Developmental Psychology Essay Sample

Hall and Child Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology refers to a scientific approach that looks to explain the manner in which children and adults change over a period. A significant proportion of theories on this subject concentrates on the development in the lives of children, as this is the period during a person's lifespan when the most change takes place. This paper is going to give valuable insights on what characterizes child development and psychology.

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Hall coupled together education and genetic psychology. The school of thought that Hall is hailed for is his hypothesis regarding recapitulation. Better known as "ontogeny summarizes phylogeny". This ideology gives an explanation that each and every child goes through alterations in both the somatic and psychic wits that fall in line with the development range of the mind and the body. Hall had a conviction that all pre-adolescent kids go through mental growth at its best when it is not coerced to follow restrictions, but as an alternative to go through the steps of development in the most liberal of ways (Friedman &Scholnick, 2014). Hall had a psychic strong belief that before the time a child became six years or seven years, he or she ought to be able to live through the manner in which one existed in the simian phase of mental and psychological growth. In this developmental stage, the kid would have the chance and capacity to articulate his animal instinct. The child is experiencing growth very fast at this particular point in time, and the mounts of energy from within are very elevated. The child is unable to make good use of his or her reasoning capability, show significance to the subject of religion, or any manner of social perspicacity. By the time a child is eight years of age, he or she ought to be at stage two. This, Hall was very much convinced, is the phase where prescribed learning should start. This is when the brain is at its full weight and size. It is deemed very normal at this stage for a youngster to be unkind and impolite to his or her friends at this exacting stage for the logic dexterity are not yet matured. All the same, it is worth saying that at this stage a child should not have to deal with moralizing ideas or conflicts, his/hers is not yet ready at this stage. The physical health of the child is most important at this stage.

In the adolescent stage, a child now has a rebirth into a sexed life. Hall affirmed that at this particular point, there should no longer be coeducation; children from both sexes cannot optimally learn and realize everything out of the lessons in the presence of the opposite sex. And this is the moment true education can start. The child, at this point, is very much ready to understand and deal with moral issues such as love, kindness, and service to humanity. Reasoning capacity starts to develop, but are not yet very strong. Hall, in his school of thought in child developmental psychology, affirmed that the high school ought to be a place similar to a people's college such that it can take much more of a closing for those who would not be going on with their tutoring to the next stage (Frye & Moore, 2014).

Children, Instincts, and the Environment

Drawing invaluable insights from Hall's school of thoughts, we gather that children are driven more by instincts for the most of their developmental stages as opposed to them being a product of their environments. In a nutshell, what Hall means to say is that unlike adults who are influenced by normative social constructs, children are not moved by normative social constructs. In essence, normative social constructs are environmental factors. To prove that children are not influenced by environmental factors, Hall stated that at a tender age children do not take seriously matters revolving around religion, love, and service to others. In a nutshell, drawing from the theory that Hall affirmed and with which I chose to frame my personal thoughts on child development, children are most strongly driven by instincts, and they are not products of their Environments (Shaffer &Kipp, 2013).

Looking at the main assumptions of Hall's ideologies on child psychological development, children actively take part in shaping their characters. What's more, the role of parents, teachers and other agents of society cannot be overlooked. What is true is that teachers, parents and myriad societal agents play a secondary role when it comes to the psychological development of children. Concerning matters revolving around children that develop to adolescents and later present with disorders; what can be said of them is that physical or mental trauma occurred. In their developmental stages, children should not have to deal with moralizing ideas or conflicts since they are not ready at this stage. The physical health of the child is most important at this stage.

If we were to link child development psychology with Hall's school of thought, we would learn that maturation in children ought to be tracked, giving way to the deeper provocation of thoughts only when the physical aspect of growth materializes into completion, did not greatly influence matters of education. At the very time, he gave the lead for future scholars like Piaget.

References

Friedman, S. L., &Scholnick, E. K. (2014). The developmental psychology of planning: Why, how, and when do we plan?. Psychology Press.

Frye, D., & Moore, C. (2014). Children's theories of mind: Mental states and social understanding. Psychology Press.

Shaffer, D. R., &Kipp, K. (2013). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence. Cengage Learning.