Social Aspect
Self identity is created among children in the early developmental stages of their life. Children are exposed to a wide plethora of information that influences their perspective on different events in their lives. They identify themselves with audiovisual and tactile senses that help them to communicate with people around them. The present assignment aims to study the parameters that can affect development of child in the context of emotions and psychology. Prominent child business theories that are evaluated in this study involve Piaget’s theory, Behavioural theories and socio-emotional theories.
Social environment has high influence on a child within the society. Social interaction mediated by parents from early childhood phases of their child ensures proper formulation of social skills. Even at the age of birth, child starts to recognize individual by using this social skills (Reyna et al. 2015). The traits of trust, confidence, believe and happiness can be maintained and developed among infants with the help of social interaction. It is the duty of a parent to help their child in developing self-esteem. This can be done through motivation and love to overcome negative events. The first five years exhibit fast growth in a child and tests its ability to adapt to new environments, such as schools.
Hence, parents must socially interact with them to develop their own understanding. According to Carter (2014), social relations include interactions among various individuals and groups. Children develop relationships with other children in the society to initiate friendship and progressive social interaction. The relationships can be either formed consciously (classmates) or unconsciously (parents). The various social goals and expectations and obligations of children help them to develop a strong network of friends with whom they can spend quality time and play games, they can also study together in groups and many more activities.
The emotional functioning of a child helps in developing its character. The various aspects of emotional development on children helps to develop awareness in them. It also facilitates development of vocabulary and expression of views. Emotional aspect develops a sense of safety among babies and children (Hamre et al. 2014). Emotional development is a complex process which starts at the infant stage and goes all the way to adulthood. The emotions that are initially observed in babies are joy, anger, sadness and fear. As they grow up, development of complex emotions starts building up that are recognised as shyness, surprise, embarrassment, elation, guilt, shame, empathy and pride. Teachers and parents help children to learn about various types of emotions and how to manage those emotions properly. On the other hand, growth inducing years in children can help them to adapt as per the needs of the situations.
Emotional Aspect
Child psychology can be easily influenced in their growing years by internal and external parameters in their vicinity. Psychologists have their views that parents can shape a baby’s self worth from their birth by giving positive response to the infant’s actions. The positive response of the parents helps the infants and children to gain a positive impact on the world. It can help the children to feel motivated during the first year of their schools. As opined by O’connor, Monk & Fitelson (2014), almost 68% of children are stressed by the changes in their environment when they have to attend schools or day care centres. Children have enhanced skills as they are gradually exposed to changes in environment. This helps in increasing their capability of understanding and anticipating various events that are going on in their environment. At the stage of 1 year the child learns and perceives that various external things and objects are existing independently in their surroundings. The child’s physical interactions with his known environment help them to advance from simple reflex movements to conditioned and coordinated actions. These actions are fun activities for them and they help them to achieve various goals. The infants and children learn the values of love, trust and dependency on others from their mothers and primary care givers.
The various self-identity theories depend on the explanation of how the infants and children grow their various growth stages during their infancy phase (Thompson, 2014). The models revolve around many ways of advancement like organized development, sensitive development and intellectual development. There are various theories that shed light upon the behaviour of a child. Sigmund Freud was one of the early connoisseurs of child development theory.
In this study, two theories of child development and self-identity are going to be discussed.
Developmental theories in the context of behavioural psychology of children have been formulated since the advent of technology in socio-clinical spheres. This new thought was the aspect of behaviourism amidst the scenario of child development and the effect of child behaviour on psychology (Mikles, Suh & Kientz, 2017). As per behavioural patterns some types of child and infant behaviour is defined as the influence of various types of environments. This theory was formulated by famous behaviourists like John B. Watson and B.F.Skinner. Accounting to their views learning is the pure occurrence through the ways of associating and enhancement.
This theory mainly deals with the environmental influences that are mainly being discussed in this context by various psychologists (Duncan, Magnuson & Votruba-Drzal, 2014). The main focus of this theory is observable behaviours of children and infants. According to its postulates, development is a cognitive result obtained from stimuli, reinforcements, rewards and punishments. This theory is not based on the internal thoughts and feelings of the infants and children. However it can be seen that a development in the character of a child is based on the experience that he gathers. There are two types of conditions present in this study one is the classic condition and operating condition.
Psychological Aspect
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is mainly concerned with the enhancement of thinking process of children. This theory mentions the various thinking process that is affecting the thinking of children along with infants and their ways of interaction with this world. Piaget coined the term that children and adults do not think in the same way. Jean Piaget was one of those theorists who formulated one of the most influential cognitive development theories for children (RISAS, 2018). This theory sheds light on various thought processes and mental states of the children. Piaget has formulated four broad steps to develop a child’s intellect.
Step 1
The identified process takes place between birth and two years of age (Bornstein & Bradley, 2014). In this stage, the knowledge of the child is limited due to less development in motor skills and sensory perceptions. The behaviours of infants are limited to simple motor response that is caused by sensory stimuli.
Step 2
This stage is the period of time between the ages of 2 years to 6 years. In this stage the child learns to use language to express their emotions. On the other hand the children do not develop the understanding of concrete logic, they are unable to shape information and take the viewpoint of other people.
Step 3
The stage under consideration denotes the ages of 7 to 11. In this stage the children have a good understanding in their mind and they begin to think logically about concrete events, however they have problem in understanding of abstract and hypothetical concepts (Swim 2015).
Step 4
This stage is the period of time between the ages of 12 to adulthood. In this stage the children and people develop the abilities to think about various abstract concepts (Cesarini et al. 2016). The children also develop various skills such as systematic planning, logical thought and deductive reasoning in this stage.
The social childhood setting refers to the development of a child’s experience, expression, managing emotions and creating a positive and rewarding relationship with others (Trawick-Smith & Smith, 2014). Continuous interaction among the children and their parents can create a progressive impact on their minds. This can help them to gain awareness about their immediate and associated surroundings. As opined by Ullsperger, Nigg & Nikolas (2016), instilling the sense of safety and belonging in a child can help them adapt to their society as well as in unfamiliar events. The relationships with adults help the process of learning among infants and children. The relationships with the adults help the infants to grow a sense of self realisation and self identity. The infants and children develop relationship with other children present in the family ad they also learn to trust and spread happiness among the various family members.
Current theories to evaluate development of self-identity in children
The emotional childhood setting refers to the development of the child and infants emotional mindset. The infants express their emotions through vocalisations, expressions and body language. Cultural factors help the children to understand the meaning of emotions, development of knowledge and interactive relationships. Emotional range of an infant is limited to positive or negative in response to the events that is implemented in their vicinity (Vértes & Bullmore, 2015). The children should develop a sense of emotion regulation as well so that they are not misunderstood by others. The children should know how to control their various impulses during any social event or scenario. In school, teachers are responsible to create a progressive environment so that children can get ample opportunity to learn and express them.
The parents have to create a surrounding of new people around infants and children so that they can develop psychologically and they can learn the values of trust and happiness. The parents have to maintain a systematic routine of feeding and resting for the infants which is going to help them maintain a balanced way of life. Hence, the parents are responsible for the formulation of safe and happy ambience for their kids that can facilitate development of a positive attitude (Yogman & Garfield, 2016). From the age of two months the infant’s starts to smile at others and by the age of six months they have developed a sense of attachment towards their mothers and other caregivers. The parents should also create a healthy environment for the infants so that they do not acquire any harmful diseases.
Conclusion
Based on the information studied above, it can be concluded that the above study is shedding light on the various social, emotional and psychological issues that are influencing the creation of self identity of children and infants. This study also states about the various theories that have been developed by various theoreticians like Watson and Piaget. The various settings that influence the development of infants have also been discussed. The various settings are social settings, emotional settings and psychological settings. This study is very much relevant in today’s scenario as it is going to help parents understand the psychology of infants and children.
Reference list
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