Reading reflection Theoretical Approaches

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Reading Reflection: Theoretical Approaches

Read the papers by Harkness & Super (2020) and Bjorklund (2018). You also might want to review some of the optional 410 Theoretical articles if you need a refresher on theories.

Respond to the following prompts in Part 1 with one to sentences. In Part 2 follow the word counts. I will not be grading for APA format. Please use in text citations for your sources (e.g., Bjorklund (2018)). You do not need to include a reference page at the end unless you choose to include a reference that was not part of the assignment. 

Part 1

Article: Harkness & Super (2020)

1) What is the main thesis/premise that the authors make?

They outline seven key aspects of culture, and then review the Developmental Niche, a theoretical framework created to highlight the dynamics of cultural influence on development and to guide assessment of the child’s cultural surround.

2) What reason do the authors give for needing to propose a new theory?

Understanding culture is essential for understanding child development, and thus for designing and evaluating interventions to improve children’s physical and mental health.

3) What do the authors give as the strengths of their theoretical approach?

The fact that both the Developmental Niche and Parental Ethno-theories have been cited thousands of times in the international research literature would suggest that they have met the criteria for both “goodness” and “usefulness” for understanding the cultural construction of child development.

4) What do the authors give as the weaknesses of their theoretical approach?

In the end, though, theories are only useful insofar as they are used. It remains to be seen whether recognizing the essential role of culture in children’s development can be more effectively and comprehensively translated into action.

Article: Bjorklund (2018)

1) What is the main thesis/premise that the authors make?

The author suggested that developmental biology could provide such a metatheory. The author argued that a better understanding of brain development, for example, would be important not only from a strictly biological perspective, but also provide insight into psychological development, such as the role of plasticity in ontogeny, when certain experiences are apt to be most influential, and what type of cognition should develop at what time.

2) What reason do the authors give for needing to propose a new theory?

Because there has been increasing emphasis of biology in cognitive development research over the past 2 decades.

3) What do the authors give as the strengths of their theoretical approach?

The cognitive revolution provided new ways to think about children’s thinking that differed both from Piaget’s emphasize on assimilation, accommodation, equilibration, and cognitive schemes and from learning theories that emphasized operant and classical conditioning. Contemporary developmental neuroscience and evolutionary developmental approaches continue to describe children’s thinking and its development in terms of cognitive mechanisms, not so different from those used by cognitive and socialcognitive developmentalists in the last century.

4) What do the authors give as the weaknesses of their theoretical approach?

Evolutionary theory does not replace proximal accounts of cognitive development, but rather serves as an overarching, distal-level perspective, identifying important topics that can help developmental scientists ask better research questions.

Part 2

1) Please share your understanding of theory in the field of developmental science. Consider one or more of the following questions: What is the point of theory? Why do we need it? What should useful theory take into account? How can theory function to include or exclude on the basis of culture, language, identity, race, etc.? (Word count: 300-400)

A prominent concept in developmental research is that social settings have an impact on human development. Most theories that examine social settings are aimed at discovering the characteristics of a particular situation are beneficial or detrimental for children. A lot of ideas focus on the context and composition of a location. This approach has merit, but it is restricted since it only talks about processes which affect development rather than methods which may specifically make a difference for each person. To provide theories with the most predictive and generalizable features, they also need to address processes. A critical fact to remember is that even while successful or unsuccessful procedures could be more likely in settings with specific compositional or structural qualities, it is essential that the methodology used be an accurate reflection of how the work should really be performed. All things considered, it is important to pay attention to how many settings come together to effect growth throughout the duration of a person's life, and especially how these influences change throughout the course of someone's life. According to the recommendations presented here, the practices in question are in accordance with contemporary advancements in ecological, life-span, and life-course perspectives. In these frameworks, it is emphasized that the different proximal and distal contexts in which development occurs, the linkages between these settings, the many proximal and distal procedures that occur within them, and how these environments and procedures change over time are important. Developmental science is a multidisciplinary scientific area that blends ideas from biology, psychology, and society in order to get a better understanding of behavioral and psychological elements of human development. Although the area of developmental science is not just concerned with examining deviant conduct at a given age, it instead deals with the dynamic interaction of biopsychosocial risk and protective variables throughout the course of development over the lifetime of a person. According to ideas previously produced by such psychiatrists as Jean Piaget, Heinz Werner, and Lev Vygotsky, as well as on dynamical systems theory, this concept is founded on ideas previously produced. In the modern age, the discipline has gone through a paradigm change away from reductionism and toward one that is based on complex, interrelated components, with an increased focus on change through time.