Suppose a teenage babysitter is watching two children for the first time. One child is a 4-year old boy, the other an 8-month old girl. A. Based on the stage theories of Piaget and Erikson, identify patterns of thought or behavior the babysitter might infer or observe in each child.

B. Discuss how the babysitter’s cognition and psychosocial development might differ from that of the two children.

C. Explain the gender development of the 4-year old boy using the social learning theory.

D. Using Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, contrast how the babysitter and the 4-year old might reason through a dilemma.

Answer and Explanation:

A. According to Piaget, the 4-year-old is in the stage known as pre-operational. In this phase, the child has a strong imagination and memory, being able to understand and interpret many concepts even if symbolically. Also according to Piaget, the 8-year-old girl is in the concrete operational phase, where she has a strong cognitive development because she is initiating logical and operational thinking, so the girl is more aware of the world and her feelings and that of the people around her. around them, and can even present themselves in an egocentric way. According to Erikson, however, the 4-year-old is in the Initiative X Guilt stage which is marked by the perception of sexual differences and the roles assumed by men and women he has contact with. This boy also has a strong sense of guilt when he is scolded. The 8-year-old girl is in the Constructivity vs. Inferiority stage, where she has strong socialization and likes to cooperate with the activities that the nanny can perform, is cooperative and has less guilt when scolded, but may show symptoms of inferiority.

B. The nanny is a teenager, which means that her cognitive ability is much more evolved than that of children. Unlike children. the nanny has an even greater sense of the environment and the people around her are able to use logic to solve their problems and act thinking about future results. In addition, the nanny may be confused about their identity and their role in society, as this is common in adolescents.

C. As you saw above, the 4 year old boy is already able to perceive gender differences in the individuals with whom he has contact. At this moment, the theory of social learning has a strong impact on the development of the boy in relation to his own gender. This is because the boy recognizes his gender and through the observation of people of the same gender as him, he begins to adopt behaviors that he believes are appropriate. For example, the boy realizes that the father has the same gender as him. As the father does not prepare meals at home, the boy assumes that the preparation of meals is not correct for his gender.

D. Children would resolve dilemmas with the perspective of the Pre-Conventional level of Kohlberg's stages of moral development. In this case, they would try to solve the problems in a way that would not cause punishment for them, that is, any solution that did not cause punishment would be adopted. The nanny, however, would resolve the dilemma based on the conventional level, where she would look for solutions that were morally correct, even if it caused punishments for her.