People study human development in order to explain, predict, and understand human behavior. A theory is a set of ideas or assumptions about behavior. We use theories in human development to make and test hypotheses about why behaviors occur, and to organize and guide the collection of data. Individuals develop personal, informal theories to explain people's behavior in everyday situations. However, to compare and contrast behavior across cultures and draw conclusions from data, more formalized and scientifically verified theories are needed.
2. What is Bronfenbrenner's "ecology of human development?" List and discuss Bronfenbrenner's original four nested systems of the ecological environment. Describe the recent theoretical revisions in Bronfenbrenner's theory that focus on the chronosystem.
Bronfenbrenner's ecology of human development is a theory that emphasizes the role of each person's environment in his or her development. His original theory consisted of four nested systems. The individual is first enveloped in the microsystem, which includes individuals and institutions in a child's immediate environment, such as family, school, neighborhood, and friends. The second level is the mesosystem, which encompasses interactions between multiple factors in the child's microsystem. The third level is the exosystem, which holds factors that indirectly influence the child, such as a parent's work environment, extended family, community services, and the media. The final layer is the macrosystem which is the values and beliefs of the culture in which the child is developing. A new addition to Bronfenbrenner's theory is the chronosystem, which has to do with the events and social conditions existing at the time of the child's development.
3. Compare Super and Harkness's developmental niche model with Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological approach. What are the three components of the developmental niche model? What two anthropological concepts regarding culture do Super and Harkness believe to be critical to the understanding of behavior within context?
Super and Harkness's developmental niche model is similar to the theory of Bronfenbrenner in that it emphasizes the impact of a child's environment on his or her development. The three components of the developmental niche are as follows: The physical and social settings or contexts of everyday life, similar to the microsystem; cultural customs of child care and childrearing; and the beliefs and expectations of a child's parents or caregivers. Super and Harkness believe that the anthropological concepts of the immediacy of culture, meaning the daily impact of cultural ideas and beliefs, and the integrating nature of culture are critical to the understanding of behavior within context.
4. List and discuss Piaget's four stages of cognitive development and explain how the major concepts, including scheme, assimilation, accommodation, and adaptation apply to cognitive changes in each stage.
Piaget proposed four stages of development. The sensorimotor stage begins at birth and lasts until the child is approximately 24-months-old, or when the child develops object permanence. Object permanence is the child's ability to form mental representations of objects and thereby understand objects continued existence even when they are not visible. The next stage of development is pre-operational. This stage lasts until a child is approximately 7-years-old and is characterized by egocentric thinking and language development. Before the child is thought to be in the next stage of development, concrete operational, he or she must develop the ability to conserve. Conservation is the knowledge that objects retain their basic properties regardless of appearance. The concrete operational stage lasts until the child is about 11-years-old. The final stage of development is the formal operational stage, which is characterized by the ability to use abstract thought. According to Piaget, children are born with basic schemes, or concepts about their world. As children age, they develop schemes for thousands of concepts. When children encounter new information, they enter a state of disequilibration, or a conflict between what they already know and the new information. In order to return to the comfortable state of equilibrium, a child has two options, assimilation or accommodation. When information is assimilated, it is absorbed without change into the child's pre-existing scheme. In accommodation, the child's scheme must be altered in order to encompass the new information. This strive to achieve equilibration is what drives development in Piaget's theory.
5. Compare and contrast Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories of human development and point out how key concepts discussed in each contribute to our understanding of cross-cultural human development.
Piaget and Vygotsky both viewed the child as an active participant in his or her development. This means that a child's personality and temperament have an impact on the type of experiences he or she receives. These reciprocal interactions are dependent on the culture in which the child lives. Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky believed that a child's social environment has an important influence on development. Vygotsky believed children learn most effectively at a level slightly higher than they can achieve independently. This concept is called the zone of proximal development. Whereas Piaget believed that children are mainly responsible for their own development, Vygotsky argued that sensitive guidance from adults and more capable peers was essential for learning.