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Swyam Week2 Assignment

The document discusses the method of observation as a key approach to studying human development, highlighting its advantages and disadvantages, including observer bias and the Hawthorne effect. It also emphasizes the importance of socialization in education, outlining three stages of socialization as proposed by Talcott Parsons, and how cultural differences impact these processes. Additionally, it critiques stage theories in child development, noting limitations in their applicability across different cultures and populations.

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Revathi Kalyanasundaram
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25 views3 pages

Swyam Week2 Assignment

The document discusses the method of observation as a key approach to studying human development, highlighting its advantages and disadvantages, including observer bias and the Hawthorne effect. It also emphasizes the importance of socialization in education, outlining three stages of socialization as proposed by Talcott Parsons, and how cultural differences impact these processes. Additionally, it critiques stage theories in child development, noting limitations in their applicability across different cultures and populations.

Uploaded by

Revathi Kalyanasundaram
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

Method of Observation:

Observation is a very important method of studying development since


development involves very slow and subtle factors of human behaviour. Observation is way
of gathering data by watching behaviour, events, or noting physical characteristics in
their natural setting.
Observations can be overt (everyone knows they are being observed)or covert (no
one knows they are being observed and the observer is concealed).The benefit of
covert observation is that people are more likely to behave naturally if they do not know they are
being observed.
However, you will typically need to conduct overt observations because of
ethical problems related to concealing your observation. Observations can also be either direct or
indirect. Direct observation is when you watch interactions, processes, or behaviours as they
occur; for example, observing a teacher teaching a lesson from a written curriculum to determine
whether they are delivering it correctly.
Indirect observations are when you watch the results of interactions, processes,
or behaviours; for example, measuring the amount of food.

• When you are trying to understand an ongoing process or situation. Through observation you
can monitor or watch a process or situation that you are evaluating as it occurs.
• When you are gathering data on individual behaviours or interaction with people. Observation
allows you to watch peoples’ behaviours and interactions directly, or watch for the results of
behaviours or interactions.
• When you need to know about a physical setting. Seeing the place or environment where
something takes place can help increase your understanding of the event, activity, or situation
you are evaluating. For example, you can
observe whether a classroom or training facility is conducive to learning.
• When data collection from individuals is not a realistic option. If respondents are unwilling or
unable to provide data through questionnaires or interviews, observation is a method that
requires little from the individuals for whom you
need data.

Advantages of observation:
We are able to collect data where and when an event or activity is occurring.Observation
method does not rely on people’s willingness or ability to provide information and allows you to
directly see what people do rather than relying on what people say they did.

Disadvantages of observation:
Observation method is susceptible to observer bias. This method suffers from
the “hawthorne effect,” that is, people usually perform better when they know they are
being observed, although indirect observation may decrease this problem.
2. Importance of Socialization to Educators:

Infants are new to any culture. They must be transformed by their parents, teachers, and
others into cultural and social beings. The general process of acquiring culture is referred to as
socialisation.

Socialisation is a learning process that begins shortly after birth. Early childhood is
the period of the most intense and the most important stage of socialisation.It is then that we
acquire language and learn the fundamentals of our culture. It is also a stage when much of our
personality takes shape. However, we continue to be socialised throughout our lives.

Three stages of socialization

Talcott Parsons saw socialisation as the process through which, individuals


developed and internalised a sense of norms and values.Parsons theorised that there were
three stages of socialisation, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. The first level of
socialisation comes at the primary level where a child is developing personality,
characteristics, beliefs and values based on their upbringing.
A child will adopt attitudes and beliefs based on their family and their parents.
Primary socialisation occurs in the family / home.Parents generally have a goal or an expectation
of the way they want their child to develop.Even seemingly small actions of parents can have
major impacts on the socialisation of their children.
For example, what would you do if your baby cried continuously but was not ill, hungry, or in
need of a diaper change?Would you hold your baby, rock back and forth, walk around, or sing
gently until the crying stops, even if it took hours.

The answer that you give very likely depends on your culture. The traditional
Navajo Indian response usually was to remove the baby from social contact until the
crying stopped.After making sure that the baby was not ill or in physical distress, he or
she would be taken outside of the small single room house and left in a safe place until the crying
stopped.Then the baby would be brought indoors again to join the family.As a result, Navajo
babies raised in this way are usually very quiet. They learn early that making noise causes them
to be removed from social contact.In most Indian families today, we would hold our baby in this
situation until the crying stopped.
The lesson that we may be giving is that crying results in social contact.Is this wrong?
It may not be wrong but it is a different socialisation technique.
The secondary socialisation level occurs when an individual is learning about what is acceptable
and what is not acceptable.It usually occurs on a small group level to teenagers and young
adults.This level of socialisation enables ones to become more aware of what the larger society
expects from them.
The tertiary level of socialisation occurs when an individual has integrated into the
world and begins to gain new ideas and values of socialisation.After one has gone through these
stages of development, an individual may go through a re-socialisation process, and this happens
in different stages through life, for example; people retire or become unemployed etc.
Parsons noted that each stage of socialisation had its’ own way of helping an
individual internalize social norms and values.A Parsons concept of socialisation is a fusion
of personality development and functionalism.

3. Disadvantages of Stage Theories:

1. Stage theories, especially those of Piaget generated interest in child development and had an
enormous impact on the future of education and developmental psychology. But they also
suffered from various disadvantages.
2. Erikson’s theory also applied to boys more than girls.
Finally, the rigid structure to Erikson's theory didn't take into consideration cultural differences
that may have affected the time during which an individual was in one particular stage. For
example: potty training begins at different ages depending on the culture.
3. A popular criticism of Piaget’s stage theory is that he underestimated the abilities of an infant.
Studies have shown that they have more of a capacity in memory and understanding of objects
than he believed.

4. In addition to this, the other children in Piaget's small research sample were all from well-
educated professionals of high socioeconomic status. Because of this unrepresentative sample, it
is difficult to generalize his findings to a larger population.

5. Kohlberg’s theory is also said to overemphasize Western philosophy. Individualistic cultures


emphasize personal rights while collectivist cultures stress the importance of society and
community. Eastern cultures like Indian and Chinese culture may have different moral outlooks
that Kohlberg's theory does not account for.

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