What is Personality
Name: Gyang Ganan Andrew Enrolment number: 044158862 What is Personality Humans have been personality psychologists since the development of consciousness and a sense of self. All of us, in our everyday lives, observe other people, formulate ideas as to their characteristics and reasons for behaving, make predictions about their behaviour, and adjust our own behaviour accordingly. Probably all of us, to one degree or another, note individual differences among people and categorize others into types. Probably all of us have ideas about the fundamental nature of humans, for example, whether they are basically good or bad, altruistic or selfish, generous or greedy, as well as ideas about how easily they can be changed to do good or evil. Historically, philosophers have been concerned with the fundamental nature of humans and the reasons for human actions, and many psychology departments in universities evolved out of philosophy departments. It was not until the 1930's that personality began to be recognized as a distinct part of psychology. The concept of personality has been defined in several ways in the history of psychology. However, a definition that captures much of what psychologist mean by personality was provided by Child (1968 p.83),who described it as "more or less stable, internal factors that make one person's behaviour consistent from one time to another, and
Care and Service Planning for Children.
Care and Service Planning for Children. INTRODUCTION. The purpose of this assessment is to link the case study used in the seminar groups, Using the chosen scenario and then consider why theories of child development and attachment theory are important to social workers when planning and providing services for children in a multi-agency setting within the context of the United Nations Rights of the Child. SCENARIO. Michael, age 3years, has lived with his current carers for the past 10 months whilst his parents underwent an assessment into their parenting abilities. Michael has recently been made subject of a Care Order (Section 31, Children Act 1989), with a view to him being placed with an adoptive family as soon as possible. Whenever a social worker intervenes in the life of a family, which includes a child, there is a story behind the intervention. The social worker needs to know that story and its effect on each child, and to "live through the experience with the child as fully as possible, without denying the pain, and accepting the sadness, anger and depression the situation gives rise to" (Winnicott, 1956 p.17). AN UNDERSTANDING OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT. Due to the traumas Michael may have experienced during his early childhood with his birth parents, it is important for the social worker to be aware of any developmental problems Michael may have. Development
Cognitive Development
The business of young children is play. It is a major contributor to all domains of development. Senses are stimulated, mastery over body is gained, socialization and personality traits are formed. Play is one of the factors that contribute to psychological and social well being. I had the opportunity to observe children play at a local library. The children were between the ages of 6 and 12 months. The play session was organized to allow children and parents to play together with toys for one hour on Thursday afternoons. The observed behaviors were entertaining as well as demonstrative to several developmental stages. Cognitive, emotional, and language development were identifiable from the children's interactions. The observed development of the children has been applied to several theories. There are observations that correlate with the theories and others which do not apply. Similarities, as well as differences, were observed throughout the play among the children. Cognitive Development In reference to age, the group of children all fall under the Sensorimotor period. This is Piaget's first stage of cognitive development. This stage is further divided into six separate stages. Stages 3 and 4 were demonstrated at the beginning of the play session The children were sitting in a circle with toys placed in the middle. Rattles and other noise producing objects were given
Cognitive development.
As children grow and develop, they are continually acquiring new skills to help them reason and solve problems. These cognitive processes enable them to learn, perceive and remember new and unfamiliar information. Developmental psychologists have been particularly interested in the study of what actually drives cognitive development since around about the 1930's. Previously it was assumed that cognitive development was a passive process. The more radical constructivist approaches of the 1950's studies challenged this assumption and questioned whether or not humans have a pre-programmed genetic blueprint of the stages involved in mental development throughout childhood. A particularly influential theorist in early studies of cognitive development was a psychologist named Jean Piaget. Initially studying his own children but then moving onto clinical studies of sample groups, Piaget used a system of question and answer techniques to assess how children of different ages solved a variety of problems. Piaget defined intelligence as a basic life function that helps an organism to adapt to its environment. He believed that the purpose of intelligence was to provide a state of equilibrium between an individual's thought processes and the environment. He termed this cognitive equilibrium (Piaget, 1950). Piaget believed that children are active explorers or little scientists as they
Child Development - Babies perception of human faces
0259520 Do babies learn to perceive human faces? One of the most powerful and influential instruments in non-verbal communication is the human face. The human face conveys not only emotion but also facts about the human itself; from ethnicity and physical health to age and gender. It is perhaps the most easily recognisable and distinguishing feature of the human body. Humans use facial expressions constantly during social interaction as a universal form of non-verbal communication, commonly recognised across all cultures. Without this, there would be a distinct barrier to cross-cultural interaction. Facial perception and processing therefore has a largely important bearing on non-verbal communication, which is perhaps why ‘newborn infants prefer to look at human faces over almost any other form of stimuli’ (Pascalis & Kelly, 2009). This preferential attention could be due to the dynamic movements of the human face and the sounds emitted from speech creating an interesting stimulus for an infant, or the face could be a ‘target’ stimulus that the infant is pre-programmed to devote attention to. There is a longstanding psychological debate concerning how infants perceive human faces. A great proportion of modern psychological evidence suggests that babies do not learn to perceive human faces and that this perception is innate from birth; that infants are born with a
Critically discuss Freud's theory of personality
Critically discuss Freud’s theory of personality Sigmund Freud is arguably Psychology’s most famous figure and one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. His work and theories have helped to shape our views of personality, which comprises of levels of consciousness and unconsciousness, the nature of human beings and the source of human motivation, the structure of personality and finally the development of personality. Initially, Freud (1940/1969) attempted to subdivide the mind purely in terms of levels of consciousness and unconsciousness. The level of conscious thought contains material that we are actively aware of. The part of the mind that corresponds to ordinary memory is called the preconscious. These memories are not part of immediate awareness, but can be brought into wakefulness through conscious effort. The unconscious, placed at the bottom of Freud’s iceberg analogy of the psyche, is attributed to feelings, thoughts and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness. The unconscious influences our behaviour and experiences, even though we are unaware of it. The unconscious is both unfalsifiable and unobservable. However, modern cognitive psychology and neuroscience is consistent with the idea of an unconscious. In the phenomenon of ‘blindsight’, Weiskrantz (1997) showed that individuals’ blind in parts of
Investigating the nature of children's scientific reasoning: cognitive structures, conflict and scaffolding.
Investigating the nature of children's scientific reasoning: cognitive structures, conflict and scaffolding. Abstract. This is an account of a study on the nature of children's scientific understanding of the concepts of floating and sinking, and the role of cognitive challenge and scaffolding in supporting conceptual change. The procedure involved the analysis of video-recorded interviews conducted with two female participants of different age. Results showed that, while the younger participant's reasoning was confined to her concrete experience, the older participant developed a more sophisticated understanding of scientific concepts, which is consistent with Piaget's argument that scientific reasoning requires the development of specific cognitive structures. Moreover, the older participant demonstrated conceptual change when faced with conflicting evidence, and her progresses were supported by scaffolded discussion. On the other hand, the cognitive challenge did not spurred a real qualitative cognitive change in the younger participant. Moreover, she seemed to benefit less from adult guidance and displayed a less clear progress in her reasoning, in contrast with Vygotsky and Wood's predictions. Introduction. The ability to think about the world in terms of symbolic representations is an essential pre-requisite for understanding mathematical and scientific
The Impact of Isolation in Infancy on Later Adult Development and Behaviour.
THE IMPACT OF ISOLATION DURING INFANCY ON LATER ADULT DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOUR Social , psychological and medical research has demonstrated that there is a direct correlation between the degree to which a person feels connected to others and their physical and mental health. The impact of isolation during infancy on later adult development and behavior can be evaluated through Bowlby’s attachment theory. The attachment relationship acts as a prototype for all future social relations , so disrupting it can have severe consequences. This paper has a look at the impact of maternal deprivation and the most severe consequence, namely reactive attachment disorder in order to emphasize the impact of isolation during infancy on later adult development and behavior. John Bowlby (1997) developed the theory of attachment that underscored the significance of the relationship between a primary care giver, usually the mother and her infant. Bowlby's theory of attachment was established upon evolutionary thinking. Infants are vulnerable and incapable of fending for themselves. Thus, the attachment process is designed to ensure the survival of the infant and, in turn, the species (Haugaard & Hazan, 2004). Given that an infant is well loved and its biological needs are reliably met, the child will learn to trust and feel secure with his caregiver, and a healthy attachment will be made
Within the field of Developmental Psychology, researchers continue to evaluate the significance of early childhood experiences and how they impact on later development.
I.D 12001726 Introduction Within the field of Developmental Psychology, researchers continue to evaluate the significance of early childhood experiences and how they impact on later development. Whilst some theorists propose that the quality of attachments in infancy is a strong determinant of socio-emotional and personality outcomes in later life (Waters, et al., 2000), many critics have also argued, that too much emphasis has been placed on the early bonds with parents, and that other factors such as individual and cultural differences are often neglected (Harris, 2009: Field, 1996). Whilst many theories of attachment have been proposed over the years, perhaps one of the most influential theories is that of British Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst John Bowlby. This report will therefore set out to discuss some of the main characteristics of Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment, whilst examining some of the supporting evidence and criticisms which have been levied against his pioneering work.[a] Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment Influenced by the works of Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein, Bowlby placed a great emphasis on early childhood experiences. However, unlike the orthodox Freudian views which focused on the instinctive drives and psychosexual conflicts of young children, Bowlby gave greater attention to the ongoing interpersonal relationship between mother and child
Nature - Nurture Debate.
Question: "The age old nature-nurture controversy about the underlying causes of the course of development continues today, with some theorists attributing the course of development to genetic influences while others believe that the complex forces of the environment are responsible." Discuss the evidence for each of these positions and indicate how this debate will influence your future work. The nature versus nurture controversy about the underlying causes of developmental progression continues to be debated. There are many theories for both genetic influence and learning environment, there are also theories about the interaction of nature and the environment, each with its own theory of relative influence. As an educator, it is useful to have knowledge and understanding of why children develop the way they do and how teachers can help children to reach their full potentials. "Developmental psychology has a relatively recent history, with different theoretical approaches based on philosophical thought as well as well as a tradition of research that began in the 1800s." (Berk, 1997 Cited in Vialle, Lysaght and Verenikina, 2002. Page 7.) Hence theories on developmental psychology are relatively brand new. Consequently there is no genuine proof that any individual theory is accurate or erroneous. Lefrancios (1973) published a book about child development. In it was a