Psychological Debates Essay Example
In this assignment I will identify, define and discuss the three main debates about behaviour in developmental psychology. I aim to discuss how the debates began and include examples of how these debates affect current psychology; I will also include my opinions on the debates stating which I feel most partial towards. Further to this I will analyse one debate in great detail.
Continuity vs. Discontinuity is the second of three debates I am going to discuss. This debate is based on the sequencing and durations of development over time, continuity is to develop at a slow methodical pace with out distinct breakthroughs; where as discontinuity is to develop through a series of steps, stages and schemas identified by achieving at least one trait, from a series, before it is possible to move onto the next stage.
Many theorists have developed their own milestones/stages/schemas which are related to an area of development and based on age, for their favoured area of development; therefore the majority of theorists follow the discontinuous view in this debate. “Milestones of development take many forms: some are obvious ones such as ages when children first become able to walk and talk; others are less obvious in that they refer to more subtle developments, e.g. the age when children become capable of make-believe play” (Schaffer 2003 page 4). Tied to the continuity-discontinuity debate is the difference between quantitative and qualitative changes as the theorists who believe in continuity would side quantitative and discontinuity would side qualitative. Qualitative would be learning in mathematics how to add and then multiply; where as quantitative would be learning how to add and then learn to calculate percentages. “As it stands, the continuity-discontinuity debate is largely misconceived...we should...be thinking in terms of ways which development is simultaneously continuous and discontinuous with respect to different dimensions of analysis” (Slater and
Continuity vs. Discontinuity is the second of three debates I am going to discuss. This debate is based on the sequencing and durations of development over time, continuity is to develop at a slow methodical pace with out distinct breakthroughs; where as discontinuity is to develop through a series of steps, stages and schemas identified by achieving at least one trait, from a series, before it is possible to move onto the next stage.
Many theorists have developed their own milestones/stages/schemas which are related to an area of development and based on age, for their favoured area of development; therefore the majority of theorists follow the discontinuous view in this debate. “Milestones of development take many forms: some are obvious ones such as ages when children first become able to walk and talk; others are less obvious in that they refer to more subtle developments, e.g. the age when children become capable of make-believe play” (Schaffer 2003 page 4). Tied to the continuity-discontinuity debate is the difference between quantitative and qualitative changes as the theorists who believe in continuity would side quantitative and discontinuity would side qualitative. Qualitative would be learning in mathematics how to add and then multiply; where as quantitative would be learning how to add and then learn to calculate percentages. “As it stands, the continuity-discontinuity debate is largely misconceived...we should...be thinking in terms of ways which development is simultaneously continuous and discontinuous with respect to different dimensions of analysis” (Slater and