Business 6

Developmental Stage of Childhood

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PSY605: Developmental Psychology

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The developmental age group I chose was childhood. The ages range from three years of age to twelve years of age. In childhood, living and social conditions have merged to form a nearly more solid fabric of importance that creates consistency (Bates, 1987). Between the ages of three and five, children began to grow socially as far as expressing their emotions, interacting in social play and trying to do certain things within social play to leave an impression on friends. Cognitively, they start off using their imagination as well as start to learn basics such as colors, numbers, their name, etc. As they grow into the range of six years old to twelve years old, they began to become more lucrative and their minds began to grow. Psychosocial development occurs as children form relationships, interact with others, and understand and manage their feelings (OpenStax Psychology, 2014).

In Erikson’s psychosocial theory, the development is broken down into several age ranges and stages of crisis. The stages I will focus on are Initiative vs. Guilt and Industry (also known as competence) vs. Inferiority (also known as inadequacy). Initiative vs. Guilt occurs during the preschool years, between the ages of three and five. Children within this age range began to become more assertive by making up their own games and activities as well as accomplishing tasks such as swinging, feeding themselves, or even learning to count to ten. They also face challenges such as learning to write numbers and letters. If for any reason their attempts or success in accomplishing tasks is dismissed or discouraged, guilt is then developed.

The Industry vs. Inferiority stage happens within the ages of five and twelve. At this time in a child’s life impressions left on their peers seems to be what makes them feel more significant. With leaving an impression on their peers, this is basically a determination as to whether their peers boost or lower their self-esteem. Children of this age range are dealing with learning new and more complex things such as addition and subtraction, reading and comprehension. Youths in this stage have become increasingly involved with organized sports activities and the number of sports related injuries has increased dramatically (Ginsburg, 1992). They are also dealing with impressing peers to live up to them socially by doing whatever they deem is fun and cool as well as trying to have whatever their friends have. With being successful in overcoming and completing new learnings and findings as well as leaving a positive impression on their peers, the child is more than likely to be confident and competent. If the child is to fail in any of these, they will feel like a failure and start to have the feelings of inadequacy. This tends to lead to antisocial behavior as well as low self-esteem and even depression.

Regarding the sociocultural theory, Vygotsky believed that children learn actively and through hands-on experiences. His sociocultural theory also suggested that parents, caregivers, peers and the culture at large were responsible for developing higher order functions (Cherry,2017). Through Vygotsky’s theory, I learned that learning is a natural social process. Learning becomes a second nature understanding through interacting with others. Zone of proximal development has also been introduced through Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. Zone of proximal development is the gap between what a person can do with help and what they can do on their own (Cherry, 2017). During childhood development, the zone of proximal development can be formed and learning can be successful through interaction of peers and family members. Vygotskian researchers suggest that understanding of the relationship between peer learning and improved learners’ thinking skills and achievements should be considered in the context of exchanges conducted by learners while learning collectively, in groups or in pairs. These exchanges are themselves based on acquired social interaction patterns and on exposure to various viewpoints (Tzuriel & Shamir, 2007).

In Bandura’s social learning theory, we have been informed that children can learn by observation. Whether listening to verbal instructions of how a behavior is performed or observing through film or literature, observation plays a critical role in learning for childhood development. For the childhood development stage, repeating things you hear from your parents, engaging in violent acts seen on television towards your siblings or peers could possibly be an issue within this stage. Previous studies have indicated that witnessing and experiencing any type of abuse or aggression may have harmful outcomes on interaction of children and adolescents with members of their family. Social learning theorists argue that people who witness or experience maltreatment within their families as children are more likely to mistreat family members than those who have not had such experiences (Haj-Yahia & Dawud-Noursi, 1998).

While researching, and reading all the theories as well as the articles associated with them, I do believe the theory that is most relatable to the Childhood development stage would be Erikson’s psychosocial theory. When breaking down the changes through the childhood stage and ages the feature that stands out the most is the social feature. At the age group of 3 years of age and 12 years of age, children want to make peers and they do anything to impress them. They start off with wanting to play socially amongst other kids their age and it develops into this need to be liked and want to impress them mentality. On the bright side of this, through socially interacting with their peers, they learn a lot of new activities, and even develop a sense of wanting to learn new things. That could be a positive when it comes to education. On the negative side, it can lead to peer pressure and manipulation. It can also result in negative actions such as stealing, being disrespectful to authority or any other negative activity.

REFERENCES

Bates, P. B. (1987). Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental Psychology, Vol 23(5), 611-626. http://dx.doi.org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.1037/0012-1649.23.5.611

Cherry, K. (n.d.). Child Development Theories and Examples Some Key Ideas About How Children Grow and Develop. Retrieved July 08, 2017, from https://www.verywell.com/child-development-theories-2795068

Ginsburg, H. J. (1992). Childhood Injuries and Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 20(2), 95-100. doi:10.2224/sbp.1992.20.2.95

Haj-Yahia, M. M., & Dawud-Noursi, S. (1998). Predicting the Use of Different Conflict Tactics Among Arab Siblings in Israel: A Study Based on Social Learning Theory. Journal Of Family Violence, 13(1), 81.

McLeod, S. A. (1970, January 01). Erikson's Psychosocial Stages of Development. Retrieved July 08, 2017, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

Myers-Walls, J. A., & Lewsader, J. (2015). A qualitative approach to identifying the developmental progression of children’s understanding of peace. Peace And Conflict: Journal Of Peace Psychology, 21(3), 508-514. doi:10.1037/pac0000090

OpenStax Psychology. (2014). Lifespan Development. In Introduction to Psychology. Retrieved July 8, 2017, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wsu-sandbox/chapter/stages-of-development/

Tzuriel, D., & Shamir, A. (2007). The effects of Peer Mediation with Young Children (PMYC) on children’s cognitive modifiability. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77(1), 143-165. doi:10.1348/000709905x84279