PERSPECTIVES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND THEIR EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Different perspectives on development explain behaviour as well as predict behaviour that can be observed.

Biological Perspective 

Let’s begin our discussion of perspectives with the biological perspective. In the development of psychology, physiology plays a major role and hence this perspective is known as biological psychology. Sometimes, it is named as biopsychology or physiological psychology due to the emphasis on the physical and biological bases of behaviour. 

  1. In biological perspective we look at how genetics influence different behaviours or how damage to specific areas of the brain influence behaviour and personality of an individual. 
  2. It assumes that human behaviour and thought processes have a biological basis. In this perspective, human problems and actions are looked at and perceived in different ways. For example, aggression has been viewed in different perspectives by different psychologists. 
  3. Psychoanalysts viewed aggression as the result of childhood experiences and unconscious urges. 
  4. Behaviourists perceived aggression as a behaviour shaped by reinforcement and punishment. 
  5. The biological perspective, on the other hand, look at the biological roots that lie behind aggressive behaviours. They might consider genetic factors or the type of brain aberration that may lead to display of such behaviour. 

We shall discuss some viewpoints related with biological perspective. 
There are two viewpoints-
(i) Maturation viewpoint of Arnold Gesell and 
(ii) Attachment viewpoint of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. 

Maturation Viewpoint
  1. Gesell was one of the first psychologists to systematically describe children’s physical, social and emotional behaviour through a quantitative study of human development. He was a strong proponent of the maturational viewpoint of child development. 
  2. According to maturational viewpoint, all children go through the same stages of development based on the maturation of their brain and body. This includes everything from the changing ability to grasp objects in infancy to the changing way in which children acquire or collect objects. You might have noted that development follows an orderly sequence and that the biological and evolutionary history of the species decide the order of this sequence. This viewpoint has been criticized as it did not acknowledge individual and cultural differences in child development. He created a foundation for subsequent research that described both average developmental trends and individual differences in development. 
  3. Based on this viewpoint, a normative approach for studying children was initiated. According to the normative approach, large numbers of children at various ages are observed and a typical ‘age’ or ‘norm’ for achieving various developmental tasks is determined. 

Educational Implication of Maturational Viewpoint 

We can see the impact of the maturational viewpoint of Arnold Gesell in school readiness of children and in early childhood classrooms. 

  1. According to maturational viewpoint, readiness is seen as a phenomenon that happens ‘within the child’. Though, we know that all children follow same stages of development, there will be differences in rate of development due to genetic make-up. Another area where maturational viewpoint had its impact is in early childhood classrooms. 
  2. It states that children are considered not fit for reading until they had a mental age of six and a half years (Morphett &Washburne, 1931).Consequently, in some preschool and kindergarten, readiness activities were developed for children who were not ready to read yet. 
  3. This theory is partially responsible for the establishment of kindergartens and pre-schools.
Attachment Viewpoint
  1. Attachment theory which was first proposed by John Bowlby and later on by Mary Ainsworth.
  2. Attachment theory was first formulated by British psychiatrist John Bowbly (1907- 91), and later on elaborated by his colleague, Mary Ainsworth, an American developmental psychologist. 
  3. The theory of attachment focuses on the importance of the early parent-child relationship in developing desirable social, emotional and cognitive development in children. You may describe attachment as a strong affectional tie that binds a person to an intimate companion.
  4. Family is the first place where a child learns and experiences attachment. The quality of the relationship between parent and child is important in further growth and development of the child. 
  5. Attachment starts in infancy and lasts throughout the life- span. For most of us, the first attachment we form, around 6 to 7 months of age, is to a parent. In rare cases, the first care-givers may be siblings or any other relatives. 
  6. In diverse growing up contexts, there will be differences in attachment between caregiver and child. The primary caregivers are responsible for moulding the character and personality of the child. The mother has some kind of bond to the child naturally because she carried her/him in womb for 9 months whereas the father has to establish a bond after the child is born. On the basis of the interactions with caregivers, infants build up expectation about relationships in the form of internal working models that aid to process social relationships. 
  7. Internal working model means the cognitive representations developed within the child about herself/himself and others. Securely attached infants will form internal working models reflecting their love seeking bond towards others. Secure attachment is theorized to be an important foundation for psychological development later in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. 
  8. On the contrary, insecurely attached infants subjected to abusive or neglectful care may develop inside a feeling of rejection by everyone and consider others as unreliable. Insecure attachment is theorized to be related to difficulties in relationships and problems in later development. Ainsworth’s most important contribution to attachment theory is the ‘Strange Situation’, a well-known procedure for measuring the quality of an attachment.

As the peers have the same mind set as that of adolescents, their relationship becomes stronger. 

Attachment relationships provide the foundation of social learning. Just like infants, adolescents need security and support of parents to become independent and self-sufficient individuals. Sometimes you may observe that adolescents who enjoy secure attachment relationships with their parents generally have a stronger sense of identity, higher self-esteem, greater social competence, better emotional control and less behavioural problems.  

Educational Implication of Attachment Viewpoint 

  1. As the child grows up, s/he starts mingling with the outside world. Schools may be considered as the first social system outside the family where children develop attachment towards peers and teachers. That’s why a school is considering as a ‘home away from home’. You might have dealt with adolescents who express some kind of behavioural problems especially while dealing with teachers and peers. Let us go through this case.
  2. Children with attachment difficulties will typically show distrust in the classroom which may manifest as lack of concentration. 
  3. Attachment awareness in schools is needed to resolve the issues involved and to support children with attachment difficulties, thereby help improvement in behaviour and overall well-being of both children and staff. Though the teacher cannot be a mother of a child, they can act as a surrogate of the child. 
  4. It is also necessary to understand the psychosocial and learning needs of their children. It is a common belief in psychology that “nature gives parents a baby; the end result depends on how they nurture it. Good nurturing can make up for many of nature’s mistakes: lack of nurturing can trash nature’s best effort” (Harris, 1998, p. 2). 
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