I think that I made a very good decision by choosing this course as an elective because I learned a lot of new things in this lesson which I would probably not be able to learn in any of my other lessons. This course took me all the way back to my childhood and I got a chance to look at my whole life from a whole new perspective.
While writing this blog, I mainly summarized what we have learned in our lessons and I also added some comments and mentioned the things I found interesting. Also by writing this blog, I got used to studying and reviewing what we have learned every week.
Child development is very fun to learn and I think every human being should know about this. So my journey as a psychology student ends here and now I am going back to my boring life as an economics student :)
9 Ocak 2011 Pazar
The last lesson
In our very last lesson of the year, we talked about parenting and gender. First we started with parenting and talked about discipline and said that there are three ways: assertion of parental power, withdrawal of love and induction. Then we talked about the parenting styles and said that based on the level of warmth and control, they can be neglectful, indulgent, authoritarian or authoritative. We said that authoritative is the most beneficial for children.
Later we started talking about gender. We discussed why the terms “gender” and “sex” can be seen different and said that gender is more cultural and sex is biological. We added that there are some gender roles in which boys and girls are enforced to do some specific things.
Then we talked about the development of gender and the theories of gender differences.
Development:
1) Gender identity (age 2)
2) Gender stability (age 4) - there is recognition that one’s gender is a permanent feature.
3) Gender constancy (age 5) - there is recognition that one’s gender remains constant despite physical change.
Theories of gender differences:
1) Evolutionary theories:
Males and females have different types of mating strategies.
While talking about this topic in class we said that people want to be with people who have good genes and resources and later learned about the George Clooney effect. I thought it was very interesting.
2) Social Cognitive Theory
3) Gender Schema Theory
Lastly we talked about individual sex schemes. According to femininity and masculinity we can say that a person is masculine, feminine, undifferentiated or androgynous. We talked about the Bem Sex Role Inventory and I was very curious and I wanted to see my score and I scored the highest on feminine. You can use this link to see your score too:
http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/bsri.html
Later we started talking about gender. We discussed why the terms “gender” and “sex” can be seen different and said that gender is more cultural and sex is biological. We added that there are some gender roles in which boys and girls are enforced to do some specific things.
Then we talked about the development of gender and the theories of gender differences.
Development:
1) Gender identity (age 2)
2) Gender stability (age 4) - there is recognition that one’s gender is a permanent feature.
3) Gender constancy (age 5) - there is recognition that one’s gender remains constant despite physical change.
Theories of gender differences:
1) Evolutionary theories:
Males and females have different types of mating strategies.
While talking about this topic in class we said that people want to be with people who have good genes and resources and later learned about the George Clooney effect. I thought it was very interesting.
2) Social Cognitive Theory
3) Gender Schema Theory
Lastly we talked about individual sex schemes. According to femininity and masculinity we can say that a person is masculine, feminine, undifferentiated or androgynous. We talked about the Bem Sex Role Inventory and I was very curious and I wanted to see my score and I scored the highest on feminine. You can use this link to see your score too:
http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/bsri.html
27 Aralık 2010 Pazartesi
Working on the project...
I'm very proud of myself today beacuse I worked on my semester project a lot. I think it is a very good thing that we are doing this project since I get to know myself better. There are some pictures of my childhood that I want to use in the paper but since I'm not living with my parents, they will have to search through the photo albums and send me the pictures somehow. Anyway, I have to get back to work.
23 Aralık 2010 Perşembe
The first quiz...
In today’s class, we had a quiz. It was the first quiz of the year so I was a little excited. We had to study for the sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, attachment, memory, self concept and theory of mind. Although I was nervous it went really well. I also think that this has made it a lot easier to get ready for the exam since I have already studied these topics once.
I also started writing my project which is going pretty well at the moment. I’ve done an interview which I think contains very good material for my paper.
I also started writing my project which is going pretty well at the moment. I’ve done an interview which I think contains very good material for my paper.
20 Aralık 2010 Pazartesi
Preoperational Stage
In the beginning of the lecture on Friday, we talked about self concept and self esteem. Then we started discussing the preoperational stage. We said that the stage is between ages 2-7. We talked about pretend play and how it is important for imaginaton. One thing I now from my own self is that since I am a single-child, I used to play by myself most of the time since I was the only kid in the house. And I can also say that I used to have a very huge imagination. So in class when we said that usually single children and first born children have more pretend play since they have to play with themselves more than others, I saw a reflection from my own life.
Then we discussed the characteristics of this stage. We said that there is difficulty seperating fantasy and reality. We also said that there is egocentrism. I learned that adolescents think of themeselves as unique and they usually say things like “Nothing will happen to me if I do this”. This is called personal fable. There is overdiferentiation of self and others. I also learned a thing called imaginary audience in which adolsecents think that everybody is watching them. When I think of my high school years, I remember that I used to think everyone was watching me too.
Then we talked about animism which means giving inanimate objects feelings, thoughts, intentions. Another term I learned was transductive which means seeing a casual relationship between seperate events. Afterwards, we talked about transductive logic. We said that there is lack of conservation. We talked about two aspects: centration, lack of reversibilty. In centration, we said that the child focuses on one aspect of a problem. The video of the conservation task was a very good example. In the video, the girl was only focusing on the shape of the container but she couldn’t focus on the amount. In lack of reversibilty, we said that since children don’t have this, they don’t have operations.
The last characteristic we talked about was artificialism. We gave examples like “The sky is so blue because someone painted it blue”.
Lastly, we talked about Theory of Mind. We said that the child has a theoryof the content another’s mind. 3 year olds don’t have a theory of mind and otistic children also have a lack of it. We said that there are 2 ways of testing it:
1)False-Belief test - Sally-Anne test:
2)Appereance-Reality Distinction: ex:changing the marker caps
Probably the best part of the lesson was at the end when we watched the video of the Marshmallow Test. I really enjoyed watching it although I still believe that it was very cruel what they did to those children.
Then we discussed the characteristics of this stage. We said that there is difficulty seperating fantasy and reality. We also said that there is egocentrism. I learned that adolescents think of themeselves as unique and they usually say things like “Nothing will happen to me if I do this”. This is called personal fable. There is overdiferentiation of self and others. I also learned a thing called imaginary audience in which adolsecents think that everybody is watching them. When I think of my high school years, I remember that I used to think everyone was watching me too.
Then we talked about animism which means giving inanimate objects feelings, thoughts, intentions. Another term I learned was transductive which means seeing a casual relationship between seperate events. Afterwards, we talked about transductive logic. We said that there is lack of conservation. We talked about two aspects: centration, lack of reversibilty. In centration, we said that the child focuses on one aspect of a problem. The video of the conservation task was a very good example. In the video, the girl was only focusing on the shape of the container but she couldn’t focus on the amount. In lack of reversibilty, we said that since children don’t have this, they don’t have operations.
The last characteristic we talked about was artificialism. We gave examples like “The sky is so blue because someone painted it blue”.
Lastly, we talked about Theory of Mind. We said that the child has a theoryof the content another’s mind. 3 year olds don’t have a theory of mind and otistic children also have a lack of it. We said that there are 2 ways of testing it:
1)False-Belief test - Sally-Anne test:
2)Appereance-Reality Distinction: ex:changing the marker caps
Probably the best part of the lesson was at the end when we watched the video of the Marshmallow Test. I really enjoyed watching it although I still believe that it was very cruel what they did to those children.
Reviewing attachment...
The class on Thursday was very helpful because we reviewed the subject attachment. We went through what we did in the previous lecture. We discussed the theories of attachment. The class was not very crowded so it was easy for me to understand and focus .
11 Aralık 2010 Cumartesi
Attachment
This Friday, most of the students majoring in psychology didn’t come to the lecture because they had another exam I think. So we did a short lesson and talked about attachment. I had been to the conference by Alan Sroufe last month so I had already known a bit about this topic.
We said that attachment is the bond between a child and the primary caregiver. It can be emotional or cognitive.
Functions of attachment:
• Aids survival - All children develop attachment to survive.
• Provides confidence for children - The child uses this person, the attachment figure as a secure base. If they don’t have this, they don’t have the confidence to go out and explore.
• Close contact/comfort
Then we watched a video with the monkey and saw how the mother becomes the secure base. It was very interesting.
Attachment styles: They have very important influences o the rest of your life.
1) Secure Attachment: Has the most positive attachment. Children are willing to take chances and they are much more confident.
2) Insecure Attachment:
• Ambivalent
• Avoidant/Resistant
• Disorganized
Then we watched a video about the experiment called the “Strange Situation”. We looked at the attachment relationships between some children and their mothers. I think watching these videos really helped me understand the attachment styles. But I also felt very bad for the children when they were crying. It upset me a lot.
We also said that attachment can change if:
• Caregiver changes (sometimes insecure attachments can become secure attachments)
• Environmental changes
Another interesting thing I learned was that a person’s relationship with God can either be secure or insecure depending on that person’s attachment to their primary caregiver.
Lastly we talked about the theories of attachment.
Theories of Attachment:
1) Cognitive
2) Learning
3) Ethological
4) Psychoanalytic
We said that attachment is the bond between a child and the primary caregiver. It can be emotional or cognitive.
Functions of attachment:
• Aids survival - All children develop attachment to survive.
• Provides confidence for children - The child uses this person, the attachment figure as a secure base. If they don’t have this, they don’t have the confidence to go out and explore.
• Close contact/comfort
Then we watched a video with the monkey and saw how the mother becomes the secure base. It was very interesting.
Attachment styles: They have very important influences o the rest of your life.
1) Secure Attachment: Has the most positive attachment. Children are willing to take chances and they are much more confident.
2) Insecure Attachment:
• Ambivalent
• Avoidant/Resistant
• Disorganized
Then we watched a video about the experiment called the “Strange Situation”. We looked at the attachment relationships between some children and their mothers. I think watching these videos really helped me understand the attachment styles. But I also felt very bad for the children when they were crying. It upset me a lot.
We also said that attachment can change if:
• Caregiver changes (sometimes insecure attachments can become secure attachments)
• Environmental changes
Another interesting thing I learned was that a person’s relationship with God can either be secure or insecure depending on that person’s attachment to their primary caregiver.
Lastly we talked about the theories of attachment.
Theories of Attachment:
1) Cognitive
2) Learning
3) Ethological
4) Psychoanalytic
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