Alfred is very similar to many three year old boys in Los Angeles. He babbles about what is around him, waddles from place to place, and laughs and cries when appropriate for the environment. As the only child of two relatively young parents in their twenties, Alfred is doted upon hand and foot and is given all the love and affection that a baby would want to receive. Three years of age is time of extreme trial and error for the child as they develop many important processes. Child Development has been studied by many influential psychologists including Erikson and his eight stages to explain the development of identity, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, and Ainsworth and Bowlby’s theories on attachment.
According to Erikson’s eight …show more content…
His theory, which he spent years researching with tests done on his own children, was based on the principle that a person’s maturity level dictated how a certain experience would effect that person. Piaget came up with the theory that there are four major stages of intellectual development. Baby Alfred has passed through the Sensorimotor Stage which is from birth to nearly two years old and is mostly characterized by motor responses to sensory stimuli. The stage that Alfred currently is working through is called the Preoperational Stage and is from two to seven and, as the name suggests, is characterized by lacking operations (reversible mental processes). Alfred sees the world very egocentrically. Every situation is through his own experience and he does not understand that other people have knowledge as well (the theory of mind). Other functions that Alfred has problems with is distinguishing between reality and appearance. Flavell demonstrated in his study (as cited in TEXTBOOK-FIX) that even if a child Alfred’s age were to know that a given ball was white, if put behind a blue filter there is a very strong possibility that that child would no longer be able to distinguish that it is just a filter and that the ball is actually white. Children in the Preoperational Stage also do not understand the concept of …show more content…
John Bowlby believed that attachment is integral to having a sense of security and the ability to cope with stress. Mary Ainsworth found out a way of testing how well attached a given child was. The idea can be applied to any relationship however it began with a mother and babies between a year and a year and a half. By various patterns of taking the parent away, bringing the parent back, and adding and subtracting a stranger to a room the baby was in and observing the baby’s reaction, Ainsworth was able to develop what she called The Strange Situation. Alfred, since he has been given affection since he was born and therefore can be classified as Securely Attached. In the situation a Securely Attached infant interacted with its mother but trusted her enough to come back when she walked out on the
According to Erikson’s eight …show more content…
His theory, which he spent years researching with tests done on his own children, was based on the principle that a person’s maturity level dictated how a certain experience would effect that person. Piaget came up with the theory that there are four major stages of intellectual development. Baby Alfred has passed through the Sensorimotor Stage which is from birth to nearly two years old and is mostly characterized by motor responses to sensory stimuli. The stage that Alfred currently is working through is called the Preoperational Stage and is from two to seven and, as the name suggests, is characterized by lacking operations (reversible mental processes). Alfred sees the world very egocentrically. Every situation is through his own experience and he does not understand that other people have knowledge as well (the theory of mind). Other functions that Alfred has problems with is distinguishing between reality and appearance. Flavell demonstrated in his study (as cited in TEXTBOOK-FIX) that even if a child Alfred’s age were to know that a given ball was white, if put behind a blue filter there is a very strong possibility that that child would no longer be able to distinguish that it is just a filter and that the ball is actually white. Children in the Preoperational Stage also do not understand the concept of …show more content…
John Bowlby believed that attachment is integral to having a sense of security and the ability to cope with stress. Mary Ainsworth found out a way of testing how well attached a given child was. The idea can be applied to any relationship however it began with a mother and babies between a year and a year and a half. By various patterns of taking the parent away, bringing the parent back, and adding and subtracting a stranger to a room the baby was in and observing the baby’s reaction, Ainsworth was able to develop what she called The Strange Situation. Alfred, since he has been given affection since he was born and therefore can be classified as Securely Attached. In the situation a Securely Attached infant interacted with its mother but trusted her enough to come back when she walked out on the