Child and Adolescent Psychology Essay

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model explores the relationship between a child's environment and that child's development. In his theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner defines several layers that make up the overall system in which the child functions. These layers are known as the Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem, and Chronosystem. Each of these layers plays a role in influencing the development of the child as well as each other and the child, in turn, has an impact on these layers. This process is referred to as a bi-directional influence. The actions of the parent affect the behavior and beliefs of the child while the behavior of the child affects

1. Psychology has contributed to the advancement of social issues in many ways. Psychologists challenged societies way of thinking on many social issues, one being segregation in schools. Psychology was used to show the affects of segregation and that psychologically homosexuals were no different than heterosexuals. Psychology has helped drop stereotypes and stigmas and helped create the way of thinking that most of society now has.

Personal, social and emotional developments (PSED) are acknowledged as one of the starting point of accomplishment in life. PSED is about the whole child, how they are developing now, what they can do to reach their goals but also contribute to their community and how children perceive their identity and ability, understand their relation to the others in the society and apprehend their own and others’ feelings. PSED are a part of children’s development where they will be able to communicate effectively and be able to develop positive behavior among themselves and to others. According to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), PSED is consists of three aspects which are self-confidence and self-awareness, managing feelings and behavior

| Recognise patterns and triggers which may lead to inappropriate behavioural responses and take action to pre-empt, divert or diffuse potential flash points

Bronfenbrenner U. (1986). Ecology of the Family as a Context for Human Development: Research Perspectives {Electronic version]. Developmental Psychology, 22, 723-742.

In ecological theory, these systems are nested with the child at the core, embedded within his/her immediate family environment. The system with the closest proximity to the child is the microsystem; this includes the child and family, peers, neighborhood and school. A critical impact on development occurs within the immediate environment of the child due to proximal

The next level in the system is the mesosystem showing the impact of the interaction of the different structures in the microsystem in the development of the child (Belgrave & Allison 239). The essence of the mesosytem is providing a connection between the microsystem players such as the teacher and the parents, of the church and neighborhood, thus making the impact more profound. Oswalt gives an example of a parent or caregiver taking an active role in a child’s school interactions such as attending matches and parent-teacher conferences thus ensuring overall growth. An involved parent within this example is likely to have a positive impact, while disagreeing parents and caregivers may give conflicting lessons hindering holistic growth. The third stage of Bronfenbrenner model is the exosystem level, which encompasses other people and places that have an impact on the child’s growth despite the child not having a direct interaction with these people or places. The exosytem level contains the larger society such as parent workplaces, community-based resources, which may negatively or positively influence on the child although they do not have a direct interaction with the places. For example, the workplace affects the child’s growth by ensuring providence, meaning that if a parent is laid off the child

Anxiety is a common reaction in the human body. So becoming a little scared when watching a movie, or beginning to become nervous right before a test, or maybe even a little shy talking to your crush is completely normal. It starts to become a problem when anxiety takes control and cuts out important things in our life. Children with anxiety might start to feel more often than usual fear, nervousness, shyness, and often will try to avoid social events. Anxiety is a normal part of childhood, and usually the child is just going through a phase and will grow out of it. But when it continuously keeps recurring it begins to become a problem. There are a multitude of anxiety disorder ranging from General Anxiety Disorder(G.A.D), Panic Disorder, Social

Childhood development encompasses the cognitive, physical, social, moral and emotional changes from birth until the end of adolescence (White, Hayes & Livesey, 2013). Throughout childhood, environment and genetics promote or discourage growth and development. This essay will analyse the cognitive, physical, social, moral and emotional domains in relativity to my own development from the prenatal stage until adolescence. Psychological and environmental theories are used to develop the understanding and connection between each domain and stage of development. Lastly, this essay will address the controversial nature verses nurture debate and its relevance to my childhood development.

     Child Psychology, study of children’s behavior-including physical, cognitive, motor, linguistic, perceptual, social, and emotional characteristics-from birth through adolescence. Child psychologists attempt to explain the similarities and differences among children and to describe normal as well as abnormal behavior and development. They also develop methods of treating social, emotional, and learning problems and provide therapy privately and in schools, hospitals, and other institutions.

The third level is the exosystem; it consists of social structures that directly or indirectly affect a person’s life: school, work, mass media, government and various social networks (Crandell, Crandell, & Vander Zanden 2009). For example, if a child’s parent, especially a one income family household, gets laid off and is without work that may have negative effects on the child if her parents are unable to pay rent, buy groceries, or provide the necessities. In contrast, if her parent receives a promotion and a raise at work, this may have a positive effect on the child because her parents will be better able to give her physical needs. This may have a positive effect on a child’s development and motivate them to work hard and obtain a good job as an adult. Another example within this system would be the relationship between a child’s school and home, as the rules are often times different for a child at home and school and being able to keep the two separate can prove challenging for a child.

Adolescence is a stage of maturation between childhood and adulthood that denotes the period from the beginning of puberty to maturity. However, many conflicting opinions are raised about weather such a stage of childhood is influenced by stress, depression, and suicide rate. Some people support the optimistic view that says that adolescence is not a period of storm and stress. Others, including me, support an opposite pessimistic view which characterizes adolescence as a period of stress and inner turmoil. Unfortunately, it has been recently proved that depression is a growing problem in today 's society and a major contributing factor for a multitude of adolescent problems. This is because , as research indicates, adolescent depression

Child development is an amazing thing to watch in the way that children interact with one another and how they perceive the world that surrounds. While doing our research of child development we began to observe a group of kids ranging the ages 1 – 12. During these observations we noticed traits such as attachment, comfort, and love. Through the following examples we will proceed to observe development in our environment and explain its relativity to the text

Adolescence is a period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to maturity. The adolescent is no longer a child, but they haven’t yet reached adulthood. Adolescence is considered people between the ages of 13 and 21. Puberty is the physical maturing that makes an individual capable of sexual reproduction. Puberty is important to adolescence because when a child hits puberty, that’s when the child is becoming an adolescent. Puberty is a big part of an adolescent’s life.

The mental health of adolescents is fairly considered to be one of the major prerequisites of the country 's sustainable development in economics, culture, and social life. Subsequently, the easy and nondiscriminatory access to the psychological treatment appears to be a matter of top priority for the federal government. Nevertheless, the recent statistical data indicates the substantial problems in terms of providing the adolescents with the necessary medical support. In accordance with the US Department of Health & Human Services, in 2014, less than 50% of the country 's adolescent population were provided with a required treatment (US Department of Health & Human Services). Moreover, the data on the minorities ' access to the mental health treatment demonstrates that, for instance, African-Americans are twice as likely as whites to be prescribed a treatment from schizophrenia (American Psychological Association). Undoubtedly, such a trend may be primarily explained by the insufficient efforts of both federal and local health care institutions in terms of providing the minorities ' representatives with the necessary psychological treatment. Consequently, in order to understand comprehensively the problem of the adolescent mental health in the US, it is necessary to define the issue-related objective and subjective concerns as well as to analyze the peculiarities of a potential corrective to the