Human Relations: Psychosocial Development Essay - Case Study Analysis

This essay delves into the psychosocial development of children between the ages of two and five, focusing on the case of Andrew, a 2.5-year-old child, and the influences that shape his development. The essay begins with an introduction on the importance of psychosocial, intellectual, and cognitive development in early childhood. The case study presents Andrew, who faces challenges in toilet training, despite having good communication skills and receiving adequate nutrition. The essay then assesses Andrew's developmental stage, highlighting the critical transition from infancy to the second phase of childhood. It explores the significance of socialization during this period. The theoretical assessment applies Vygotsky's sociocultural theory to address Andrew's toilet training issue, contrasting it with Pavlov's behaviorist theory and Skinner's reinforcement concepts. The essay identifies factors influencing psychosocial development, such as parental separation and lack of direct parental guidance in toilet training. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of addressing these factors and applying Vygotsky's theory to support Andrew's development.

Running head: HUMAN RELATIONS
HUMAN RELATIONS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The growth of the infants are not just physical but also psychological and that accounts
for the overall development of them. Apart from the physical growth of the child, the intellectual
growth of the child should also be taken into consideration as that is extremely necessary for
assessing the learning and cognitive capacities of the child. Not just the cognitive capacities but
also the emotional intelligence quotient is supposed to be taken into consideration as the learning
capacities of the infant are dependent upon the development of the cognitive and the intellectual
capacities of the child.
In this particular essay, the thesis statement for the essay shall be what are some
important aspects of psychosocial development that occur in children between the ages of two
and five years, and what influences this development. The answer to the thesis statement shall be
provided on the basis of the case study.
Case Study
This essay shall be based on the life of a 2 and half years old cold named Andrew, son o
Maria and Tom. Andrew had good communication skills and he could articulate his needs very
effectively in maximum four or five words. Andrew also got the proper nutrition at the day care
where he spent three days a week for five hours each day while his mother Maria went for her
part time job. The only problem that Andrew faced was his inability to articulate his needs for
going to the toilet which others of his age had perfected. Hence the only issue that Andrew faces
is that of his inability to tell when he needs to go to the toilet, which could be solved by means of
application of the socio cultural theory of Vygotsky. As such Andrew has got no other

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intellectual or cognitive issues and he is also physically fit as he receives good food of high
nutritional value. The nurse at the day care centre has asked Maria to take the help of a local
Mother’s Group in the local area and discuss about the methods of toilet training which shall be
consisting of parents and in an informal environment.
Assessment of the stage of development relevant to the Case Study
The age of Andrew is 2 and half years and that age is marked by a period of drastic
physical and intellectual growth which is extremely vital for the child as that is the first major
stage of transformation for a child. At the age which Andrew is cannot be called as the period of
infancy any longer as that is the period when Andrew is growing out of the stage of infancy and
entering the second phase of childhood. This particular age is extremely crucial as both from the
physical as well as from the intellectual perspective, the latter being the matter of importance in
this particular scenario. The stage of growing out of the stage of infancy makes the sensory
capabilities of a child very sensitive and active hence proper socialization is extremely important
at this stage as that shall have a lasting effect on the mind of the child throughout the life and
shall also be effecting the intellectual growth of the child which has to be properly regulated and
guided. The child grows out of the phase of total unconsciousness to a phase when the child is
exposed to the world of realities which has to be properly imbibed into the mind of the child.
Theoretical assessment of the Case Study
It has been indicated in the previous section that the problem which Andrew faces is that
of his inability to articulate his needs for going to the toilet which others of his age had perfected
as per the case study. In this section, the solution to the problem shall be provided by means of

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explaining the situation against the theoretical backdrop of Vygoysky. The Behaviourist Theory
of Learning had been put forward by Ivan Pavlov in the year 1927. The basic idea of his theory is
that the process of repetition and acculturation when gets combined tend to be prove itself as a
profound facilitator of the process of learning. Pavlov had reached at the conclusion on the basis
of the experiment which he had conducted on his dogs. Pavlov had trained his dogs to salivate
once they hear the ringing of the bells, which had turned out to be the indication for the dogs that
the moment had arrived for them to have their meals. Pavlov had subjected his dogs to the
repetition of the process and they tended to become accustomed to salivating at the sound of the
ringing of the bells. Pavlov had slightly changed the method of feeding his dogs, however even
then they had tended to salivate at the sound of the ringing of the bells. The inference that was
derived by Pavlov from this particular experiment was that repetitive occurrence of a particular
phenomenon tends to facilitate and expedite the process of learning. The pattern of behaviour
that gets imbibed by the human beings are but a result of the repetitive experiencing of a
particular sequence of events or habits and that is how according to Pavlov human beings get
accustomed to indulging in the behaviour of a particular way. This phenomenon has been termed
by Pavlov as Classical Conditioning (Engeström, 2018).
Later on, in the year 1957 B F Skinner had further developed his understanding of the
phenomenon of conditioning of human behaviour based on the ideas provided by Pavlov (Gray
& MacBlain, 2015). Skinner had provided the understanding of the most possible effects of
conditioning and the way it could be channelized for deriving the maximum amount of benefit
for a particular child. Skinner had advocated the viewpoints that the conditioning involves a
certain degree of value imposition and positive reinforcements are likely to generate a positive
effect on the child while negative reinforcement are likely to undermine the morale of the child.

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Having said that, it thus becomes quite evident that in order to enable a child to perform better,
more positive encouragement must be provided. Constant discouragement and demoralization
tends to make the feeling of worthlessness in the child who becomes incapable of performing
well in due course of time. Hence, even if a child is incapable of showing any positive signs, the
goal should be imbibe positivity in the child to encourage him or her to perform better (Biddulph
and Carr 2017).
Factors that influence psychosocial development
The factors which are likely to influence the psychosocial development of the child
Andrew as per the case study provided are as follows :-
- The isolation of Andrew from parents from a considerable period of time and being at the
care of a nurse does affect the psychosocial development of the child. The sense of
belongingness and the attachment towards parents is natural as the child initially spends a
considerably high amount of time with parents and they tend to develop a comfort zone.
Naturally that prerogative is not meant for others and that can cause the children
discomfort in expressing their needs, as shown in the case of Andrew with regard to his
lack of ability to express his toilet needs (Chaudhary & Kalia, 2015).
- Certain things the parents are supposed to teach to their children however Andrew’s
parents did not take any initiative to teach their child about toilet needs until it was
indicated by the case study. These kind of indeliberate apathy does affect the
psychosocial development of the child and can lead to poor parent children relationship
(Brookfield, 2017).

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Conclusion
Thus at the concluding section it can be said that the child Andrew does have some issues
which can be effectively solved by means of the application of the theory of Vygotsky and the
aspects which are likely to affect the psychosocial development of Andrew must be taken into
consideration for his benefit.

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References
Biddulph, F. & Carr, K., (2017). Learning theories and curriculum. Teachers and curriculum,
3(1).
Brookfield, S.D., (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. John Wiley & Sons.
Chaudhary, G.K. & Kalia, R., (2015). Development curriculum and teaching models of
curriculum design for teaching institutes. International Journal of Physical Education,
Sports and Health, 1(4), pp.57-59.
Engeström, Y., (2018). Expansive learning: Towards an activity-theoretical reconceptualization.
In Contemporary theories of learning (pp. 46-65). Routledge.
Gray, C. & MacBlain, S., (2015). Learning theories in childhood. Sage.