Developmental Theories Bshs 361

Developmental Theories

BSHS 361
September 26, 2012

Developmental Theories
While observing the children I noticed that one of the three were more aggressive and had a tendency to be the leader of the group. The “leader” of the group was mocking what he saw the adults doing at the barbeque by dancing and carrying on. This child was closely imitating his father; who was the “life of the party”. The remaining two children seemed to closely watch what the leader of the group was doing but would often stop and gaze over at his and her parents to seek approval.
Based on the observations I feel that the Freudian theory would best fit this group of individuals. I had the ability to observe both the children and their children so I could see how the children would behave a certain way because of what they were seeing but it also seemed like depending on the child; he or she would have a more relaxed disposition or be more outgoing. There were a lot of variables that made it hard to determine whether these behaviors were based on being in a mixed group of people outside of the children’s homes or whether these were their true personality traits coming out.
I chose Freudians theory because even when dealing with adults it seems as though there is a balance between genetic traits and environmental factors.
If it was all genetics or environment one could say that person A and person B both are raised in the same environment and the same advantages or disadvantages so they will lead the same path in life; whereas this may be likely it is not always the case. Two people can be raised in the same home but turn out to be completely different individuals. There are too many environmental and genetic factors that help to determine whether a person will end up as a serial killer or
surgeon.
Two of the three children were siblings; and the siblings were the more reserved of the three children. Although, after the male sibling seemed to become more comfortable in his surroundings he started to join in with the “leader” of the group and the two boys started wrestling and becoming rambunctious. At this point I noticed that the girl of the group seemed to fade away into the background and eventually reunited with her mother for the remainder of the night. When considering a gender difference it is hard to determine whether the children are playing “roles” that they have observed from adults in their environment or if these are genetic dispositions for each gender that they are naturally filling.
When taking into consideration the environmental factors I thought about research I had completed on behavior modeling. Where children were modeling a behavior that he and she had watched on television; the children modeling this behavior were three and four years old. It seems as though age is definitely a factor because at an early age children are mimicking what he or she observes whether he or she realizes it is bad behavior or not. By the time the child is in its adolescent years he or she will still model behavior but will participate in different types of behavior depending on what he or she feels is right or wrong. It is difficult for me to make a determination on which theory would be best for society as a whole based on such a small observation. I was more familiar with Freud’s theory and it seemed to fit both the research that I had conducted and the behaviors that I had observed from the children.