Week 8: Elliott: Mooney review

In week 8 we were to read chapters 1-5 in the Mooney text. I found the theory of Jean Piaget quite interesting.  Piaget was a scientist born in Switzerland who published his first paper at the age od eleven! ( Mooney,59). I found this quote in the text on page 59 very interesting,” Although Piaget is frequently referred to as a psychologist, he was really an epistemologist. “ An epistemologist is a person who studies the nature and beginning of knowledge.  Piaget was interested in how children know what they know.  Piaget’s theory stated that a child’s interactions with the environment are what create learning. 

Other psychologists of Piaget’s time believed that learning is either intrinsic which means it comes from the child or extrinsic which means it is imposed by the environment or taught by adults.  Piaget’s theory was that it was a child’s interactions with the environment are what created learning.  He said that children create their own knowledge by the meaning of the people, places, and things in their world.

According to Piaget there are 4 stages of cognitive development.  Beginning at birth to 18 months the child is experiencing the sensorimotor stage.  This is when the child is learning though their senses and reflexes. From 18 months to 6 years old the child is in the preoperational stage of cognitive development. During this time the child is learning based on their perceptions. The child is very egocentric at this point in their life. From 6 years old until 16 years old we are in the concrete operational stage of development.  Now the child is forming ideas bases on reasoning.  Finally from the age of 12 until death we are in the formal operational stage of cognitive development. Now we are able to think conceptually and hypothetically.  

I can relate to this theory because I babysit a lot. I can see how this theory can be true. When the baby is learning through reactions in the first stage they are becoming aware of the noises their toys make. At first the baby is startled by the sound of it when they shake it but once they learn that it makes noise when they shake it them they will continue to do it. This also reminds me of when I would play peek a boo with my cousins baby. This relates to the theory because at first she did not understand that I was just covering my face with the blanket, after playing for awhile she understood that she could lift the blanket off of me and I would be under it.

Week 7: Elliott: Chapter 12 reflection

In chapter 12 of the Lifesmart text, the topic is about death spirituality. At first I wasn't excited to read this chapter, I thought it would be super depressing and sad.  After reading the chapter I realized that although death is not the happiest subject to talk about, I learned some interesting facts.  I was surprised by the statistics found on page 280, the statement "In the United States, the mortality rate has declined from 17 per 1,000 people in 1900 to 8 people per 1,000 in 2004."  This was shocking to read, I know that we have had many medical advances and people are living longer sine the 1900's but learning about the difference in numbers of deaths was interesting.

I was also interested in the four types of death. I didn't know that death could be defined in multiple ways. Clinical death is defined when breathing and heartbeat have stopped. The text on page 281 of the Lifesmart text says that CPR can save and individual  from clinical death. The next type of death explained in the text is brain death. This type of death is when the cortex and midbrain cease functioning. (Lifesmart,282)  Next is biological death, this was interesting because it occurs when it is no longer possible to discern an electrical charge in the tissues of the heart and lungs. This causing permanent end of all life functions. Social death was an interestinf concept to me, this is when the person is treated as if they are dead but they are biologically alive. 

Week 6: Elliott: Chapter 9 reflection

Chapter 9 in the Lifesmart text covered early adulthood. I found it interesting to learn about when adolescence ends and adulthood begins. In the text on page 208, I like the way that they explain that adolescence is distinguished by physical changes and adulthood is marked by social and cultural changes. This made it easier for me to understand when humans switch from adolescence into adulthood. 

A lot of information was covered in the early adulthood stages of life. Many changes are happening this time period. The topic of initiation into adulthood was brought up in the text. This was something I had not realized was such a big factor to consider in developing into adulthood. It seems that around the world different cultures initiate adolescents into adulthood. As people emerge into adulthood there are many factors to considered. Depending on the persons religious and cultural views or their social and economic status.  In the Jewish culture boys and girls have a bar/bat mitzvah ceremony when they are 13 years old to initiate them into adulthood, in today’s society 13 years old is not considered to be an adult but years ago this age may have been one third of a person’s life. ( Lifesmart, 208) 

In my life I was considered to be an adult when I turned 18 years old. Although I was working and paying some of my own bills before this age, when I turned 18 years old I gained much more responsibility. I still lived in my mothers home but now I had to pay some of the bills to help her out. I was responsible to pay for my own college tuition, this was definitely a turning point in my life when I grew into adult life. 

Week Five: Elliott: Reflection on chapter 8

In chapter 8 of the Lifesmart text they cover the very touchy subject of adolescence. Adolescence is a very hard subject for people of all ages to discuss. It is difficult for young adults to go though this stage in life and it is also difficult for their parents/adult figures to talk about the changes that they will be going through. Although the changes that happen during adolescence are completely normal and happen to everyone, these changes such as: developing your sexual identity, going through puberty, and physical development make people uncomfortable to discuss.

I was interested in the two of the different theories of the psychologists that were covered on page 194 of the Lifesmart text. In Erik Erikson's psychologic theory adolescence is the fifth stage of development.  I really agree with the statement, " The main task is to achieve a state of identity, something to which on strives, rather that a final,definitive identity." ( Lifesmart, 194).  I think this is a great outlook on adolescence. I believe so many young adults struggle with identity at this age. They are trying so hard to find out where they fit in and where they should be going for the rest of their lives. I think this shows that Erikson believes that adolescents should try to focus on finding an identity that is appropriate for their age and allows them to develop their own personal values without being forced into an identity that is not what they believe in.

James Marcia's theory stresses two important factors in developing ones identity: crisis and commitment.   He says that the person must undergo several crises relating to choice. Then they must decide to commit to these choices. (Lifesmart, 194) I can personally relate to this idea when I was  an adolescent I remember trying to make the decision if I really wanted to follow my Catholic upbringing. My friends and I would discuss our religions and I can remember being curious about other religions. One of my good friends started bringing me to her Christian church and later to Christian bible camp. Although Catholics are Christians there were many beliefs and ideas that were much different from what I was taught as a child. I was interested in her churches ideas and I had to make the choice to change my beliefs.

Week four: Elliott: Reflection

After reading chapter 6 in the Lifesmart text, I found the different types of parenting styles on page 142, to be interesting. I was drawn to this because of a conversation I had recently with one of my clients,Tony  who was talking to me about how his girlfriend is raising her children and how he does not agree with her style of parenting. She uses permissive parenting, she rarely punishes he children for bad behavior. The kids are very disrespectful to her and other adults. Tony would like to step in and be a father figure and try to help parent her children but he would use a much different style of parenting. He would be an authoritarian parent. He believes that the adult should make all of the decisions and the child should have complete respect for their elders. 

In chapter 7 of the Lifesmart text I was interested to learn more about attention disorders. On page 160 they explain Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) as a common diagnosis for children who are easily distracted, seem to fidget, and have a hard time focusing.  This is a very common disorder that I have heard about for years. People talk about ADHD and ADD very often. I never really thought of this to be a serious condition until I started working at the Special Rec. center and I met a participant that has severe ADHD, although medication can help him a bit, he can not focus on anything for longer than a few minutes and is very hyperactive. Since meeting him I realized that this is much more serious that I had thought it was. Like the text on page 160 says, medication helps as well as a strict behavioral plan. To help him stay calm he focuses his energy on crossword puzzles, he can finish a whole book in one day.  

Week Three:Elliott: Reflection on Chapters 3-5

Week three's readings really caught my attention. It's very interesting to learn about how human life begins. I was drawn to many of the facts in the chapters. From the first few sentences of chapter 3 ,on page 55, I was fascinated to learn that at conception we were smaller than the size of the period at the end of this sentence. After learning that the genotype is our genetic makeup that cannot be seen by the naked eye I started to think about the traits that I have inherited from each of my parents. The phenotype, or observable traits that I inherited like my hair and eye color I believe are more from my dad. The statement on page 55 of the Lifesmart text,"When you look around a room full of people,it may appear that everyone is vastly different from each other,but the amount of genetic material shared between human beings is astounding - approximately 99.1%". This is so interesting to me, I would have imagined it would have been much more considering everything from height,weight,hair color,skin color, eye color, etc.  

After Reading about the different types of hereditary disorders I made a connection to my life because I volunteer at a facility for adults with special needs. Many of the participants have Down syndrome, learning more about how this disorder began from the start will help me to better understand the characteristics of their disability.

On page 119, I read an interesting point of view on whether language is a biological,innate ability that all humans possess or if it is learned through interactions in the environment. I had never really thought about this before but after reading this I was interested in what people believe about this idea. I believe that environment plays a huge role in the development of language. I think that the more books and language support material a child has the better the development of their language will be. I think that we may pick up some biological abilities that my help with language development like being able to speak multiple languages or being able to read quickly.

There were many interesting facts in chapters 3-5 in the Lifesmart text. I am excited to see what we will learn about lifespan development in the stages after infancy.

Week Two:Elliott: Reflection on Chapter 2

After reading chapter 2 of the Lifesmart text, I gained a better understanding as to why we study so many different theories.  Before reading the chapter, I felt that it wasn't too important to learn about all of the different theories because none of them can be proven. There are many different theorists in this chapter that express different ideas. I enjoyed reading about how they each believe humans develop. Overall whether their theories are true or not I believe it is important to study their work. 

One major reason I found studying theories to be important is that it helps to explain how findings may be interpreted.  On page 28 of the Lifesmart text, Fiore states that studying theories is important to help explain how findings may be interpreted because they offer a detailed guide that leads us to decide which facts are important and what conclusions we can draw. As stated in the text, " Theories allow people to make predictions about people's behavior." I agree, it is helpful to have statistics to base information off of. This allows us to make more accurate predictions. 

A theorist I found interesting is Sigmund Freud. Fiore says, Sigmund Freud has earned the title "father of modern psychology" Freud's psychoanalytic theory is the belief that we possess powerful ideas and impulses of which we are unaware of but exert a strong influence on our behavior. I agree with Freud's theory, I believe that we all unconsciously express ourselves without even realizing it. I was interested while reading about the Freudian Stages of Development on page 30 of the Lifesmart text. I do not have any children of my own, but I babysit children of all ages. Recently I have been watching a one month old and a sixteen month old. After reading about the stages of development I can relate to seeing the stages of development change as the child grows. As he explains the pleasure center in stage one is the oral cavity, the child's main goal is to eat,bite,and suck. In stage two their main focus is to learn to be toilet trained. I have watched the children that I babysit grow I now realize the importance of these stages of development. 

Another theorist that I enjoyed reading about was B.F. Skinner. He believed that reinforcement is very important. On page 39 of the Lifesmart text Fiore explains that Skinner stressed that consequences of behavior. He used positive and negative reinforcement to make responses more likely and better control behavior. I can relate to this theory because I use positive and negative reinforcement at the adult day program that I volunteer for. I work with adults with special needs. We have to use positive and negative reinforcement to help control their behaviors.  For example, when a participant acts out by swearing or talking negatively to one of their peers/staff members then their consequence is to not be able to participate in fun activities (sports,crafts,cooking, etc.)  This technique seems to work in a positive way, the participants know the expectations and how they are supposed to behave. Knowing that if they follow the rules they will be rewarded helps to teach them how to act appropriately. 

This chapter has given me a better understanding of the different theories of lifespan development. There are certain parts from each theorist that I found to be very interesting. I am excited to learn more about human development.