Research Topics

The Development of Self

ASSIGNMENT ONE   MORAL DEVELOPMENT Moral development refers to the formation and maturation of a sense of right and wrong in children in the normal course of cognitive development. As  (1987) emphasized the three stages of moral development, each divided into two levels, on the basis of research in which he confronted children with stories that posed moral dilemmas. developed his theory in a series of investigations, beginning with his doctoral dissertation in 1958 and culminating in his book Stages in the Development of Moral Thought and Action. The influence of several educational programs from the school curriculum on the moral development of children with regards to school activities since, the curriculum is an effective tool for encouraging moral development in children education. However, there are few programs have been implemented to investigate moral development changes in school activity settings as teachers have included the development of sportspersonship as one of the major values of participation of every ages and abilities about the choice of effective teaching strategies that explicitly focus on the moral development of children (1986).     The social learning theorists define moral development as the extent to which individuals’ behaviors conform to social convention and norms, structural-developmental theorists define moral development as an individual’s tendency to behave in accordance with one’s most mature moral reasoning patterns (1990). The process by which individuals develop morally, according to social learning theorists, are modeling and reinforcement, whereas structural developmentalists implicate experiencing dilemmas or conflicts, discussing the dilemmas with all involved individuals, and resolving conflicts through mutual agreement (1985). Moreover, the socialization approaches, supported by theorists such as and the cognitive developmental approach, supported by theorists such as . Although different, both of them had recognized the importance of the other. Both approaches have proved relevant to methods of learning and teaching through examinations such as where he watched young children play games. When making rules, he concluded fairness was decided on by a mutual respect and cooperation. From which he concluded in education, schools should stress mutual problem-solving and decision making which would encourage students to decide on common rules based on fairness in contradiction to Piaget.         There was a study suggesting that children’s judgment of what to do in a moral dilemma, their identification of the most important reason to consider in this judgment, their intentions to act in a particular way, and their actual behavior are interwoven to produce a more holistic outlook on moral development than was previously examined within the confines of one empirical study.  (1984) model of moral action should continue to be embraced as a theoretical grounding in future studies of moral development in the physical domain. Aside, moral development gradually extends concern for one’s closest connections to concern for strangers, including those affected by social arrangements. Justice and fairness might be considered components of expanded caring rather than its alternatives. Moral development has not yet become a major concern for virtue ethics, even though the topic was central to the moral philosophy of Aristotle, the traditional source of much virtue ethics.  (1984, 1994) traditional cognitive-structuralist approach has contributed much to an understanding of the development of moral judgment. However, his conceptual emphasis on the form of moral judgment and the role of cognitive maturity in the development of moral judgment has led researchers to neglect the relationship between family socialization processes and the content of moral thought.         In the study, there is an attempt to redress this imbalance by adopting conceptual and empirical contributions from social learning theory, cognitive developmental psychology and family-systems research. There are several arguments for examining the content of moral thought. First, the content of moral thought is quite different from the form of moral thought: Content refers to what one reasons about, whereas form refers to how one reason (1983). Second,  (1994) approach contains several logical inconsistencies that a content approach avoids ( 1996). Third,  (1994) emphasis on form, or cognitive maturity, has led to the empirical neglect of family processes involved in the learning of moral judgments (1996). Therefore, by examining  (1994) stages from the viewpoint of content, one may investigate logically whether any differences in the moral thought of individuals with similar levels of cognitive maturity may stem from different types of family socialization processes. In contrast, the argument in the present study is that moral development is not simply age dependent; rather, moral development is family-system dependent, so that differences in ascribed sources of moral authority would be expected within an age group of adolescents of the same cognitive maturity (1992).         Generally, the present findings have important practical implications namely, that if researchers can identify particular family socialization processes that are related to different sources of moral authority to which adolescents ascribe, then therapists, educators and parents may benefit from such knowledge and gain a better understanding of children’s needs and concerns. Most developmental stage theories use the notion of hierarchical complexity. In the  model (1977) each successive hierarchical integration produces novel understandings by using the operations of the previous order as conceptual elements in its new constructions ( 1998).  moral judgment instrument is infrequently used today. Not only did the instrument apparently fail to support postulates of stage theory, such as structured wholeness and no regressions to earlier stages (1998), but it has been severely criticized for alleged cultural and gender biases (1994; 1990) as  (1976) and  (1977) have argued that  instrument is inappropriate for assessing the moral judgment of children and that it results in underestimates of children’s moral competence.           Moreover,  (1989) showed that  Moral Stages 1 and 2 fail to account for a wide range of moral concepts expressed by young children and that it generally underestimated their ability to take the perspective of others ( 1988). A central task of moral development theory is to explain the relation between moral judgment and moral behavior. For both , judgment is essential to the determination of actions as moral (1983; 1984; 1976). Thus, it is not unreasonable to assume that moral judgment has a positive association with moral behavior (1983). Children’s understanding of the purposes, scope and requirements of moral action must be taken into consideration before their behavior can be accurately assessed. A child who has a better understanding of the purposes, scope, and requirements of the situation that demands action is more likely to display higher degrees of moral behavior than a child who fails to fully comprehend the nature of the task (1982).             TEMPERAMENT Temperament is of fundamental interest to developmental behavioral pediatrics, and readers that is familiar with the clinical correlates of infant and child temperament. Other research on temperament seeks to identify the foundations of temperament and the mechanisms underlying its variability. It should be evident through this review that behavioral genetics is not only relevant to reductionist explanations of behavior, but that it also can help to document environmental influences on behavior and their importance and can help to illuminate the processes by which behavioral traits such as temperament change throughout the lifespan. Although there are many different theories of child temperament, most agree that temperament refers to stable, early appearing individual differences in behavioral tendencies that have a constitutional basis. Thus, soon after birth, children show a great deal of variation in those behavioral dimensions considered to be temperamental such as emotionality, activity level, attention/persistence, sociability and reactivity.             For example, some children cry easily and intensely, whereas others are easier going; some are highly active and always on the go, whereas others are more sedentary; some attend and persist in tasks for long periods of time, whereas others’ attention wanders quickly. It is these individual differences and the variations between that are of interest to behavioral geneticists. That is, people are interested in understanding why children differ in their temperaments. Temperament theories suggest that such individual differences have a biological or constitutional foundation. The cohort of preterm and full-term infants was enrolled in a large, longitudinal study of temperament, behavior and development. Dimensions of temperament that were most closely associated with less difficult responses to stress, fewer behavior problems and lower perceived stress impact were the following: predictability of behavior, positive mood, adaptability to change, higher approach, lower intensity of reaction and lower responsiveness threshold. Age was also strongly associated with coping abilities observed in the school environment. The results have implications for therapists, teachers, and other professionals who work with children. (1992; 1990)           Temperament characteristics may affect coping behavior by enhancing or restricting the child’s range of potential responses, by influencing the types of situations perceived as stressful by the child, or by affecting others’ perceptions of the child and responses to the child ( 1991; 1983). Temperament characteristics commonly viewed as more difficult, including negative quality of mood, poor adaptability to change, low approach, irregularity of behavior and high intensity of reaction, have been associated with the development of adjustment problems, learning difficulties, and psychopathology (1990; 1988). Children who are more temperamentally difficult may also be more vulnerable to stressful life situations (1990; 1984). There was research has been done concerning the coping behavior of children in the school environment ( 1989;  1987) and school stressors can take many forms. For instance, academic achievement can come to be equated with a child’s sense of personal worth (1988; 1990). Parents and other significant adults who try to hurry the process of growing up by putting undue pressure on children to achieve, strive for perfection, or to act like adults can increase children’s vulnerability.       Peer pressures to conform or not conform, or to grow up too fast, can also put some children at risk. Even common fears and stresses that school-aged children experience can accumulate and increase the likelihood of unhealthy outcomes such as school phobia, somatic complaints, social withdrawal, and depressive episodes (1990). As the child’s temperament characteristics interact with experiences in school to determine how children cope in this environment (1987; 1988) and because children manifesting more positive characteristics are generally appraised and responded to more favorably by both peers and adults. The significance of temperament lies in the assumption that early temperament shapes personality development and influences developmental outcomes. Child temperament has been seen as a possible precursor to behavior problems. Indeed, the link between temperament in early childhood and later behavioral problems has been well documented. For example, dimensions associated with difficult temperament are predictive of both internalizing and externalizing problems; activity level predicts externalizing problems and shyness and fearfulness predict internalizing problems. Importantly, these associations do not appear to be an artifact due to similarity of items on measures used to assess both temperament and problem behavior.       Overall, the children who were less predictable, more intense and moody, and less adaptable and approaching were evaluated by their mothers as having more behavior problems. The children with a lower threshold of response were also rated by the mothers as manifesting more impulsive/acting out and passive aggressive behaviors. Children who were evaluated as more intense and responsive to stimuli reported greater stress occurrence and impact in their lives. Hence, the results suggest that children who are more temperamentally difficult may be more vulnerable to both the major and minor stresses of life, and therefore at greater risk for acquiring an emotional disturbance, behavior problems. The early identification of these children may be an important first step in channeling their behavior in a positive direction and helping parents and other adults create a better fit between children and their everyday environments. However, although there is little doubt that children who are more difficult tend to elicit more negative responses from significant others and from people in general, there are other possible explanations for these findings. Children with more difficult temperament characteristics may have trouble learning in school and they may find it harder to make friends and relate well to others if they are less approaching and approachable, more intense, and more moody. These difficulties may affect their self-esteem and feelings of self-efficacy and may lead to more emotional or behavioral problems.     SENSE OF SELF  The sense of self incorporates the value of self-esteem as the way individuals think and feel about themselves and how well they do things that are important to them. In children, self-esteem is shaped by what they think and feel about themselves. Their self-esteem is highest when they see themselves as approximating their “ideal” self, the person they would like to be, children who have high self-esteem have an easier time handling conflicts, resisting negative pressures and making friends. They laugh and smile more and have a generally optimistic view of the world and their life. Children with low self-esteem have a difficult time dealing with problems, are overly self-critical, and can become passive, withdrawn and depressed. They may hesitate to try new things, may speak negatively about themselves, are easily frustrated, and often see temporary problems as permanent conditions. They are pessimistic about themselves and their life. Self-esteem comes from different sources for children at different stages of development. The development of self-esteem in young children is heavily influenced by parental attitudes and behavior. Supportive parental behavior, including encouragement and praise for accomplishments, as well as the child’s internalization of the parents’ own attitudes toward success and failure, are the most powerful factors in the development of self-esteem in early childhood.     As children get older their experiences outside the home, in school, and with peers, become increasingly important in determining their self-esteem. Schools can influence their students’ self-esteem through the attitudes they foster toward competition and diversity and their recognition of achievement in academics, sports, and the arts. By middle childhood, friendships have assumed a pivotal role in a child’s life. Studies have shown that school-age youngsters spend more time with their friends than they spend doing homework, watching television, or playing alone. In addition, the amount of time in which they interact with their parents is greatly reduced from when they were younger. At this stage, social acceptance by a child’s peer group plays a major role in developing and maintaining self-esteem. The physical and emotional changes takes place in adolescence, especially early adolescence, present new challenges to a child’s self-esteem. Boys whose growth spurt comes late compare themselves with peers who have matured early and seem more athletic, masculine and confident. In contrast, early physical maturation can be embarrassing for girls, who may feel gawky and self-conscious in their newly developed bodies. Both boys and girls expend inordinate amounts of time and energy on personal grooming, spending long periods of time in the bathroom trying to achieve a certain kind of look. Fitting in with their peers becomes more important than ever to their self-esteem, and, in later adolescence, relationships with the opposite sex can become a major source of confidence or insecurity.     Up to a certain point, adolescents need to gain a sense of competence by making and learning from their own mistakes and by being held accountable for their own actions. Peer acceptance and relationships are important to children’s social and emotional development and to their development of self-esteem. Peer acceptance, especially friendships, provides a wide range of learning and development opportunities for children. These include companionship, recreation, social skills, participating in group problem solving, and managing competition and conflict.   There are several factors that influence self-esteem such as the following: Age – self-esteem tends to grow steadily until middle school when the transition of moving from the familiar environment of elementary school to a new setting confronts children with new demands. Self-esteem either continues to grow after this period or begins to decrease. Gender – girls tend to be more susceptible to having low self-esteem than boys, perhaps because of increased social pressure that emphasizes appearance more than intelligence or athletic ability. Socioeconomic status – researchers have found that children from higher-income families usually have a better sense of self-esteem in the mid- to late-adolescence years.     Body image – also important for younger children, body image is evaluated within the context of media images from television, movies, and advertising that often portray girls as thin, beautiful, and with perfect complexion. Boys are portrayed as muscular, very good looking, and tall. Girls who are overweight and boys who are thin or short often have low self-esteem because they compare themselves against these cultural and narrow standards. Infants start building self-esteem as soon as they are born. Their self-esteem is first built by having their basic needs met, including the need for love, comfort, and closeness. They gradually learn that they are loved as the people who cares for them consistently treat them gently, kindly, comfort them when they cry and show them attention. How their parents or primary caregivers treat them sets the stage for later development of self-esteem. Parents who give their babies love and attention teach the infants that they are important, safe and secure. During toddlerhood, children still have not developed a clear understanding of self-esteem or self-identity. Each time they learn a new skill they add to their sense of their ability and their comprehension of who they are.           Toddlers learn about themselves by learning what they look like, what they can do, and where they belong. They find it difficult to share since they are just starting to learn who they are and what is theirs. By the age of three, children have a clearer understanding of who they are and how they fit into the world they know. They have begun learning about their bodies and that, within limits, they are able to think and make decisions on their own. They can handle time away from their parents or primary caregivers because they feel safe on their own or with other children and adults. They develop their self-esteem in mostly physical ways, by comparing their appearance to that of other children, such as height, size, agility, and abilities Preschoolers learn self-esteem in stages through developing their senses of trust, independence and initiative. During this age, parents can help foster the child’s self-esteem by teaching problem-solving skills, involving them in tasks that give them a sense of accomplishment, asking for and listening to their opinions, and introducing them to social settings, especially with their peers. Young children learn self-esteem through what they can do and what their parents think of them. A critical point in a child’s development of self-esteem occurs when they start school. Many children’s self-esteem falls when they have to cope with adults and peers in a new situation with rules that may be new and strange. In the early school-age years, self-esteem is about how well children manage learning tasks in school and how they perform in sports. It also depends on their physical appearance and characteristics and their ability to make friends with other children their own age.   Every child and teen has low self-esteem at some time in his or her life. Criticism from parents or others can make children with low self-esteem feel worse. Children can also develop low self-esteem if parents or others press them to reach unrealistic goals. Parents should be concerned when a child’s low self-esteem interferes with his or her daily activities or causes depression.   Some common signs of low-self esteem in children and teens are as follows: Ø  feeling they must always please other people Ø  general feelings of not liking themselves Ø  feelings of unhappiness most of the time Ø  feeling that their problems are not normal and that they to blame for their problems Ø  needing constant validation or approval Ø  not making friends easily or having no friends Ø  needing to prove that they are better than others         As for , people involved in the development of children provided with an especially clear and coherent understanding of the sequence and underlying processes of child development and the effective topical organization emphasizes to readers the way in which all of the domains of development relate – physical, cognitive, emotional and social-throughout with heightened emphasis on the interplay between biology and environment, expanded coverage of culture, and an enhanced focus on education, health and social issues as was considering the complexities of child development, presents classic and emerging theories in an especially clear, engaging writing style, with a multitude of research-based and real-world examples for anyone working with children, or those in the fields of child development, child psychology and childcare. One of the greatest challenges for both families and teachers is a young child’s successful transition to a new school experience. To become more sensitive to the needs of children, early childhood teachers have long focused on the transition process itself. And activities such as open houses, home visits, and creating a gradual entrance into the school day are quite common. Despite all the teacher planning and execution of developmentally appropriate strategies, some children still have difficulty separating from parents to begin their formal school experience that includes joining a classroom community. Social stories-teacher-made books written for children on topics relevant to an individual-can provide assistance for those toddlers and preschool-age children who need help in the transition process.   Aside, social stories are beneficial because they assist young children in memory development and self-regulation. For memory performance, story scripts offer general information of what will happen and when it will happen (2003). Social stories support the development of empathy by providing children with opportunities to understand differing points of view. Empathy appears early in infant development, and around age one the foundation of the connection to other human beings is formed (2003). By age two, children explore their feelings and the feelings of others, as they begin to understand their own sense of self (2003). Toddlers and preschoolers experience developmental challenges, including autonomy; significant gains in language and physical growth (Allen & Marotz 1999); and the socializing school experience. Social stories are a simple and dramatic way to support children with a variety of learning styles in a process that leads to more successful school experiences. Social stories become visual scripts for young children. These stories help children organize and interpret daily events, such as entering a classroom without the assistance of a caregiver or separating from a parent.           Self-regulation occurs as children acquire language skills. By age two, children display growth in mental representation and language abilities, but they still have difficulty controlling and understanding their feelings and behavior (2003). For toddlers, social stories support this process and provide the language and guidance on how to behave or what to expect in a given situation. Preschoolers learn self-regulation by observing adults and imitating their actions (2003). Social stories provide a model for children to emulate; they are always written to reflect positive pro-social behaviors and outcomes.                               ASSIGNMENT TWO   The Book:  (2002). Parenting and the Child’s World: Influences on Academic, Intellectual and Social-Emotional Development.   Last August 1999, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) cosponsored a conference in Bethesda, Maryland, on parenting and child development. This book contains follow-up papers for most of the presentations made at that conference, plus several additional contributions. Harris offers a startling answer to the questions, “How much credit do parents deserve when their children turn out well? How much blame when they turn out badly?” Based on her review of the scientific literature on parenting effects, she believes that “the assumption that what influences children’s development, apart from their genes, is the way their parents bring them up is wrong.”       There was a captured widespread media attention, with inadequate balance or attention to the fact that Harris concentrates almost exclusively on outcomes in the domain of personality a construct assumed to have a large biological and genetic component, based on twin, sibling and adoption studies. The tremendous public interest in this topic and the potential policy implications for a new understanding the nature and extent of parenting influences, in conjunction with other important influences on child development, warranted the conference and the resultant book by recognizing that there are multiple sources of influence on children’s development including parenting behavior, family resources, genetic and other biological factors, as well as social influences from peers, teachers, and the community at large. During the past decade, there has been vigorous new research about the specific influences of parenting on children’s development. The effects of parenting on three domains of development are especially important: social-emotional development and risk-taking behaviors used to guide data collection and analyses.           In this book, people search for when, where and how parenting matters and the major antecedents and moderators of effective parenting. The contributions, in the main, focus on the major conceptual issues and empirical approaches that underlie our understanding of do importance of parenting for child development in academic, socio-emotional, and risk-taking domains. Additional goals are to show bow culture and parenting are interwoven, to chart future research direction to help parents and professionals understand the implications of major research findings.   CONTEXT-SPECIFIC LEARNING According to Harris theory of development which he call group socialization theory (1998), children learn separately how to behave at home and how to behave outside the home. When they are together, parents do influence their children’s behavior, and children do influence their parents’ behavior. These mutual influences play an important role in the family’s home life, but they do not necessarily play a role in the way family members behave outside the home.         If children discover that what they learned at home is not useful outside of me  home and this is true for many aspects of social behavior, because behaviors that are appropriate at home commonly turn out to be inappropriate in the classroom or the playground they will cast off what they learned at home and acquire new behaviors. Children are not constrained to carry into a new context what they learned in an old one; “transfer of training” is the exception, not the rule (1993). It is true that there are correlations between a child’s behavior in two different contexts, but the evidence suggests that these correlations have a genetic source rather than an environmental one (2000). The things children learn can be left behind if they don’t prove useful in the new context, but what they are born with goes with them wherever they go. Children who are timid in one social context are not necessarily timid in another, but there are some children who are timid in every context ( 1997).             SOCIALIZATION AND PERSONALITY How do children learn to behave outside the home? According to group socialization theory, they do it by identifying with a group of people they see as being similar to themselves for most children today this means others of the same age and sex and taking on the norms of that group. Because appropriate behavior in every society depends on whether you are a child, the child’s first job is to figure out what sort of person he is or she is. This is a cognitive process: The child figures out what social categories are available in her society and then she figures out which one she belongs in. In childhood, the social category is usually the same as the peer group, who doesn’t have to be. A child can identify with a group even if it rejects her. This is not about friendship or the influence of friends of what is called self-categorization. The authors of this study conducted some complex analyses in an effort to decide whether a pathway of effects occurred. The first link is between a high-risk biological mother and a misbehaving child. The second link is between the child’s misbehavior and the adoptive mothers’ self-report of harsher discipline and mediation implies that the child’s misbehavior is a necessary condition for the harsh discipline. That is, when the biological mother is high risk and the child does not misbehave, one would not have an adoptive mother who disciplines harshly. This mediational effect did not fully occur.     Risk in the biological mother increased harsh discipline even when the child was well behaved, at least by one rating scale. Perhaps other child characteristics, not measured, are mediating between risk in the biological mother and a harsher mothering style displayed by the adoptive mother. Alternatively, there may be complex relationship issues that affect parenting a biological versus an adoptive child such as identification and empathy factors. Thus, in addition to parenting variables there have assessed parent and child IQ, child temperament, cognitive and language development, parent personality and psychopathology, and a host of contextual factors, including life stress and family social support. The authors studied child peer relationships at every age. The 175 participants being followed were born into poverty, thus constraining socioeconomic status variation, which can often account for outcomes. The findings have revealed that nothing is more important for the child’s development than the quality of care received. This has been true for outcomes as diverse as competence with peers, behavior and emotional problems, successful completion of school, and adolescent risk behaviors such as promiscuity. Moreover, the predictive power of parenting variables holds even when other salient influences on development are controlled and when the predictor is changing quality of care. When care worsens or improves and child problems respond accordingly, such effects are free from any confounding by potential genetic effects. It is not simply the case that good parents pass along good genes to their children, resulting in good child behavior.   Attachment as a Relationship Construct The most notable evidence is that the same child may have a secure relationship with one parent and an anxious relationship with the other, with concordance being significant but only modest in meta-analysis ( 1991). The quality of each of these relationships has been found to be predictable from the quality of care that parent provided ( 1981) and given changes in parental life stress and quality of care, infant attachment security changes. Clearly, the quality of these relationships cannot be based simply in characteristics of the child. Henceforth, for instance some infants become more upset in the face of the brief separations, but this does not forecast whether they will be readily settled or angry when the caregiver returns. The latter are the hallmarks of the quality of attachment, not the former. Some infants who are secure in their attachment do not become upset by separation; some become quite upset. Likewise, some infants who are secure in their attachments seek a great deal of physical contact; others are content with interacting at a distance.             Attachment and Child Adaptation A central thesis of this chapter is that socialization by parents operates by teaching children central messages such as scripts, stories, schemes as it can be about how the world works. It is quite plausible that the effect of harsh discipline on a child is to teach that child that parents are rejecting and harsh and that the child’s primary orientation must be defensive. If so, then physical discipline practices will exert a negative impact on children only to the extent that they communicate rejection and harshness. If physical discipline practices are displayed in a way that communicates caring, then the child might learn that adults do care and that the child can be secure. The caveat here is that the child might also learn that physical punishment is an acceptable means of teaching others and the child might learn to adopt physically coercive strategies. Mechanisms It has already been proposed in this chapter that the mechanism through which parenting exerts influence on child behavior outcomes is likely to be the cognitive messages that the child learns about the social world. A child who has been socialized in a consistent and caring manner is likely to learn the message that the world is safe and there is reason for optimism. The child who has been socialized in rejecting and harsh manner for self-protection, including the concept of working models of attachment that children acquire as a consequence of interactions with the primary caregiver.    (1999) developed instruments for assessing middle-school children’s social knowledge structures using sentence completion and memory tasks. They found that measures of social schemas of threat that were derived from these measures predicted the future conduct problem behavior of these adolescents even after previous problem behaviors were controlled. Furthermore, these social knowledge structures were predictable from social experiences five years earlier (1999). Thus, it is plausible that children acquire latent cognitive mental representations of the world through early socialization experiences and these representations then serve to guide patterns of future social behavior. Consider the situation in which a child is confronted by an ambiguously acting peer who shouts a disrespectful remark at the child in front of a group of laughing peers. The child’s response should he or she escalates the situation into a conflict, ignore the remark, or laugh it off? is a function of a series of cognitive operations that occur online in real time. Following from work in cognitive science, models of social information processing have been formulated to describe the sequence of these actions.         Processing operations include attention to social cues, perception and mental representation of those cues, experiencing of affect and the setting of goals for responding within the social situation, accessing of one or more possible behavioral responses, evaluating the accessed behavioral responses and selecting one for enactment, and then translating a desire to perform an action into behavior. Individual differences in these operations can be conceptualized as personality like characteristics like the child who regularly makes hostile attributions about others’ intentions. Furthermore, individual differences in social information-processing patterns have been shown to emerge as a consequence of early experiences with harsh discipline and physical abuse. An integrated model of me cognitive mechanisms of socialization effects puts together the concepts of latent cognitive knowledge structures with online processing patterns (1993). It is hypothesized that socialization experiences are stored in memory as knowledge structures, which then serve as a proximal guide for the processing of social cues online. The processing actions directly result in social behavior. Thus, tests of the multiple mediation paths have been few, but preliminary results are consistent with the hypothesis that knowledge structures that are acquired during socialization guide the online processing of cues, which in turn guides behavior.       According to , by explicitly rejecting traditional accounts of socialization it has become clear that far from being at the mercy of whatever external forces they happen to encounter, children actively select and shape their own environment. (, 1996 p. 14) from this point of view, this mean that young people are just as intent as on influencing the course of parent’s development although adults don’t like to see children that way. This image of children actively negotiating their social development is elaborated in positioning the child in child development by a broader evaluation of children’s social rights and status. According to ’s social development book that the central theme of Social Development is that of socialization how an essentially biological being becomes transformed into a highly sophisticated social being. Whilst giving full attention to the older and well-established aspects of our knowledge of social development but also to more recent topics such as research on behavior genetics, children’s theory of mind, post-infancy attachment development, and family dynamics as  sets the findings within the context of the general aims and theoretical concerns that underpin the studies carried out, as well as of the methods used to obtain the knowledge gained.         Aside, due recognition is also given to the many practical implications of social development research for aspects such as day care, the development of anti-social behavior and family conflict. There is also the significance of social contexts and social relationships for human development with the emphasis is on the study of child development in a range of everyday situations in homes, schools and playgrounds and take socio-cultural approach to child development and emphasizes how thinking and reasoning, language and self-awareness are embedded in and sustained by social contexts, social relationships and cultural meanings. As  pointed out studies of emotional attachments, play and social understanding of child development in different parts of the world as well as about processes of learning and teaching during middle childhood both in informal family environments and in classrooms and formal educational institutions. Particular attention is given to the role of language in interactions between adults and children and among children themselves. Thus,  explains social development throughout the school years. It includes studies of friendships and peer cultures and of problems posed by bullying. It also considers the development of children’s moral understanding, and discusses how their growing independence and autonomy is negotiated in particular cultural contexts. Therefore, people should emphasize the importance of observational research into children’s social interactions with peers and with adults for understanding processes of learning and teaching.   Also, in particular argues that adult-child communication in shared activities is the wellspring of psychological development. These dialogues enhance language skills, reasoning ability, problem-solving strategies, the capacity to bring action under the control of thought and the child’s cultural and moral values. explains how children weave the voices of more expert cultural members into dialogues with themselves. When puzzling, difficult or stressful circumstances arise, children call on this private speech to guide and control their thinking and behavior. In addition to providing clear roles for parents and teachers and offers concrete suggestions for creating and evaluating quality educational environments at home, in child care, in preschool and in primary school and addresses the unique challenges of helping children with special needs.                   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Development of Self

ASSIGNMENT ONE MORAL DEVELOPMENT Moral development refers to the formation and maturation of a sense of right and wrong in children in the normal course of cognitive development. As (1987) …

Interpretivism in educational research

INTERPRETIVISM IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH         Interpretivism or interactionism is looking for people through their individual perspective or characteristic and behavior their basis in interpretation of facts is qualitative not just quantitative so they base their theory on interviews, observation and testing to illustrate and identify the personality of groups and individual. This is basically not just positivism but its counterpart since positivism favor official statistic and majority for interpretation of facts not as a group or individual but as a whole. Therefore to simplify and illustrate the importance of interprevitsim and how it can be associated to educational research we are going to identify its application methodology.       Basically interpretive methods of research can be use and associated in many discipline to create a rules and regulation and even cultural policy of education. For example are philosophy, history, psychology, labor laws and legislation and many others. Therefore through this you can easily understand that interpretive research is analytical not just factual in nature.       Interpretivism in research strengthens the foundation on understanding methodological issues so they can solve the problem within the research system. Interpretivism can also provide a balance in education course and other issues relative to this study. This system can also help student to analyze theories, data, and policy so they themselves can develop and interpret their own skills related to educational research and methodology.        From this point of view alone we are able to identify and illustrate its function in research. To further enhance and develop its function usually social science and students interpret behavior of the society and people inside and outside the classroom so they can test the interpretivism skills. In an experiment result by a certain colleges, students are given the opportunity to interact and later identify the interpretivism in an actual practice, shows that they are able to gain and access people through interpretive methodology and therefore familiarize with them in this discipline.       Interpretivism has been conducted through interview and written approach to people this helps them interact more and more to people and thus give them the opportunity and objective development while gathering facts to people. While doing so the teacher will be the one to interpret the student’s interpretive skills. This method is usually done by researcher and other science and medical a practitioner.       Epistemology or gaining knowledge is all about interpretivism because of this the teacher and even the participants more than students can also interpret what they have done, what they can hear and what they can feel as deconstruction for change and therefore understand. There is also critical approach in the discovery of educational curriculum policy example is the New Zealand Ministry of Education where they have based their new policies and practices using interpretive approach in learning which is called “The New Zealand Curriculum” thereby even strengthen the interpretivism in education research. This critical approach opens up a whole new world of ideas, structure and disciplinary process that provided them a better and legitimate condition in educational settings.       This critical approach in their education system also involves an active engagement with natural risk, imagination and reflexibility that is why it is critical. The history of the past education system underlies the present and therefore will be the future of education in relation to globalization.       Of course there is risk involve when trying to reinvent the generation especially in educational research system but the purpose of this changes is not to discourse or limit the availability  of the past system of education such as positivism but to deconstruct or reconstruct the power of knowledge formulation. This imperative may have challenge the people behind the positivism who still uses that system but the possibility to interrelate both disciplines is not at all an issue but a correlation of truth that one may be better than the other and therefore important to choose what an educational institution will practice or use them both.       Imagination of epistemological foundation through interpretivism by self engagement is important in the field of educational research, it is also a part of the process which is universal and unveiling although not scientific but constructive. Will and power to condition one’s mind will definitely sustain its viability in educational research. Will power is the thrust that makes the student or practitioner to do more.       And finally reflexivity and reflectivity are open ended possibilities this maybe unclear or uncertain methods but it is always a way to develop awareness just like a mirror or a self reflection.  Although may require a deeper explanation but through many practices and research the creative desire to mold the educational research system through interpretivism is therefore evident to institutionalize. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Interpretivism in educational research

INTERPRETIVISM IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Interpretivism or interactionism is looking for people through their individual perspective or characteristic and behavior their basis in interpretatio…

An Essay concerning Staff Turnover and Retention Strategies

OBJECTIVES As a person with knowledge of staff turnover and retention, the author has always brought up to his superiors the viability of strategy formation regarding staff turnover and retention management and at times fail to understand the reasons or logic behind certain strategic implementations imposed on it. By delving into this project paper, the author intends to have better insights into how staff turnover and retention is thought up, formulated and then imparted down. The author hopes to have an in-depth understanding as to how the staff members reconcile the need to become more strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles. In order to reinforce the learning objectives, two key focal issues were focused upon, i.e. innovation and diversity. Innovation was discussed with regards to staff turnover and retention where it was renowned for its developmental capabilities to constantly innovate. Diversity came under strategic thinking and formation as the author considered the diverse culture, political climate, economic surroundings, social environment, technological settings, government policies and legal systems in order to understand staff turnover and retention.  EXECUTIVE BRIEF This essay utilized staff members and professionals as the models to review their turnover and retention, and how they dealt with critical situations. From the analysis, key trends in their needs to become strategic were identified, how they worked and their effectiveness in dealing with critical situations was ascertained. The paper then moved on to assess the staff member’s traditional personnel roles with regard to their suitability to critical situations, during which their internal capabilities in relation to the traditional personnel roles being followed was determined also. An overall analysis on how staff members can reconcile the need to become more strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles was also conducted to assess and compare the capabilities of their strategies with those of others. Gaps in their capabilities and the reconciliation process were then identified. Finally, several choices of strategies to improve the strategic roles and skills of the staff members as effective means in turnover and retention were then recommended and evaluated in terms of appropriateness to the issues reviewed, feasibility in carrying out the options and acceptability within the key stakeholders and decision makers. Several key implementation issues related to managing strategic change was also addressed as well.     INTRODUCTION All companies and organizations are governed by their basic goals and objectives. These objectives are often regarded to as the “corporate vision” or “corporate philosophy” (Condrey, 2001). Thus, certain strategies are being implemented with the aim of achieving these goals and objectives, and this constitutes a key element in the characterization of a company or organization. Staff members are undoubtedly an important indicator in determining the characteristics of a company or organization. It is a well known fact that staff members play a crucial role towards differentiation and a potent source of competitiveness for any organization or company. Therefore, any organization must constantly invest in human resource professional development even during periods of recession. However, the determination of the extent to which an organization can invest in terms of staff turnover and retention depends on the financial capabilities of the company or organization (Ulrich, 2004). Finances will also be carefully considered in determining the target for training and development, because it should jive with the basic policies of an organization’s human resource development strategy.             Staff turnover and retention in most organizations and companies in the past decade has gradually transformed from low-level activities into high-profile contributors to organizational success (Connolly et al. 2002). However, budgets are also elevating at a faster rate than the gross national product. In the midst of this growth and increased influence, managers and executives of companies and organizations are left with a confusing question: Who among our staff members should be retained or not? Goals / Objectives of Staff Turnover and Retention Staff turnover and retention have four main objectives: A)   Retain the top professionals and let go of underperforming personnel. Being on top of the industry enables professionals and staff members to command the respect and confidence of the public, thereby getting retained in their respective positions. Thus, these professionals and staff members are able to expand their expertise aside from the traditional personnel roles through the acquisition of critical knowledge and skills (Einsestat, 2001). B)    Gain more income than other companies and organizations. The services that are being laid down by excellent and hardworking staff members and professionals are able to meet high quality standards of their clients. As a result, the organizations employing these staff members are able to earn more income as against other companies in other industries. C)    Establish the best brand of quality HR services; and D)   Maintaining the quality of staff members. Having an office with quality professionals and staff members allows organizations and companies to continue their tradition of excellence in both its services by setting new trends and standards. More often than not, staff members don’t really make an immediate impact upon performance of the traditional personnel roles. Instead, they engage in activities that gradually propel them towards the high level of importance, thereby greatly increasing their chances for retentions. However, the roles that staff members play are not limited to traditional personnel roles. Activities such as educating the public and other social responsibilities are often related with staff members. A great deal of emphasis lies on the efficiency and effectiveness of these roles. Therefore, understanding staff retention and turnover includes the analysis and management of their significant roles (Perry et al. 2003). Staff Retention and Turnover Criteria Most companies and organizations’ criteria for staff turnover and retention can be summarized into five (5) main aspects. These are: ·        Planning and Strategy Formation Capabilities Planning and strategy formation nowadays has created the need for staff members to become aggressive especially in the area of marketing themselves. This is because the access to strong distribution channels is critical for their continued retention in any company or organization. ·        Decision-making Capabilities Upon arriving at the correct decision or choice, the staff member now gains confidence in his / her ability to make critical decisions or choices especially when his / her integrity and job retention is on the line. Thus, this staff member will now search for even more challenges and opportunities where he / she could further enhance his / her decision-making abilities regarding current human resource issues. ·        Analytical Skills Through the exposure to various puzzling human resource issues, the staff member along the process is able to develop a holistic mindset regarding the issues surrounding him / her. The staff member now becomes a keen observer of the truths and lies surrounding the issue being tackled, instead of relying on mere hearsays. The continuous pursuit of the truth behind the puzzling issues enables the staff member to consistently practice and enhance a healthy and holistic mindset which makes it difficult for detractors to give influence. Because of this holistic approach, the staff member is able to effectively select the right choice and continue to maximize this potential for future use, leaving their employers impressed and wanting them to stay in their company (Overman, 2002). ·        Mental Stability Mental stability is crucial especially in the pursuit of the correct decision as well as the management and development of the processes accompanying it. It is important for staff members to remain updated with the latest developments to be able to stay aware and knowledgeable in all issues. ·         Performance and Credibility The production of their best human resource outputs comes as a result of well-funded research management and development activities. The strong performance of staff members and their outputs could also be linked to the effective strategic planning and human resource mobilization. Thus, the staff member’s retention status increases as his / her performance becomes better. Implications for the practice of HRM 1) Staff members and the Need to become Strategic In lieu of the present developments in human resource professional development, there have been significant visions of learning that evolved. A majority of these learning visions are based on the idea that human resource professional development is a social process where knowledge is denied instead of being acquired passively. Learning, then, transforms into an interactive process. The interaction is being verified through the help of the participants in the learning process such as the human resource professional and the managers. In this framework, becoming strategic would mean the continued guidance and support of the active learning process. Obviously, this would call for an intensive and phased guiding strategy (Heuerman, 2004). When in the active pursuit to become strategic, the interaction of human resource professionals with the managers forms an integral part towards its success. Collaborative learning as a strategic method is gradually being used by human resource professionals nowadays. Through this approach, the human resource professional can become strategic through the imitation of common human resource development techniques in the socialization processes. In the process, the human resource professionals are able to obtain the chance to see their own ideas in a different aspect and therefore be able to take alternatives into consideration. The relative effectiveness of this approach is determined with the capability of the human resource professionals to continuously challenge their pre-acquired knowledge by trying to adapt to the interpretations of their managers (Gratton, 2003). Aside from the managers and the staff members, the different resources of strategic learning belong to a third category of factors of a learning environment. Moreover, strategic learning methods have shown signs of significant growth over the past years. Consequently, obtaining knowledge becomes more complicated. This is because the transformation of all this information into strategic knowledge requires the managers to possess the appropriate reference frameworks.   2) Staff members and the Development of Corporate Strategy Staff members help companies and organizations in aiming for sustainable growth as well as for segment leadership in their respective industries. They help companies and organizations to establish its broad leadership usually by redefining their corporate strategies and their products and services. The changes or redirection of the corporate strategy of an organization or company may include offering training to its employees, improving the company operations, and the introduction of new technologies then reinforces the positions of the various products of the company. This practically results in economies of scale that is able to create a distribution network for both the local and international products of the company.             The role of staff members in the development of the corporate strategy is to help that particular company or organization in securing the growth of their business in a sustainable manner, while at the same time constantly improving the company’s profitability. The strategy being employed by staff members to achieve this involves four elements: <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Encouraging companies and organizations to strive in order to reach a leading position in attractive markets </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Development of a corporate strategy focusing on securing a competitive share of the market segments. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Working in order to improve the company’s efficiency and cut costs in operations. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Aiming for continuous growth through selective acquisitions for as long as the company can create shareholder value. </li> The recent efforts of staff members to reconcile the need to become strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles would definitely make progress with the growing role of information and communications technology (ICT) in the human resource development. This fits in with the larger need of staff members towards reconciling with the demands of managers. Therefore, the reconciliation process would become possible if the staff members are fully adapted to ICT. Nowadays, staff members are more and more using artificial intelligence systems in order to carry out their traditional personnel roles (Galpin et al. 2002). The traditional personnel roles of the staff members are being influenced by the interaction of two major factors. On the one hand, the instructional factors: the human resource philosophy brought about by the staff members and its conversion into didactical ideas. On the other hand, organizational factors: the managers, staff, infrastructure and policies related in this area. It is obvious that the staff members must possess a sound vision of policies and the efficient use of the operating budget in order to effectively reconcile the need to become more strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles (Gonzalez, 2003). Nevertheless, these staff members need an interaction between both factors. This is because in order to respond to the new visions of learning, they will eventually transform into a model together with the various aspects of the reconciliation process. In return, the managers will have to continuously monitor their limitations and along the process introduce innovations. CONCLUSION The results of the analysis carried out on the traditional personnel roles of staff members indicated very significant effects, even amidst the threats of unrest. Therefore, we could conclude that the staff member’s traditional personnel roles could still be expected to increase faster than average. The review of the objectives and criteria for staff retention and turnover revealed very little inconsistencies regarding the needs of companies and organizations to become strategic. This is coherent with their traditional inside-out approach. However, the need to reconcile both the inside-out and outside-in approaches becomes imperative now for these companies and organizations. The analysis among the reconciliation process as well as the traditional personnel roles of the staff members revealed certain gaps, most of which are biased towards the environment. However, these gaps paved the way towards determining a number of recommended strategic options to secure the staff member’s competitiveness. Also, the staff member has to find a balance between adherence to internal forces and to the changing forces of the environment in order to effectively reconcile the need to become more strategic with the demands of managers to carry out the traditional personnel roles. REFERENCES Condrey, Stephen E. Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2001, pp. 47-48.   Connolly, Thomas R., et al. “Transforming Human Resources.” Management Review, June 2002, issue # 3, pp. 10-16.   Eisenstat, Russell A. “What Corporate Human Resources Brings to the Picnic: Four Models for Functional Management.” Organizational Dynamics, 2001, pp. 6-14.   Galpin, Timothy J., and Patrick Murray. “Connect Human Resource Strategy to the Business Plan.” HR Magazine, March 2002, issue # 5, pp. 16-20.   Gonzalez, Maria. “Synchronized Strategies.” Journal of Business Strategy, May/June 2003, issue # 5,  pp. 9-11.   Gratton, Lynda. “The New Rules of HR Strategy.” HR Focus, June 2003, pp. 13-14.   Heuerman, Allan D. “Using Performance Management to Energize the Results Act.” The Public Manager, 2004, pp. 17-20.   Overman, Stephanie. “Big Bang Change: Re-engineering HR.” HR Magazine, June 2002, issue # 4, pp. 50-53.   Perry, James L., and Debra J. Mesch. “Strategic Human Resource Management.” Public Personnel Management: Current Concerns, Future Challenges. Second Edition. 2003, pp. 32-40.   Ulrich, David. “Measuring Human Resources: An Overview of Practice and a Prescription for Results.” Human Resource Management, 2004, issue # 6, pp. 303-320.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

An Essay concerning Staff Turnover and Retention Strategies

OBJECTIVES

Load more posts