Behavioural Theories of Child Development

Alyshea Davies
Child development and welfare
Development and child rearing
2.1 – Explain the extent to which conditioning has been used in the shaping behaviour
The method shaping is involved in calculated reinforcement which is behaviour trained to them by the trainer. The trainer rewards them for crude approximations of a desired action. One the trainer then rewards then with a behaviour reward this is one step closer towards their target. As the people/animal reaches each behaviour target the older behavioural rewards are stopped which then help to encourage their process towards their desired behaviour. Shaping uses an operant conditioning to help to train a subject by rewarding them properly for their good behaviour and discouraging their improper behaviour.

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B.F. Skinner enforces heavily within the reinforcement or punishment so that the successive approximations of certain behaviours. The reinforcement helps to strengthen the behaviour that comes before it, it can either have a positive or negative outcome. Positive reinforcement is the person/animal attaining the access to a reward, whilst the negative reinforcement involving taking something away from the situation. Both positive and negative behaviour encourages reinforcement, punishments on people/animals could have a positive or negative outcome. Positive punishments is an undesirable consequence on the person/animal whereas a negative punishment removed the access to desire a reward.
B.F Skinner performed shaping experiments, he experimented on a lot of animals which included rats. He would put the rats into skinner boxes that monitored their behaviour, he would release food for the rats and when the rats initially entered the box skinner would reward the rat. Each reward would increase of the desired behaviour. This have been tested on humans to and has the same reactions.
2.2 – Discuss the appropriateness of behavioural method in terms of effectiveness and ethics
A discipline is something that can help a child fit into the real world and be happy and effectively. It helps to develop the child’s own self-discipline. Effective and positive discipline is not being nasty it is teaching and helping to guide children, not forcing them to obey it’s teach them how to live in the real world. Even though they point out unacceptable behaviour of the child, the child should know that their parents do love them and support them they need to be taught between right and wrong. Being a parent is not just about watching a child it’s about raising the child and providing them with all the necessary materials and emotional care that they need also their physical, emotional, cognitive and social development. Any parent finds that discipline their child is the most difficult but the most important responsibility they have and there are no shortcuts to it. Every parent must teach their child about limits and acceptable behaviour.
The main aim of effective discipline so that the child behaviours appropriately so that they will be raised up to be an emotionally mature adult. The main reason for foundation of effective discipline is for respect and how to learn to respect others. All children should be able to respect their parents. Hard discipline such as verbal abuse, shouting or calling your child names will make it hard for your child to respect or trust you as the parent. An effective discipline means a discipline applied with mutual respect in a firm, fair, reasonable and consistent way not a hard and angry way. The goal of this is to help and protect a child from danger and to help a child learn self-discipline and develop healthy conscience. But hitting a child hard may lead to them discipline someone in the wrong way, and this could cause another person to become hurt.
2.3 – Critically evaluate the use of power assertion techniques in enforcing restrictions, compare with other psychological methods
Authoritarian parents could go over the top and end up hurting a child instead of teaching them what good behaviour is and looks like from reinforcement may be more beneficial as if Bandura is right and kids to copy their parents and could become aggressive as their parents are the people that they look at to and their parents are the child’s role models. The critics of bandura said that any parent may not be the only imitated the child looks up to they could look up to parents, older siblings. So the child is more likely to be copied and consequently a parent beating the child may be imitated.
3.1 – define social learning and relate experimental evidence
Albert Bandura has proposed a social learning theory which has become one of the most influential theory’s for learning and developing. Bandura believed that leading a child into the direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning that they need. Behavioural theories of learning suggested that learning of children was the result of associations which were formed by conditioning, reinforcement and punishment. Bandura’s social learning theory proposed that a child learning can also happen simply by watching others and picking up on the stuff they do. This is known as observational learning or modelling. He quoted …..
“Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” -Albert Bandura,Social Learning Theory, 1977
Bandura done Bobo doll experiments, he said that children learn their behaviour they have watched within other people around them. The children he studied all observed an adult acting very violent towards the Bobo dolls. When the children were playing in the room later on with the Bobo dolls, they were aggressive this is because they watched the adults being aggressive earlier on and they must of fort the behaviour was a normal way to act towards the Bobo dolls.
3.2 – critically evaluate the impact of modelling on child development
Children learn appropriate behaviour and learn how to follow rules and emotional attachment with their family also depends on how the child behaves. Children watch their parents say “please” and “thank you” and they tend to copy whereas if they did not say it the would copy and have no manners at all and people would label them as “rude and not polite”. The importance of an adult modelling is that it has an impact on the child’s behaviour. The negative side of child modelling is the adult’s bad behaviour such as using alcohol, tobacco and drugs both illegal and legal. This will teach the children in their eyes that this is right to do, when it’s not alcohol may cause the adult to become aggressive and the child will think that this behaviour is normal and start to act this way towards other people.

Conditions

Using Novel object to hit the Bebo doll

Exhibiting non aggressive actions

Model being praised

Child 1 from video 1

2

1

Child 2 from video 1

6

0

Child 3 Girl Aged 5

3

2

Child 4 Boy Aged 3

4

0

Child 5 Girl Aged 4

3

2

Child 6 Boy Aged 4

4

1

Model being punished

Child 1 Boy Aged 3

2

5

Child 2 Boy Aged 5

1

6

Child 3 Girl Aged 4

0

3

Child 4 Girl Aged 5

0

5

Child 5 Girl Aged 4

1

4

Child 6 Boy Aged 4

2

5

 
 
 
 

Title

A study to investigate whether children learn from observing a model exhibiting aggressive behaviour to a Bobo doll

Table of contents

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Abstract

DO NOT WRITE UNTIL REPORT IS COMPLETE

Induction

Bandura was a behaviourist he believed that children’s behaviour could be shaped by operant conditioning or through classical conditioning. This would help to improve punishment, negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. Bandura also found that the original theory for this was called “clumsy” that would of meant that all behavioural problems that would have had to been shaped. If he did not do this he would not of been able to live as we do today now in our complex social societies. Bandura took one step further by testing on Bobo dolls for his experimenting to see how a child behaviour after their parents were aggressive towards the Bobo dolls. This then showed him that the children were aggressive afterwards when their parents left the room and they were left to play with them. Condoning have also been used to help shape animals behaviour and this have also been related to us humans by training us how to say “thank you and please”. Reinforcement is how an adult has the power over a child and how a child is punished in good and bad ways. This helps the child when they are growing up to learn the difference between right and wrong.

Aim

The aim of this test is to find out do children copy their parents and are they modelled by them. For example, a Bobo doll was used in the test the children watched their patents hit the Bobo doll and become aggressive towards it, and once the children were left alone with the Bobo doll they done the same thing they started to hit the doll and they become aggressive towards the doll.

Hypothesis

I found the hypothesis was true after the children’s parents were aggressive towards the Bobo dolls and the children were watching them. Once the parents left the room and the children were left to play with the Bobo dolls the children become aggressive towards the dolls like their parents. None of the children were non aggressive towards the dolls.
The null hypothesis has no significant difference between condition 1 which is the child who are being praised and condition 2 is where the child is being punished when they are acting aggressive towards the Bobo dolls.

Method

This was an observation experiment I watched videos and carry out charts to see how the children acted with the Bobo doll after their parents were aggressive with it first. Throughout the independent subject design there was parents and children. The parent was female and was hitting the Bobo doll first then the first child was a boy and the second child was a girl. The apparatus was the video of the parent and children who were aggressive towards the Bobo doll and I had to do a mark sheet (which is above) and write down the aggressive and non-aggressive acts. I also used a stop watch to observe the time used throughout the experiment.

Result

The results of my descripitive statics, are the graphs and the results of the statistical test that I carried out below:

Inferential statistics/ treatment of result

I used a parametic test over a non-parametic test because this test helped me to make assumptions about the parameters of population distribution from the charts that are shown on my results, whereas a non-parametic test is one that makes no such assumption.
I compared two different groups of participants the one group was the children who was punished after becoming aggressive towards the Bobo doll and the other group was the children who was being praised. After the data I have collected I have decided that the result of treatment is nominal.