social emotional development
Running head: social emotional development
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Is Social -Emotional Development Continuous or Discontinuous?
Social emotional development is discontinuous as per the psycho-social development which is articulated by Erik Erikson. This means that social emotional development involves separate distinct stages with different behavior patterns being portrayed at each stage. This means that the development of certain behaviors in a certain stage, such as the specific emotions have definite starting and also ending point. This theory explains eight stages. Each stage helps on the completion of the earlier stages successfully.
The first change in social emotional development that supports that it’s a discontinuous is portrayed where by the child develops from the first stage where as an infant which is a definite stage 0 to 1 year the he build emotions of trust and mistrust. From this stage the child which is at the definite stage of 2-3 year develops the emotions of autonomy or mistrust or shame. The particular emotions and behaviors are observed at the s particular stages and support the fact that social emotion development is discontinuous. For further explanation we find that a child at the age of 0-1 year’s life centers on its basic infant’s basic needs being provided by the parents. The infant fully depends on the parents, for sustenance, food and comfort. The child’s understanding of world comes from their interaction with the parent. If the parents give the child affection, its view of the world will be trust and when the parents don’t provide a secure environment the view of the world is mistrust. The second stage Will of which is Autonomy versus Shame & Doubt develops to Toddlers of 2 to 3 years. The infants begin to explore their surroundings as they gain control over eliminative functions and motor abilities. Parents still provide a strong base of security which the child can use to assert its will. Encouragement and patience by the parent helps in fostering autonomy in the child. Parents who are highly restrictive are more likely to instill a sense of doubt and reluctance to the child. As child gains increased mobility, they are they start satisfying some of their own needs. They start to wash dress and feed themselves. Children then develop a sense of autonomy if people taking care of them encourage self-sufficient behavior and are thus able to handle many problems that come their way on their own. if people giving them care demand to much in a less period of time and don’t let to let the toddlers perform tasks of which they are capable, or even when they ridicule attempts of self-sufficiency, toddlers instead develop doubt and shame about their capability to handle problems. Such distinct stages, which are portrayed by different behaviors patterns, at distinct periods of time, show that social emotional developments are discontinuous.
However the are behavior changes with the stages that are continuous and thus making social emotional development. For example the attachment theory which was articulated by psychoanalys and psychiatrist, John Bowlby describes the dynamics of a long-term relationship between humans such as in families and life-long friends. One of its important tenets is that a child needs to develop a relationship with at least one person giving primary care to it for social and emotional development to occur normally. Further relationship affect the on the patterns of behavior. Thus if the relation ship led to a gradual development of social emotional behaviors it means that they didn’t develop on stages. In this case it al about how the relationship causes the pattern of behaviors to develop in an infant. This is like saying that it’s not definite that the relationships with an infant will cause a particular behavior at a particular stage. Although there are stages which have been have been identified with certain behaviors such stages can be ignored since they give a range of time no an exact time. For example the first stage explained by Erik Erikson in his theory give a range of 0-1 years which of course is not a definite period. This has occurred throughout his theory and giving a number of years to range a stage rather that taking one specific year to identify with a behavior change show that the development cannot be said to have specific stage thus it can be either continuous or discontinuous under the same circumstances.
REFERENCES
Shaffer. D. (2008) Social and Personality Development. United States. Cengage Learning, 2008
Barnes. P. (1995) Personal, social, and emotional development of children Edt 2. New York. Wiley-Blackwell.
