Paper Example on Egocentrism in Children: Lev Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development

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Egocentrism is the inability to differentiate between self and others. Lev Vygotsky's social-cultural cognitive development theory asserts that the cognitive development of children is advanced through social interaction with other people. Vygotsky would say that children begin to show egocentrism through a manifestation of the theory of the mind. Egocentrism may be seen in children when people around them act, think, or behave differently. The egocentric nature of children helps them to develop personal perspectives that assist in a thorough understanding of self (Scrimsher, & Tudge,2003). Egocentrism would be necessary for Vygotsky's theory because it contributes to human cognitive development by assisting children in developing the theory of mind and forming an identity for their personalities.

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2. How does Dumas explain adultification (Re)Imagining Black Boyhood?

Duma explains adultification as a process that exposes Black boys to more danger. The adultification described by Dumas shows that young boys are imagined to be adult criminals. If a young boy is found with a toy gun playing, then he is assumed to be an adult and killed. For example, Dumas points out to a case where a twelve-year-old boy was shot and killed while playing in his locality. The police officer imagined the toy gun in the young boy's hand as real and threatening (Dumas & Nelson, 2016). The police officer presumed the boy as a violent man rather than a child playing with a toy gun. Adultification, in this case, assumes young boys to be criminals and threats in society.

3. Where and in what context did Vygotsky develop his theories, and why is Vygotsky's birthplace and historical context, as well as his death and so crucial to his theory of development?

Vygotsky developed his theories during the 1920s in the early years of his career. Vygotsky was born in Orsche Russia, but later his family moved to Belorussia. He lived most of his life with the people whom they shared similar social and cultural views. This helped him to understand the social-cultural impacts in the cognitive development of a child. His life formed the basis for understanding how children learn and develop their cognitive faculty. His death aroused curiosity among various theorists and scholars that embarked on reading what he had scripted. The previous works he had written were combined and became the theories that explain the cognitive development of children.

4. In what ways do Piaget and Vygotsky have opposing views on egocentrism?

Vygotsky postulates that egocentric speech plays an outstanding function in affectivity and accomplishes a personal role as a thinking agent. Thus, Vigotsky links the egocentric language that attached to a child's activity to the child's needs for preparation, designing, and problem-solving. On the other hand, Piaget asserts that there are more specific factors that affect the measure of egocentrism instead of the outcomes that arise from criticizing the egocentric speech of the child because this type of language is not a deciding factor for cognitive development. Piaget says that egocentric speech is only a verbal expression that is not directly responsible for creating thoughts.

5. Explain, define, and construct an explanation of the ecological systems theory of development.

The ecological systems theory of development explains how the inbuilt attributes of children and their environments interact to influence their growth and development. The theory identifies five environmental systems that individual associates. First is the microsystem that comprises of the institutions and immediate groups that the child interacts such as family, school, peers, and neighbours. Second is the mesosystem that refers to the interconnections between the microsystems-for instance, the interconnection between teachers and a child's family.

The third is the exosystem that comprises the links between social settings that do not involve the child. For instance, changes in a parent's workplace may influence how a parent interacts with the child. Fourth is the macrosystem that describes cultural contexts embedded in micro and macrosystems and their influences on child growth. The fifth is the chronosystem that comprises the pattern of environmental events and transitions over the life course and evolving social-historical circumstances.

6. Explain Crenshaw's theory of Intersectionality and provide a tangible example as to how it manifest in everyday life?

Intersectionality is a theoretical framework that explains how different aspects of one's social and political identities can combine and form the basis of discrimination. For example, one's social class, race, sexuality, and abilities can be used as modes of discrimination. In daily life, a black woman may not be discriminated against because of her gender or race in a particular company. Still, she may face discrimination due to the combination of the two aspects.

7. Why is adopting a critical race theoretical lens ideal or not, for studying the development of adolescence?

Critical race theory is an abstractive and interpretative model that analyzes the occurrence of race and racism in dominating cultural modes of expression. In adopting essential race theory, scholars can understand how adolescents fall victim to systematic racism and how they are subject to cultural perceptions of race. The adoption of the theory gives an in-depth understanding of the effects of race on the developmental process of adolescents in the societies where they originate.

8. Explain the difference between race, nationality, and citizenship in the context of the U.S.U.S.? How is it different in another setting outside of the U.S.U.S.?

Nationality is a denotation of where somebody has been born. Citizenship is a legal status to live in a particular country or state. Race denotes the identification of a person with one or more social groups. In the U.S, citizenship is one of the ways that one can acquire a nationality. The concept of nationality and citizenship differs across various countries. For example, in some Latin American countries such as Mexico, a person obtains nationality at birth but acquires citizenship upon turning 18 years.

9. What does Ladson Billings mean by "conceptional racialized categories"?

Conceptional radicalized categories are a description of social stratification that separates the whites from the blacks. Billings argues that people's conceptions of race in the postmodern world more grounded than before. People have developed notions of conceptual blackness and conceptual whiteness based on various radicalized categorizations (Billings, 1998). For example, categories like beauty, intelligence, science, and school achievements are associated with whites, while basketball players, gangs, the underclass, and welfare recipients are classified with blacks.

10. In the Goff studies on implicit bias, what were the findings from each of the articles? What methods did they employ in each study?

The review of different articles indicated that the existence of implicit bias is beyond a reasonable doubt. The articles revealed that doctors, employment recruiters, students, police officers, and nurses demonstrate inherent bias based on sex, nationality, race, social status, gender, ethnicity, and other distinct factors. The researchers used well-established methods based on the principles of cognitive psychology designed by former scholars and theorists.

11. Define and explain the difference between monetary, social, and cultural capital? Why has this concept been useful to our discussion on PVEST?

Cultural capital consists of non-economic resources that enable social movement. For example, education, skills, and knowledge. On the other hand, social capital denotes economic resources that an individual gains from being a member of a group of social relationships and group membership. Monetary capital is an economic resource that exists as money or fictitious capital that people use to buy goods and pay for services. The concept of monetary, social, and cultural capital is essential in the understanding of contextual issues of coping and identity in human development.

References

Dumas, M. J., & Nelson, J. D. (2016). (Re) Imagining Black boyhood: Toward a critical framework for educational research. Harvard Educational Review, 86(1), 27-47. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.86.1.27

Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory, and what's it doing in a nice field like education? International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1), 7-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/095183998236863

Scrimsher, S., & Tudge, J. (2003). The teaching/learning relationship in the first years of school: Some revolutionary implications of Vygotsky's theory. Early Education & Development, 14(3), 293-312. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15566935eed1403_3