Health and social care theories

Children think diffrently to adults. Infants use egocentric thinking. Children then develop abstract logical thinking before being able to use simple logic ( concreate logical thinking ) to solve problems.

Sensorimotor ( birth-2 years ) - interact with the world using their senses only.

Preoperational ( 2-7 years ) - development of language and make believe play. Do not understand mass, volume and number.

Concete operational ( 7-11 years ) - understand simple logical principles

Formal operational ( 11 -18 years ) - reason through symbols

Schemas - stages of intellectual development ( category of knowledge and way to acheieve knowledge )

Tests of conservation - in the operational stage, children understand that something's apperance may change but its quantity will stay the same.

Age stages are more fluid than Piaget makes out.

Children are less egocentric, such as understanding each other feelings

Bruner - children can be helped to progress to a higher level with adult support

More encouragment can help children learn logically

Some children take longer than 11 years to become skilled at abstract logical thinking.

The ability to communicate with a signed or spoken language is programmed genetically into individuals

All individuals have the ability to use language, regardless of other abilities, and to become fluent by the age of five or six.

LAD ( Language acquision device ) - everyone is born with this and it enables children to recognise and develop the languages they experiance.

Children are preprogrammed to acquire language.

Children cannot learn a new language through imitation alone because language is so irregular.

Babies need to experiance other people thinking, but they do not need to be reained in order to speak.

Lack of scientific evidence to support his theory.

Bruner argued that social intercation is crucial and has far more influence on children's ability to use language.

Chomsky put too much emphasis on the grammer in sentence structure.

Some children experiance delayed development, for example children who have a learning disability or hearing or speer impairment

Infants have an inbuilt need ot form an attatchment with a carer.

Attatchment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects a child to their primary caregiver.

Children are biologically preprogrammed to form attatchments and infancy is a critical period for forming positive attatchments.

Children experiance seperation anxiety when seperated from their mothers, this does not diappear even when they are  cared for by someone else.

Caregiver provides safety and security for their infant.

Rutter - maternal deprevation in itself may not result in long-term problems and privation is much more damaging.

Attatchment is a learned behaviour and not the natural, bioogical process that Bowlby describes.

Up to 3 months - Most babies respond to any caregiver

3 months up to 7 months - Infants can distinguish the diffrence between their main caregiver and other people but will accept care from anyone.

7 months up to 9 months - Infants look to particular people for security, comfort and protection. Stranger anxiety and seperation anxiety.

9 months + - Baby becomes more independant and forms multiple attatchments.

He researched large groups of children to find skills and abilities that children have in common. He wanted to establish 'norms' or milestones for each developmental aspect. He noted that each child moved through their development at their own pace.

He concluded that development is predetermined and environment has little influence.

Milestones are helpful for educators and parents to measure children's development and recognise delays.

Critisisms : Not helpful in explaining individual or cultural diffrence or for children with learning difficulties.

Young children copy the behaviour of other people that they see. This can be both positive and negative behaviour. Bandura noted four stages of behavioural learning:

Firstly, the child notices the behaviour of another person. This is likely to be someone close to them or who they admire, such as an older sibling. Secondly, the child 'internalises' the action by remembering what they have observed. Thirdly, although they may not copy straight away, they will reproduce the behaviour when the opportunity occurs.  Lastly, depending on the outcome children will either repeat the behaviour or desist.

Bandura based his theory on a famous experiment using a Bobo doll in which he demonstrated that children learn and copy aggressive behaviour by observing adults behave aggressivley.

The stress-diathesis psychological model helps to explain how stress caused by life events can interact with an individuals gentic vulnerability to impact on their mental wellbeing. According to this theory, some individuals are born with certain biological or genetic predispositions to a mental illness, reffered to as diathesis. A person who has a genetic predisposition to a psychological disorder might never develop the disorder if they do not experiance stress in their life. High leels of stress, such as family conflict, abuse, trauma or problems at school, could trigger the onset for those with a predisposition

Holmes and Rahe ( 1967 ) developed a questionnaire called the social readjustment rating scale which identified major stressful life events. The SRRS identifies 43 life events each with a diffent score for a stress level. They asked individuals to score how the events they had experianced affected their stress levels. They discovered that the higher the score and the importance of each event identified, the more likley an individual was to become unwell.

In 1961, psychologists ******* and Henry proposed that older people naturally withdraw from social involvement as they get older. They concluded that older people have restricted opportunities to interact with others. ******* ( 1963 ) further argued that older people experiance reduced social contact and become increasingly ' individual ' and less concerned with others' expectations. She concluded that it is appropriate and healthy behaviour and that disengagement is a natural part of ageing

Activity theory was proposed as an explanation to ageing by Robert Havinghurst in the 1960's. His ten year study of older people showed that, rather than an inevitable decline in intrest in life and isolation, older people tend to adjust to the ageing process. He recognised that this may involve adjusting to changes in health and/or mobility but thoerised that older people's needs can be satisfied by taking on new roles following retirement. Research supports his theory. Many older people look forward to retirement, viewing this part of their lifespan as an opportunity to persue new hobbies and intrests and to meet new friends. When people remain physically and socially active, their overall satisfaction and wellbeing is increased. This is important for reducing the risk of illness and increasing longevity.