Object Observation

Assignment 1.3: Journal Entry

I chose to observe my 15 month old, and 4 year old granddaughters. Also my 10 year old daughter.

For the first part of this assignment I observed my 15 month old granddaughter playing with her shapes cylinder toy. I apologist for not knowing the correct name for this toy.

Sensorimotor behavior: object permanence testing

Kylie's toy has a lid on top with three shapes, also three small shapes that will fall into the cylinder if the correct shape is placed in its corresponding hole shape. I took away two of the shapes so she only had one to work with. Each time she would place the shape into the cylinder, Kylie demonstrated object permanence by realizing she would have to take the lid off to be able to put the shape back down into the same shaped hole over and over again.

Preoperational behavior: objective responsibility

I observed my 4 year old granddaughter Natalie playing with two other little girls. They were swinging on the local school playground swing set. One of the little girls started swinging sideways and hitting the other little girl with her swing. She kept doing it over and over, until their mother threatened the little girl, and said that her daughter was going to get a spanking if she didn't stop. Eventually the little girl did receive a spanking and the mom took her daughters home. My granddaughter doesn't understand that form of punishment, and asked me why the little girl didn't get time out like she does when she is bad. I explained to her that some mommies use different forms of punishment. My granddaughter put her hands on her hips and said, "well who gets to punish that mommy, because spanking is not nice, she needs a time out grandma!"

Concrete operational behavior: decentration

For this portion I observed my 10 year old daughter reading one of her favorite books by Liz Kessler titled "The Tail of Emily Windsnap". When she took a break from reading, I asked her what the story was about. She said, "It's about mermaids mom!" Then she proceeded to explain to me that there are four books in the series. At one time, my daughter Erica had a far more difficult time enjoying reading. When she was in 1st grade she struggled with words and sentences, most didn't mean anything to her. Her retention was very short. My husband and I signed her up for a summer reading program that year, she was only 6 at the time. By the time she started 2nd grade in the fall, she was showing signs of understanding the overall meaning of the words in a story book, rather than looking at the pictures and guessing. By now she is a wiz at reading and can sit and recall what she has been reading with no difficulty.

For this next portion I will list examples of the following:

deductive reasoning

imaginary audience

personal fable

postconventional moral reasoning

ego identity and/or role diffusion

Deductive reasoning: When I was younger, I did a lot of the cooking. I wasn't given instructions on how to cook chicken breast in the oven, so I just did what I thought was correct. I assumed the chicken needed to cook about two hours at 375 degrees. I never bothered to check on the chicken during the