Child Development Theories Natural vs Social Process

Child Development Theories Natural vs Social Process To what extent has childhood been viewed as a social and cultural process rather than a natural process? Illustrate your discussion with reference to Book 1, Chapter 1, Children and development. Childhood is such a fundamental and integral part of humanity that on first considerations, we may take it for granted as an entirely natural process. The biological journey of maturation is a universal shared experience.   Yet even if childhood is recognised only in these limited biological terms, it is still influenced by social factors i.e. the health and life choices of the mother during pregnancy. In the civilised world, there are very few who would be prepared to argue that childhood should be viewed as an entirely natural process. Contemporary developmental theorists recognise the child as an active agent whom is developing both physically and psychologically; the individual experience of childhood is dependent upon how they interact with their environment and how that society understands their specific nature and needs. The attitudes to children and views of childhood vary dramatically between different periods in history and different cultures, and are also actively evolvi ng within our own culture; therefore it is, currently, more accurate to view childhood as a social and cultural process rather than a natural one: â€Å"The immaturity of children is a biological fact but the ways in which that immaturity is understood is a fact of culture†¦.childhood is †¦.constructed and reconstructed both for and by children† (James and Prout, 1997, p.15) Woodhead (2005) illustrates that historically, throughout Western culture, childhood has been viewed as both a natural process and as a social and cultural process. It has also been viewed as an interactive process between the two. These changeable and evolving attitudes confirm James and Prout’s assertion that â€Å"childhood is constructed and reconstructed†. By comparing and contrasting the origins of the four main Psychological perspectives of Child Development and acknowledging their legacies to modern day practices, I intend to conclude that childhood has probably been viewed to a greater extent as a social and cultural process than it has a natural process. It has been proposed that ‘childhood’ is in itself a recent invention. Philippe Aries (1962) is chiefly accredited with underlining the socially constructed character of childhood. He studied the history of literature and paintings and concluded that in mediaeval times childhood didn’t exist. Obviously younger members of the species existed but they were not granted any special or distinctive status.   Once weaned, they were thrust into adult society. Aries claimed that the awareness of children’s distinctive nature did not emerge until the end of the fifteenth century. This can de illustrated in the emergence and gradual rise of schooling and paediatrics. Aries has been criticised for making general conclusions which rely on limited sources. The largest group of children would have been the poor, and they would not have been represented. However the broad framework of his argument (the socially constructed nature of childhood) is the foundation of subsequent studies: â€Å"The idea of childhood must be seen as a particular cultural phrasing of the early part of the life course, historically and politically contingent and subject to change†. (James and James, 2001) There are four main perspectives of child development. These theories stem from three opposing philosophies which attempt to define the essential nature of humanity as embodied in the newborn child. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) believed children to be inherently sinful. He believed that development should be shaped by control and discipline. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) believed children to be inherently innocent; his supporters advocate that development is shaped by following children’s natural stages. The theories of Hobbes and Rousseau are classified as nativist theories; maintaining that childhood is a natural process. John Locke (1632-1704) didn’t view children as either inherently sinful or innocent, but rather a ‘tabua rasa’ (blank slate) to be written on by experience; those influenced by him maintain the chief factor of development is experience.   Locke’s Theory is classified as empiricist; advocating that childhood is a social and cult ural process. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) believed children to be born with mental structures specifically designed to interpret information from the environment; the essence of development being interaction. Kant sets the tone for the ‘transactional models’ of development; not viewing childhood as exclusively a natural or exclusively a social process, but a combination of the two. Thomas Hobbes believed that all human beings were born with original sin, therefore all children were born evil and had to be ‘saved’. The prime factors of development were control and discipline. He was an important influence to the formation of the Methodist church. The theory that children were inherently sinful was very desirable and easily identifiable from an Armenian perspective; people believed that children learned obedience to God through obedience to their parents. Childhood was a time of strict parenting and harsh discipline: â€Å"Severe beatings of children in the name of discipline were common occurrences. Heaven was sometimes described to children in Sunday school as a place where children are never beaten†. (Newman and Smith, 1999) This view was apparent in the early nineteenth century in Hannah More’s evangelical writings on child rearing. She too argued that it was a fundamental error to view children as inherently innocent and it should be down to society to curb their evil dispositions. The omnipresence of God and Satan in every person’s life was an unchallenged premise: â€Å"The hard line view of infants as limbs of Satan persisted throughout the eighteenth century†. (Ezell, M.J.M, 1984) This harsh and unsentimental view of children was not just religiously, but also demographically and economically motivated. Infant mortalities were extremely high; between twenty and fifty percent of babies died within their first year. Many parents referred to their child as â€Å"it† until they reached an age when survival was probable.   Although it is problematic to speculate, it seems plausible that parents were consciously detached from their children as a coping mechanism, should they not survive into adulthood. Although Hobbes advocated a nativist perspective on the essential nature of children, the religious attitudes which he and his contemporaries would have taken for granted as truth are now dormant in the majority of Western societies (apart from some remaining puritan cultures).   Any who did share the popular religious view would not have been recorded.   This validates James and Prouts assertion that childhood is â€Å"constructed and reconstructed†. Hobbesian views of childhood did not unfold naturally, but were constructed through social discourse. Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed the exact opposite to Hobbes; that children are not inherently sinful, but are inherently innocent, and would develop naturally in positive ways if allowed to do so. He referred to children as ‘noble savages’, this romantic notion supposes that all humanity is born pure and good until corrupted by civilisation. The environment does not have a positive, but has a negative affect on development: â€Å"Everything is good in leaving the hands of the Creator of Things; everything degenerates at the hands of man†. (Rousseau, 1762) During the eighteenth century, views of childhood began to change; children were seen as innocent and in need of protection, (not unlike the way we see them today) consequently though, they were also viewed as weak and susceptible to temptation. Along with the notion of protection came the notion of discipline, as parents taught their children to avoid the enticements of their social world. Until the late 1800s, child labour was commonly practiced and accepted. It is reported that up to half of all workers in northern factories were children under the age of eleven. Children worked as long and as hard as adults. Because of their small size, they were sometimes given difficult and hazardous jobs, like cleaning out the insides of narrow factory chimneys. In poor urban families, parents often forced their children to engage in scavenging and street peddling.   Rousseau’s observations were not surprising given that the desire to protect children was coupled with their seemingly inevitable exploitation. Although chiefly belonging to the realms of Romanticism, Rousseau’s theory did have practical psychological applications. He is attributed with presenting the first truly developmental account of childhood, through his emphasis on maturation and stages of development. His book; â€Å"Emile† (On Education)(1762) suggests children should be allowed an ‘Age of Nature’ covering the period from birth to twelve years. This should be a time in which children be allowed to play and have their natural innocence respected.    It is Rousseau’s emphasis in allowing the child to indulge their natural stages of development which is his legacy to child development. Fredrich Froebel (1782-1852): the pioneer of the kindergarten movement and designer of toy building blocks shared Rousseau’s vision: â€Å"The child, the boy, man indeed should know no other endeavour but to be at every stage of development wholly what this stage calls for† (Froebel 1885). The idea of natural stages of development sets the tone for contemporary teaching templates by setting guidelines for what is considered ‘developmentally appropriate’ practice, especially the balance of play and teaching within early years education. Although Rousseau’s legacy can be illustrated in modern day views of childhood, it is his practical advice about nurturing the Childs natural development, and not his nativist perspective which persists.   John Locke’s theory contrasts both Hobbes and Rousseau’s. He didn’t believe that children were born inherently evil or innocent, but rather a blank slate. He saw the character of childhood as extremely malleable; experience being the sole factor of development. He recommended parents as tutors, responsible for providing the right environment and offering moral guidance in which to shape and nurture their children into mature, rational adults.   Locke was the pioneer of the Educationalist movement. His essay,† Some thoughts concerning education† (1693)asserts that; â€Å"a Childs mind must be educated before he is instructed†.   Although some of his critics accused Locke of â€Å"despiritulising† childhood, his theory permeated throughout society: â€Å"The root of all corruption is poor Education† (Osborne London Journal, 1732.) Locke’s theories echo contemporary debates concerning modern family values. The infamous ‘Back to Basics’ conservative campaign of the early 1990’s suggested that a breakdown in traditional family values was responsible for a degenerating Britain. In May 2002, Patricia Amos was jailed for sixty days because of her daughter’s persistent truancy. Most recently, in response to a spate of teenage shootings in East London in February 2007, leader of the opposition; David Cameron controversially proposed that absent fathers are responsible for an emerging class of feral children.   These attitudes don’t assume that children are passive receivers of their environment as Locke believed, but do demonstrate the huge onus of social responsibility he proposed. Immanuel Kant viewed the key influence on development to be interaction. He agreed with Locke that experience plays a crucial role in learning but argued that knowledge could not arise from what is taken in by the senses alone. Kant acknowledges the child as an active agent in their own development. He deems it unreasonable to assume that children are just passive receivers of external stimuli or blind followers of a pre-determined biological pattern. The precipitator of development becomes the continuous interaction between the two. Both nature and the environment are equally significant. Kant creates the framework for the transactional models of development which assume the child to be an active autonomous agent in their own development and attempt to explain this relationship of cause and effect that they have with their environment.   This is the most popular start point for modern child development theories, such as social constructivist theories.   The religiously dictated views of Hobbes and Romanticism motivated views of Rousseau are unconvincing to a modern audience. Their legacies are derivative of their child rearing advice and not their rigid perspectives. James and Prouts assertion that â€Å"childhood is constructed and reconstructed is convincing enough to dispel these solely nativist theories. Locke’s emphasis on education (although not to the extent he proposed) is echoed by today’s politicians.   It seems reasonable to assume that the real character of childhood is an interactive process between the two as proposed by Kant. .   In the civilised world, the onus of social responsibility to our children has always been great and is growing. Underlining the socially constructed character of childhood has had a great influence on our attitudes; therefore childhood has probably been viewed to a greater extent as a social and cultural process than it has been viewed as a ‘natural process’.

Immunitarian Democracy :: Democracy Politics Community

Immunitarian Democracy 1. Does "community" refer to democracy? If not, could it or is it too deeply embedded in the conceptual lexicon of the Romantic, authoritarian and racist Right? This is the question, one already asked by American neo-communitarianism, that is emerging again in Europe at the precise moment when, some, especially in France and in Italy, are risking thinking community anew. At issue is not only a legitimate question, but in some ways even an inevitable one, in which democractic culture deeply examines its own theoretical precepts and future. This doesn't change the fact though that it's the wrong question or that it's badly put. Wrong or badly put because it takes as its term of comparison -- in order to be related to the category of community - a concept, that of democracy that is utterly incapable of "understanding" it, not only because its modern meaning at least, arrives much later, but also because it is flatter and increasingly overwhelmed in a dimension that is entirely political and institutional. With respect to this lack of depth and substance of the politicological notion of democracy, community has a very different semantic width, both on the vertical level of history and on the synchronic one of meaning. This isn't the place to attempt a complete reconstruction, though my recent research beginning with the etymological origins of the term communitas and even more before that of munus in Latin does confirm the historical and semantic richness of the concept (R. Esposito, 1998). What we can infer from the above discussion, however, is that the correct question isn't whether the community can become a part of the democratic lexicon, but whether even democracy can be a part or at a minimum acquire some of its meaning in the lexicon of community. Without wanting to show my hand too quickly, a first step is required, which focuses more on the second term. Here we aren't helped at all by the conceptual dichotomies with which 20th century philosophy has tried to define comm unity, one that lost along the way the original meaning of community. I'm not talking only of the one constructed by the so-called American communitarians with respect to their presumed adversaries, the liberals, who constitute rather their exact interface in the specific sense that they unconsciously share the same subjectivist as well as exclusively partisan lexicon, applied not to the community but to the individual (where communities like individuals are distinguished between them, one from the other).

The novel crow lake by mary lawson

The fresh Crow Lake written by the gifted Canadian novelist Mary Lawson has already attracted the readers ‘ attending non merely in Canada but besides in many other states. This book was translated into many linguistic communications. Although it is one of the first plant of Mary Lawson the fresh Crow Lake has impressed the readers greatly. From the rubric of the book we can see that this narrative takes topographic point in Crow lake, a instead little farming community located in the northern portion of Ontario. I think that the chief thought of this book is to demo the relationship between the characters who suffered greatly and wholly changed their behaviour and their relation to life. The narrative shows the childhood and the big life of the chief characters whose life is closely connected with the pools situated non far from their house. The chief character of the book Kate Morrison tells a awful narrative of her life. Kate was 7 old ages old when her parents died in the auto accident. Kate, her small sister Bo who was 1,5 old ages old and her brothers Luke and Matt who were much older than Kate became the orphans. They did non desire to populate individually after the awful calamity with their parents. The senior brothers Luke and Matt did everything they could to assist their household to last. Besides the community did non go forth the hapless small kids without their aid. The pools played an of import function non merely in the life of Kate Morrison but besides in the whole secret plan of the novel. May be that is why Mary Lawson, the writer of the novel, chose the rubric of her book Crow Lake. I would wish to analyse the significance of the pools in the novel and do a decision. The calamity that takes topographic point at the really beginning of the narrative had a serious influence on the kids of Morrison household. It is a great psychological injury for the kids who loose the dearest people in their life – their parents. The infantile cryings, their contrite feelings and their journey down memory lane when they had their female parent and male parent near them had a deep influence on the infantile head and the life perceptual experience. Of class their strong desire to remain together as a household is one of the chief points of the book. But I believe that the nucleus of the novel is that Kate tries to happen out what hinders her to be in good dealingss with Matt, her senior brother who ever set her the illustration, who taught her love the pools and the nature about. It is her battle that which sets bounds in her life and makes her hide feelings to Daniel, a immature adult male who is beloved to Kate. The pools in the novel are non simply a topographic point around which some events occur. The pools in the novel mean the more of import and valuable sense: they show those close dealingss between a sister and a brother which are deserving look up toing. Furthermore the pools in the fresh allow us see the immature old ages of Kate when she was guiltless and did non understand those things which she realized subsequently after Matt ‘s treachery. Kate says, â€Å" By the undermentioned September the pools themselves would hold been desecrated twice over, every bit far as I was concerned, and for some old ages after that I did non see them at all. And when I did, it was without Matt, and it was non the same † ( Lawson 218 ) Kate ‘s pick of her future calling depended on the pools in a manner. She was afraid that the pools would decease and at the same clip her remembrances of her childhood would decease excessively. She says, â€Å" I imagined myself traveling back to them one twenty-four hours in the hereafter, looking into their deepness and seeing aˆÂ ¦ nil † No admiration the writer gives precedence to the pools and the chief characters of the fresh Kate and Matt choose biological science as their field of survey. Matt explicated Kate many interesting thoughts about the nature around and the life signifiers of the pools during their legion walks to the pools. Kate learned many interesting things about the polliwogs of different types of toads and the polo-necks, about the triton and the mudcat, about the tops and the H2O striders. She was so enthusiastic hearing to Matt ‘s narratives: â€Å" The involvement which Matt had sparked in me had developed by so into a deeper wonder, and that twelvemonth I was detecting and inquiring about things without being prompted † Therefore she decided to analyze biological science in the University in Toronto and that was her right pick. Besides a great trade of beautiful descriptions of the pools are given in the novel. I think they have a particular function which is reflected in the rubric of the book. It is the writer ‘s conundrum which can be solved by the readers who are watching the class of the events in the novel attentively. I am certain Mary Lawson wants to demo the readers of her novel that nature has a great impact on us. It non merely gives us the chance to bask its beauty but it besides helps us to get the better of troubles which occur in our life and to outwear sorrow as it was in the Kate and Matt ‘s instance. Kate and Matt had a good clip together at the pools and they were happy. They tried non to believe about their household calamity, and watching the life signifiers in the pool they knew that they were the portion of the Nature, the portion of the Universe. When we see the loss of relationship between Kate and Matt we feel pain at our Black Marias. Furthermore Kate is such a individual who is afraid of new close dealingss with Daniel because she does non desire to hold one more loss. She is afraid of puting her fondnesss upon Daniel and puts her occupation and everything that is connected with it on the first topographic point in her life. Mary Lawson ‘s fresh Crow Lake proves the fact that the pools as a portion of Nature helped a immature miss Kate Morrison every bit good as her brothers and sister to last after the calamity in their household. Furthermore the pools became the portion of her remembrances connected with her childhood and with her senior brother Matt. And one more of import decision is that the pools put Kate on the right manner in taking her calling of a life scientist. Kate is certain that the pools are the portion of her life. She says, â€Å" There is no image of my childhood that I carry with me more clearly than that † ( Lawson 4 ) I think that every individual should happen such a topographic point in his or her life given by the Universe which will assist to get the better of the adversities and the wretchednesss of life and bask the happy minutes of life with beloved people.

Summary Of Harriet Jacobs And Frederick Douglass - 702 Words

Slavery (noun): a condition compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom. Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass were both born into slavery, and both suffered the consequences of American ignorance. Jacobs and Douglass provided a brutally honest truth through their poetry about slavery, and how white Americans interpreted slavery. Everyone was subject to Jacobs and Douglass’ assessment on how differently people interpreted what slavery meant – just a means of labor – in both the free Northern states and the rural South. It was their goal to illuminate the brutality of slavery, and how important abolishing slavery was. Harriet Jacobs focused on how much suffering and adversity slaves faced, targeting†¦show more content†¦Pike. Servants and slaves alike could not escape â€Å"God’s eye†, and were inherently evil – they needed to serve their masters to gain forgiveness. Almost all free Americans hid b ehind a smoke-screen of religion to justify slavery or so-called â€Å"labor† in their eyes. Not only are the Southern states to blame, but the Northern states as well, because of the inaccurate and insensitive belief of what slavery was. In addition to Jacobs’ account, Douglass’ narrative focused on his journey through manhood and freedom – â€Å"†¦I wished I could be as free as they would be when they got to be men †¦ ‘Have not I as good a right to be free as you have?’† (Douglass, Chapter VII) – as well as, â€Å"This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.† (Douglass, Chapter X). He had no freedom, but when he decided to fight back against the evil hand of slavery, he found it and made it his own. As a slave, he had no right to freedom, which in turn belittled his own manhood. His f ight with Mr. Covey restored his sense of honor, his entitled manhood, as well as a spark of freedom he did not previously have.Show MoreRelatedEssay on Out of the Silence1445 Words   |  6 Pagesthe past we can better determine the path of the future. The personal stories of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are two excellent examples of the slave narrative genre in American literature. To be sure, bondage and oppression had a lasting and profound effect on both genders; however, men and women experienced slavery in different ways. By comparing and contrasting â€Å"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave† and â€Å"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,† we gain very different