Evaluation of Developmental Approach

Created by: Sam Masters
Created on: 18-03-13 10:25


	Evaluation of Developmental Approach
	Advantages The Developmental Approach has many useful applications. It is useful for improving childcare and education, for example. This can be seen in Samuel and Bryant's research, which shows that children of different ages use different cognitive strategies - useful for teachers as it informs them what methods work best when teaching children of certain age groups. It can show how people change and develop over time as they mature. This allows us to know what to expect from people of different ages and so we will be better able to identify problems in development. This is shown in Samuel and Bryant's research, where we find that children under the age of 7 make frequent errors in conservation. This approach also contributes the the nature / nurture debate. It adds to the body of scientific evidence we have on this topic, so that we can make better decisions with regard to education and child-rearing. This can be seen in Bandura's study on aggression, which suggests that 'nurture' is the most important factor in childrens' aggression.	Disadvantages Many developmental theories include 'stages of development.' This is a weakness as these stages have previously been shown to be too rigid. For example, Piaget suggested that children below the age of 7 would be unable to conserve as they would be in the pre-operational stage of development, but individual differences suggest that some children could be able to conserve before 7, maybe if they had been brought up in a stimulating environment. It has been criticised for being too deterministic. It assumes we are formed by our early childhood experiences, and that we therefore are not free to be whoever we want to be. For example, Bandura's study suggests that childrens' aggression is determined by the role models that they observe. Much of the research in developmental psychology uses children as participants, who may have problems understanding the task, may get bored, and may be more prone to demand characteristics. This means the results we get from such research may not be a true reflection of what children are capable of. There are also more ethical issues when using children as participants. This can be seen in Freud's research on Little Hans, where his father's leading questions may have influenced his answers.
	Evaluation This approach is a useful one. Research from the likes of Samuel and Bryant help teachers tailor a teaching regime better to the specific age group that they are teaching, for example. It allows us a good insight into the changes that occur over a person's lifetime; an important factor ignored by other approaches. However, a lot of this research tends to focus on the child stages of development, and less so on the adult stages. Children are used a lot in this research, and they are not ideal participants for several reasons. Like some other approaches, this one has been criticised for being too deterministic.

Evaluation of Developmental Approach

Advantages

The Developmental Approach has many useful applications. It is useful for improving childcare and education, for example. This can be seen in Samuel and Bryant's research, which shows that children of different ages use different cognitive strategies - useful for teachers as it informs them what methods work best when teaching children of certain age groups.
It can show how people change and develop over time as they mature. This allows us to know what to expect from people of different ages and so we will be better able to identify problems in development. This is shown in Samuel and Bryant's research, where we find that children under the age of 7 make frequent errors in conservation.
This approach also contributes the the nature / nurture debate. It adds to the body of scientific evidence we have on this topic, so that we can make better decisions with regard to education and child-rearing. This can be seen in Bandura's study on aggression, which suggests that 'nurture' is the most important factor in childrens' aggression.

Disadvantages

Many developmental theories include 'stages of development.' This is a weakness as these stages have previously been shown to be too rigid. For example, Piaget suggested that children below the age of 7 would be unable to conserve as they would be in the pre-operational stage of development, but individual differences suggest that some children could be able to conserve before 7, maybe if they had been brought up in a stimulating environment.
It has been criticised for being too deterministic. It assumes we are formed by our early childhood experiences, and that we therefore are not free to be whoever we want to be. For example, Bandura's study suggests that childrens' aggression is determined by the role models that they observe.
Much of the research in developmental psychology uses children as participants, who may have problems understanding the task, may get bored, and may be more prone to demand characteristics. This means the results we get from such research may not be a true reflection of what children are capable of. There are also more ethical issues when using children as participants. This can be seen in Freud's research on Little Hans, where his father's leading questions may have influenced his answers.

Evaluation

This approach is a useful one. Research from the likes of Samuel and Bryant help teachers tailor a teaching regime better to the specific age group that they are teaching, for example. It allows us a good insight into the changes that occur over a person's lifetime; an important factor ignored by other approaches. However, a lot of this research tends to focus on the child stages of development, and less so on the adult stages. Children are used a lot in this research, and they are not ideal participants for several reasons. Like some other approaches, this one has been criticised for being too deterministic.

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Evaluation of Developmental Approach