Psychological Study on Children's Art

As children begin to mature and go through different stages, their way of making art changes. In 1966, Herbert Read performed a study on children of various ages, comparing their drawings with their ages, and discovered many similarites between kids of similar ages, in the same stages of development. He discovered that around 14 months, children usually drew something like this...

A drawing such as this...
is shapeless and purposeless
and requires little mouscle control

Around 18 months, a child would produce something more like this...

 

 A drawing like this...

shows the gradual change to including circular shapes within drawing

shows more control with arm movements

Around age 2, a child would produce something like this...

This drawing...

shows more use of arm, finger and wrist muscles

shows the building of knowledge from shapes seen

shows use of more demanding angles

Drawings such as these would continue to develop into more refined shapes, and eventually, children create more human-like forms like this...

Drawings continue to develop like this until they become more realistic, adding in more detail as they develop, with more accurate drawings.

Piaget's Theory of Development

I agree and disagree with some aspects of Piaget's theory on the stages of development. One aspect I do not agree with is the age of the preoperational stage of this development, in which the child can only think one dimensionally, which means they only can focus on one aspect, and that they still do not have the cognitive ability to think logically. Piaget states that this stage goes throughout the ages 2-7. I disagree with this age range due to the fact that a 5-7 year old may be a very logical thinkers at this age if they are slightly more advanced. For example, at the age of 6 I was already reading books such as Harry Potter and actually understanding them. Another aspect of it that i would slightly disagree with is the fact that in the formal operational stage, which is ages 12 and up, people just begin to thinking about abstract thinking and topics such as time, friends, love and faith. I feel that people start to understand concepts such as these at a much younger age. But, I agree with almost every other aspect of his theories as it seems accurate as to when people develop certain things such as object permanence and if a person is egocentric or not, as these are common things that are easy to evaluate and study.

Operant Conditioning

This video is a very clear example of Operant Conditioning. Penny is conditioned by Sheldon into behaving the way he wants her to through the chocolates. The chocolates Penny receives when she acts in a way favorable to Sheldon are positive reinforcement. This positive reinforcement causes her to want to repeat the action done to receive the reinforcement in the first place, therefore increasing the frequency of such behavior. Thus showing Operant Conditioning.

Classical Conditioning

There once was a small child named Andrea. Andrea lived a very happy and fulfilled life, expect for one problem that she had acquired...

When Andrea was a small child, she quite often enjoyed reading Harry Potter books over and over again every weekend and every night she could. She even loved Harry Potter so much, she got a picture with the two main stars after she stalked them down. However, while reading her beloved books, she quite often would become cold and would need her Harry Potter blanket and her Hedwig stuffed animal to keep her warm. But, with her feet wrapped within the wraith of the blankets she felt she was unable to free them, and she began to dislike her Harry Potter blanket. Her feet felt eternally trapped within the blankets wrap, and she very soon began to fear having not only that blanket, but all blankets covering her feet. She saw the blankets and scaaarryyyy monsters trying to eat her feet. Therefore, whenever she saw a blanket, she would run away and seek refuge in watching a Harry Potter movie wrapped in her bright pink Snuggie instead. But, as her blanket was Harry Potter themed, she also began to get a tingly feeling in her feet at the sight of Harry Potter, so she was forced to seek refuge elsewhere. However, once summer time rolled around, Andrea no longer felt the need to use blankets so her fear for them slowly dissipated, and she no longer screamed at the mere sight of a blanket. But, once summer time had come and gone, Andrea began to feel a slight chill within her house, and began to look for something to keep her warm, and upon the sight of the blanket, her feet got an odd feeling..

Social-Learning

 Being your own individual person and saying you are is a nearly impossible thing to do in todays society. Pretty much every single person is influenced by either their environment in which they live or the people they are surrounded by. Whether it be the way you react to certain things, or the way you dress, act and talk. For example, if one of your friends started to wear a certain fashion, and the fashion caught on, chances are that you would begin to dress in the same way as a way to fit in and be similar to other people. These actions and behaviors all show the example of the social learning personality theory. This theory is based off of social learning and external forces causing you to decide on life choices.

  The social learning theory has a huge influence on my daily life that i observe. Basically a person's entire personality and external appearances can be based off of social learning. My peers at school each have their own style that is based off of a desire to be the way they have learned socially is acceptable. The different type of cliques illustrate this, as people go off of what their friends wear and what their friends act like. They may adopt the same interests as their friends, such as an insane obsession for the cuteness of baby hippos and baby otters!

I've noticed personally several people who have changed their personality due to a new group of friends and what they think. External forces truly do have a very great influence on what a person is like.







Freud

Sigmund Freud was born May 8, 1856. His mother was 21 years old at the time of his birth and his father 41. He had two older half-siblings, and six younger siblings. As a child growing up, he was a very bright and intelligent boy. This carried out throughout all of his childhood and as a young adult he enrolled in medical school. He married Martha Bernays, and had six children with her. He lived until September 23, 1939, when he died due to cancer of the mouth which was caused by his excessive smoking.

Sigmund Freud was a very well known psychologist for his very controversial ideas in psychology. He was very open with concepts he believed were true with psychology. For example, the Oedipus Complex, which is an idea that when you are born you loathe your same gender parent and want to kill them so you can have your opposite gender parent to yourself. Another well known theory of his is the 3 parts of your mind, the id, ego and superego. This theory claims that the id is what you are born with, your survival instincts. It is based off of the pleasure principle and instant gratification for the needs the id is showing. The next part of your mind that develops is the ego, which takes things in a more realistic way. For example, if you are hungry, the id tells you to scream for food, and the ego balances that with a rational thought such as asking for the food. The superego is the final part of the mind to develop. This particular part of the mind is the part that applies society's normalities to your actions.

It's so awkward writing about myself.

   It feels so weird to be sitting here and typing a blog about myself. I guess that could say something about the kind of person that I am though. I tend to be more of an introverted person as opposed to an extrovert. I don't really like talking about  my problems or anything else about me to other people. Basically, I'm the complete opposite of those annoying people on facebook who tell you their whole life story. I'm generally a quiet person in most situations, unless I'm with a large group of my friends. Theeeennn, you can't get me to shut up. When I'm with friends, I'm a bubbly person, I talk a lot, and I tend to make random noises(usually meowing). There are some downsides to my personality as well though. I am probably one of the most lazy people a person could meet. I love to just lounge around doing nothing, I like the feeling of having nothing to do and nothing to worry about needing to be done. Another downside is that I tend to care too much about what others are thinking, and I feel like I am always being judged. This, i suppose would be part of the reason why I am more introverted in a situation I'm not comfortable with, for the fear of being judged by others.
    While on the topic of fears, I may have some of the most ridiculous fears a person could think of. One of my crazy irrational fears is people touching the back of my ankles. Just thinking about them creeps me out. I guess its just more of the feeling of them being vulnerable, even though I'm pretty sure about 99.999% of people aren't walking around and thinking about slashing the back of a person's ankle. What makes this fear even better though is that it was in my freshman yearbook with the quotes all around the pages, so I'm frequently taunted with it(in a nice friendly way of course). Flashlights are another one of my irrational fears. It's not really the flashlight itself that I fear, its more of the fact that when its pitch black and you're using a flashlight, you can only see so much, and the fact of there being so much unknown things beyond the light. It also doesn't help that I am terrified of the dark, which I have multiple scary movies to thank for!
    My dream throughout pretty much all of my childhood was a bit of an odd job. When I was younger, I absolutely LOVED going to the zoo. Every time I went I would always want to see the zebras. This obsession with the zoo had led me to want to be a zookeeper for the longest time. But, now my dream is to pursue something within the medical field. At first I had wanted to be a surgeon or an anesthesiologist. But, after taking drivers ed over the summer and watching several Red Asphalt videos, I got the idea that I may want to be a paramedic. I love the idea of being able to help someone, but I love the thrill and adrenaline rush i would get from being a paramedic in emergency situations.
     And to wrap things up, a few random facts about me(:

• I play clarinet, piano and guitar
• I currently have an obsession with baby hippos. THEY'RE FLIPPIN ADORABLE.

• I play the clarinet in marching band ( Woo Cadets.!:) )
• I am an outside hitter in volleyball
• I can't stand onions
• I have two dogs, Chase and Bouncer
• All time favorite band: Mayday Parade. (amazing song #1,#2, and #3)
• And finally, i still feel awkward writing such a long thing about myself.(;