Erik Erikson.. where am I?

The question was presented at the end of class to acknowledge which of Erik Erikson's 8 stages us as individuals are currently in. After discussing the stages I interpret that I am in between the identity vs. identity confusion stage and the intimacy vs. isolation stage. The reasoning behind my thinking is that I still listen to different types of music dress differently occasionally for the simple reason of trying to define who I am. Although I have a pretty good idea of my beliefs and values and am pretty strong in holding those beliefs and values my outer appearance is something that I can honestly say is not srong and set in its ways. The next stage that I feel I may be part of is the intimacy vs. isolation stage. I have come to the point in my life where I don't count on my parents as much as I used to to meet my basic needs. I can go out and accomplish those myself without the aid of my parents. The reason that I feel I am in between stages is because I feel as if I know who I am to a certain extent, but there is still some room for self definition, and I feel that I still rely on my parents to be completely free of the intimacy vs. isolation stage and therefore am in between. I am not sure if it is possible to be in 3 stages but to a certain extent I feel that I am. When I look at the generativity vs. self-absorption I kind of feel like I have dipped a bit into this stage as well. My sister had a baby a short while ago and when I think of taking care of her and so on I think that I give up a lot of my free time, making it less and less "all about me". Another reason why I feel I am partially in this stage is the my goal to become a teacher. One of the main reasons I would like to be a teacher is to help children acheive their full potential and somehow right the wrong teachers I had going through the education system. I know this is going to take me giving up a lot of my own time and own self to do and therefore I feel as if I am in this stage as well. All in all, I believe I am in stages 5,6,7. I'm not sure if that is possible but that is what I got after considering where I am in my life and Erik Erikson's stages.

Lev Vygotsky

The above image was found on Google Images and I found it very helpful in my understanding of Vygotsky's theory about Education Pyschology. Vygotsky states that everything we learn in connected. This image shows the merging of the different aspects of one's life. Thought and lanaguage is very important to Vygotsky as he believes that without language thinking cannot happen. I agree with this statement because how we process information is done through language in our own minds. Thought and langauge is present in all other socialization including interaction with others as well as scaffolding.   --the pedagogical approach help students meet goals that they are not able to meet on their own. (support)
Cultural mediation is how society influences the individual. The example from class:
-If you are a young woman walking late at night, and a african american man in coming towards you, you generally move your purse to the opposite side that he is on.
This example is helpful because even though the woman may have not every been mugged by an African American or anyone for that matter it has been culturally influenced upon her to move her purse to the other side.
After combining all of these aspects of society and the individual I would say that Vygotsky's theory is the one that I agree the most with and find the most helpful and easiest to understand.

Jean Piaget

As a teacher it is important to know how children think, and in turn do the things that they do. After reading and interpreting Jean Piaget's cognitive stages I think it will be easier for me as a young teacher to understand how they process information, also known as cognitive processes. My sister had a baby about 1 year ago. According to Jean Piaget my niece should be in the sensorimotor stage. In this stage Piaget states that infants don't think instead they feel and move and in turn use their senses and ability to move to get what they want. After spending a lot of time around my niece I would say that this is not completely true. When she was 8 months old she learned to nod her head no and yes depending on if she would like to do the action asked of her or not. This was not determined by here senses or by her ability to move. After realizing this I understand that Piaget's stages are not specifically from the age 0-2 and of course can be altered depending on each child. To me it could be assumed that when my niece was 2-3 months she did not think and her needs were met by her senses as well as her ability to move. After thinking about this as an example my initial reaction was that Jean Piaget's stages were completely off base. But after some more thinking it can be determined that because each child develops at a different rate these are simply generalized stages rather than when a child reaches 2 years old they are in the preoperational stage.

Adolescent Egocentricism

The concept of adolescent egocentrism didn't really make sense to me so I did my own research and this is what I found:
-It occurs in tweens and teens
-At this point teenagers believe that everyone is very interested and attentive to what he or she looks like.
-"All eyes on me" feeling.
-It is a developmental normal cognitive limitation.
   --In other words can not be avoided it happens without the teenager trying to do so or not.
-It normally appears around 11 or 12 years old and dissapears around 15 or 16 years old.
-During this stage teens spend a lot of time preparing themselves before going into public because they think others will notice if they don't "look good".
-Teens are easily embarassed during this stage. They believe that everyone will remember forever if they did something that they felt blemished there public image.
-First discussed by pyschologist David Elkind.
Source: http://tweenparenting.about.com/od/behaviordiscipline/a/AdolescentEgocentrism.htm
After completing this research it is understood that this is a stage where teeneagers are very concerned with their image as well as what others think of them. One thing that is not clear to me is I am 19 years old and I know that at 15 and 16 I cared more than ever what others thought of me. To some extent I still do. I don't believe that it tapers off around age 15 or 16 as this is the year that most children are entering high school. One thing that came to mind when completing this research was the very first class' information about being careful when interpreting information about child pyschology. I agree with some of the information presented but it is important to remain wary and understand that is is not always completely 100% true. I remember going through this stage as a teen (maybe even a tween) but I definitley do not agree that is generally tapers off around 15 years old simply because of my life experience.

Being a wise consumer....

In this first class it was really surprising to me how much introduction was needed before beginning to learn about education psychology. This is a very important topic on the road to becoming a teacher so knowing the different aspects to watch out for in order to be a wise consumer of information about education psychology. One of the aspects that really struck a chord with me was the first aspect discussed:
1. Be cautious of what is reported in the popular media.
I have seen many news programs where they do studies on how children learn and the effective and ineffective ways that teachers can implement in their classrooms. Because the programs were on the news I had assumed that they were completely true and questions could not be asked of them. However after learning about traps that can hinder the consumption of proper information I have learned to be wary of what is presented in the news. Now this does not necessarily mean everything in the news I will research but as a teacher in training, I believe it is important to investigate every possible aspect before attempting to implement it in one's classroom. The video watched in class about the teacher who implemented an exercise program into her classroom seemed very unbelievable to me. Some reasons that made me doubt the validity of this program were:
1. It only showed one study.
2. It over generalized: Because it worked for her students it would work for everyone.
Not to say that exercise would have no effect on children in the classroom. The kids seen in the video were running or completing some form of physical activity in their clothes that they were to wear all day. I cannot see how kids would be excited to wear the sweaty clothing for the rest of the day. The teacher also commented how the students sat still for longer period of time. To me this seemed like common sense. If you exercise you are going to be tired and therefore will not have as much energy to disrupt the class. It was presented that the exercise affected the brain, and in turn made the students more willing to focus and complete tasks asked of them by the teacher. This may seem like a very pessimistic view of this experiment, however after learning of common traps that the public fall into concerning the mass media I think it is a fair judgement of this video.