities like singing, playing games, reading tales, and using their imagination. They also begin to understand the relationship between causes and effects, drawing on their memories to recall what led to their current emotions (Slater & Bremner, 2017). This is assisted when primary caregivers can have candid conversations regarding how their changes are experienced (Slater & Bremner, 2017). Toddlers may better cope with their emotions and find comfort in times of transition by having a conversation with an adult beforehand.

Conclusion

Preschoolers begin to engage in more social play; however, they may still experience separation anxiety if left alone. Even as they become increasingly independent, they still want the care of their primary caregivers (Slater & Bremner, 2017). Further, they become more open in communicating their emotions. Importantly, toddlers and preschoolers understand that they and others can respond differently to the same experience. Children tend to take things at face value and believe in magic (Slater & Bremner, 2017). Furthermore, since they think wishes can come true, adults should choose their words wisely when discussing issues of significance.

References

Eggen, P. (2020). Information Processing and Human Memory. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Web.

Fox, A. (2021). Perplexity between history and memory. Amazon Digital Services LLC

Ormrod, J. E. (2017). How we think and learn: Theoretical perspectives and practical implications. Cambridge University Press.

Pineda-Alhucema, W., Aristizabal, E., Escudero-Cabarcas, J., Acosta-López, J. E., & Vélez, J. I. (2018). Executive function and theory of mind in children with ADHD: A systematic review. Neuropsychology Review, 28(3), 341358.

Slater, A., & Bremner, G. (2017). An introduction to developmental psychology. John Wiley & Sons

Vuong, Q. H., Le, T. T., & Nguyen, M. H. (2022). Mindsponge mechanism: an information processing conceptual framework. The Mindsponge and BMF Analytics for Innovative Thinking in Social Sciences and Humanities, De Gruyter, 21-46.

Name of the Domain

Developmental Psychology

Rationale

Yau et al. (2021) highlight the existence of the relationship between societal expectations and individual performance, which eventually results in various courses pursued during the transition to adulthood. Similar conclusions and results may be related to the results of the study by de Vries et al. (2021). The study under consideration by Heckhausen et al. (2019) shows how relevant this problem is for modern theory. Chung (2018) examines the entire stages of human development, which predetermine and are the basis for creating several patterns of psychosocial development. Special attention in developmental psychology is given to the study of understanding what changes occur to a person in adulthood. Infurna (2021) and Almeida et al. (2020) illustrate aspects of sustainability in human development that should be considered. The aforementioned sources are reliable and valid as the information highlights supported arguments, extensive literature reviews, and peer-reviewed statuses. Moreover, their generalizability allows for the sources to be applied to function as collective evidence on the topic of developmental psychology.

References

Almeida, D. M., Charles, S. T., Mogle, J., Drewelies, J., Aldwin, C. M., Spiro, A., & Gerstorf, D. (2020). Charting adult development through (historically changing) daily stress processes. American Psychologist, 75(4), 511524. Web.

Chung, D. (2018). The eight stages of psychosocial protective development: Developmental psychology. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, 08(06), 369398. Web.

de Vries, J. H., Spengler, M., Frintrup, A., & Mussel, P. (2021). Personality development in emerging AdulthoodHow the perception of life events and mindset affect personality trait change. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. Web.

Heckhausen, J., Wrosch, C., & Schulz, R. (2019). Agency and motivation in adulthood and old age. Annual Review of Psychology, 70(1), 191217. Web.

Infurna, F. J. (2021). Utilizing principles of Life-Span developmental psychology to study the complexities of resilience across the adult life span. The Gerontologist, 61(6), 807818. Web.

Yau, P. S., Shane, J., & Heckhausen, J. (2021). Developmental goals during the transition to young adulthood. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 45(6), 475483. Web.

Symbolic play is a tool used by children to try and communicate with the world in a different way. As a society or even practitioners we follow this to try and have a greater understanding of how this helps a child’s cognitive, social and emotional development, and in this essay I am going to be discussing the importance of it with regards to children’s development.

Symbolic play or pretend play is defined by Weisberg (2015, pp 249) by saying “Pretend play is a form of playful behaviour that involves non-literal action” meaning she thinks that pretend play is playing but, not using any words to communicate or only very basic language, as she believes they are only using symbolic play to communicate.

A very different definition to Weisberg is from Smith and Jones (2011) as they say “symbolic play is an umbrella term used to refer to a range of pretend play behaviours, including dress up, role play as well as object substitutions. However, object substitutions are the form of symbolic play that has been most systematically related to future language development”. For example, pretending a block is a car is a substitution, which can further their language by explaining to you what they are trying to represent with the block (Smith and Jones, 2011, pp 1142). This definition conflicts with the one from Weisberg, as Smith and Jones believe that language can be formed from symbolic play, whereas Weisberg says that she thinks pretend play uses no language and is just a playful type of behaviour with basic language skills, and she doesn’t mention any improvement in excelling the children’s speech or their way of language or communication. Smith and Jones believe that language can be formed from symbolic play, whereas Weisberg says that she thinks pretend play uses no language and is just a playful type of behaviour with basic language skills, and she doesn’t mention any improvement in excelling the children’s speech or their way of language or communication.

When looking into symbolic play a lot of huge child organisations recognise its importance, like the The National Association for the Education of Young Children in the United States, as they quote that “high levels of dramatic play produces documented cognitive, emotional and social benefits” (Lillard et al, 2013, pp 1). They believe this as arguably pretend play gives overwhelming imaginative benefits that they cannot gain in any other type of play or learning condition this is because symbolic play has to be a choice by a child and cannot be forced, in order to see any benefits.

For us to understand how children use symbolic play it is appropriate for us to do observations to understand. Observation is a huge part of that as like the EYFS says, positive relationships are the way for us to understand children and collaborate with them in order to gain a information and understanding of how it helps their developmental skills. A way to do this is through enabling environments and the EYFS are keen to promote staff facilitating and enabling environments as it allows for children to express themselves in different ways, including symbolic play, which includes role play and pretend play which overall children really enjoy and find beneficial in expressing themselves, which I am going to show throughout my research.

One of the key topics is our understanding of emotional development in children and how this is portrayed through symbolic play. Symbolic play reveals literal symbols in which children are trying to communicate and show their emotions as in some cases they may use play as a tool in order to understand their own relationships, and or feelings. To assist our understanding of children’s symbolic play in association to emotional development, we first have to understand the message in which they are using this method to try and say to us. If we take an example from Wieder (2017) with Joey pretending to be Peter Pan where he manages to create a dungeon and throws people over deck, and when he wins the fight he gets very excited and celebrates and becomes more upset when the dragon defeats him, this is opening a window for Joey and us as adults to understand the type of emotion he is feeling in his victory’s as this scene is somewhat important to him which makes it important for us to understand and perceive properly. This research shows that children use a wide range of emotion and empathy during symbolic play, which ultimately show emotional development that us as observers need to watch out for to understand properly; as it may indicate if that child is upset or having a problem which us as practitioners could look for during play.

Self regulation is seen as an important factor when being ready for school, as it helps social and emotional behaviours, and early childhood pretend play is seen to support this. A study from Slot et al (2017) discuss the effects of pretend play on 3 year olds with regards to emotional development. They put the 3 year olds in a symbolic play environment and facilitated it in a naturalistic play setting with lots of toys and things they could use eg costumes for role play so they would feel comfortable under observation; the results indicated that symbolic play had assisted highly in emotional state of the children’s self regulation, as they could regulate their emotions well and become versatile to the ongoing tasks. This shows importance of symbolic play and the importance of understanding it to make children feel more comfortable in a situation and facilitate them, which is why it makes it so important as practitioners to understand and be able to comply and assist with, by providing the essential materials.

If we look at symbolic/pretend play from a social standpoint, does symbolic play really help children develop socially? Research from Lillard and Ma (2017) try to help out our understanding of how it can help. They create research by showing children aged around 24-30 months old, and they were shown actors on a screen pretending to eat something out of a bowl or in the other instance they actually had food, and they had to differentiate from real or imaginary, which they were unable to do, but as they got older they could. This research shows how symbolic play from a young age acts as a basis for imagination, as they grow older they are able to tell the difference because they have done it themselves, which shows how pretend play are developing their social cues in the world.

A following study from Wiesberg (2015) agrees with the above that around age of 4 children are able to differentiate between real world and reality, and that’s more or less when they are able to form more social bonds with others as they start to understand more about the real world, rather then being in a pretend bubble anymore.

With pretend play there is overwhelming amounts of research from 50+ years, if we look from an older perspective like Vygotksy and his work with pretend play; he also emphasises the importance of symbolic play and that the symbolic signs which he says are mediators, meaning bringing the social and intellectual functions together to create an understanding of the environment. These are created by children during symbolic play to help them go onto understand the social world, he highlights how pretend play creates social positives and how this goes onto create beneficial social forms of play. This research shows to us that even from a longer time ago symbolic play has always been a huge part of our understanding of children and we should continue on and research its effects. Everyday children with autism and other disabilities face many challenges, especially with social skills and making friendships.

An article from Wolfberg et al (2015) look into how to facilitate these children using symbolic play for better relationships and friendships in school time; they went on to look into The Integrated Play Groups (IPG) model which they put into place with a group of autistic children, which uses symbolic play to increase try and increase social skills. They tested this on 48 children using a repeated measures design which involves measures of the same situation over more than one period, for this instance with and without IPG with and without IPG. They found that using an IPG model highly increased the social interaction between peers and the autistic children were included a lot more in the task. It is believed that children with autism find symbolic play really helpful as it gives them more of a chance to express themselves and create a conversation through something they enjoy, eg role play, and therefore in this situation find it easier to socialise with other children while using it. This is important for our understanding as it shows that peer to peer socialisation is very important for children to excel and develop properly. And this article creates an understanding for us as outsiders to properly understand the strengths of symbolic play on children’s health and interaction as it is believed that symbolic play creates a foundation for language and friendships.

Role play is the highest form of symbolic play as it requires a lot of mental and cognitive skills, like that children can take on a role in a play and then come out of it. When researching there has been overwhelming evidence that symbolic play quite literally helps our understanding of children, as they learn to speak and communicate in different ways. Research from Umek and Muesk (2001) say that fantasy play and role play both from symbolic play overall, encourage and enhance speech; a simple task with adults and children is the manipulation of toys. A child could be pretending to give an inject and say ‘ouch’ this is an example of how role play encourages speech, as they know a real injection will hurt so verbalise it during role play. This can be seen as imitation as they are now creating a scenario during play of what they have seen during real life.

This is similar from a historical perspective as Piaget talks a lot about how imitation is key for symbolic play and encouraging mental development. He believes that imitation provides the essential mental ‘signifiers’ to lead onto symbolic play and then essentially speech, through distinct levels of mental development. Piaget believes that a child makes a mental effort to imitate someone else, therefore leading to speech, which is widely used during symbolic play (Piaget, 1951).

For example, toy association and role play as like the doctor scenario above from Umek and Muesk (2001) when a child has imitated what they have seen and made it into a role play idea, which takes a lot of mental awareness from a child as they have to be fully aware of their surroundings. This process shows a lot of importance to our understanding of symbolic play as, overall it’s a learning process that requires a lot of mental comprehension of the world and their surroundings to be able to then put that into pretend play. This type of research is also important because as practitioners it allows for us to make observations, which are essential to gage what level that child is as and how they can excel in their work, by increasing their cognitive skills so they aren’t on the same level for too long. Symbolic play really helps assist this as we can see where a child’s comprehension and language level may be at, which can relate to their reading level and we are also able to pick up if there may be a problem, which shows how important our understanding of that child and their play habits are in relation to development level.

If we look at symbolic play and cognitive development from a cultural standpoint, are we getting the same results? Can we generalise that symbolic play does help children’s cognitive development overall. A study from Delveechio et al (2016) helps us to determine this. They did a study with 4-5 year old Italian children to determine if pretend play would assist in their cognitive development and learning during school time. After research they concluded that pretend play was able to assist in this as it showed the children were showing higher levels in work and a greater range of play activities than before, giving them more abilities. This research confirms we can somewhat generalise that pretend play does work for a range of cultures and helps cognitive development, which makes the study of symbolic play even more important to us as it can help children increase on their play skills more than they had before.

With regards to all my points, we can see that studying young children’s symbolic play is important for us to learn about and know. As I have made clear in my discussion symbolic play helps the children excel and develop in all cognitive, social and emotional developments. It does this by allowing for the children to create their own imaginary play world through the use of symbolic play and using different techniques such as role play and fantasy play. This type of play as we can see allows for children to make better friendships, learn more things in class and create speech and also be able to express their emotion through the use of objects. This shows how important the study of symbolic play is and should be to us, as it can only open doors for children and help them express themselves; by us studying this type of play we can then go on to make sure we are facilitating this in every way possible to make the children feel comfortable and have the resources to explore pretend play, which allows for adults to observe and be able to see how that child is doing with regards to how they are development. This discussion can conclude that overall we see a huge amount of developmental potential in all aspects for children to excel in with regards to symbolic play, weather that be speech or bonding with others, or even allowing for practitioners to pick up if there is an issue with that child. This makes symbolic play so important for us to understand and study as it brings a new life and difference to normal play that we can observe and learn from that allow for young children to be developmentally successful.

Promoting effective nursing care is based on the thorough understanding of human development across the lifespan. It aids in forming appropriate expectations regarding human behaviour and responding appropriately. Many theorists over the course of history have philosophised concepts regarding this, from Freud’s psychosexual theory to Vygotsky’s social development concept. Each theoretical approach differs but play a part in building new theories with the purpose of understanding development. This paper will discuss two theorists: Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget. By examining key concepts and theories, and identifying strengths and weaknesses, this essay’s aim of gaining an entry level understanding of psychosocial development can be met.

Theorised through an epigenetic principle, Erik Erikson developed an eight-stage psychoanalytical development ideology wherein an individual must overcome a psychosocial conflict at each stage. The eight-stage process lasted from infancy to ‘old age’ and can be described as ‘adaptive’. As a pupil of Freud, Erikson derived his theory from the founding fathers’ original psychosexual theory (Hoffnung, et. al., 2019). He stresses the importance of adaptive behaviour and the effects of outside influences. The focus of Erikson’s theory is the continuation of an individual’s identity and personality over the lifetime. The key concept is the experience of a crisis, which is caused by internal conflicts, that the individual moves to resolve and progress to the next development stage. Erikson’s view is that of an individual experiencing an identity crisis in a social context with emphasis on parental interactions, institutions and culture within a certain period of time (Sigelman, Rider & De George-Walker, 2016).

However, being one of the first theories of development, Erikson’s theory did have several strengths and weaknesses. The broad framework of the theory is a strength as it allowed new theories to build upon the existing data. In addition, early life experiences heavily impacted identity formation and traits such as integrity (Marcia & Josselson, 2013). Despite this, Erikson’s theory lacked explanation as it was purely a descriptive concept. This made it difficult to test and as a result, was rejected by modern theorists in favour of more specific, falsifiable theories (Sigelman, et. al., 2016). According to Syed and Fish, Erikson’s theory explored different cultures, though it is rarely included in modern research. This ultimately impacted the strength of his theory when applied to other circumstances (Syed & Fish, 2018). Despite this, Erikson’s theory has formed fundamentals for later theorists to further develop.

Jean Piaget’s theory was categorised as a cognitive theory of development, meaning that his theory was built on the basis of mental development. The focus of Piaget’s theory was cognitive development through problem solving and thinking. As the ability to think develops, it critiques and incorporates learning from the previous stages, resulting in overall development. The key concept of Piaget’s theory is based on the interrelated processes of schema, assimilation and accommodation, which come together into four cognitive stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. The schema is an efficient method of problem solving that helps the individual overcome the challenge they are experiencing. Assimilation is the interpretation and response to new experiences with relation to existing schema. Finally, accommodation occurs when a child adjusts pre-existing schema when the previous is no longer valid (Sigelman et. al., 2016).

Being one of the base theories for cognitive development, Jean Piaget’s theory left a lasting imprint on developmental theories of modern times. Piaget’s theory of equilibrium is a clear explanation of problem solving and decisive thinking, which allows the individual to adapt from the experience (Hoffnung, et. al., 2019). He acknowledged that children are active in their developmental growth through the nature-nurture theory. Further, changes in the quality of a child’s thinking could be concluded. Weakening his theory, Piaget greatly underestimated the cognitive abilities of children as well as the role of parents on the child’s development (Sigelman et. al., 2016). He also assumed that children from all cultures and races developed the same way, though in modern times, it is clear that children in western civilisations develop differently to ‘hunter-gatherer’ groups. Observational evidence was also much more prevalent than evidence based on experiments (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019).

To conclude, developmental theories provide nurses with theoretical understanding of how a patients’ health and recovery can be impacted by psychological and social factors. Effective nursing care is developed through thorough knowledge of psychosocial development, whether it is psychoanalytical, cognitive or any other category. In the modern day, it is imperative that previous theories are still acknowledged and new theories are built to ultimately improve and advance nursing.

Introduction

According to Britannica a feral child is a child that has grown up, accidentally or intentionally, with limited human contact. But just because these children grew up with little to no human contact; it doesn’t mean that they are any less human.

For example, Victor of Aveyron, a twelve year old boy who was found completely naked looking for something to eat. When he was first found, he was mute, he couldn’t perceive human contact, and often exploded into very violent outbursts. Genie Wiley, a thirteen year old girl, who was abused by her father, was found isolated from society in her own home. Oksana Malaya, who was thrown out of her house at three years old by her alcoholic parents, took refuge with stray dogs. Edik, a four year old boy, was found abandoned in a set of run down apartments. These children are considered to be some of the most severe feral children cases and most of these children have grown and developed contrary to what others believed. Therefore, while feral children are considered unmanageable and unable to learn, developmental theories have shown feral children in various case studies are closer to the expected developmental standards placed on children.

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory

In order for a child to be considered feral, the child must have had little or no human contact. Which means, the child has not experienced many human relationships in their lives. American psychologist, Urie Bronfenbrenner, created the Ecological Systems Theory to explain how the innate qualities of children and the interaction of the children’s environment would have an impact how the child would grow develop further. He placed emphasis on the significance of observing the child in multiple environments, which is known as ecological systems, to understand his ideas.

The expected relationship dynamic between the child and others is based off of Bronfenbrenner’s theory. His system starts with the smallest and most intimate relationships and environments of the child which is known as the Microsystem. The microsystem comprises of the home, school, family, peer group, and community that surrounds the child. Which then follows into the Mesosystem. The Mesosystem focuses on the interaction of different microsystems, such the interactions of home and school or between peer group and family. The systems develop further into the Exosystem, which focuses on the association of two or more settings. A setting may not contain the developing child but affects the child indirectly. This system normally consists of the parents’ workplaces and extended family members. Then we see the Macrosystem which consists of the largest and most distant collection of people and places but still has an influence on the child. This would include cultural patterns and values or the child’s dominant beliefs and ideas. Chronosystem is the last of Bronfenbrenner’s systems and it uses time to demonstrate the change in the child’s environments. This includes a change in family structure, or changing of an address.

Inevitable isolation of feral children has caused little interaction with others. Which have caused little correlation to all of the ecological systems. That means that these children start building these dynamics much later in their lives. Which in turn may make it harder for them to build further and more intimate relationships.

But Victor, Oksana, Genie, and Edik all were able to beat these odds. Victor was able to maintain a relationship with Jean-Marc Itard the man helping him immerge into society. Edik, has created relationship with his foster family. Genie was able to create a relationship with her mother and brother. Oksana was able to even go as far to have a boyfriend.

Erikson and Freud’s Psychosocial Theories

According the definition of a feral child, the child has experienced little to no human interaction with others. Which in turn makes it difficult for the child to experience social contact and know correct social cues.

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, suggested that our personality and social cues development centered around the effects of sexual pleasure. He believed that every child had needs and demands that needed to be met. Further, If conflict was not resolved in that particular stage, then the person would remain in that stage until conflict has been resolved which is also known as fixation.

Freud’s psychosocial theory began with the Oral Stage. This is the stage when the child focuses on putting things in their mouths. If fixation occurs in this stage it can result in problems with smoking, drinking, eating, or nail biting. The Anal Stage is the next in his theory, this stage focuses on controlling bladder and bowel movements. If a problem is not resolved, the fixation is that the child is either overly controlling or out of control. The Phallic Stage is when children begin to understand the differences between male and female. Being fixated in this stage would cause problems in their relationships. The Latency Stage, another of Freud’s theories, is a period of calm in the children where there is low psychosexual energy, most psychologist do not consider this as a stage. The Genital Stage is the last stage, which focuses on sexual pleasure is (something missing) genitals and it remains for the rest of life.

Feral children live with no contact with other humans. Therefore it is difficult for the children to resolve conflict in these stages. Thus, creating a fixation problems in several stages.

Erik Erikson, an American-German neo-Freudian psychologist, focused on the importance of shift in thinking on personality by using his psychosocial theory. His theory looks at how social influences contribute to the child personalities throughout the their lifespans. His theory starts with Trust versus Mistrust, this stage consist of children learning that they can trust their caregivers to take care of them; this stage carries on for the rest of the children’s lives. The children, transitions into the next stage which is Autonomy versus Doubt, this is when toddlers begin to control what happens to their bodies such as, potty training and controlling temper tantrums. Initiative versus Guilt is when if trust and autonomy are established the children if encouraged feels the need to express their curiosity. If not the children feel very guilty for expressing themselves. Identity versus Role Confusion is the next stage, that is when adolescents are trying to figure who they are and where they belong. In addition, this is where they experience an identity crisis. Intimacy versus Isolation is where young adults try to balance their work, home, and personal lives and relationships. Generativity versus Stagnation, where adults feel the need to relive their life accomplishments and if there is something they are not pleased with, they place that disappointment and pressure on others. Often times that is the stage where midlife crises would occur. Integrity versus Despair is the last off Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory that is when the elderlies look back at their lives and decide if their satisfied. If the they feel as if they lived their lives to the fullest thy go on living peacefully, if not they die depressed.

Feral children have no clue as to which social cues are acceptable and which are not. Nor, have they had the chance to go through most of these stages. At age 30 is when some children are experiencing their “identity crisis” instead of adolescence. Oksana, Edik, and Victor are all excellent examples on how feral children were able to exceed the normal expectations of typical Feral children. Oksana again, currently lives in an area where she is forced to interact with others, and was able to have a boyfriend. Edik, had to live with several children and was fitting in with them. Victor, was able to understand that after his foster father had died, that it was appropriate to take the place setting off of the table.

Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Stage Theory

Piaget was a Swiss psychologist in the late 1800s who believed that intelligence is something that grows and develops throughout a series of stages. His first stage theory is the Sensorimotor Stage. This is the stage that children experience the world through their senses. The children begin to separate people from the world around them. The Next is the Preoperational Stage, where children use words to connect with the world around them. The children use words to represent objects. The following stage is Concrete Operational Stage, that is where children are able to think more logically and in a more mathematical way. He last stage is the Formal Operational Stage, that is when they gain the ability to think abstractly and can compare and contrast items in the child’s head.

Feral children do not get to experience going to school or growing up normally. Most of them are growing up with wild animals, therefore there is no chance of them learning language. However, Genie, Oksana, and Edik were all able to overcome the stereotypes and were taught how to speak. Even though Genie regressed after a while, she was still able to learn and develop.

Kohlberg’s Moral Development Stage Theory

Kohlberg is an American psychologist who believed that our ability to reason about ethical solutions changes over our lives, growth is shown over three moral stages. The first of the stages is the Preconventional Stage. This stage focuses on the children making decisions to avoid punishment. Next is the Conventional Stage, which is where children l make moral choices based on the opinions of others. Kohlberg’s last stage is the Postconventional Stage and that is when moral reasoning is deciphering what is right or wrong which is developed from within.

It would be difficult for feral children to decipher what the difference between right and wrong is. All the Feral children know is doing whatever it takes to survive which would more than likely be carried into their new lives. Though I have no physical proof of any moral development from the feral children, looking back the other developmental theories show that it is clear that they have grown in this theory. Such as the fact that the children understand social cues or that are they able to have proper conversations.

Conclusion

These children grew socially, and were able to pick up on certain social cues according to Erikson and Freud’s theory. They were able to create relationships with other people, according Bronfenbrenner’s theory. The children were able to learn how to speak and communicate with others according to Piaget’s theory. Utilizing these theories, they were able to grow morally as human beings. The goal wasn’t to prove that feral children are fully capable of living in society The point was to show that feral children are more human than people cared to believe.

Within the field of Developmental Psychology, genetics and the surrounding environment play an outsized role in factors like personality traits, emotion and language. One of the longest debates in Western intellectual history concerns the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on human behavioural differences, also known as the nature vs nurture debate. The argument questions the extent to which acquired behaviours are a product of either inherited or acquired influences. Nature is argued to be influenced by genetic predispositions and inheritance that will cause certain characteristics, whereas nurture is usually taken as the influence of external factors after birth. However, after generations of research on the subject, researchers are led to conclude that the controversy should be retired for a modern perspective that emphasises the joint influence of genes and the environment on behaviour. Genetic and environmental factors may be linked together to influence characteristics; environmental factors may differ depending on a person’s genetic vulnerability.

The aim of this essay is to critically evaluate the input of genes and environmental factors within a key few areas of Developmental Psychology, including emotional psychopathology (including major depressive disorder), cognitive ability (such as personality), and developmental issues (factors such as aggression). Many studies have been allotted in these fields, including ones by Johnson et al, Bouchard et al, Bandura et al and many more. While laying out the research for the key research areas mentioned, the studies will be assessed in-depth by questioning the reliability and validity of studies to form an argument over the contribution of genetic and environmental factors.

Depressive disorders are the most common form of psychiatric pathology; according to the World Health Organisation (2019), 264 million people are affected by this condition. Many studies have been conducted and have found a genetic link to the disorder. Raison and Miller (2016) suggested an evolutionary link to depression, implying that the same genes that increase susceptibility for depression may also increase one’s immune response to infections (by increasing inflammation). The aim of the study was to test the theory that symptoms of depression may occur due to a specific selection of genes which also protects against disease. A double-blind, randomised trial was carried out with three infusions of the drug infliximab (an anti-inflammatory drug) or placebo were given to 60 participants over 6 weeks. The mean age group of participants was 43 years and the mean episode duration was 184 months for infliximab and 239 months for placebo. The researchers found that infliximab was better in reducing depressive symptoms for participants with inflammation but made little difference for other participants. The study has evolutionary support for the genetic link to depression but there are a number of considerations. As only the patients with inflammation showed improvement with the drug, it can be suggested that there may be other reasons for the disorder as the theory isn’t adequate for all forms of depression. The link between genes and the environment is disregarded, which could be a reason for the unexplained lack of improvement in some participants. The research provides a breakthrough for a possible biological cause of depression, but the validity and reliability of the study can be questioned, as only 60 participants were used and there is a lack of cultural and age validity, meaning it would be difficult to generalise to other populations.

A study carried out by Caspi et al (2003) found a role that gene mutation and epigenetics may play a role in depression. The aim of the study was to determine whether there was evidence for a gene-environment interaction for a mutation of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT). The researchers studied 847 New Zealand 26 year olds- all had been assessed for mental health every other year until they were 21. They were divided into three groups based on their 5-HTT alleles: Group 1 had two short alleles, Group 2 had one short and one long allele, and Group 3 had two long alleles; the mutation of the 5-HTT gene has shorter alleles. The participants were asked to fill a “stressful life events” questionnaire and were assessed for depression afterwards. Caspi et al concluded that people with one or two copies of the short allele exhibited more depressive symptoms in relation to stressful life-events. In a later study by Moffitt & Caspi (2011), the researchers took DNA samples from 127 people who were part of the longitudinal prospective study and monitored them for 25 years. They found that 80% with two short alleles became depressed after three or more negative life events in a year, whereas only 30% of participants with the long alleles developed the disorder despite having similar situations. However, much more research is needed before a clear relationship can be established between the gene and depression. The study makes an assumption that serotonin is the cause of depression. Despite this, the theory acknowledges an interaction between genetics and environmental factors in depression- this holistic approach increases the reliability of the results. To conclude depressive disorders, nature or nurture alone cannot explain why an individual may develop depression- a combination of the two determines how individuals react to life stressors, as those who have genes at risk of depression and also experience environmental stressors are more likely to develop the disorder.

Over the past decades, much behavioural genetic research has been carried out on the genetic and environmental influences of personality characteristics. Personality traits can be defined as relatively stable patterns of thoughts and feelings which makes an individual unique. The Big Five trait model explains personality traits along five dimensions of individual differences (John et al, 2008), including 1. Neuroticism vs emotional stability, 2. Extraversion vs introversion, 3. Openness to experiences, 4. Agreeableness, and 5. Conscientiousness. According to the theory that the model reflects genetically anchored core characteristics of personality, Johnson et al (2008) found a series of individual differences in a meta-analysis that genetic factors accounted for around 50% of the variance in self-rated Big Five personality traits. The remaining variance was mostly due to environmental influences that were not shared by the participants. Although this research has support for the genetic influences, the test has a limited number of options to choose from the multiple-choice questionnaire, so participants may answer questions to make them look more appealing. Furthermore, test-takers may answer the questions with the most culturally and socially acceptable responses, so many of the results may be tainted due to cultural influences. However, the biggest limitation of this study is the disregard for environmental influences in combination with genetics, as the remaining 50% unaccounted for was reported by the researcher to have been due to other factors, but no further research was carried out to understand it better.

Most research on personality has been based on self-report questionnaire measures. Riemann et al (2006) carried out research to measure personality constructs via self and peer reports; the sample included 660 monozygotic, 104 opposite-sex and 200 same-sex dizygotic twins. Self-reports and two independent peer reports were collected for each of the twins. Previous findings for support of substantial genetic influence on the Big Five personality types were emphasised in this study. However, genetic contributions to phenotypic variance were estimated higher when based on peer reports, which allowed researchers to separate error variance due to non-shared environmental influences. Correlations between self‐ and peer reports reflected the same genetic influences to a much higher extent than identical environmental effects. This research has a higher rate of methodological validity than the previous study as a combination of self and peer reports were used to compare answers and increase reliability. However, the exact relationship with the environment and genetics is still unclear as the researchers did not carry out further research on the relationship between the two variables. Through the research carried out for personality traits, it can be suggested that there is a clear impact of genetics on personality traits, but the role of the environment is uncertain; however, it can be assumed through the studies that it does play a role in traits.

Developmental factors such as aggression have been studied by researchers and have found some links between genetics and the environment for the influence of it. A classic study for the environmental influence was conducted by Bandura et al (1961) as part of the Social Learning theory, in which people are suggested to learn by observing others and imitating the behaviour. Bandura set out to demonstrate that children would be likely to imitate an adult’s aggressive behaviour; 36 boys and 36 girls were split into three different groups with a male and female adult role model. The children were taken to an experimental room which was set out for a play area, but the adult was directed to a corner with some objects and an inflatable Bobo doll, after which the experimenter left the room. In the non-aggressive condition, the model assembled toys in a corner and ignored the inflatable doll. However, in the aggressive condition, the adult acted aggressively towards the Bobo doll in a distinctive way. After 10 minutes, the experimenter returned and led the child to a different room, where a number of toys were shown to the participant then told that they would not be allowed to play with any. The child was led to a different room with a number of toys, including a Bobo doll. The results found that the children who saw the aggressive model made more aggressive acts that the children who saw the non-aggressive model. This has support for the possible effect a surrounding environment could have on a child, in which the behaviour could be learnt and carried into adulthood. Furthermore, it was found that boys were overall more aggressive than girls, which links to a possibility to genetics, as boys were more aggressive despite having been shown the same act as girls. However, one should be cautious in making connections between the study and the everyday experience of children, as there is no evidence for any long-term effects of the study. Bandura (1963, 1965) proposed that aggressive behaviour can be learned, but it does not offer any evidence on whether some features of aggression may be innate.

Within the 23 pairs of chromosomes that most people have, one pair determines whether we are male (XY) or female (XX). Early research investigated the possible genetic cause of aggression within the Y chromosome. Individuals with a genotype of XYY were recruited by Court-Brown (1965); 314 participants with the genotype were studied and the researcher suggested that these patients should remain hospitalised given their increased likelihood of aggressive behaviour. This possible genetic link to aggression suggests a possibility that could be used in further research to find treatment or coping methods. However, there is once again a disregard for the impact of the environment which should be considered in order to have an unbiased view. Overall, aggression is most likely due to the result of inborn and learned traits, but as Court-Brown (1965) discovered, some genes may be more likely to instigate aggressive behaviours. Despite the studies above showing only the nature or nurture aspects of aggression, it is still unknown how much each aspect contributes to the behaviour.

In conclusion, it is better understood now that asking how much biology or environment influence a particular trait may not be the right approach, as both nature and nurture can impact behaviour and development. However, researchers and experts still debate the degree to which biology and environment influence behaviour, as there is not a simple way to disentangle the extent to which the two factors influence the development of behaviour. Furthermore, it is unknown how genetic factors interact with one another, as well as environmental interactions, such as social experiences and culture, as well as how both hereditary and environmental influences intermingle. Many researchers today are interested in seeing how genes modulate environmental influences in the hopes of better understanding the relationship between the two factors.

Throughout life, children are constantly going through change. There has been much debate about the pathway of development from birth to adulthood; some argue that development occurs in ‘stage like’ periods whereby the stages are chronological (children develop according to their age). A person may become stuck at a specific stage if they do not have the necessary tools to progress. Other psychologists argue that development may not be so fixed as suggested by stage models and sometimes children can even regress through stages. It is said that children go through five types of development: physical, intellectual, moral, social and emotional development. Every child is different and sometimes children don’t show age appropriate behaviour and may develop certain skills before or after their peers. In the first four years of life, infants learn language skills, how to walk, play, write, as well as learn how to express their emotions. These experiences are crucial for the development of their personality and behaviour. The way a child develops depends on genetic and environmental factors, including: sex, nutrition and socio-economic status, amongst others. In this parent report, social and emotional development in children aged zero to four will be explored as well as exploring explanations for atypical development.

Between the ages of zero to four, infants learn how to communicate with others. A part of communication is being able to understand our own thoughts as well as being able to understand that others have different thoughts and beliefs that drive their behaviour. This is called ‘Theory of Mind’ (ToM) (Premack & Woodruff, 1978). ToM is seen to develop throughout life. At birth, infants try to imitate the voices they hear and the faces they see, showing that trying to understand what others are experiencing is instinctual. At six months, infants can tell apart emotional expressions such as happiness, sadness and anger. By the end of the first year, children have a basic idea that other people’s behaviour is caused by their desires and motivations (that may be different to their own). Pretend play plays a key role in symbolising the roles, feelings and behaviours of others. Children often are able to engage in play whereby they take on different roles, such as playing characters within a family. By age four, it is predicted that children should achieve ToM; by this age they are able to understand how and why their own thoughts differ from others (Mitchell, 2011). This helps children relate to their peers.

Knowledge about the development of Theory of Mind (ToM) has come from extensive research. Wimmer and Perner (1983) developed the ‘false-belief’ task to measure ToM. The ‘false-belief’ task aims to create a setting whereby the infant ‘assumes’ something about a situation. In this experiment children of all ages were told of a situation:

“Maxi puts his chocolate in the cupboard and leaves the room. While he is away, his mother moves the chocolate from the cupboard to a drawer. Maxi returns. Where will he look for his chocolate, in the drawer or in the cupboard?” Wimmer and Perner (1983, p.109)

Children who understand that Maxi is unaware that his mother moved the chocolate and would therefore look for the chocolate in the kitchen cupboard, it is said that they have ‘ToM’. Wilmer and Perner (1983) found that four-year olds tend to pass this test, showing that by age four, children have developed a ToM. Passing this task involves being able to distinguish real world events from false events. However, other research has found that children as young as three-years-old pass the false belief task (Wellman, Cross & Watson, 2001). Researchers claim that the original false-belief tasks were too difficult and younger children show better understanding of the task if it is targeted at their age (Siegal & Beattie, 1991).

Although there has been some inconsistency in establishing the age at which children develop ToM, it is important to clarify that even though younger children do not pass the false-belief task, it does not mean they do not understand their own mental state and the mental state of others to a certain degree. It could be said that younger children have difficulty understanding abstract tasks such as the ‘false-belief’ task.

Not all children follow this developmental trajectory. Even at age four, some children may not have developed a ToM. Administering the false-belief task to a range of children can help understand these developmental delays. Autistic children have trouble with false-belief tasks even after the age of four. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a pervasive developmental disorder that can range from mild to severe. It is characterised by difficulty with social interaction, communication and language, with repetitive behaviour (Bishop & Lord, 2009). Due to the fact that Autistic individuals experience ‘social disconnectedness’ they are unable to understand the mental capacity of others (Baron-Cohen et al., 1995).

Theory of Mind in Autistic children can also be measured using the false-belief task. Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith (1985) created the “Sally-Anne Task”. In this task, two dolls (Sally and Anne) are shown to the child. The experimenter tells the child the following:

“Sally has a basket and Anne has a box. Sally puts a marble inside her basket. Sally leaves. When Sally leaves, Anne puts the marble inside her box. Sally comes back.” Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith (1985, p.41)

To ensure the child has understood the situation, they are asked clarifying questions like ‘which doll is Sally/Anne?’. The critical question is: ‘Where will Sally look for her marble?’. For a child to be said to have ‘Theory of Mind’, they must state that Sally will look for the marble in the basket and not in the box. They found that only 20% of children with autism got the question correct compared to 85% of ‘typically’ developed children. This shows that children with Autism may not understand the thoughts and behaviours of others.

However, not all individuals with autism fail ToM tasks. Happe (1994) found that approximately 20% of autistic children pass false belief tasks. He argued that these children may be using other strategies to combat these tasks. Autistic children may be using logic to pass false-belief tasks and may not understand the mind at all. It is argued that these children may learn through their own experiences but lack the fundamental understanding that others have different thoughts.

Between the ages of zero and four, understanding emotions is a challenging task. Emotional development refers to the ability of a child to recognise their own feelings and express and manage them appropriately. At six weeks, infants try to imitate emotion through what is said to be the ‘Social Smile’(Caron et al, 1982). The ‘Social Smile’ is an adaptive trait (a trait that promoted survival in ancestral time) as it provokes an affectionate response from their caregivers. At four months old, infants begin to laugh. This shows that they can recognise behaviour that deviates from the ‘norm’ of their day-to-day life. By the first year, infants can understand and express the six basic emotions of happiness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise and sadness. By age two, children express more complex emotions that they develop through their own social interactions such as embarrassment and pride (Tracy et al., 2005). By age three, children begin to understand how to express their emotions appropriately according to societal norms and by age four, children can ‘self-regulate’ their emotions. They have the ability to alter how they express emotions without as much input from parents. For example: feeling disappointment by a toy they receive can be manipulated to appear as happiness instead. Pretend play can foster this emotional maturity as they interact with their peers and begin to understand the feelings of others (Barrett, 1997). Emotion regulation is vital by this age because the environment the child finds themselves in is becoming increasingly socially demanding (i.e. they start school).

The role of the parent cannot be underestimated in the development of emotion. From birth, parents play an important role in times of need. Parents introduce their children to societal norms regarding expressing and regulating emotions (Hochschild, 1983). When a child is securely attached to their caregiver, it promotes the development of the understanding of basic emotions (Laible & Thompson, 1998). Other factors can affect the development of emotion recognition and these include: socio-economic factors, verbal ability and sex. Smith and Walden (1998) found that African-American children from low-income families were more accurate in the perception of fearful expressions. This shows that the situation a child grows up in influences the ability to recognise emotions. Ridgeway et al. (1985) found that verbal ability influences emotion recognition as being able to label different facial expressions helps in recognising them. Lastly, McClure (2000) found that more labels are used when establishing emotions with girls and therefore females have an advantage when recognising emotions. These factors have an impact on emotional development and shows that environmental factors influence emotion recognition.

Kochanska (2001) investigated the role of parents in emotional development. She investigated the development of fear, anger and joy in 112 children. The children were observed at four different time periods (nine months, 14 months, 22 months, 33 months). Kochanska explored three types of attachment that may affect emotion development and these included secure, resistant and avoidant attachments. Securely attached children are confident to explore an environment when their parents are present and seek comfort from them when distressed. Resistant children are independent from their parents emotionally. Finally, avoidant children exhibit both clingy and rejecting behaviour when distressed (Ainsworth, 1979). Kochanska (2001) found that securely attached children became less angry over time whereas avoidant and resistant children experienced an increase in negative emotions. For example, they became more fearful and less joyful over time. It can be concluded that parents play a vital role in how children develop positive and negative emotions.

Theory of Mind and Emotional Development are arguably inextricably linked throughout a child’s development. Not all children develop the ability to process and express emotions. Children with a range of mental disorders such as Autism, Conduct Disorder (antisocial behaviour) and Dysthymia (mild depression) often have problems understanding emotions and this impedes development of other functions like Theory of Mind (Hobson, 1989). Buitelaar et al. (1999) studied 80 children from four groups: autistic disorder, developmental disorders, psychiatric disorders and ‘normal’ children. They were given a battery of tasks including the false-belief task and an emotion recognition task whereby the children had to match photographs that showed the same emotion. It was found that children with conduct disorder or dysthymia performed just as well as ‘normal’ children on the tasks. Autistic children did not perform as well as the other groups and the task measuring ToM contributed to this difference. This indicated that Autistic individuals do not lack in emotional recognition but there is an inability to understand different mental states. Autistic individuals often exhibit a lack of emotional awareness and psychologists have suggested this is due to the fact that they struggle to apply their emotional knowledge to real world situations and not the lack of knowledge in the first place (Bowler, 1992). Bowler’s finding gives hope to individuals that have difficulty understanding and expressing emotions as with appropriate intervention children may be able to learn these skills.

By the age of four, children have gone through some important milestones such as recognising that they have unique thoughts and emotions and that others have the capacity to have different motivations that drive their behaviour. It is important to emphasise the key factors in development such as the role of the parent, nutrition and education to aid our understanding of the changes a child goes through. Between the ages of zero and four a copious amount of development occurs and although a universal trajectory has been established for what ‘normal’ development should look like, this report emphasises that all children are different and not all will follow this; but with time and research, the information grows on how to aid development in social and emotional development.

References

1. Ainsworth, M. S. (1979). Infant–mother attachment. American psychologist, 34(10), 932.
2. Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind” ? Cognition,21(1), 37-46. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8
3. Baron‐Cohen, S., Campbell, R., Karmiloff‐Smith, A., Grant, J., & Walker, J. (1995). Are children with autism blind to the mentalistic significance of the eyes?. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 13(4), 379-398.
4. Barrett, L. F. (1997). The relationships among momentary emotion experiences, personality descriptions, and retrospective ratings of emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(10), 1100-1110.
5. Lord, C., & Bishop, S. L. (2009). The autism spectrum: definitions, assessment and diagnoses. British Journal of Hospital Medicine (2005), 70(3), 132-135.
6. Bowler, D. M. (1992). “Theory of Mind” in Asperger’s Syndrome Dermot M. Bowler. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33(5), 877-893.
7. Buitelaar, J. K., Van der Wees, M., Swaab–Barneveld, H. A. N. N. A., & Van der Gaag, R. J. (1999). Theory of mind and emotion-recognition functioning in autistic spectrum disorders and in psychiatric control and normal children. Development and psychopathology, 11(1), 39-58.
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9. Happé, F. G. (1994). An advanced test of theory of mind: Understanding of story characters’ thoughts and feelings by able autistic, mentally handicapped, and normal children and adults. Journal of autism and Developmental disorders, 24(2), 129-154.
10. Hobson, R. P., Ouston, J., & Lee, A. (1989). Naming emotion in faces and voices: Abilities and disabilities in autism and mental retardation. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 7(3), 237-250
11. Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart. Berkeley.
12. Kochanska, G. (2001). Emotional Development in Children with Different Attachment Histories: The First Three Years. Child Development,72(2), 474-490. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00291
13. Laible, D. J., & Thompson, R. A. (1998). Attachment and emotional understanding in preschool children. Developmental psychology, 34(5), 1038.
14. McClure, E. B. (2000). A meta-analytic review of sex differences in facial expression processing and their development in infants, children, and adolescents. Psychological bulletin, 126(3), 424.
15. Mitchell, P. (2011). Acquiring a Theory of Mind. In A. M. Slater and J. G. Bremner (Eds.). An introduction to developmental psychology. London: Blackwell Publishing.
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17. Ridgeway, D., Waters, E., & Kuczaj, S. A. (1985). Acquisition of emotion-descriptive language: Receptive and productive vocabulary norms for ages 18 months to 6 years. Developmental Psychology, 21(5), 901.
18. Siegal, M., & Beattie, K. (1991). Where to look first for children’s knowledge of false beliefs. Cognition, 38(1), 1-12.
19. Smith, M., & Walden, T. (1998). Developmental trends in emotion understanding among a diverse sample of African-American preschool children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 19(2), 177-197.
20. Tracy, J. L., Robins, R. W., & Lagattuta, K. H. (2005). Can children recognize pride?. Emotion, 5(3), 251.
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22. Wimmer, H., & Perner, J. (1983). Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children’s understanding of deception. Cognition, 13(1), 103-128.

The participants in this are the children that were interviewed. There was a total of nineteen children interviewed; there were seven interviewed in the three to five age range, five in the eight to ten age range, and seven in the thirteen to fifteen age range. Out of the nineteen, eleven of the children were females and eight of the children were males. The children were selected based on their age, as the interviewer was assigned to a category, other than that there were no other factors. Informed consent was obtained for the parent of the child before the interviews took place in order to follow the code of ethics.

Materials

In order to complete the experiment, the necessary materials included the question set given during lab six, a method to record the responses, and a child to interview.

Procedure

In this experiment, age groups were assigned by raising your hand for the age group most accessible to you. In addition, interviews were conducted either in person, over the phone, or over video chat depending on what was the most convenient means of contacting the parent and child; for me this was in person. My classmates and I were trained in advance for the interviews by Katey Gibbons during the lecture given during Lab 6. During the lab we were given directions and a clear explanation of the expectations and purpose of the interviews which were available to be revisited on Canvas. The responses were then coded during Lab 7 in class using three different categories which remained the same for each age group; these categories were reward-cost, normative, and empathetic.

Results

According to the lab manual, “The purpose of this exercise is to describe the social cognitive development of children as they grow older. You will interview a child about his/her friendships. The responses will then be compared across age groups to describe developmental changes across the age groups.”. The expectation was that as the age group increased, the number of empathetic and normative responses would increase and the number of reward-cost responses would decrease. For the age group of children three to five, 100% of the responses given were coded into the reward-cost category. There were 45 total responses given, of that number 36 of the responses were reward-cost based and the remaining 9 did not make sense due to decreased verbal communication skills. In the group of children aged eight to ten, there were 46 total responses given; 23 of those responses were reward-cost coded (50%), 14 were normative (30%), and 9 were empathetic (20%). Lastly, the children’s group ages thirteen to fifteen had a total of 69 responses. Of those responses 14 were reward-cost coded (20%), 24 were normative coded (35%), and 38 were empathetic coded (55%).

Discussion

As you can see, this increase in normative and empathetic responses and decrease in reward-cost responses is parallel with the expectations of the results. The results from the in class lab shows a very similar trend in results in comparison to the Furman and Bierman (1983) article. The results in the lab show that reward-cost based characteristics lost importance whereas normative and empathetic characteristics gained importance to children as age increased. This is aligned with the results from Furman and Bierman (1983); Compared to the younger children, the older ones place greater emphasis on the affective or motivational aspects of friendly behaviors. That is, although helping and sharing refer to specific actions, they imply prosocial intentions and positive affect. The developmental decreases which were observed on the feature of physical characteristics are also consistent with this explanation. Once the children begin to emphasize the significance of affectively based expectations, their conceptions become more refined and the expectations concerning physical characteristics become superfluous.”. It would be accurate to infer after viewing both of these experiments that as age increases, abstract thinking and reasoning increases. A way to improve the study would be to use the same number of children in each age group as well as divide the children by gender and age in order to examine the results more closely.

References

1. Furman, W & Bierman, K. (1983). Developmental Changes in Young Children’s Conceptions of Friendship, 7.