Theories of Child Psychology NOTES

DEFINITIONS

PSYCHOLOGY is the science dealing with human nature, function and phenomenon of his soul in the main.

CHILD PSYCHOLOGY is the science that deals with the mental power or an interaction between the conscious and subconscious element in a child.

BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT: The means by which dental health team effectively and efficiently perform treatment for a  child and simultaneously instills a positive dental attitude in the child.

THEORIES OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

It is classified into two groups

Psychodynamic theories:

Psychosexual theory-Freud

Psycho social theory-Eric Erickson

Cognitive theory-Piaget

Behavioral Theories:

Hierarchy of needs-Maslow

Social learning theory-Bandura

Classical conditioning-Pavlov

Operant conditioning-Skinner

Psychoanalytical theory (Sigmond Freud) :

He described the five psychosexual stages.

Psychic structure proposed by Freud in psycho dynamic theory composed of three parts

Id: It is the basic structure of personality, which serves as a reservoir of instincts or their mental representative. It is present at birth, impulse ridden and strives for immediate pleasure and gratification(pleasure principle)

Ego: It develops out of Id in the second to sixth month of life when the infant begins to distinguish between itself and the outside world. It is the mediation between Id and Super Ego. Unlike Id, Ego is governed by the reality principle. It is concerned with memory and judgment. It is developed after birth, expands with age and it delays, modifies and controls Id impulses on a realistic level

Super Ego:  it is the prohibition learned from the environment. It acts as a censor of acceptability of thoughts, feelings, and behavior.It is determined by regulations imposed upon the child by parents society, and culture. It is the internalized control which produces the feeling of shame and guilt.

 Freud’s stages of development:

•         Birth

•         Oral stage

•         Anal stage

•         Urethral stage

•         Phallic stage

•         Latency stage

•         Genital stage

Classical Conditioning (Pavlov)

The more frequent pairing of the conditioned and unconditioned stimulus, the stronger is the conditioning.

The principles involved in the process are:

1. Generalization where in the process of conditioning is evoked by a band of stimuli centered around a specific conditioned stimulus e.g., a child who has had a painful experience with a doctor in white coat always associates any doctor in a white coat with pain.

2. Extinction of the conditioned behavior results if the association between the conditioned and the unconditioned response is not reinforced.

3. Discrimination is the opposite of generalization

Skinner described four basic types of operant conditioning

1. Positive reinforcement: occurs if a pleasant consequence follows the response e.g., a child rewarded for good behavior following dental treatment
2. Negative Reinforcement: involves removal of unpleasant stimuli following a response e.g., if the parent gives into the temper tantrums thrown by the child, he reinforces this behavior
3. Omission: refers to removal of the pleasant response of a particular response e.g., if the child misbehaves during the dental procedure, his favorite toy is taken away for a short time resulting in the omission of the undesirable behavior
4. Punishment: involves the introduction of an aversive stimulus into a situation to decrease the undesirable behavior e.g., use of palatal rake in the correction of tongue thrusting habit.

Cognitive theory (Piaget)

Piaget formulated his theory on how children and adolescents think and acquire knowledge. The process of adaptation is made up of 3 functional variants-

1. Assimilation

2. Accommodation

3. Equilibration

The sequence of development has been categorized into 4 major stages

1. Sensory motor stage (0 to 2 years): Every child is born with certain strategies for interacting with environment

2. Pre-operational stage (2 to 6 years): Primitive strategies change as a child assimilates new experiences and accommodates original strategies

3. Concrete operation stage (6 to 12 years): The thinking process become logical

4. Formal operation stage (11 to 15 years): The child now a teenager is able to think still more abstractly

Hierarchy of Needs (Masler)

Masler believed in the self-actualization theory, i.e., the need to understand the totality of a person.

Psychosocial theory (Eric Erickson)

Erickson concentrated on child’s development covering the entire span of the life cycle from infancy to childhood through old age.

Erickson’s psychological stages:-

• Basic trust versus mistrust (0 to 1 yr)
• Autonomy versus shame, doubt (2 to 3 yrs)
• Initiative versus guilt (4 to 5 yr)
• Industry versus inferiority (6 to 12 yrs)
• Identity versus role confusion (13 to 18 yrs)
• Intimacy versus isolation (19 to 25 yrs)
• Generativity versus stagnation (26 to 50 yrs)
• Ego integrity versus despair (50 +yrs)

Social learning theory (Bandura)

It is the most complete, clinically useful and theoretically a sophisticated form of behavior therapy. As compared to operant and classical conditioning this theory is

• Less reductionistic

• Provides more explanatory concepts

• Encompasses a broader range of phenomena

The learning of behavior is affected by  four principal elements

1. Antecedent determinants

2. Consequent determinants

3. Modeling
It involves four processes which are

•  Attention process

•  Retention process

•  Reproduction process

•  Motivation

4. Self-regulation     

REFERENCE

SHOBHA TANDON