Changing Conceptions of Childhood

Changing conceptions of childhood  Historical Background  Poverty; high mortality rates  Child abuse common  Norms:  Child labor; child abandonment among poor  17 th & 18 th centuries: philosophers’ visions  John Locke  Humans born a “tabula rasa”  Jean Jacques Rousseau  Infants are innocent  We should lovingly nurture babies  These practices not instituted until early 20 th century

Changing Conceptions of Childhood  Late 19 th Century: kinder, gentler view of children  Childhood protected, dependent life stage  Universal education: primary school mandatory  20 th Century: Adolescence: identified by G. Stanley Hall  Stage of “Storm and Stress” between childhood and adulthood  In the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered high school attendance as mandatory.  Emerging Adulthood: newest life stage  Age 18 to late 20s  Time for personal exploration

JEAN PIAGET 1896 – 1980 ‘GENETIC EPISTEMOLOGY’

COGNITIVE STAGES  Through observation noticed that children make similar errors in cognitive tasks  Mental structures;  Cognitive systems that organize thinking into coherent patterns so that all thinking takes place on the same level of cognitive functioning.  Maturation: Innate biologically based program is the driving force behind development.  In contrast to behaviorists, believed that children also construct their learning.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development  Piagetian key terms:  Schemes-cognitive structure for processing, organizing and interpreting information  Assimilation-new information is altered to fit an existing scheme  Accommodation-changing a scheme to adapt to the new information

Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage  Sensorimotor stage  Composed of 4 substages

Object Permanence  Object permanence -objects continue to exist even when not aware of them  Under 4 months no understanding  4-8 months-some uncertain about existence  8-12 months-Developing awareness  Will still make A not B error

Piaget 

Evaluating Piaget’s Sensorimotor Theory  Criticisms include  Underestimating infants ability especially regarding object permanence  Renee Baillargeon and researchers tested infant abilities using the violation of expectations method. Children look longer in the spot, even though don’t grab for the object there.  Object permanence may reflect memory development  Cultural limitations as well