Behaviourist theory takes account of the role of social experiences in child development more so in operant conditioning. Applied Behavioural Analysis ABA is a method of teaching that uses a lot of one-to-one interaction with the child. This type of teaching can help children, with Autistic spectrum disorders, be more successful in mainstream school. Social experience is taken into account as ABA assists children with Autism to connect with the outside world. ‘ABA shows how operant conditioning principles relating to the reinforcement of desirable behaviour can be successfully applied’ (Psychological Development and Early Childhood Chapter 2, p. 58).
Social Learning Theory
Psychologist:
Bandura (1924 - )
Bandura noticed that children not only learned by the consequences of their behaviour but also through the observation of the behaviour of others. They imitate not only the behaviour but also the emotions and attitudes of people around them. Bandura carried out an experiment in 1965 known as the Bobo Doll. Here he observed groups of 4 year old children watching on their own, an adult on screen behaving aggressively towards a doll. Each film was the same except for the endings. The children were then put into a room with the doll.
Where the man was punished for his actions there was less aggression shown compared to the other two groups where there was reward and no consequences.
‘Bandura’s (1973) view was that children’s learning goes through three stages; exposure, acquisition and acceptance’ (Psychological Development and Early Childhood Chapter, 2 p. 59.). He felt that children were active in their learning therefore children can learn to be aggressive and be desensitised to the consequences of violence simply through observation.
The Social Learning Theory is based on the child learning not only by behavioural consequences but also by observing the behaviour and actions of others around them. This would suggest that social experiences would play a big part on how the child would develop. There is a very good example of learning by observation in chapter two where Guatemalan girls learn to weave almost exclusively by watching models. The teacher demonstrates the operations of the textile machine, while the girl simply observes, then when the girl feels ready she takes over and she usually operates it skilfully on her very first try’ (Crain, 2000, p194). Even though the girl is only watching there is still a social experience taking place. This theory takes more of an account of social experiences in child development than behaviourism because to learn through observation the child needs to be in social situations more often not.
Constructivism:
Psychologist:
Jean Piaget (Swiss, 1896-1980)
‘Piaget’s work was called genetic epistemology which is his term for the study of the origins and development of knowledge,’ (Psychological Development and Early Childhood Chapter 2 p.63). He believed not only did the environment play a big part in child development but also the innate qualities that the child is born with. He put forward the idea that children develop through a sequence of stages. There was a certain order to these stages and a child’s development could not move until the one before was mastered.
Stage one Sensory motor stage (from birth to two years)
Stage two Pre operational stage (From two to six years)
Stage three Concrete operation stage (from six years to twelve years)
Stage four Formal operations stage (from twelve onwards)
Although there are plenty of areas where the role of social experiences could have been taken into account Piaget did not take account of them. For example, Piaget’s theory tells us that the child constructs his own world but in order to do this the child would have to be in social situations to learn. He did take into account the intelligence of the child and their capability to take external actions internalise them and learn from them. ‘Piaget did value peer contact as having the potential to foster cognitive development. That is, he suggested that such contact would expose them to other, conflicting viewpoints which they would need to accommodate their own developing representations to; this was referred to as socio-cognitive development’ (Psychological Development and Early Childhood p. 68). This clearly shows that social experiences play a very important role in this theory but yet it is not recognised by Piaget himself.
Social Constructivism
Psychologist Vygotsky (1896-1934)
Vygotsky agreed with Piaget on the constructive nature of development. He also theorised that social and cultural tools played an important role in the child’s development. These ‘cultural tools are ways of achieving things in the world, acquired in the course of development and passed on to subsequent generations (Psychological Development and Early Childhood Chapter 2 p.72). Language could be one of those cultural tools and Vygotsky believed that language had two functions. External language used for communication and internal language used for intellectual reasoning. From two years on, children develop what Piaget (1923) called self talk, where children talk to themselves aloud while carrying out a task. Although Piaget said that this talk disappeared in the older child Vygotsky argued that the child internalised self talk and they use it to guide their actions. In addition Vygotsky felt that ‘Cognition is actively developed by language’ (Psychological Development and Early Childhood Chap 2 p.74.).
The role of social experiences in child development is crucial in this theory. He sees the child as an extremely social being and through contact with more experienced people; children discover new ways of behaving and thinking. Language is very important in this theory and in order to develop language it is imperative that children are exposed to social situations regularly.
Compare and contrast the four theories
Within the four grand theories children play different roles in their development. In behaviourism the child is a passive learner and in the other grand theories they are active learners. Behaviourism and Social Learning theory consider that children learn from outside influences most notably from their environment and other people around them. Social Learning theory ‘implies that children extract general principles from what they observe’ (Psychological Development and Early Childhood Chapter 2 p.62.). These two theories don’t take into account cognitive development or what is going on inside the child e.g. its thinking and reasoning etc regarding the situation they are learning from. ‘The development of appropriate social behaviour is more likely if the child understands why they are being treated in a particular way (Huesmann et al., 2003). Where as Constructivism and social Constructivism hold the view that children construct their own world. Vygotsky claims that adults are an important part of the child’s development as learning from someone with more experience helps the child acquire new knowledge and skills which they could not obtain alone. Piaget claimed that children five to six years old could not understand conservation and this was shown in the Video Band 1 in the experiment of conservation of mass. Although Donaldson (1978) argued that if the experiments make sense to the child the result was they could understand it. As a result of Piaget’s thoughts around cognitive development an approach known as ‘discovery learning’ was developed. This means that the adult is there to provide an appropriate learning environment as opposed to being involved in actual teaching.
Conclusion
The extent to which each theory takes account of the role of social experiences in child development is quite different. In behaviourism and social learning it is clear the influences from the outside are concentrated on. Although there is evidence that social experiences take place throughout some experiments carried out e.g. ‘Little Albert’ (Watson 1924) and ‘Guatemalan Girls learning to weave’ (Crain, 2000, p.194) there is no account taken of it. Again with Constructivism there is evidence of social experiences but no account taken of it. For example, Piaget’s theory tells us that the child constructs his own world but in order to do this the child would have to be in social situations to learn. Social constructivism sees the child as an extremely social being and through contact with more experienced people; children discover new ways of behaving and thinking. takes some account of social experiences
References
Crain, W. (2000) Theories of development: concepts and applications, Upper Saddle Place, NJ, Prentice Hall.
Huesmann, L. R., Moise, J., Podolski, C. P. and Eron, L. D. (2003) ‘Longitudinal relations between childhood exposure to media violence and adult aggression and violence: 1977-1992’, Developmental Psychology, vol. 39, pp. 201-21.
Kytömäki,J.(1998)’Parental control and regulation of schoolchildren’s television viewing’,[online]. Available from: 25 May2004].
