2. The four nested systems are the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem.
A. Microsystem- represents the interactions between the child and her immediate environment (family/preschool) and the resulting behaviors such as dependence or independence and cooperation or competition (p. 21)
B. Mesosystem- comprises the linkages and processes taking place between two or more settings containing the developing person (family and peer group, day care and school, home and day care, etc.) (p. 21).
C. Exosystem- settings in which the child may not be a part of but influence development in significant ways (parent's work, hospitals, etc.) (p.23)
D. Macrosystem- most complex system consisting of the customs, values, and laws considered important in a child's culture (p. 23).
The most recent revision to this theory is the addition of the chronosystem, which consists of time and sociohistorical conditions (p. 24).
3. Super and Harkness's developmental niche model consists of three components including (1) the physical and social settings or contexts of everyday life (family), (2) the culturally determined customs of child care and child rearing (interactions with siblings), and (3) the psychology of the caretakers or characteristics of a child's parents (belief systems and developmental expectations) (p. 25-28).
4. Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development:
Period Age Description Characteristics
Infancy Birh-2 years. Sensorimotor coordination of sensory abilities and motor skills-Object permanence
Early Childhood 2-6 yrs. Preoperational development of language, use of symbols, and egocentric thinking
Middle childhood 6-12yrs Concrete Operations performances of tasks involving conservation
Adolescence 12yrs & up Formal Operations ability to deal with hypothetical problems and abstract thinking
A scheme is an organized pattern of thought or action applied to persons, objects, or events in an effort to make sense of them.
Assimilation is the process by which new information and ideas are incorporated or fitted into existing knowledge or schemes.
Accommodation is the process of adjusting or modifying existing schemes to account for new ideas and information.
5. Piaget believed that cognitive development is largely an individual accomplishment, directed and shaped, in part by the environment and partly by genetics. He did not take into account the importance of the social context in learning (p. 32) Vygotsky, on the other hand, suggested that development is the result of interaction between cultural and historical factors. He suggested that there were three major components to this interaction including, (1) the role played by culture, (2) the use of language, and (3) the child's zone of proximal development (p. 32). Vygotsky also paid attention to the evolution of speech and its stages (social speech, egocentric speech, and inner speech) that are considered essential in language and cognitive development (p. 33).