We do it to understand, explain, predict, and control behavior. Theory is a set of hypotheses or assumptions about behavior. Theories help us organize our ideas and limit what we look at, and serve as a guide in the collection of data. Our informal, unscientific and unverified theories they help us to understand the behavior of those with whom we come into contact with. (Ex: When we meet someone for the first time, we decide if we want to talk to them or see them again, etc.) We need theories that are more formalized and rooted in scientific principles.
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.
The ecology of human development is the scientific study of the progressive, mutual accommodation between an active, growing human being and the changing properties of the immediate settings in which the developing person lives, as this process is affected by relations between these settings, and by the larger contexts in which the settings are embedded.
1. Microsystem- a pattern of activities, roles, and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing person in a face-to-face setting with particular physical, social, and symbolic features that invite, permit, or inhibit engagement in sustained, progressively more complex interaction with, and activity in the immediate environment. (home, church, school)
2. Mesosystem- comprises the linkages and processes taking place between two or more settings containing the developing person. (home, daycare, family and peer group)
3. Exosystem- comprises the linkages and processes taking place between tow or more settings, at least one which does not contain the developing person, but in which events occur that indirectly influence processes within the immediate setting in which the developing person lives. (extended family, neighbors, mass media)
4. Macrosystem- consists of the overarching pattern of micro, meso, and exosystems characteristics of a given culture, subculture, or other extended social structure, with particular reference to the belief systems, resources, hazards, lifestyles, opportunity structures, life course options and patterns of social interchange that are embedded in such overarching systems.
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?
1) The physical and social settings or contexts of everyday life. ( one's family) 2) The culturally determined customs of child care and childrearing (interactions with siblings) 3) Psychology of caretakers or characteristics of a child's parents (belief systems and expectations)
The two concepts that Super and Harkness believe to be critical to the understanding of behavior within context are Immediacy of culture, and integrating culture.
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.
First stage- Infancy birth to 2 Sensorimotor-coordination of sensory abilities and motor skills
Second-Early Childhood 2 to 6 Preoperational- language development, and use of symbols
Third-Middle Childhood 60 to 12 Concrete Operations- thinking is governed by fundamental rules of logic.
Fourth-Adolescence 12years & older Formal Operations-ability to deal with hypothetical problems and abstract thinking.
Scheme- is a mental picture of the world and the things in it. Over the years increased interactions, their schemes are more sophisticated and better coordinated.
Assimilation- New ideas and information are incorporated to what they already know.
Accommodation- adjusting existing schemes
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.
Vygotsky's theory suggested that development is the result of interaction between cultural and historical factors. He had three components use of language, role play by culture, and the child's ZPD. Piaget thought that individuals ability to adapt thinking to meet the demands of an ever changing environment.