ASSESSMENT - Child Development Theories

Overview - Write 3 pages applying child development theories to a personal event or issue and explaining the research methods used in child development.

Context

From studying the impact of poverty on an infant's learning to investigating peer pressure in fifth-grade children, research plays a pivotal role in helping us understand the factors that most impact children's growth and development. It is important to consider the many inherent challenges in conducting research with children, including topics such as ethical considerations, the need for parental consent, the requirement for child assent, and the many logistical issues encountered when working with such young participants.

Assessment Instructions

Write a 3 page well-developed paper in which you address the following. Because you will be describing a personal event or issue, it is appropriate to write in first person in your paper.

Briefly describe an event or issue that you or someone you know experienced during childhood. The event could be divorce of parents, moving to a new neighborhood, learning to read or ride a bike, birth of a sibling, et cetera.

Choose two theories and briefly summarize the main ideas of the theories. Theories to choose from may include:

Psychoanalytic Perspective.
Behaviorism and Social Learning Theory.
Piaget's Cognitive-Development Theory.
Information Processing.
Ethology and Evolutionary Developmental Psychology.
Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory.
Ecological Systems Theory.
Dynamic Systems Perspective.

Apply the ideas from the two theories you summarized to explain the actions surrounding the event you described.

Describe how the theories helped you gain an understanding of child development.

Explain how longitudinal or cross-sectional approaches to research help us understand events and issues in child development.

Use in-text citations and appropriate concepts from your research.