It looks at the factors which end in us behaving in a given way and look at the conditions in which cause us to behave in that way. Social psychology looks at a wide range of social topics which include group behaviour, social perceptions, conformity, aggression and prejudice. When children learn they acquire their behaviour from their parents and other children, from a young age they learn from their parents how to behave in public, the correct use of manors and social norms. But on interaction with other children they learn how to share, society’s values which other children have picked up and how to behave in social situations. Also evolutional (inherited from parents) could have an effect on how a child behaves as in the child’s genetics it might be that they are susceptible to violence this means that the child may have more violent tendencies.
The interaction of nature versus nurture? The sociocultural and cognitive theories best emphasize individual conscious organization of experience. Sociocultural theories involve active learning and an individual must interact with society and mentors. There is a conscious effort on the individual’s part to learn and use their experiences to make life decisions. Cognitive development requires an individual to analyze their experiences and properly form concepts.
Task 2 – 2.3 As I work in a SEN PMLD class I work with ages 3 to 10 years of ages, so we have to adapt the NC to our class and our children depending on their abilities. Our class has been labelled Nursery and Early years as the children in our class are at that stage with all the development skills, and would not be fair to put them in a higher class due to their age if they aren’t developed fully to go in a higher class. For example, we have a student that is at her mental ability to understand what she should at her age intellectually but does not have the physical and communicational skills to response like most other children her age (she is 6 years old). However as she cannot communicate with us through speech, we would adapt the lesson
In this approach, humans are portrayed as acting as opposed to being acted upon. Mead (1934) proposed that both human development and the meanings we assign to everyday objects and events are fundamentally social processes, they require the interaction of multiple individuals; language is crucial to the development of self and society, the means by which communicate with one another. Society and self were created through communicative acts like speech and gestures; the individual personality was shaped by society, and vice versa. For symbolic interactionists, society is produced and reproduced through our interactions with each other by language and our interpretation of it, and the building block of everything else in society is face-to-face interaction through it we create a meaningful social reality. Blumer in 1969 stipulated three basic tenets the first one says, we act toward things on the basis of their meanings.
In the position as a student of sociology, I believe the Functionalist theory best describes society. The functionalist theory is viewed to sociologist as society to a living organism. Each part serves an important role in keeping society together. Many sociologist classify this theory as macro-level; large in scale. Including social institutions, a system of behavioral and relationship patterns, having specific roles to perform to make society.
Symbolic interactionism is considered a major framework of sociological theory. The perspective behind symbolic interactionism is that individuals rely heavily upon symbolic meanings in the process of social interactions. This theory analyzes society by addressing subjective meanings that people impose on objects, events and behaviors. Subjective meaning are given priority because many people behave based upon what they believe and what’s not objectively true. So in turn society is thought to be socially built based upon human interpretations.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Jean Piaget (1896-1980) studied how children’s thought processes develop and has been very influential in our understanding of children’s cognitive development. He believed that interaction with peers was the most critical factor in children’s cognitive development. ‘He described children as ‘"little scientists," actively constructing their own theories about the world, testing these theories, and adjusting to new information’ (quote taken from Kendra's Psychology Blog at about.com: Psychology). He suggested mental plans - schemas (schemata) function as guides for action, as structure for interpreting information, as frameworks for solving problems. (For full explanation on schemas, conservation, assimilation and accommodation and explanations of terminology see appendix 2).
The impact on the personality of the individual, it has the characteristics of participation in the life of the community. The variety of contacts, relationships and active participation in the life of the surrounding general give shape to the human personality. There are two types of social structure, macro and micro which allows the individual to notice, whatever man is constantly in contact, which affects the shape of humans’ personality. One of the most important perspectives of sociological theories is the distinction between structural and social action. Structural action, in other words structuralism, is a perspective which is concerned with the overall structure of society and sees individual behavior molded by social institutions like the family, the educations, the mass media and work.
Then there is the socialisation process. This is the process whereby individuals learn the norms and values of the groups they belong, so that they are ready for social interaction. (www.socialsciencedictionary.com). In other words, it means the process whereby culture is passed from one generation to another. Socialisation starts at birth and ends at death and is very powerful in shaping individuals.
The pinnacle point of this essay will be to explore children’s experiences of family life and show what it is like for different types of families such as lone parents and step families. In addition, this essay will look at the ideas which shape the constructs of childhood in considering what role the family play in shaping a child’s experiences. Before childhood and the family at present can be examined, it is important to recognise when childhood was discovered and began. Before the 1600’s children were seen as miniature adults, and it is only through time and change of society that childhood has been recognised as a separate stage of life and development. The Aries thesis is studied as the discovery of childhood.