Social development
Social development The purpose of this paper is to correlate the relationship between three major theories of social development. In doing so, seeking to identify, describe, and actively relate each principle requires first and foremost to constructs definition of social development. “Social Development refers to how people develop social and emotional skills across the lifespan, with particular attention to childhood and adolescence.
Healthy social development allows us to form positive relationships with family, friends, teachers, and other people in our lives” (1 As we mature, we learn to better manage our own feelings, in order to respond appropriately to the feelings and needs of others. Such development begins from the day we are brought into this world to the day we seize to exist. It is in fact an active ever-changing footing that is learned through our experiences, as well as our interpretations of these experiences that help construct our own social intelligence.
The three major theories discussed in this work are theory of mind, the role of perspective taking/emotional and temperament. There are various definitions of Theory of mind, in short it is the understanding of one’s own and other people’s minds or mental states. It involves the ability when determining human behavior to look into thoughts, beliefs, perceptions, knowledge, intentions, desires, and emotions and how they play a role in the actions of people.
People who are able to adopt the fundamentals of Theory of Mind have the ability to interpret beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from their own. Theory of mind allows us to take on the perspective of another person which leads us to understand emotions, be successful in communicating with others and develop healthy social relationships. The idea of theory of mind is that we must understand ourselves in order to better understand others.
Many Psychologists use theory of mind when looking into the social development of an individual to properly treat and diagnose patients it is crucial to understand the temperament of the individual in order to do so. These attempts to perspective taking allows people empathic properly managing their own emotions when taking the perspective of others and reflecting on their own self-awareness. In order to better understand how this helps within social development.
We must be able to recognize emotional state, well-being and kick up on physical and emotional cues which overtime allow us to develop a cognitive schema of the world around us. This is very important as it gives a baseline of the intentions of others. It should be noted that determining these cues is not particularly easy however when mastered the interpreter is able to understand the temperament of others.
Understanding the temperament as well as taking on the emotional well- being of others allows for us as individuals to map out the series Of actions Of others. The core features of emotional development, wellbeing of others include the ability to Identify and understand one’s own feelings, to accurately read and comprehend emotional states in others, to manage strong emotions and their expression in a constructive manner, to regulate one’s own behavior, to develop empathy for others, and to establish and maintain relationships. National Scientific Council on the Developing Child 2004, 2) Elaborating on the effects of emotional development and perspective taking requires us to look into how individuals develop mold and shape their own emotions. As Overall (1 980), explained, “the relationship between culture, unconsciousness, and emotions by stating that the emotions are viewed as transitory social roles, or socially constituted syndromes”. It is than important to look at the early stages of life in order to determine what makes us tick on a social contextual scale.
Early in life children begin to interact with the people around them, first using simple behaviors such as crying when hungry or smiling at the recognition of a parents face. These temperaments begin to mature over time, the continuous social interactions aid in creating a framework for later more complex emotions and social interactions. These social interactions begin to mature overtime and begin to become more complex, it begins by routine than develops into habits.
These habits become our temperament, which in turn is known to others as our personality. Through interactions our personality begins to develop of social exchanges we use these foundations in order to develop our “social position in the world”, interacting with peers, friends and family; learning, growing and maturing. This part of social development is the very foundation of how we mature grow and develop not only our own temperament but also begin to understand how to recognize the “theory of minds” other individuals as separate entities.
Temperament with regards to social development is instrumental in understanding the reactivity of individuals across various contexts and situations. Personality and temperament begin to develop ATA very young age and are involved in forming each individuals map of the world. Just like emotional development and theory of mind, understanding temperament begins with the social maturity of the individual; requiring such social tools as self-awareness and self-regulation are key tools to long term social maturity. Temperament is crucial not only in understanding others but also in the decision making processes.
If throughout young adolescences and childhood an individual develops a more negative temperament of the world, through negative life experiences re-enforced time and time again than more times than not there portrayal of the social context of the world will be viewed in a negative skew thus not allowing for further social and psychological development It is the cognitive psycho;pathology that guides our thoughts and actions, in order to comprehend the thought processes of others we just recognize the various types of temperaments and how they affect us as individuals.
There are several similarities between temperament and theory of mind, as children we begin to formulate are own view of the world, through trial and errors of our own we develop social capacities that affect us emotionally and psychologically. There is also evidence of similarities between these various methods of social development. Theory of mind and empathy have been thought to be correlated in neuron-pathology both activating chemical reactions in predominately the frontal and pre-frontal lobes.
If this is true than not only are they similar on a psycho-emotional level but possibly a neurological physical representation as well. It is evident that the effects of theory of mind, temperament and effective perspective taking begin to form at a young age we formulate thoughts, views and personalities through our own experiences, interactions and learned attributes that we call social learning. Three different approaches towards social development Were discussed in this essay. Individual theory of mine, effective perspective taking, and temperament. Developing these three theories as you age requires a healthy earning environment, positive re-enforcement and resiliency to negative life experiences. Having a healthy environment to promote social development allows us to form positive relationships with family, friends, teachers, and other people in our lives. All of these approaches have their importance in terms of overall social development.
None of which can be ignored completely. As all of these approaches are very important for emotion regulation. It is more evident now than ever that we must focus on the social development at a young age two help construct well-adjusted emotionally stable people in the future so doodads more focus is on the development of emotion regulation which plays an important role in children’s emotional development.
