Sociocultural Theorists And Developmental Psychologists Essay

As a problem presents itself, children will verbally work through the steps to solve it. This ‘private speech’ is a vital part to cognitive development, according to Vygotsky. This private speech gradually progresses into thinking as children become more proficient. He was also a proponent for scaffolding which is a process in which a new task is given and direct instruction is given then gradually taken away as the child learns. Both psychologists believed that children learn and develop through action but in different ways; Piaget felt it was through personal, self action while Vygotsky felt is was through social interaction, internalization and vocalization. Vygotsky and Piaget realized that social factors play a part in cognitive development but in different ways; According Piaget, self processing within a child leads to social processing while Vygotsky felt the opposite- social processing leads to self processing. Lastly, both came to the conclusion that by internalizing information, children transform it into knowledge and mental growth.

In Vygotsky’s concept, zone of proximal development he explains that it is the distance between a child’s developmental level, which is determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance (Vygotsky, 1978, p174). This concept is highly used in education and in classrooms. For example, I work with a student who is eighteen years of age and has intellectual disabilities. During our morning routine he enjoys working on puzzles. He has a difficult time putting the puzzle together so I help him with clues and or prompt him to the puzzle piece that fits. He moves onto a new puzzle once I no longer have to give him clues or prompts. As I have tracked his progress he has needed less prompt than he did three months ago. The goal of this concept is that, as an adult collaborates with a child to help them move from where they are to where they should be with help by accomplishing the exercise through prompts, clues, modeling, and etc.

Across all aspects and various lenses of development it is evident that children from birth until adolescence require guidance. In contrast, some theorists such a Piaget suggest that children are vastly independent and do not require parental or adult assistance for majority of their development. However, theorists such as Vygotsky believe otherwise. As Vygotsky was discussed during lecture, his developmental theory surrounding the methods of which children learn was a main focus. Namely, the methods of which children learn with adult

A second strength of the sociocultural perspective is the emphasis on the role of adults in childhood cognitive development through guided participation. Vygotsky introduced the idea that children learn in a zone of proximal development. Meaning the distance between what an individual can do alone and what they can do with guidance and assistance from a capable member of society (Mcleod, 2010). Any skills outside the zone would be already mastered or still too difficult to attempt alone. “To Vygotsky, learning in collaboration with more knowledgeable companions drives cognitive development (Sigelman).” This is true throughout the world. Children in many cultures learn from a teacher, from family members, and many others. In other cultures, children learn skills from relatives, members of their village or tribe, or from other skilled members in their group. This perspective satisfies the need to recognize the role of adults in

Lev Vygotsky believed that social and cognitive development work simultaneously to build and evolve on one another. He believed that social, cultural and personal experience cannot be detached from each other and many things influence the way children learn and develop, not just their own experiences, thus Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory. Vygotsky’s ideas were and remain controversial as he had no specific training in psychology or children’s development. His preeminent contribution to children’s development is his recognition of the value of progressing knowledge by means of interaction with educators, peers and family (Mooney, 2000, p. 83). The major ideas of Vygotsky’s theory are scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Scaffolding is a process Vygotsky described as the framework or temporary support for children’s learning. In order for scaffolding to be beneficial, it must be responsive to the child’s needs (Coon & Mitterer, 2013, pp. 106-107).

Psychology is diverse, and there are many diverse specialty areas available to individuals seeking a career in the field of psychology. Most Psychologists choose to specialize in subfields that focus on specific subjects. Obtaining a profession in any of the specialty areas would require graduate study in that area of interest. Some professionals have a broad general knowledge, are skilled in several areas, and work with a range of clients. Some are specialist in treating a specific type of psychological disorder, or work with a specific age group. For those interested in specializing in a psychology career, developmental Psychology is one of the many fields available.

When an infant arrives in the world they are helpless tiny humans who depend on adults for every need from love, to feeding them. It is amazing how these tiny babies grow into adults able to make decisions and become self-dependent. There are many theories about how children develop and what roles the environment plays, what people affect their lives and how events can shape their personalities. Some of these children have and easy life and some have a harder time making that journey to adulthood.

In this domain Piaget stated that the child who is still in the preoperational stage can’t conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations. They can’t mentally manipulate information. The child is able to form stable concepts as well as magical beliefs and their thinking is still egocentric, which means that the child has difficulty seeing the viewpoint of others. Piaget split this stage into the symbolic and intuitive thought substage. In the symbolic function stage children are able to understand, represent, remember, and picture objects in their mind without having the object in front of them. Vygotsky stated that children learn cognitive tasks through their interactions with older peers and adults. Not only do younger children watch and imitate older people or peers as they complete tasks, but these older guides also help younger children accomplish tasks they couldn’t accomplish on their own. He calls this the zone of proximal development which he describes what children can do alone and what they can do with assistance. Another theorist named Bandura coined the term observational learning which means people learn appropriate social behaviors by observing and modeling others. This type of learning is most effective during childhood. Vygotsky believed that the important part of the cognitive development is language. He observed that very young

Developmental social work is emerging as a new paradigm in social work internationally that seeks to infuse social developmental theory and practice into social work processes (Midgley and Conley, 2010; Patel, 2005a). The growth of poverty in some regions of the world, the growing and wide-ranging social development issues and challenges continue to form the development dissertation globally. Clearly, social work cannot be separated from the broader changing aspects of development.

171).” This, in other words, is when a child cannot completely perform a task independently but can do it with a bit of assistance from a more competent figure. This zone of proximal development is something I experience with Blair. At two years old she has got to pick out her tooth and hairbrush, but she still needs a bit of help with both operations. Another idea that Vygotsky believed in was the method of scaffolding. This is known as the support for learning and problem solving that encourages independence and growth (Feldman 2012). For example, sometimes Blair has a tough time communicating using her words. I often encourage conversation by asking questions that instigate more of a response from Blair. This helps her grow in her communication and is good practice for her. Cognitive development was viewed by Vygotsky as the product of social interactions. He focused on the social aspects of development and learning instead of concentrating on individual performance.

The cognitive development work currently focuses on how cognition operates in infants and children and how the cognitive abilities arise. Usually these studies occur in controlled lab environments, where the formation of mental representations can be observed when the children confront specific objects and events. Typically research focuses on the analyses of mental processes and looks closely at mental representations (Olson and Dweck, 2008). While cognitive developmentalists have shown some interest in social phenomenon, they often do not look at the social representations. Usually research does not focus on child differences, different mental representation, and the implications for children’s well-being. This perspective could benefit from a social cognitive perspective.

Sociocultural is defined as relating to, or involving a combination of social (relating to human society) and cultural (taste in art and manners that are favored by a social group) factors.” (Socialcultural , 2010) You might ask why we are defining these words. It gives a better understanding of Vygotsky beliefs “that children seek out adults for interaction, beginning at birth, and that development occurs through these interactions.” (Morrison, 2009 sec 14.6) I agree that his theory is the best process for learning. Many people feel that social interaction and learning begin at birth, but there have been research conducted that fetus can learn through parental interaction. According to Fetal memory “Prenatal memory may be important

Development psychology refers to the scientific study of the systematic psychological changes that normally occur to human beings throughout their growth period from birth to old age. It was originally concerned with children and infants, but it has since expanded to include the entire life span of mankind including adolescence and adulthood. Development psychology covers the extent to which human development occurs through gradual accumulation of knowledge, and the extent to which children born with inmate mental structures learn through experience. Several psychological theories and approaches like the behavioral, humanistic, psychoanalytic, biological, and cognitive approaches have been developed to explain the

According to Vygotsky, zone of proximal development, or abbreviated as ZPD, is a learning concept that states a child cannot yet master alone even though they are close to having the necessary mental skills; they need guidance from a skilled partner to complete the task. This relates to his theory of general development because he believed social interaction plays an important role in the process of cognitive development and as stated above, ZPD requires human interaction to guide a child through what can be seen as a learning curve. With this project where a child has to do an easy puzzle (10 pieces or less) on their own versus a hard puzzle (50 pieces or more) with the help of an adult, Vygotsky would predict that the child will be able

Vygotsky breaks the difficulty level of the task being performed by the child into three levels of difficulty and the amount of assistance needed. The first stage is the lowest level of difficulty where no assistance is needed from an external influence. The task that the child is trying to perform is easy enough that he or she can perform it on their own individually. In this stage, there is little intellectual development or knowledge obtained. The third stage is the highest level of difficulty where a child cannot execute a task because it is too difficult. This stage requires complete assistance from a parent or teacher to execute the task for the child. The middle stage is key to intellectual development and to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.