A Practical Guide to Child Psychology E-Book

Kairen Cullen

• Herausgeber: Icon Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Practical Guide Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 200

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Embrace the ups and downs of parenting. Guided by experts in children's development, explore new approaches to parenting, understand how they can benefit your family and learn how to put them into practice straight away. Accepting that every child is unique, and that parenting is a continuous learning process, educational psychologist and parenting expert Dr Kairen Cullen explains how best to understand your child and respond to their needs.

Leseprobe

First published in the UK in 2011 by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39–41 North Road, London N7 9DP email: [e-mail]

This electronic edition published in the UK in 2011 by Icon Books Ltd

ISBN: 978-184831-329-3 (ePub format) ISBN: 978-184831-330-9 (Adobe eBook format)

Printed edition sold in the UK, Europe, South Africa and Asia by Faber & Faber Ltd, Bloomsbury House, 74–77 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DA or their agents

Printed edition distributed in the UK, Europe, South Africa and Asia by TBS Ltd, TBS Distribution Centre, Colchester Road, Frating Green, Colchester CO7 7DW

Printed edition published in Australia in 2011 by Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, PO Box 8500, 83 Alexander Street, Crows Nest, NSW 2065

Printed edition distributed in Canada by Penguin Books Canada, 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3

Printed edition published in the USA in 2011 by Totem Books Inquiries to: Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39–41 North Road, London N7 9DP, UK

Printed edition distributed to the trade in the USA by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution The Keg House, 34 Thirteenth Avenue NE, Suite 101, Minneapolis, MN 55413-1007

Text copyright © 2011 Kairen Cullen

The author has asserted her moral rights.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Typeset in Avenir by Marie Doherty

About the author

Dr Kairen Cullen is a chartered psychologist who trained as an educational psychologist and achieved a PhD at the Institute of Education, University of London. She has worked independently and in Local Education Authority contexts for over 30 years and has provided applied psychology services to schools and the community in a range of fields including education, health, sport and the media. She was chair of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology, British Psychological Society (BPS) in 2002 and continues to contribute actively to the work of the Society through media and consultation work. She has written for a number of academic and educational publications including the Times Educational Supplement and 5 to 7 and Childcare magazines.

Author’s note

It’s important to note that there is much frequently-used research employed in child psychology. Where I know the source I have been sure to reference it, but my apologies here to the originators of any material if I have overlooked them.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

About the author

Author’s note

INTRODUCTION

1. The reasons behind this book

2. What is a child?

3. What is psychology?

4. Applied psychology practice

COGNITIVE THEORY

5. Piaget

6. Vygotsky

7. Cognitivist Theory

8. Information-Processing Theory

9. Neuropsychology

PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORY

10. Freud

11. Theories of child and parent relationship, including Attachment Theory

12. Lifespan Psychology

13. Personal Construct (Kellyian) Theory

BEHAVIOURISM

14. Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Theory

15. Skinner’s Instrumental/Operant Conditioning Theory

16. Social Learning Theory

HUMANISM

17. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs

18. Rogerian Theory

19. Adlerian Theory

OTHER IMPORTANT THEORIES

20. Social Psychology

21. Ecological Systems Theory

APPLICATIONS OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

22. Assessment

23. Therapeutic work

FINAL POINTS

24. Parenting and caring

25. Summary

References

INTRODUCTION

1. The reasons behind this book

Everyone needs to understand children better, and so most people will find the ideas in this book useful.

A policy which gives priority to investment in children would give practical recognition to the fact that they are the seed-corn of the future. Their development determines the fabric of tomorrow’s society.

Mia Kellmer-Pringle

You may be wondering: ‘Will this book help me to “psychologize” my child?’

The answer is a definite no. We live in very psychological times. Turn on the television, the internet, the radio, or open a magazine or newspaper, and I guarantee you will read, see or hear something of a psychological nature very quickly. Most people use some amateur psychology, but this is very different to the work of a professional psychologist who, along with many years of study and supervised professional practice, must always try to work with objectivity, neutrality and scientific rigour. Actually, there are many areas of psychological theory that use the idea that we are all psychologists in our own lives, and I will be explaining more about that later.

In the following pages there are many activities and exercises to help you get a firm grasp of the ideas presented. Some of them may be fun and safe to try out with your own children, and if this is the case the book will make this clear. One of the major complications of studying and researching children is that it’s not acceptable to do anything that could in any way harm the child’s well-being, and so it’s always important to err on the side of caution. For this reason, many of the activities must be done with an imaginary child. It might help to start reading this book with your imaginary child in mind, and perhaps the one you can create most easily will be the one that was once you!

This book will offer some ideas that will help you to understand children better. People are complex and children are perhaps even more so, as they by definition are learning, developing and changing constantly and rapidly. Add to this the fact that each child’s situation and history is unique, and it’s obvious that the better equipped you are to understand, the more likely you are to be able to contribute something useful and to help support the child’s learning and development. Fortunately – or maybe unfortunately, depending on your perspective – there’s no recipe book or manual for helping a child become a healthy, functional and happy adult person, but there are many well-theorized and well-researched ideas that psychology can offer in doing the best job possible – and most are ones you will recognize from everyday life, as the renowned paediatrician Benjamin Spock acknowledges in his book on child development and parenting: ‘You know more than you think you do.’

One word of caution, though: there are certain problematic issues that can arise in a child’s learning, development and/or behaviour, which require the input of appropriately qualified professionals. If the child’s overall development, well-being and/or health is significantly different to that of the majority of other children in their age group, and is causing concern, it’s important to seek advice. The family doctor and/or the child’s teacher are generally good starting points for getting this help. Even the best-equipped and most knowledgeable parents and carers need professional support at times.

I think that, as for most aspects of the complex human world, supporting the development, learning and behaviour of children is best viewed as a continuous, everyday problem-solving or solution-producing process. To take part in this process with vitality and realistic optimism requires considerable energy and stamina, to say nothing of confidence. When I was a parent of four young children I would have liked to have heard this perspective rather than the usual ‘this is the approach/method/package that will answer all of your questions and solve any problems regardless of your situation, resources or history’. I am hoping that this small book on child psychology will offer something different: some fresh, accessible and useful ideas that readers can draw upon in their involvement with their unique children.

2. What is a child?

The main aim of child psychology is to help us know how best to raise and care for our children. This is an ambitious aim, as so many factors and processes have to be taken into account and there is so much individual variation in the rate at which children develop and mature. The logical starting point is to define what is meant by the term ‘child’. Try this for yourself and just jot down your definition of a child. Ask others you meet today the same question. By the end of the day you will probably have noted quite a few different points. Some of these may reflect the view that a child is simply a miniature adult, a prevalent view until relatively recent times. Others may relate to children’s early stage in human development, highlighting the things a child cannot do. Then you may have other viewpoints that children have some special, albeit temporary gifts and strengths, quite distinct from those of adults.

Can we simply use the legal definition, i.e. number of years lived? If it’s merely a matter of being below or above the age of majority, then that’s relatively straightforward and definitions of the term ‘child’ should be consistent across time and also different parts of the world. However, we know, at a common sense level, that this is an inadequate definition that doesn’t take into account the wide variety of levels of maturity, independence and responsibility that some under-18-year-olds exhibit. Is it to do with the child’s ability, skills and knowledge, or maybe their level of understanding? Erik Erikson, a famous psychologist who has developed a theory of understanding human development over the entire life-span and whose work we will look at specifically in a later chapter, reminds us of the added complication of sexual maturity:

With the establishment of a good relationship to the world of skills and tools, and with the advent of sexual maturity, childhood proper comes to an end.

Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society, 1950

Perhaps the key to defining childhood lies in the child’s role and place in the family and their degree of dependency on older family members? In the developed western world it’s relatively uncommon for under-18s to be supporting families through paid employment or to be caring for very young children or unwell and/or elderly relatives. In fact, it’s actually the case that financial dependency on parents carries on long past the late teens for an increasing number of families. This is not reflected in all parts of the world, though, and child psychology recognizes that social, cultural and environmental influences play a major part in the way in which we define a child and the way in which theory is developed and research on children is undertaken.

What do you think of this idea?

The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he is born.

W.R. Inge, The Observer, 21 July 1929

Do you agree that historical and social factors are responsible for the way a child behaves, feels and thinks?

And what about this idea:

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment, and especially on their children, than the unlived life of their parents.

Carl Jung (1875–1961), Paracelsus

Are the hopes, wishes and expectations of the parents such a major factor in the child’s development, in your experience?

The quiz that follows has been designed to show the importance of the ideas you hold about childhood in your parenting and work with children. Research across the world has identified some very different child-rearing practices of mothers with infants. These are listed in column 1. Try to match each example with the countries listed in column 2.

Child-rearing practices

Country

1. Teaching rather than play, as play is seen as unnecessary and inappropriate.

A. India

2. Constant skin-to-skin contact between mothers and infants, including sleeping together.

B. New Zealand – Maori

3. Largely facial and verbal communication with child rather than hand displays.

C. Japan

4. Daily massage of infants.

D. America

5. Limited tickling and lap-bouncing.

E. Kenya

6. Little face-to-face interaction between mother and infant.

F. Mexico

7. The mother’s main aim is to achieve a calm and easily cared-for child, and so all emotional arousal is discouraged.

G. New Guinea

1 – F In research with low-income Mexican mothers, the emphasis on work, i.e. the serious nature of life and the frivolous nature of play, was apparent in the mothers’ focus on useful instruction rather than play with their babies.

2 – C Japanese babies are viewed as being separate, essentially unconnected beings at birth and the mother’s primary role is to socialize and create strong interpersonal connections between herself and the baby. The commonly perceived Japanese tendency to conformism and group membership is seen by some as another aspect of this view.

3 – D In this example the social communication style of adult Americans is highlighted in the way in which mothers communicate with their infants.

4 – B The effect of cultural traditions of a baby’s birthplace on the child’s development is demonstrated in the Maori daily ritual of massage.

5 – A Indian parents tend to engage in games such as ‘Peek-a-Boo!’ rather than whole-body games. This may reflect different aims within early child-rearing practices, i.e. greater emphasis on cognitive development (perception, thinking and learning) than on physical development.

6 – G The babies of New Guinea mothers are encouraged from the start to face away from their mothers and to interact with others. This is necessary as New Guinea families tend to live communally and the mother–child unit is viewed as secondary to the group membership.

7 – E Kenyan mothers must return to their work in the fields as quickly as possible after the birth of their babies, and so the priority is to raise affable, placid babies, whom others can easily care for in the mother’s absence.

An awareness of the many different views of what is normal for children and for parents and the influence of different cultures and living situations is important. It also contributes to an understanding of the nature/nurture debate: which factors and qualities are innate to the child, or genetic, and which come from their experience of the places and situations into which they are born and live? As you will discover, much child psychology theory and research has contributed to this debate, and neither side looks likely to win! Child psychology reflects a nature and nurture standpoint rather than nature or nurture, and it has influenced many government-funded national projects to support children’s development and well-being, for example the American ‘Headstart’ and the UK’s ‘Sure Start’ pre-school enrichment programmes.

3. What is psychology?

Psychology: the science that tells you what you already know in words you don’t understand and gives you ideas you wish you could have thought of on your own.

Anon.

Psychology is all about understanding and studying human minds and behaviour, and child psychology focuses on children and their development.

Many theories and associated approaches and methods for the study of psychology have developed and continue to evolve, and it’s not unusual for a new theory to be proclaimed as the best and only theory worth using. History teaches us to be wary, for in the course of psychology’s relatively short existence, a number of claims of this type have been made for major psychological theories. These ‘grand theories’, as they are known, include behaviourism, psychoanalytical, humanist and cognitive approaches, and they can usually be detected in the theoretical frameworks available today. It would be true to say that each time a theoretical framework rises in popularity, another one develops and may be viewed as a more useful and appropriate framework for its time.

In this wide and complex field of enquiry no single theory or approach can claim to have all the answers. Every theory, by definition, generates better understanding and insight and subsequently more complex theory. George Kelly, to whom a chapter is devoted later in the book, brought a blend of psychoanalytical and cognitivist theory together, to create his Personal Construct Theory. The following quote sums up a useful and useable approach to the question of ‘What is theory?’

A theory may be considered a way of binding together a multitude of facts so that one may comprehend them all at once. When the theory enables us to make reasonably precise predictions, one may call it scientific … our anticipations of daily events, whilst not scientifically precise nevertheless surround our lives with an aura of meaning. A theory provides a basis for an active approach to life, not merely a comfortable armchair to contemplate its vicissitudes with detached complaisance.

George Kelly

It’s doubtful that many parents take the ‘armchair’ approach to parenting in a literal sense. Children generally make this impossible! In terms of developing their own unique theories of parenting – and I genuinely believe this is what all parents do, albeit mainly at an unconscious level – the majority of parents are active and creative. This book will hopefully contribute more material for this everyday theory-making. At this point it will be helpful to consider some aspects of each of the major theoretical approaches and see how these ideas might look in reality.

Behaviourist

View of human beings

Research methods

Criticisms

1. All human behaviour is learnt through experience in the real world, i.e. through trying things out; and if the result is rewarding, doing more of it, and if not, doing less of it.

1. Only observable and measurable behaviours are investigated.

1. Seen as reducing humans to physical organisms with no ‘inner’ emotional and/or mental aspects.

2. Learning in animals and humans happens in the same way, i.e. as explained in 1. above.

2. Findings from animal experimentation are seen as being directly relevant to humans.

2. Humans and animals cannot be compared or seen as sharing the same drives and behaviours.

3. Mental or emotional aspects viewed as unimportant in determining the person’s actions.

3. Mental or emotional processes, which cannot be measured or controlled, cannot be part of scientific enquiry.

3. Just because you can’t measure an aspect of human behaviour, this doesn’t justify dismissing its usefulness.

Pure behaviourist theory is based on the idea that humans do more of a certain type of behaviour if they get rewarded for it, or less if they are punished in some way, just like a pigeon pecking a lever harder and more often when it releases a seed, or a child not touching a hot radiator when s/he gets burnt from doing so.

Think of your imaginary child and imagine if the very first time they met a dog, it was a particularly large and angry specimen that barked and growled ferociously at them. In behaviourist theory, this child’s experience has resulted in them learning that dogs are aggressive and frightening and make them feel unsafe. If the child has no further, more positive contact with dogs, or has other, similarly threatening experiences, it’s possible that an extreme anxiety condition or even a phobia of dogs could result. A psychologist using a purely behavioural approach would attempt to reduce the child’s associations between dogs and these difficult feelings by ‘exposing’ them, in a gradual and controlled manner, to other dogs that are friendly and not threatening and enabling them to actually have enjoyable, happy experiences. This way the child would have new information that can balance out and reduce the previous negative experience. They can then learn that only some dogs that behave in certain ways are to be feared, and can shape their own behaviour accordingly.

Psychoanalytical

View of human beings

Research methods

Criticisms

1. Human behaviour is mainly controlled by subconscious associations and inner processes.

1. Undertaken as individual therapy over time.

1. Lacking in rigour and structure that can be replicated by other researchers.

2. The early life of the infant is the time when these associations and processes develop.

2. Emphasis on processes rather than measurable and easily described behaviour.

2. Analyst is viewed as lacking in necessary objectivity.

3. People develop psychological defences in order to deal with problematic situations, events and relationships.

3. Main goal of psychoanalytical enquiry is to bring together the individual’s inner life and behaviour in order to achieve well-being.

3. Psychoanalysis takes a long time and is costly.

Psychoanalytical theory recommends that people should spend many hours, often on a couch, telling their therapist about their earliest memories, dreams and deepest fears, so that they can feel better now.

Think of your imaginary child and imagine that they have woken in a distressed state, having had a bad dream about being bitten by a wild bear. A purely psychoanalytical approach would involve talking for a long time with the child, if they were old enough, over many sessions, and encouraging them to express their feelings and to make connections with situations and experiences in their real life (as opposed to their imaginary dream life). The ‘treatment’ might also use play and drawing activities to aid the process.

Humanist

View of human beings

Research methods

Criticisms

1. Human behaviour is largely driven by the need to belong, to achieve, and to have some control.

1. The emphasis is on people’s perspectives and the sense that they make of their experience in the world.

1. Does not take the real world into account, e.g. financial and political aspects.

2. Sees humans as complex and unique individuals.

2. The researcher as a person is viewed as a part of any enquiry, and their perspective and beliefs need to be accounted for.

2. Lack of objectivity and need for practical application.

3. The meaning-making of people is seen as more important than objective, observable behaviour.

3. Each person’s view of the world is unique, and no comparison with others, or value judgement, is placed.

3. Most extreme behaviours and mental health problems are hard to understand in this approach.

In humanist theory, the researcher is the audience for each person’s special production of ‘This is how I see the world’ and should listen, watch and applaud.

Think of your imaginary child and imagine that they are experiencing problems with other children at school, feeling left out and unpopular. The psychologist using a purely humanist approach would try to find lots of affirming activities and talk to give the child more positive self-esteem. They would listen very carefully and attempt to understand in a non-judgemental way the child’s story. They might share their own experiences in a relevant way if they considered this could be helpful. They would work to equip the child with skills and expectations that supported friendship with other children.

Cognitive

View of human beings

Research methods

Criticisms

1. Human behaviour can be made sense of in information-processing terms, i.e. in a similar way to a computer.

1. Cognitive research aims to understand the rules by which people act.

1. The amount of information to be taken into account is potentially enormous.

2. People act with purpose according to the information they have.

2. The researcher suggests a complex set of rules or ideas, known as a schema, and tests their ideas out by collecting evidence that shows whether the schema is accurate or not.

2. Much of the research must be done on the basis of guesswork and prediction.

3. Learning happens as feedback is received from the behaviour choices that a person makes.

3. All research is carried out in the belief that human behaviour is logical and structured according to rules.

3. Research can generally focus only on information available in the here and now.

Cognitive theory is concerned with perception, thinking, learning and problem-solving. It views human behaviour like a complex computer, and research is designed to crack the code and system by which the computer works.

Think of your imaginary child and imagine that they are experiencing difficulties with learning about number. A psychologist using a purely cognitive approach would focus on the information-processing aspects of their learning, i.e. the information available to them about number, their understanding of the concept of number, the rules for application of this concept, their storage and processing capacities, and their recall and use of this understanding and learning. They would consider the child’s age and developmental level in relation to how such information was presented, and the types of information and ways of using it that were made available. For example, children of nursery age generally need lots of concrete, hands-on information about number such as counting activities with actual objects. The psychologist would work with the child and with the adults responsible for supporting the child’s learning, such as parents, carers and nursery staff.

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