Hey moms! I am back in college :) and taking Psychology. I need to start thinking about a term paper subject and I have no clue what to write about. We need to ask a question about psychology and behavior and then answer the question. I want to focus on infants or toddlers. The question needs to be specific too... the example he gave us was: What does the research say about EMDR? would be too broad. A better question is: Does EMDR work in children with trauma?
I hope I can get some good ideas from you!!!
Thanks
Hmmmm.....I have always been fascinated by language development. I have heard a lot about how language develops differently for kids in bilingual environments.
Well one of the biggest debates that goes on this site is the whole cry it out method to get children to sleep better. Some are for it, some against it. Some say it harms the child psychologically, some say not teaching your child to self sooth is what is harming them etc. You could totally write a whole paper on the question "Is the cry it out method harmful or helpful?"
Which behavioral strategies work for young children exhibiting early signs of ADHD?
I would love to know the answer! When our son was showing signs of ADHD at two and three, there was so little out there to help us manage his behavior. But that's been many years now and I've always wondered if anyone came up with answers.
How about colicky infants- Do babies with colic grow up to be brighter, smarter, and more intelligent than their non-colicky counterparts? Why is that? Is it because they are nurtured more? Held more than non-colicky babies? What effects does holding have on an infants development?
I have always been interested in colic since my son had severe colic. In fact, ALL the male babies in my family had colic as infants for several generations- none of the girls did (including my 5 month old). How interesting is that?
Hope this gives you some ideas!
Does rewarding negative behavior with attention reinforce it?
Does rewarding positive behavior reinforce it?
Three of the things about early childhood development that fascinate me the most are
- mylenization of the nerves
- development of the audiocortex through exposure to languages / the creation of accents
- the "gag/yuck" response that happens through the introduction of new chemical signatures after the age of apx 2yo
All 3 are in the realm of physiological psychology.
Which is a thing to consider
- Physiological / Neurological Psych
- Developmental Psych
- Cognitive Psych
- Behavioral Psych
- Cognitive Behavioral Psych
- Psychodynamic Psych
- Humanistic Psych
- Abnormal Psych
All the branches are going to have different views & takes on any subject.
Ex) Russian Orphanages. There have been extensive studies done on the children who are in or come out of russian orphanages. Because, by and large, they are rarely if ever touched. It creates a VAST number of psych and physiological problems both in the short and long term. So there are aspects from ALL the branches ... each looking at the causes, problems, results, and ways to help mediate from different angles.
For some KILLER access to studies... make sure you have access to the Peer Review Database that all CC & Universities have. 10s of thousands of articles either in or that have passed peer review. You typically need an access code from your professor in order to access the database. My particular favorites tend to be from Sweden and other socialized medicine countries... because in the US a "big" study has ###-###-#### people in it over a couple of years. In socialized med countries a "big" study has 100,000+ people in it over GENERATIONS. Amazing longitudinal studies. The effects of dieting during the puberty years on girls is particularly fascinating (result = dieting during those years creates struggles with weight until menopause, it's actually *causal* which almost never happens, studies usually find correlations, but very rarely find causal effects.)
How about what are the benefits of play? Or exploring how playing by themselves is differently beneficial from playing with same-age peers, or with adults.
Or, along with language development, I've always been fascinated by the incorrect language use and overgeneralization. For example, at first kids don't use past tense, then when they learn about adding -ed to a word, they do it too much (over generalize) before they eventually learn when to use it correctly.
I wrote a paper on siblings and birth order and the impact on psych and emotional development. It was part of what later became my theses. The age group I focused on was 3 - 4 year olds. It was very interesting research.
I did a paper on college on the development of morality in young children based on the Kohlberg research. It's actually really interesting and there's a lot out there!
