Saturday, December 24, 2016

Hot Chocolate Scene

One of my favorite Christmas movies is The Polar Express. One of my favorite scenes from that movies is the hot chocolate scene.  Enjoy that scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaD8O2RiVIc


Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Children's Christmas Songs

This video is of children's Christmas songs. It lasts thirty minutes although no one has to listen to the whole thing. Of course if you want to put it on while your children decorate cookies or make ornaments or whatever holiday traditions you have you can. Merry Christmas Everyone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrl1GlnHWjI


Saturday, December 17, 2016

Methods of Socialization

There are six methods that socialize children. These methods were found by John Bowlby and some of his colleagues. The first one is media and technology. Media and technology expose children to cultural beliefs and values and can conflict with the values of parents. Children learn positive and negative values from media and technology and parents need to be aware of what their children are watching and doing with technology in order to ensure they reflect the parent's beliefs and values.

The second method of socialization is the rearing goals of parents. The rearing goals of parents effects how a parent encourages socialization. How it is done is different for each family. The ways a parent socializes their children reflects emotion, coaching, thinking, observation, and beliefs. A parents socialization technique reflects emotion when they decide to either allow their children to see them cry, be happy or express any emotion. Parents technique reflects coaching when a parent tells a child, "I'm hugging mom because she feels sad." It reflects thinking when they decide whether a situation is appropriate for a child or not. Parents techniques reflect observation and beliefs when a parent observes signs of physical abuse on their child's friend and believes they're being physically abused even though there is no proof it was physical abuse and not just the accident the friend says it is.

A third method of socialization is the effective method of socialization which involves relationships with others. When parents are responsive to the needs of an infant or child it opens the door for the development of a bond between parent and child. Once a child and parent have a healthy bond, there is an emotional give and take and an openness that exist between the child and parent. This sets the foundation for other relationships the child will have with others. The fourth method of socialization is the apprentice method. This method is learning through coaching, mentoring, and scaffolding. It's based on the sociocultural approach to learning by Lev Vygotsky.

The fifth method of socialization is the sociocultural method that involves being guided by beliefs, customs traditions etc., of family, community and social groups. Parents pass on beliefs and traditions by doing things in their family the same way things were done in the family they grew up in. The cognitive method, is the last method of socialization. This method is when a parent  teaches a child about socialization and the parent has to give the child the knowledge of how to socialize. A parent teaches a child how to think about their actions. For example, a parent needs to explain whey they have to take a present to their friends birthday party and why the present is for the friend and not them.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

6 Stages of Moral Reasoning

The key outcome of socialization is the development of children's attitudes and beliefs. Lawrence Kohlberg who was an American psychologist outlined six stages of moral reasoning. His research showed parent's strategy for providing discipline and guidance to children, influence moral development. His research suggests parents can promote internalized moral standards by encouraging children to delay gratification and by setting high standards of moral behavior through warm and nurturing discipline strategies. The types of strategies parents use influence the child's motivation.

Kohlberg's six stages of moral development are: 1- obedience and punishment orientation. An example of this is when an individual does good in order to avoid punishment and if they are punished the thought that they did wrong. 2- Individualism and exchange- this is when children recognize there is no one right view and that people have different view points. 3- Good interpersonal relationships-this is when children realize it's good to be seen as good by others and answers to questions will relate to obtaining the approval of others. 4- maintaining social order- this is when a child is aware of the wider rules of society and concerns are about obeying the rules to uphold the law and to avoid guilt. 5- social contract and individual right- this is when children are aware that rules exist for the greater number but that there are times when that concept works against individuals and understand that why that happens is not clear. 6- Universal principles- this is when people have developed their own set of moral guidelines and these principles to them apply to everyone and the person is prepared to defend their principles even if it means going against society and paying the consequence for doing so.

These stages of moral reasoning help children think for themselves and decide what they think is the right thing to do in any given social situation. If parents tell children what the right thing to do is in any given social situation a child may not progress through all of these moral stages and may not develop any sense of morality.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

3 Aspects of Morality

In my last post I mentioned that morality is one of four goals to socialization. There are three aspects of morality that help morality be a goal of socialization. They are: moral reasoning, self-evaluation, and a behavioral aspect.

Moral reasoning requires a person's ability to increase and comprehend rules and customs based on a personal standard of good or bad. For example, a child between birth and five doesn't understand death and why a family member is in the coffin, and then placed in the ground. They may want the family member to be placed in the backyard where the child can still play and talk to them. As the child grows older and comes to understand customs they realize the good thing for the family member-the acceptable choice- was to be buried in the cemetery, not their backyard. This helps a child build morality as they understand there may also be religious reasons a person is buried in a cemetery and it builds socialization skills as they understand this is the social acceptable answer to this particular situation.

Moral self-evaluation is an individual's interpretation of success or failure to stick to their own code of conduct and the amount of guilt they feel when they compromise their code. For example, a teenager may use their own code of conduct to decide they're going to go to every football practice of the season. If they don't they may see this as a failure and feel guilt that they compromised their code of moral self-evaluation.

The behavioral aspect of morality is shown in a person's ability to ward off temptation and either act morally or violate their morals. For example, a teenager's religion may have taught them that to participate in under age drinking is morally wrong. However, when at a party with friends and everyone is drinking, the teen has to decide whether they'll ward off temptation and not drink or violate their moral reasoning and drink anyway.

These three aspects of morality are part of what teaches children about socialization because every child has to determine what they think is or isn't morally right or wrong. Once the choice is made it helps children in social situations and helps them learn how to deal with those parts of socialization in their peer groups.