PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
3a.
This is a very wide research problem. An infant named MB was reviewed. The infant was two months of age and was in the stages of infancy. MB spent the majority of her time resting. In the time that MB was awake, there were several experiments that has d been conducted in order to examine her reflexes. MB demonstrated consistent signs of reflex activity with the exceptions of the tonic neck and stepping reflex. MB did not have the capacity of holding her head upright and did not demonstrate any signs of motor development initiations. MB’s dietary habits appeared to be in alignment with her somnolent habits. MB was receiving nutrition through bottle feeding. MB was fed after the observation had taken place (Berk, 2010).
Piaget perceived that the infants perform thinking with their sensorimotor equipment. In reviewing MB, it was determined that she would be at the Piaget level of sensorimotor awareness. MB would be at the second stage of Piaget’s development scale (as cited in Berk, 2010). This assessment was founded on the manner that MB would open her mouth in anticipation of the bottle when it was feeding time. In addition, after feeding time when MB saw the pacifier, she would smile and open her mouth. The language production that MB was capable of was composed of making cooing noises and crying. MB seemed to only make noise when her diaper needed to be changed or she needed to be fed. Consequently, the problem of being able to assess a preverbal infant’s motivation can be viewed by the basic responses (as cited in Berk, 2010).
b.
This is a research problem that is of widespread interest. In accordance with Web MD (2014), there is a 2% possibility of a child being diagnosed as autistic. This number had been slightly over one percent half of a decade ago. Autism is very hard for the parents to address. The parents are able to look for help in order to comprehend the manifestations of autism. Autism is a dysfunction of the brain that can be assessed with challenges in physical contact, language skills or deficiencies in responses to stimulus from the external environment. Autism is also acknowledged as Autism Spectrum Disorder (Reinberg, 2014; WebMD, 2014).
This is a permanent dysfunction that deters the individual’s capacity of communicating and comprehending objects that are heard seen and touched. Consequently, with the rising indexes of autism that have been manifested in the Untied States over the past five years. There is a widespread interest in the development of language skills at the second stage of development as defined by Piaget. Autism Spectrum Disorder incorporates Asperger syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder (PDD- NOO), childhood disintegrative disorder, Rett dysfunction and the autistic dysfunction. It is very frequent that all of these manifestations w8ill be categorized as ASD. Autism is usually diagnosed in the early stages of development. Consequently, the research problem is a problem that has gained widespread interest (Reinberg, 2014; WebMD, 2014).
c.
The researcher may wish to explore the topic of premature birth and the correlation with language development. The research question is a very wide question. Another measurement of infant motivation can be delineated by Attachment theory. The foundation of the mother- infant relationship can be associated with John Bowlby’s Attachment theory. Bowlby who was a psychologist in the United Kingdom produced the theory subsequent to a study in which he was engaged. The study's objective was to comprehend the emotional discomfort that infants perceive when they are separated from their maternal parent. On the separation from the maternal parent, Bowlby reviewed the extent that the children would make efforts in order to prevent the separation from taking place between them and their maternal parent. The behaviors that were observed by Bowlby were inclusive of crying, desperately looking for the parents by mean of eye motions and clinging to the maternal parent once the period of separation had been concluded (as cited in Ainsworth & Bell, 1970). The behaviors that are associated with attachment theory can be detailed as behaviors that encourage proximity or contact with the maternal parent. Bowlby postulated that the demonstration of preverbal infant defense mechanisms that were functioning in order to provide repression for the emotional distress that the infants were experiencing (Ainsworth & Bell, 1970).
d.
The research question is a good research questions. It has a number of potential hypotheses that can be formulated. The alternate and the null hypothesis can be formulated from the research question. There is a substantial amount of concern due to the rising indexes of autism in the United States and the potential that a child may be manifesting deficient communication skills art early stages of development. Consequently, there are a number of theories that could be performed. However, in order to rest a child’s motivation at the infant stage, the theories of Piaget or Bowlby can definably prove or disprove that premature birth is linked to lower levels of motivations. All that is required is observation of a child during the early developmental stages in order to answer the research question (Ainsworth & Bell, 1970; Berk, 2010; Reinberg, 2014; WebMD, 2014).
References
Ainsworth, M. D. and Bell, S. M. (1970). Attachment, exploration and separation illustrated by the behavior of one year olds in a strange situation. Child Development, 41: 49- 67.
Reinberg, S. (3 November 2014). These may be factors behind the rise in autism cases but reporting changes don’t explain the total increase, experts say. WebMD.
Web Md. (2014). Pervasive developmental disorder (PDDs). Web MD.
Berk, L. E. (2010). Development through the lifespan, 5th ed. Allyn & Bacon.
