Explain the principal psychological perspectives of the biological approach

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Task One

P1:

Explain the principal psychological perspectives.

(F). Biological Approach:

Arnold Gesell development a theory of maturation, which explained the developmental processes and stages from conception onwards. The theory proposes that development occur according to a sequence of maturational processes.

Maturation refers to genetically programmed patterns of chance.

It suggests that all individuals will pass through the same series of changes, in the same order, making maturation processes universal and sequential.

Gesell was mainly concerned with infant’s psychomotor development (such as grasping and other manipulative skills, and locomotion such as walking and crawling). These abilities are usually seen as developing themselves, according to a genetically programmed timetable. Providing that the baby is physically normal.

As the child develops from birth onwards, its genes allow it to flower into the person that they are meant to be. The environment should provide support for this unfolding of talents, skills personality and interests, but the main thing driving this development is the maturational drive.

It is important that you recognise that maturational change do not only include biological change, but all stages theories of development which assume that maturation underpins certain stages.

After Gesell developed his maturation theory, he went on to develop an assessment scale to enable judgements to be made about whether a child’s behaviour and understanding matches that of their chronological age. The scale enables the child’s scores to be compared against their scores at an earlier age to determine whether development is proceeding satisfactorily. It enables skills, trained assessors to identified development problems in children.

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There are three over lapping points at which develop can be measured:-

between 2 and a half to 6 years of age

between 4 and 6 years old

between 6 and 9 years old

Examples of Gesell’s assessments that can be used to assess a child’s development at a particular time:

- Age 4 - Comprehension question- English tests

- Between the ages 2 to 6 - The cube test- handwriting, spelling tests, maths tests, cutting and colouring in.

Genes can affect behaviour in a multiple number of ways. There are numerous disorders which ...

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