Week 5: Jones: Adolescence

Chapter 8 on Adolescence is a detailed break down of the significant physical, cognitive, social, and sexual development that takes between the ages of 8-16 years old. This chapter talks about the many drastic changes that occur in young adults that can so often be difficult and cause much uncertainty and questioning.

            Working in a high school, I am able to be an eyewitness of much of these adolescent developments taking place everyday. I see the freshman boys enter high school with baby faces and skinny gangly builds. By the time these “boys” return for their junior year, they have facial hair, their voices are deeper, and their bodies are gaining significant muscle mass. This is a general observation I have made of the physical development that takes place in young adolescent males.

            In terms of cognitive development, the section on adolescent egocentrism really stood out to me because I direct a choir composed of 34 high school girls. Adolescent egocentrism is “an adolescent’s tendency to exaggerate the importance, uniqueness, and severity of their social and emotional experiences. Their love is greater than anything others have experience. Their suffering is more painful and unjust than anyone else’s.” (P.192)

 This definition could not be any more accurate. On a daily basis I manage to teach a choir class, while also ducking a dodging the “drama” of the day. Now adolescent egocentrism is present in both males and females, however, in a room of 34 high school girls, you really can’t miss it. I may have a very nonchalant casual tone about this, however, as a male high school teacher teaching a classroom full of adolescent teen girls I have to be very careful and mindful of this developmental stage. As humorous this “teen drama” can be to adults, it is absolutely 100% real to these young people. Adult figures, such as teachers, who interact with adolescents on a daily basis, must be aware and sensitive to these things. Improper treatment or attitude towards these individuals and their situations can have a negative ripple affect on the adolescent’s development, health, and well-being.

            Another very prevalent development I see taking place among the adolescents in our school is that of sexual identity. When students enter high school, you see a few students who have transitioned into having sexual attraction towards those of the opposite sex or the same sex. However, quickly after starting high school, you see many “young love” relationships forming before the end of the first semester. After reading the chapter, I concluded that this rapid change is caused by a combination of social, biological, and emotional influences.

            I find the adolescent stage of life to be very fascinating. It is a period of development when children begin the transition into young adulthood. This is a time where much of an individual’s future foundation is formulated and set. Each stage of development can be qualified as monumental to one’s future. However, I believe adolescence to be particularly significant because individuals are faced with more difficult independent choices and experiences that have consequences that can greatly impact the rest of their lives.

Week 4: Jones: Early/Middle Childood

Chapters 4 and 5 talked about early and middle childhood development. While a great deal of development occurs in these stages of a child’s life it is not as rapid the development that takes place in infancy. Types of development discussed were: physical, cognitive, social, brain, moral, and language.

In chapter 4 on p. 139, the reading talks about Head Start Program. I was not aware of this program’s national recognition and support until reading more about it. The reason this section stood out to me is because during my undergrad at Millikin University, I was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, and we partnered up with the Head Start program in Decatur, IL as part of our philanthropic program. Head Start was created under President Johnson’s War on Poverty in the 1960’s to “increase school readiness among children by providing educational, health, nutrition, social and other services to low-income children and their families.”

Our fraternity scheduled groups of brothers every day of the week in the morning and afternoon to volunteer at the local Head Start facility in Decatur. There we helped the students with projects, read to them, played with them, and helped teachers and workers serve food during meal times. It was a very rewarding experience. After a week or two the children looked forward to our visits and it seemed like we might have had an impact of some kind on these children’s lives.

After doing the readings, studying education and child development, I am now aware of the great things Head Start does for low-income children that I was able to be a part of. We were not just helping these children in their current life situations; rather we were helping their early and middle childhood development. We were modeling and influencing social, language, cognitive, physical, brain, and moral development and we didn’t even know it.

Week 3: Jones: BABIES!

This week's chapters: 3, 4, & 5 covered a great deal of information relating to the very first stages of conceived human life through the time of infancy. These three chapters contained a lot of new information for me. I want to start of by saying that these chapters really opened by eyes in terms of the scope of all the variables and different kinds of elements (both good and bad) that play into not only actual childbirth itself but also pregnancy, and the whole early development process.

            Chapter 3 discussed everything that occurs or can occur prior to the actual birth-taking place. Much of the biological information regarding the reproduction of human life, I feel many of us learned either in biology class or health class in high school. However, I was not aware of all the possible hereditary disorders that can occur. Chromosomal disorders for instance, due to alterations in chromosome number, can result in disorders such as Down Syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome, and Turner syndrome. Genetic disorders occur from harmful or malfunctioning genes that can lead to disorders such as Tay-Sachs disease, Sickle-cell disease, and cystic fibrosis.

            I have known individuals in my life who have had some of these disorders, and it never occurred to me that these where things that took place months prior to their birth, and where seemingly 100% out of anyone’s control. Call me naïve, but I guess I never truly thought about it.  

            Chapters 4 and 5 were quite heavy on the information as well. I have yet to watch and analyze the film for this week, “Life’s Greatest Miracle,” however, I am assuming it will relate to these chapters very well. Being a fairly newly married man, having a child is definitely something my wife and I discuss quite often. These two chapters really exposed and broke down the miracle of what new human life really is. It honestly got me quite intrigued. My wife, who is a nurse I might add, has poked fun at me because I always get kind of squirmy and uncomfortable when we would talk about having our first child. I am beginning to think, after reading, that it was because I really did not know much of ANYTHING! However, after reading these chapters about the birth process, preliminary tests, all the different stages of development coupled with the science and reasoning behind it all, I feel slightly less scared. It is normal for people to fear what they do not know or understand…right?

            Chapter 5 was by far my favorite; I believe this is one of the early stages I am looking forward to the most when I become a father, the infancy stage. In this chapter the discussion of the early weeks and months of a child’s life absolutely astounded me. The graph on p.108 just blew my mind. I even asked by wife who assisted in raising her 4 nieces and nephews if this stuff is really “the average” development rate. This graph charted the milestones in "Gross Motor Development" from birth to 16 months old. Being a 27-year-old male who has not been around babies since my youngest brother was born 20 years ago, I have lost touch with the rapidity of development these little human beings progress at…Absolutely amazing.

Week 2: Theories of Development

The reading for the week on chapter 2: Theories of development broke down the similarities and differences between some of the major theories on development. These major theories all can be categorized into their own specific category. Freud (psychoanalytic), Erikson (psychosocial), Piaget (cognitive), Vygotsky (cultural), Skinner, Bandura (behavioral), and Lerner (contextual). Each theorist had a strong position on what they feel is the core or source of human development. Almost all of the theorists discussed in this chapter have evidence and data supporting their theory. However, as the book warned at the beginning of the chapter, each theory is vulnerable to having gaps in real-life application/scenario.      

            As researched and supported as Freud’s theory on development from a psychoanalytic standpoint is, I find it very difficult to truly consider. I agree that psychosexual stages are present in human development, however I do not think they can be attributed to the basis of human development. If anything, Freud’s five stages could be considered as a supportive element to development, rather that the foundation.

            I have never taken a psychology class prior to ED Psych last spring through Trinity. With that being said I found myself trying to not only understand each theory, but also actually believe it. As foolish as that may sound, I have never considered any of these theories and concepts, so therefore I find myself eagerly wanting to find conviction in one of them. This made the reading very difficult for me because I tried to dissect and apply each theory to how I think about human development.

            In the end, I related best to Erikson, Pavlov, and Skinner. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of Development seems the most logical to me. He breaks the stages of human development into 8 stages of life crisis. These stages cover all of the important parts of each human’s life. Table 2.1 on page 32 lays out his theory really well and it made a lot of sense to me. The psychosocial crisis is the “equation” and the psychosocial strength is the “product”. For example, Initiative vs. guilt = purpose.  The presence of conflict/crisis requires resolution in order for the individual to move on.

            Pavlov and Skinner’s theories about conditioning just make sense to me. I think conditioning is something I experienced a lot as a child growing up. My parents used conditioning in potty training me and enforcing curfew to name a few examples. I also have used conditioning and reinforcement in the classroom setting and have seen great results in the behavioral development in a number of students.