Psychosocial Theory

After listening to all of the different theories of child development in class, it was really neat to go into a classroom of children and observe the stages that the children are in. On Wednesday, I got to go into the toddlers room and watch as these 1 and 2 year olds are adapting to their environment. I especially saw Erikson's Psychosocial stage in one of the boys named Michael. Erikson's theory is that the children in the ages of 1-3 are choosing between autonomy vs. shame and doubt. Michael and Lilly were playing with the toys in the play kitchen, and Lilly kept stealing Michael's cucumber because she wanted to show him how to cook it. Michael yelled at her and pushed her down and said 'mine'. I took this behavior as Michael telling Lilly that he could do it on his own. I think that it really hurt Michael's feelings that Lilly did not think that Michael could cook the cucumber on his own. It was neat to see how this theory played out and how Michael was deciding that he did not want to be shamed by the way Lilly was treating him.

I also noticed in a lot of the kids the theory of modeling. The toddlers' minds are so moldable and so impressionable that whatever adult they are around, they will most likely begin acting like that adult. That is why a child's upbringing is so vital to how they one day turn out as an adult. No matter what toy I picked up, there was a child around me that wanted to play with it. It was like there was nothing that I could touch that a child would not be interested in.

I also noticed in a lot of the children the sociocultural theory. Without even knowing the childrens' families, I knew that they had come from a loving home or at least a home that fed to their emotional needs. I noticed a complete difference in these children then from working with children in the inner city neighborhoods. When working in the neighborhoods with children who do not have much love at home from