How do we raise children?

The development of a child can raise various questions in multiple levels of society. A question that most parents have is how they can teach their children how to deal with anger and other negative emotions. Sometimes parents spank their children, but this has turned out to be counterproductive. However, several effective ways are known to control the anger of a child. One way is to respond sympathetically to children who show negative emotions, so children are able to cope in a better way with the situation causing the negative emotions. Another way is to help the children look for positive alternatives when they show negative emotions.

What did the Romanian adoption study find?

A Romanian study investigated children who grew up in orphanages under neglecting circumstances in Romania. Due to the policy in orphanages at the time, there was a lack of (physical) contact for the orphans. At the time these children were adopted by British families, they were often found to be malnourished, lagging behind in physical and intellectual development, and socially immature. The study compared these orphans with adopted children from Great Britain. At

The first studies on development were trying to answer the question of which of the following is more influential on the child’s development: the genes or the environment. Since the discovery of the DNA, the basic component of heredity, enormous advances have been made in deciphering the genetic code. Researchers have mapped the entire genome, the complete set of genes of an organism. Later studies on development found both, the genes and the environment, as important influences in the development of a child. The genes and the environment interact continuously with each other, therefore both influence the development of a child.

Which genetic and environmental factors play a role?

There are three elements that are important in the development of a child: genotype, phenotype and the environment. Genotype is the inherited genetic material of an individual. Phenotype is the observable expression of the genotype, namely the body characteristics and behavior. The environment is an all-encompassing aspect of an individual and his / her surrounding aspects, unlike the genes.

These three elements are involved in five relationships that are fundamental to the development of every child: 

How do the genes of the parents influence the child's genotype?

Chromosomes are molecules of the DNA containing genetic information. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is made of molecules containing all biochemical instructions involved in the formation and functioning of an organism.

How does perceptual development work?

There is a difference between perception and sensation. Sensation is the processing of basic information from the external world, through sensory receptors in the sensory organs and the brain. Perception is a process focusing on organizing and interpreting sensory information.

How does visual development take place in children?

In the past the visual capacity of babies was underestimated. Research shows that babies have a greater visual capacity than previously believed. Research was done through preferential looking technique and habituation. The preferential looking technique is a method for research of the baby's visual attention, whereby babies are presented with two patterns or two objects at the same time and eventually one pattern/ object is preferred. Habituation is a method of researching the sensory and perceptual development. The baby is repeatedly presented a stimulus until it gets used to it and shows a reduced response. Then a new stimulus is presented. If the reaction of the baby suddenly increases, one can conclude that the baby is capable of differentiating between old and new stimuli.

By using the preferential viewing technique, researchers are able to assess various visual aspects of babies. Visual acuity is the degree of visual discrimination. Normally babies prefer strong visual contrasts, such as black and white. The preference arises through the low contrast sensitivity of babies. Contrast sensitivity is the ability to distinguish between light and dark areas in visual patterns. Babies have low contrast sensitivity because the cones in the eyes are not well-developed yet. Cones are light-sensitive neurons, which are concentrated in the fovea

Concepts are general ideas or terms that can be used to group objects, situations, qualities, or abstractions, that let them become equal in a certain way.

How do children learn to understand who and what?

How do children learn to divide objects into categories?

Children use categorical hierarchy to distinguish between categories. The categories are classified into set-subset relation, such as animal-dog-poodle. Small children especially use perceptual categorization: grouping objects that are similar. It can already be seen in children from 3 to 4 months old. As children grow older, they also understand hierarchical and causal relationships between categories. The categorical hierarchies’ children are forming often contain three levels: the superordinate level (for example a plant), the subordinate level (for example an oak tree), and the basic level (for example, a tree). Children mainly learn the basic level first, after the parents help them to gain understanding of the higher levels. In an older age, children establish causal relationships between objects through explanations or the idea of cause and consequences between objects. This helps the child understand the categories and form more categories.

How do children learn to understand others and themselves?

Naive psychology is about a basic understanding of ourselves and others. Children are born with an implicit self-awareness that they are an individual separate from others. By the age of 4 months, children have developed a basic understanding of which objects can be grasped for and which cannot (for example, objects that are too far away). Between 18 and 24 months, children have developed a more explicit self-awareness and they recognize dirt on their

What do psychoanalytic theories claim about the social development of children?

Psychoanalytic theories have had the greatest impact on western cultures. These theories have had a major influence on the way of thinking about personality and social developments. This is mainly because og Sigmund Freud. Erik Erikson later accounted on the ideas of Sigmund Freud. Both theories are based on biological ripening. According to Freud, the behavior is motivated by the need to satisfy basic drifts. The resulting instincts and motives usually arise unconsciously. According to Erikson, development is motivated by crises in the development related to age and biological maturation. The individual must successfully complete all crises in order to achieve healthy development. The theories of Freud and Erikson are stage theories.

How does Freud perceive social development?

Freud is the founder of the psychoanalytic theory. His theory about the development of children is also called the theory of psychosexual development. He thought that even very young children have a sexual nature that motivates their behavior and influences their relationships with other people. Children go through five phases of universal developments. According to Freud, psychic energy focuses on different erogenous zones. Psychic energy consists of the biological urges that feed the behavior, the thoughts and the feelings. The erogenous zones are areas of the body that are erotically sensitive, such as the mouth, the anus, and the genitals. According to Freud, every child

Children develop certain forms of attachment. Attachment is an emotional bond with a specific person, a bond that remains constant over time. Attachment is often discussed as the relationship between a child and his/her caregiver, but attachment can also occur in adulthood.

Which attachment styles do we distinguish?

What is the attachment theory?

The attachment theory was proposed by Bowlby. This theory states that children have a biological predisposition to attach themselves to the caregivers, in order to increase the chance of their own survival. Later, Ainsworth expanded and tested Bowlby's ideas. According to Freud, children's development is shaped by their early relationship with their mothers. Bowlby agreed on this, but changed the idea of ​​Freud's "needy, dependent infant" into a "competence - motivated child" that uses his/her caregiver as a secure base. This secure base is based on the idea that the presence of a trusted caregiver can provide a child with a sense of security and makes it possible for the child to explore the environment.

The attachment process has an innate basis, but its development and quality depend on the experiences of the child with their caregivers. According to Bowlby, the development of attachment takes place in four phases:

1. Pre-attachment takes place from birth to the age of 6 weeks. Here babies produce innate signals, such as crying. The baby is reassured by the comforting action of the caregiver.
2. Attachment-in-the-making takes place between the age of 6 weeks and 6-8 months. Babies react to familiar people, for example by smiling, laughing out loud, or babbling. They calm down more quickly and

Peers are people of about the same age and status who are not relatives.

What is the importance of play?

Play refers to voluntary activities that children do without any other motivation than for their own pleasure. Research has shown that play contributes to the social, emotional, cognitive and physical development of children. Children engage in increasingly complex forms of play as they get older. Play is also used as a basis for interventions to help young children deal with mental problems or cope with trauma.

What different types of play do we distinguish?

There are different types of play. Non-social types of play include:

• Unoccupied play: children look at objects in their environment, but their attention is not held by anything.
• Onlooker play: kids watch other kids play.
• Solitary play: children play on their own and do not pay attention to the goodbye of others around them.

Social forms of play are:

• Parallel play: children play next to but not together with other children.
• Associative play: children play together with other children and do the same activity.
• Co-operative play: children play together with others in an organized way in which each child has its own role.

Why and how do friendships develop?

Relationships with peers contribute

What is the difference between sex and gender?

Sex is the difference between genetic female (XX) and genetic male (XY). Gender is the social assignment or self-categorization as a woman or man (or neither). Gender-typed refers to behavior that is expected for a person's gender. Cross-gender typed refers to behavior that is expected for the different gender than the person has. Gender typing refers to the process of gender socialization.

What is the gender binary?

The binary gender is the prevailing idea that there are only two categories of genders. However, research has shown that there is no such thing as the 'female brain' or 'male brain'. The idea of ​​a difference between 'female hormones' and 'male hormones' is also incorrect, since all sex hormones are present in both men and women. Moreover, according to research, there is no such thing as 'male behavior' and 'female behavior'. Another criticism of binary gender identity is that transgender and non-binary identities exist all over the world, regardless of culture. Finally, the social world is organized and structured according to the gender binary.

How can research compare boys and girls?

If gender groups are compared in terms of behavior, it is often the case the genders differ only slightly from each other and there is a lot of overlap and similarities.