Child Development and Pedagogy PYQs

Human learning is a function of imitating and observing the behavior and action of others and these are also the main processes through which children acquire new experiences and behavior.

• Social learning theorists stress observational learning or modeling in which a person acquires a response to a specific situation by watching others.
• Imitation is one of the important methods based on this theory, which could be applied in learning many skills.

Important Points 

• Imitation is copying or reproducing others’ actions or behaviors. It is a form of social learning. One does not imitate everybody one comes across.
• One chooses consciously or otherwise a person for imitating some of his/her behaviors or actions that attract him/her. Such a person becomes a model for imitation.
• The model can be a person with whom the child/individual has direct contact like the parents, siblings, teacher, or any other adult member with some quality to be imitated.

Key PointsThere are possibly three ways to strengthen imitations:

• Providing direct praise or incentives
• Satisfying consequences
• Vicarious reinforcement

Thus, it is concluded that copying of the external behavior of another individual is Imitation.

Hint

• Learning is the process of being modified, more or less permanently, by what happens in the world around us, by what we do, or by what we observe.
• Thinking is a behavior that is often implicit and hidden and in which symbols (images, ideas, and concepts) are ordinarily employed.
• Imagination is an important part of human cognition. It is the ability to come up with mental images that are not present in real.

Most of our behaviors are acquired through the process of learning. Learning may be defined as a relatively durable change in behavior due to experience. It helps us adapt to the surrounding environment.

Important Points

Transfer of training: Transfer of training occurs when trainees effectively and continually apply what they learned in training on their jobs (knowledge, skills, behavior).

• The work environment plays an important role in ensuring that the transfer of training occurs.
• It is influenced by climate transfer, manager support, peer support, technology support, and self-management skills.
• There are eight types of transfer of training/learning that include positive, negative, zero, lateral, bilateral, sequential, horizontal, and vertical transfer.

 

Hence, it could be concluded that if previous knowledge and past experience helps in a new type of learning, it is called 'Positive transfer of training'.

Forgetting is failure to retrieve information from long-term memory. In forgetting, some information does not reach short-term memory from the sensory register, or due to inadequate encoding and rehearsal, the information may not have been transferred from short-term to long-term memory.

Key Points

• Forgetting is a common part of daily life. It is a failure to recall and retain the information.
• We often fail to remember due to brain damage, resulting in loss of memory functions, called amnesia.
• In fact, remembering and forgetting are both natural processes subject to a number of factors that operate in everybody’s life.
• The first systematic attempt to understand the nature of forgetting was made by Hermann Ebbinghaus, who memorized lists of nonsense syllables (CVC trigrams such as NOK or SEP etc.) and then measured the number of trials he took to relearn the same list at varying time intervals.

Thus, it is concluded that failing to retain or to be able to recall what has been acquired is Forgetting.

Hint

• Memory refers to retaining and recalling information over a period of time, depending upon the nature of the cognitive task you are required to perform. Memory is conceptualized as a process consisting of three independent, though interrelated stages. These are encoding, storage, and retrieval.
• Attention is the ability to focus or concentrate selectively on a selected stimulus, sustaining that focus and shifting it at will.
• Imagination is an important part of human cognition. It is the ability to come up with mental images that are not present in real.

Performance test, also known as a non-verbal intelligence test is a test that:

• assesses learner's ability to understand and interpret visual information like pictures or diagrams.
• emphasizes to activate learner's logical, spatial, and abstract reasoning to solve a particular task.

Key Points

• Bhatia Battery test is a performance test of intelligence which is developed by C.M. Bhatia in 1955. It includes cards with different patterns and the children are required to draw these patterns without lifting the pencil.

Bhatia Battery Test includes five sub-tests, namely:

• Pattern Drawing Test
• Kohs' Block Design Test
• Picture construction Testx
• Alexander Pass along Test
• Immediate Memory Test for Digits

Let's Understand the Sub-tests in Brief:

 

Hence, it could be concluded that the Bhatia battery test is used to measure intelligence.

Adolescence marks an important time in the process of human development, the passage between childhood and adulthood. It is a time of tremendous opportunity and promises when adolescents begin to explore their growing individuality and independence and begin to think critically about themselves and the world around them.

Key Points

• Adolescence is characterized by rapid physical, social, mental, and emotional changes. It is also a time of opportunity and risk.
• G. Stanley Hall, a pioneer in the study of children and their learning processes, is credited with giving adolescence its first full definition in his text Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education, published in 1904.
• In the view of Stanley Hall (the father of adolescent psychology), it’s a time of “storm and stress.” The present-day society with its dramatic changes in information technology, family structure, over-dependence on materialistic nature, etc. have an enormous effect on adolescents.
• For example, the popularity of computers has exposed adolescents to limitless information, some of it violent, explicit, and age-inappropriate.
• Hall identified adolescence as a period of emotional upheaval, inconsistent behavior, and vulnerability to deviant and criminal activity caused by psychosexual conflicts.

Thus, it is concluded that Hall’s theory explains the Psychology of Adolescents.

Additional InformationEvery period in the human life span is very important, but adolescence has certain characteristics that distinguish it from other periods, that preceded it and the periods that will follow it.​

• Adolescence is a threshold of adulthood.
• Adolescence is a period of search for identity.
• Adolescence is an important and transitional period.
• Adolescence is a period of change and a problem age.

Sigmund Freud is often considered the first psychological theorist to emphasize the developmental aspects of personality and the decisive role of the early experiences during infancy and childhood in laying down the basic character structure of an adult person. 

Key Points

Psychosexual Stages of Development:

• Freud believed that personality gets well established during childhood, largely before the age of five years.
• He proposed five stages of psychosexual development which include the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, and genital stage.

Important Points 

Hence, it could be concluded that the Psycho-sexual development of human personality has been emphasized by Freud.

Additional Information

• J.A. Comenius, a Czech philosopher had given the principle of 'Pupil activity'. He emphasized designing specific activities for students to acquire knowledge and understanding by active involvement.
• Clare Hollingworth was a veteran British war correspondent.

The establishment of the psychology laboratory marked starting psychology as a distinct discipline as, before it, psychology was still considered part of philosophy and physiology. 

Key Points

• Wilhelm Wundt,  a German psychologist, and doctor, created the world’s first experimental psychology laboratory in 1879 at the University of Leipzig in Germany.
• It is important to note that in 1875, William James formed a psychology laboratory at Harvard University. However, it is still not credited as the world’s first laboratory as it was used for teaching demonstrations rather than experimentation and original research.

Hence, we can conclude that the first laboratory of psychology was established by W. Wundt.

Additional Information

Psychology is the scientific study of human and animal behavior and it includes the application of this science to different problems of human beings.

• The psychologists, in the beginning, had an empirical approach to understand the thinking, attention, imagery, etc. The experiments were done to study the mind and mental experiences.
• Gradually, different schools of psychology came up with different viewpoints about the nature of the study of psychology. They emphasized that the focus should be on the study of behavior rather than the mind.

Key Points

• German psychologists  Wertheimer, Kohler, Koffka, and Lewin have studied the nature of perception and are the leaders of gestalt psychology. Wertheimer is considered the father of gestalt psychology.
• "Gestalt" is a German noun for which there is no English word equivalent. The nearest English translation of "Gestalt" is "configuration" or more simply "an organized whole". Gestalt psychologists consider the process of learning as a gestalt - an organized whole.

Important Points 

Gestalt theory of learning:

• It is primarily concerned with the nature of perception. According to it, an individual perceives the thing as a whole.
• A thing is perceived as a relationship within a field that includes the thing and its complex background incorporating their previous experiences and purposes.
• While learning, a learner always perceives the situation as a whole and after seeing and evaluating the different relationships intelligently takes a proper decision.
• The child first perceives the situation as a whole and then evaluates its parts that imply that they first learn anything as a whole and then learn their part.
• For example, children in their initial stage of learning, recognize all types of birds saying simply "birds" and afterward they start to distinguish between different types of birds i.e., sparrow, parrot, eagle, etc.

Hence, it could be concluded that Max Wertheimer is the founder of Gestalt Psychology.

Additional Information

• Franz Clemens Brentano is mainly known for his work in the philosophy of psychology, especially for having introduced the notion of intentionality to contemporary philosophy.
• Edgar Rubin was a Danish psychologist/phenomenologist, remembered for his work on figure-ground perception as seen in such optical illusions like the Rubin vase.

Memory refers to retaining and recalling information over a period of time, depending upon the nature of the cognitive task you are required to perform. Memory is conceptualized as a process consisting of three independent, though interrelated stages. These are encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Key Points Consolidation Theory:

• Consolidation theory is related to memory. Memories are solidified in long-term stores over days, weeks, months, and years. This process is referred to as consolidation.
• In this theory, an old concept refers to how long-term memory develops over time after initial acquisition. From a cognitive neuroscience perspective, consolidation is conceived of as biological changes that underlie the long-term retention of learned information.
• Memory consolidation is the process where our brains convert short-term memories into long-term ones.

​Thus, it is concluded that Consolidation Theory is associated with memory.

Hint

• Learning may be defined as “any relatively permanent change in behavior or behavioral potential produced by experience”.
• Creativity is goal-directed thinking which is unusual, novel, and useful. It is a cognitive ability to produce something original by offering a fresh perspective.
• Motivation refers to the willingness of individual members to set and accept challenging goals and to take responsibility, their involvement in work, and their job satisfaction.

Additional Information 

• There are two major processes that lead to the final consolidation.
• The one is synaptic consolidation which takes place within immediate hours of learning and encoding.
• The second one is system consolidation where hippocampal memories are independent of hippocampus storage after a certain period of time. ^​​

A learning theory is a general concept of learning. It means that it simply applies to everyone, to all learning tasks, and to all conditions and situations in which learning takes place. Besides, it explains, predicts, and controls how various environmental influences affect learning. 

Key Points

Field Theory of Learning:  

Kurt Lewin, a Gestaltist, is known as a "practical theorist" and the father of the modern discipline of social psychology. 

• Gestalt views of learning: The literal meaning of the word Gestalt is form or configuration. The basic premise of Gestalt psychology is that ‘the whole is different from the sum of its part’.
• Based on this basic premise, Gestalt psychologists proposed several principles or laws to explain the process of perceptual organization i.e., how we perceive smaller units of stimuli as a whole, having a particular pattern.

Important Points

Lewin did his pioneering work in the development of field theory, a framework for understanding human behavior that focuses on how an individual conceptualizes and responds to physical and social environments.

• Field theory provides a paradigm for understanding and conducting studies of group processes and intergroup relations.
• Unlike Pavlov, Skinner, and Gestltian, he conducted experiments on the study of the behavior of children.
• He conducted a detailed experiment by controlling the child’s overall environment during the course of the investigation to obtain elaborate information.
• He used the comprehensive concept of Life space.
• Life space includes everything one needs to 'know about a person's psychological environment at a given time.
• He describes individual behavior based on life-space.
• Life-space depends on an individual's psychological force.
• It encompasses the person; his drives, tensions, thoughts, and his environment, which consists of perceived objects and events.

Hence, we can conclude that Field Theory is the contribution of Gestaltists.

Additional Information 

Carl Gustav Jung emphasized the idea that we need to study different cultures as it will provide the essence of humanity. Jung’s personality theory is known as the analytic theory or analytical psychology (1933).

• He proposed that everyone has a personal unconscious that is composed of one’s own experiences that have been repressed due to some reason.
• He proposed that everyone has the ability to balance the conscious and unconscious forces.

Key Points

• Jung extended Freud’s idea of the unconscious. Freud considered the unconscious as an essential part of one’s personality. It is a storehouse of repressed memories, aggressive motives, and sexual desires.
• Jung deviated from this view and proposed the idea of the collective unconscious, which is the unconscious shared by all humans.
• According to him, due to the evolutionary process and common ancestors, we all carry some common past. The collection of this ancestral past is part of our unconscious known as the collective unconscious.
• According to him, the collective unconscious serves as the foundation for personality. This collective unconscious consists of all the archetypes and concepts which represent experiences that are primitive and from our ancestral heritage. For example, the conceptions about rebirth, God, evil, and so on.

Hence, it is clear that the concept of the "Collective unconscious" was given by Jung.

Additional Information

Sigmund Freud, the physician by profession, was the major contributor of Psychoanalytic Theory. Freud proposed that our personality consists of three elements, i.e., id, ego, and superego.

Key PointsInstincts are preprogrammed sequences of actions rooted in biology that take care of survival needs such as hunger, sex, and care of the young ones.

• Id: This part of personality operates unconsciously.
• It deals with basic instincts, biological needs, and aggressive impulses. It is the most primitive part of human personality present since birth.
• From the id, other parts of the personality (ego and superego) develop. It works on pleasure principle-tendency to avoid pain and seek pleasure.

Important Points

• Freud states that instincts are the ultimate cause of all behaviour. The two basic instincts are Eros (love) and the Thanatos (destructive or death instinct).
• The purpose of Eros is to establish and preserve unity through relationships. On the other hand, the purpose of the death instinct is to undo connections and unity.
• According to Freud, in the context of id, Eros is the drive of life, love, creativity, and sexuality, self-satisfaction, and species preservation. Sigmund Freud referred to Eros as life instinct.

Hint

• The counterpart of Eros is Thanatos - the death force or instinct. It is responsible for violence, aggression, and hate-like negative feelings.
• Fear is one of the basic emotions. Our natural fear of violence, frightening things comes under fear instinct.
• Fear, anxiety, anger, frustration all come under natural instinct.

The concepts of id, ego, and superego are proposed by 'Sigmund Freud' in his 'Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality.

• Freud used these three concepts to describe the three parts of the human personality and to explain the way a human mind works.
• According to Freud, the human personality is made up of three major systems: the id, ego, and superego.
• These three systems work together cooperatively and constitute a well-organized personality in a person and enable the person to interact with the external environment.

Key Points

Let's Understand in Brief:

• The ID:
• It is the unconscious part of the human personality that works to fulfil basic desires.
• It is based on the pleasure principle which aspires for the satisfaction of antisocial desires.
• It is the basic personality component that is present since birth and seeks to satisfy sexual wishes.
• The Ego:
• It looks for rules and morals and resides in the unconscious mind.
• It is the realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego.
• It is that aspect of personality, which strives to be logical and reasonable and to cope with the world of reality.
• The Super-Ego:
• It is the moral part of the personality, which is also known as conscience. It stands for perfection, rather than pleasure.
• The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one's parents and others.
• The Super-Ego develops in the child’s mind as a result of its response to the rewards and punishment adopted by the parents.

Hence, it could be concluded that "Ego" is guided by the reality principle.

A hormone is a chemical that acts as a messenger transmitting a signal from one cell to another. Hormones can be classified according to chemical composition, solubility properties, location of receptors, and the nature of the signal used to mediate hormonal action within the cell.

Key Points

• Cholecystokinin is a hormone that is released after a meal. It plays a key role in facilitating digestion within the small intestine.
• It seems to be involved with appetite by increasing the sensation of fullness in the short-term, that is, during a meal rather than between meals.
• Cholecystokinin stimulates the release of bile juices from the liver and gall bladder which improves digestion.
• It regulates the movement of food through the stomach that helps in the effective absorption of nutrients from the food.
• During this process, the human body feels satiated/full and does not feel hunger. Thus, the release of cholecystokinin hormone decreases the appetite.

Thus, it is concluded that Cholecystokinin is a hormone which when injected into the human body decreases appetite.

Intelligence refers to a set of different cognitive abilities to think rationally, act purposefully, resolve problems, and deal with the demands of the environment.

• In 1912, William Stern suggested the concept called Intelligent Quotient (IQ). It refers to the score of a standardized test that assesses and measures human intelligence.

Key Points 

An individual’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is determined by the formula given below,

\({\bf{Intelligence}};{\bf{Quotient}};\left( {{\bf{IQ}}} \right) = \frac{{{\bf{Mental}};{\bf{Age}};\left( {{\bf{MA}}} \right);}}{{{\bf{Chronological}};{\bf{Age}};\left( {{\bf{CA}}} \right)}} \times 100\)

Where,

• Mental Age is based on intellectual development.
• Chronological Age is the number of years a person has lived.
• When A child of 16 years scores 75, his mental age will be:
• 75 = MA / 16 x 100
• MA = 75 x 16 /100
• MA = 12

Hence, it could be concluded that a child of 16 years scores 75 in an IQ test, his mental age will be 12 years.

Important Points 

Refer to the IQ table for further information:

The Nervous System:

• Human nervous system is the most complex and most developed of all living creatures.
• Though the nervous system functions as a whole, for the ease of study, we can divide it into many parts depending on its location or functions.
• Based on location, the nervous system can be divided into two parts: the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS).

Key Points

Central Nervous System (CNS) 

• The central nervous system (CNS) is the center of all neural activity.
• It integrates all incoming sensory information, performs all kinds of cognitive activities, and issues motor commands to muscles and glands.
• The CNS comprises of the (a) brain and (b) spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

• The PNS is composed of all the neurons and nerve fibers that connect the CNS to the rest of the body.
• The PNS is divided into Somatic Nervous System and Autonomic Nervous System.
• The autonomic nervous system is further divided into Sympathetic and Parasympathetic systems.
• The PNS provides information to the CNS from sensory receptors (eyes, ears, skin, etc.) and relays back motor commands from the brain to the muscles and glands.

Hence, it could be concluded that the Central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by the occurrence of unwanted, intrusive obsessive thoughts and distressing images which are usually accompanied by compulsive behaviors. Compulsive behaviors are carried out either to undo or neutralize the obsessions or to prevent the occurrence of some dreadful event.

Key Points

• Anxiety disorders are disorders that decrease the performance or social functioning of an individual due to hyper-anxiety. Anxiety disorder can be of many types such as generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, somatoform disorder, etc.
• Obsessive behavior is the inability to stop thinking about a particular idea or topic. The person involved, often finds these thoughts to be unpleasant and shameful.
• Compulsive behavior is the need to perform certain behaviors over and over again. Many compulsions deal with counting, ordering, checking, touching, and washing.
• People affected by the obsessive-compulsive disorder are unable to control their preoccupation with specific ideas or are unable to prevent themselves from repeatedly carrying out a particular act or series of acts that affect their ability to carry out normal activities.

Thus, it is concluded that Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder.

Hint

• Somatoform disorders refer to physical problems which have no organic basis, for example, fatigue, headaches, vague body pains, etc. The persons suffering from this disease remain preoccupied with symptoms.
• Dissociative disorders describe a persistent mental state that is marked by feelings of being detached from reality, being outside of one’s own body, or experiencing memory loss.
• Adjustment disorders are a group of conditions that can occur when you have difficulty in coping with a stressful life event. Example"the death of a loved one, relationship issues, or being fired from work.

Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)

1. The TTCT (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking) assess how creatively a child’s mind works and are often given to children to determine advanced placement or as part of an entrance examination.
2. They are very different from the intelligence and reasoning tests a child may already have taken.
3. Instead of traditionally taught subjects such as reading or math, these tests assess creativity.
4. Children are scored on several aspects, including creative titles for pictures, expressions, imagery, and humor.

Important Points

The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) is designed to identify and evaluate creative potential using two parts – a Verbal test and a Figural test.

1. Verbal test:

• ​​The Verbal test contains seven subtests – Asking, Guessing Causes, Guessing Consequences, Product Improvement, Unusual Uses, Unusual Questions, and Just Suppose.
• Subtests are scored based on fluency, flexibility, and originality (with a score on elaboration as optional), and these scores are accumulated across all subtests.
• The totals may be converted to standard T scores if normative reference is desired.

2. Figural test:

• The Figural test has three subsets – Picture Construction (from a marked cue), Picture Completion (again with cues), and Parallel Lines.
• The first of these subtests are scored on originality and elaboration while the remainder is scored on fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.
• Totals are then accumulated across subtests to provide overall scores for Figural fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.
• These scores, as in the Verbal test, can be converted to a standard T score.

Therefore, from the above explanation, it could be concluded that Torrance framed the 'Test of Creative Thinking' to identify creativity.

There are many theories in psychology that are related to different schools of psychology such as cognitive, humanistic, behavioristic, etc.

• These theories are propounded by eminent psychologists to provide a framework to understand different aspects of human behavior.

Key Points

• E. L**. Thorndike**, an American psychologist has propounded the Stimulus-Response Theory (S-R Theory). In his theory, he emphasizes that learning is the result of associations forming between stimulus and responses.

Thorndike's theory falls under 'Behaviouristic theory' as:

• The approach which describes learning as a connection between stimulus and response is the behaviouristic approach.
• Stimulus-Response is a concept that implies that behavior manifests as a result of the interplay between stimulus and response.
• The main idea behind behaviouristic theory of learning is that learning is a change in, overt behavior of the learner occurring as a result of reinforced practice.

Hence, it could be concluded that Thorndike's theory falls under 'Behaviouristic theory'.

Additional Information

Learning curve is a graphic representation of how learning takes place in a particular situation. 

Key Points

• Progress in learning can be objectively measured and represented graphically which is known as the learning curve. The learning curve shows a subject's learnability.
• In all types of learning situations, the course of learning can be depicted and described graphically by drawing learning curves against the x and y-axis.

Stages of Learning Curve: 

• Stage 1: In this stage, the learner slowly increases the speed to understand the concept of learning. This is the beginning stage of learning, in which the learner is motivated to gain new information.
• Stage 2: In this stage, the learner steeps accelerating in learning the concepts. After some time the learner gains a total understanding of the concept and reaches the boom stage of learning.
• Stage 3: In this stage, a learning plateau occurs, after gaining mastery on the concept, the learner feels bored and want to learn new thing. So the teacher should always introduce the same concept with innovative methods, this will overcome the boredom.

Hence, it could be concluded that Learning curves are indicator of Progress in learning.