Concept of Childhood and Role of Social Processes in Child Development.

Child development can be defined as the psychological and biological changes that happen in children between birth and the end of adolescence (Minett 2001). Psychologists have argued for centuries over which has played the larger role in child development, heredity or environment.

In this essay I will be looking at the concept of childhood and role of social processes in child development. I will also be outlining some of the historical approaches concerning childhood and their development, and discussing the extent to which the different theories of child development has been influenced by society and culture. However it is important first to discuss child development in a global context, to emphasize the fact that the development and welfare of children is not consistent across the societies. After a brief analysis of the theories, I will try to evaluate the confliction viewpoints in order to reach a conclusion.

Early industrialization, in the western world created a demand for child labour, leading social reformers to question the impact on children’s well-being. Based on literature and pictures, there are those who believe that childhood was a recent concept. The concept of childhood is rather complex, in that there are differences between and within cultures and is ever changing through time. . This makes defining childhood difficult and can be discussed only in general terms. In the western economically rich world, children are considered different from adults in wants and needs, and encouraged to play, learn and develop at their own pace. It is a time for them to be taken care of and allowed to be carefree. This is not the view in developing countries, however, where children are expected to contribute to their family and so are taught the required skills early on. Here although they are taken care of, they aren’t as carefree as western children and there is less distinction between adult and child.

The often changing and evolving attitudes...