Well first off I want to state that text books are cut and dry and I swear the authors need to start spicing them up and making them more interesting. Pictures are good but I'm sure there's other things that can be added to keep the readers attention (I had a hard time slogging through this material).
Anyways, the quick rundown of the learning going on is basically THIS vs. THAT in the upbringing of a child in the world we live in today. After a pass of this quick material you are introduced into some dead guys and some living guys that helped form theories on development. Yes, I have heard some of these guys before like Piaget because in Sociology 100 you cover a bunch of different bases and he is just one of the guys introduced (Freud of course it another big hitter to).
Out of the many theories that were thrown out at us I really liked the ones that have to do with the Ecological and Systems, Bronfenbrenner's Theory and the Competence-Environmental Press Theory. All the others try to explain the development of a human in stages and how each stage is broken up but I think there is a bigger picture here. Drawing back on Nature vs. Nurture and how it ties in very well with the environmental theories. The best line that is written is "In ecological theory, human development is inseparable from the environmental contests in which a person develops." This line is the best ever! The analogy they give of it being like the threads on a spider web all being connected is a pretty good picture. However I would like to ask the person who laid out the book why they did the This vs. That first, theories and then how to go about conducting experiments and not jumble them up and have each piece of information lead into the next. You could start out with Nature vs Nurture and the environmental theories, then lead into continuity vs discontinuity and have the theories on how life is in stages and depending on who suggested the theory what those stages are. Then tie it all up in conducting experiments and all that jazz but also referring to the stuff earlier in the book. (Just what I would think would be a better layout than what we have going on)
At this point I'm pretty blown by some of the stuff and just a review on the other stuff. So more to come later today after my mind can quiet down and let me think!
Reading your THIS vs. THAT perspective made me think of the different development theories in comparison to religion. Some people believe THIS to be true, while others THAT rings true. Or others maybe pull a little of THIS and whatever makes sense to them of THAT to come up with their own way of thinking. I think the same is true with the development theories. Each of the scholars had their own idea of what is most important in development. While their individual theories might not apply to everyone, I think that you could probably take different combinations and aspects from the different theories and make it work. I also liked to spider web visual.
ReplyDeleteOk, sorry but I just need to post one more comment here because I just ran across a good quote that relates to the competence-environmental press theory. Supposedly this is from Albert Einstein, but I think that is debatable:
ReplyDelete"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
what you are saying about the book needing a little spice, I second that. I do agree with Cameo though ^^^ when talking about your this vs that theory it can bring up issues like in religion. Your idea of having one theory after another does sound like a better layout for the book, honestly I didn't like the this vs that layout but it does do a good job of showing how each scholar did have their own thoughts and outlook. All in all I hope this book gets more interesting as the quarter goes on. By the way nice blog post.
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