Choose a problem parents/teachers may have with a child and discuss it from diff

Question

Choose a problem parents/teachers may have with a child and discuss it from different theoretical perspectives

For example, one mother wrote to an advice column that her 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter was sleeping in the parents’ bed every night. This began soon after the child was born, and the mother found that it was easy to breastfeed in the bed while her husband worked the night shift. When his work schedule changed, they wanted the daughter to sleep in her own bed, but were unsuccessful in achieving this. Another example: a 3-year-old boy in his first year of preschool, refuses to share his toys with other children. He always grabs what he wants and screams and hits when something is taken away. He does not respond to the teacher's lessons about sharing. Other problems to explore might include: nail-biting, bed-wetting, school phobia, etc.

In four separate statements, please describe what a psychoanalytic theorist, a behaviorist, a Piagetian cognitive theorist, and a researcher from Bronfenbrenner's bioecological perspective would say about the causes of a child's undesirable behaviorand how to remedy it. (For the psychoanalytic theory, you can discuss either from Freud’s view or from Erikson’s view; for the behaviorist perspective, you can discuss either from the traditional behaviorist's view or from Bandura's view).

Explanation / Answer

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary. Also, you haven’t mentioned the issue that you would like to talk about and so I have picked one of my own.

(Answer) John is a 4-year-old boy who has a new baby sister at home. Ever since the little sister was born, John does not like to share his toys with other children. He tends to cry whenever his parents make him share.

Behavioural analysis: Bandura believed that human cognition and human behaviour constantly share information with each other. This is why our behaviour is influenced by our thoughts. The child perhaps has thoughts of this things becoming lesser than they used to be. Just like the attention, he gets from his parents is now lesser than it used to be with the arrival of the child. This is why the child’s cognition is causing him to be selfish and possessive.

psychoanalytic theorist – Considering that Freud suggested that an individual’s repressed thoughts need to be realised, analysed and solved, it would be essential to talk to the child. In-depth communication would allow the child to realise why he is actually being selfish. Perhaps the child is possessive of their things because they fear that just like the parents’ time is now divided among two children, the belongings also would be split up.

behaviourist –

Piagetian cognitive theorist – Jean Piaget suggested that the levels of development in an individual are physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualisation. Considering that these qualities are attained step-by-step, the child has not yet learnt about being compassionate or sympathetic towards others. Therefore, the child does not want to share simply because the child is not developed to the progressive stages as yet.

Bronfenbrenner's bioecological perspective – According to this theory, a child’s behaviour is determined by a mixture of their innate personality and their external environment. Based on this, the analysis would be that the child’s innate personality is generally selfish in nature. This selfish nature has been evoked by the arrival of the new sibling. In this way, the child’s desire to not share has been influenced by the innate selfishness and the external factor of having a new sibling.

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