In: Psychology
-You were introduced to several theoretical perspectives of child psychology: psychoanalytic, cognitive, social, and behavioral. Which theory do you believe is the most valid theory for explaining child development, and why?
-A young child comes to therapy sessions with a child psychologist because he expresses anger and frustration on a regular basis over the slightest inconvenience and often throws temper tantrums. Using the theory that you chose above, explain how a child psychologist with your chosen theoretical perspective would understand this child's anger. How would the psychologist explain the child's anger, and what kind of treatment would they recommend?
In my opinion, psychosocial development theory of Erik Erikson is more appropriate and explains development in a more holistic way. One of the most important reasons is that it brings out individual development while at the same time the necessary social factors that would influence the development. It also brings out the importance of the issues that people would face in later stages, if they are not able to accomplish the previous stage successfully.
One of the most important stages in psychosocial development is trust vs mistrust which is the first stage in which children learn to trust their environment and navigate happily in that environment. However, it would require the parental care, motivation, guidance and help in terms of building that trust. Parents who are not able to build this trust wouldn’t be able to develop confidence and trust in their children. So, parents should spend quality time accepting, appreciating and helping the child. Second stage in this development autonomy vs shame is also very important because if children do not learn to do things on their own, they would feel ashamed which would make them frustrated and make them angry. So, helping the children learn things while also supporting those actions would help them to accept their environment happily.
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