Does research support the idea that young children are ‘egocentric’?* Discuss, using

Does research support the idea that young children are ‘egocentric’? Discuss, using evidence and ideas from developmental psychology. (1500)

How would you tackle this? and who would you mostly talk about? :smile:

Reply 1

iammichealjackson

18

Original post by karol1103

Does research support the idea that young children are ‘egocentric’? Discuss, using evidence and ideas from developmental psychology. (1500)

How would you tackle this? and who would you mostly talk about? :smile:

You need to read the literature first, and the ideas (particularly the main criticisms of the theory) in there will tell you how to structure your essay.

You will likely want to spend most of your time detailing the most important criticisms of the egocentrism theory in a separate paragraphs, and giving your own evaluation for each criticism in the paragraph.

One of the main criticisms of Piaget's "tasks" is that younger children would fail the tasks Piaget used because they were unnecessarily complicated (i.e. you get false negative errors).

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 2

karol1103

OP

3

Original post by iammichealjackson

You need to read the literature first, and the ideas (particularly the main criticisms of the theory) in there will tell you how to structure your essay.

You will likely want to spend most of your time detailing the most important criticisms of the egocentrism theory in a separate paragraphs, and giving your own evaluation for each criticism in the paragraph.

One of the main criticisms of Piaget's "tasks" is that younger children would fail the tasks Piaget used because they were unnecessarily complicated (i.e. you get false negative errors).

my lecture literally starts with skinners approach and the concept of conditioning, then goes on to talk about schemas, and the four cognitive stages.. and then research issues etc. but I'm afraid that won't be enough? do you think i should link in Vygotsky or just leave it at that?

Reply 3

bethjpat

5

Look into Piagets three mountain task, its all about children and egocentrism- there is lots of research on that

Reply 4

karol1103

OP

3

Original post by bethjpat

Look into Piagets three mountain task, its all about children and egocentrism- there is lots of research on that

thanks very much, but how else would you do this? as I've mentioned before, all i have is Piaget :frown:

feel like i need so much more!!!

Reply 5

iammichealjackson

18

Original post by karol1103

thanks very much, but how else would you do this? as I've mentioned before, all I have is Piaget :frown:

feel like I need so much more!!!

Its strange that you haven't covered it in lectures yet. However, at university, you're expected to be able to do the relevant research yourself. I would start by looking at textbooks in developmental psychology or cognitive development (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cognitive-Development-Usha-Claire-Goswami/dp/1841695319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487618770&sr=8-1&keywords=cognitive+development ) and read about Piaget and egocentrism, and find the relevant articles to read from there. Once you've found relevant articles, you can use google scholar to find "related articles" or articles that cite your article (and look at the references in the articles you find). One of the main skills of being in university is in finding your own resources :wink: