Ap Psychology Personal Statement Examples

Child psychology is the scientific study of the behavior of the human child. According to Goldenson (1970), child psychology is the study of the sequence of development from conception to maturity including the roles of maturation and learning, heredity and environment in motor, emotional, sexual, social, intellectual and character development.

The lives of children are greatly influenced by the environment they grow up in, and the people they come in contact with. For years, psychologists, researchers, and social workers have studied children, and why they do what they do. All have developed many different perspectives on how to view social problems and the development of individuals.

There have been many theorists who have opposing views on how and why children behave and how they learn. I will discuss 4 theorists, their theories and how they have influenced and shaped work with children.

There are many theorists that influence the way practitioners teach children in nursery settings as they all have different theories about how children learn best and develop. On of the theorists is Sigmund Freud. Freud suggested that personalities are made up of three parts. These three parts are the id, the ego, and the superego. All of these will develop when the child grows and will be controlled by what happens in the child’s life and the experiences that they have. Sigmund Freud focused on the id which is the instinctive part of our personality and the superego which is the conscience, this develops later in the childhood of the child.

The observation was a very interesting and informative process. It gave me the opportunity to apply different theories of development. The biggest advantage of this psychological method is the opportunity to observe the subject in the natural surrounding and watch his natural behavior.

My professional and academic interest in child development and neuroscience began in earnest with a field experience at the Mrs. Chris Play & Learn during my junior year of high school. I was fortunate to work with infants to pre-K ages children. During my time, I was able to observe their interactions with other children and adults, particularly their developmental changes. This experience greatly impacted me because my life devotion became to create equality in early childhood education. My education and experience over the past decade has prepared me for a career in educational neuroscience utilizing early childhood interventions to address learning discrepancies in different socioeconomic statuses. I attended Morehouse School of Medicine

In order to improve their work with young children practitioners use their own learning by using ways of work that are non-judgemental, sensitive and positive. Therefore, practitoners through initial on-going training and development need to develop, and demonstrate and continuously improve a number of things in their work. They may have to work with the wider community such as parents and carers and also with other professionals with inside and outside the setting. They may have to improve on their relationships with both the children and their parents and develop a knowledge and understanding of the diverse ways that children can learn in order to support and extend children’s learning across all areas and aspects of learning (Leicestershire County Council).

8. Practise! The best way to develop your skills at observing children’s development, learning and behaviour is to do observations on a regular basis.

In this case study I will describe the observation of a child while applying psychodynamic thinking and theory. The whole observation took place in a secondary school within a 9 week period, one hour every week. However, I was able to observe this particular child 6 times as at the beginning I was given a different child. Due to the fact that the first child was not attending the lessons they had to change him and find me a different one. For confidentiality reasons all the names that will be referred in this case study are going to be pseudonymous. The second child will be referred as Marissa, the Learning Support Assistant (LSA) as Anna, the Inclusion Manager as Alison and the school as Roots. In this observation the main purpose was to attempt to understand the unconscious inner world of the child, the verbal and non-verbal

Since our infancy we learn about behavior through the experiences and the knowledge that we get by observing other people or having relations with them. Living in society leads us to watch and try to explain the way people behave. But that is not always easy. Sometimes we cannot understand even ourselves. Psychology comes to give answers to all this uncertainty.

I have always been thrilled by what goes around in people’s minds, but it was at the age of fifteen that I was first attracted to the field of psychology and particularly to clinical psychology. It was mainly because I read my favorite book When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin Yalom. This novel had a personal impact on me, as someone I know was dealing with depression, migraines, insecurities and suicidal tendencies same as happens so in the book’s characters.

Observation is very important in young children because that is how you get to know a child better. While observing how a child interacts with their peers, adults, and how they behave in different settings, you are getting to know the child without speaking to them.

It is imperative that practitioners are able to observe and assess each child’s development in order to gain a full understanding of their development and how they can build upon this in order to cater to the needs of the child and allow them to fulfill their potential. This is highlighted by Wheeler (2009, p.63) in stating that ‘Observations are fed into family worker and team planning so that future activities can be based on an individual child’s interests and patterns of behavior and thereby enhance their learning’.

Psychology involves studying the mental functioning and general behaviors of both humans and animals. Social behavior and mental functioning of an individual are explained by exploring the neurological and physiological processes. These include emotions, cognition, perception, motivation, attention, brain functioning and personality. Child psychology is as well stated to be the application of psychological techniques to children where it involves carrying out research on mental states and development of children. The development of the child both physically, mentally and emotionally, with the help of a parent allows the identification of helpful information to any evolving challenges in child’s behavior and

Everyday we are developing no matter our age, but it is how we develop children that will tell a tremendous amount an individual. How a child developments is fundamentally important at a young age as it affects all aspect of their lives once the child matures. Throughout the class, we looked at many theorists during the course of the semester as well as looked at many articles pertaining to the concepts of the development of children. The theorists and articles opened up our minds to a world that we have never seen before and concepts about child development we have never been taught but have seen in the practical work we do every week. What makes humans unique is the ability that we have to interpret the language being used, as Lois Bloom