Grandma’s Advice vs Scholarly Research

Grandma’s Advice vs Scholarly Research

PSY104

Child and Adolescent Development

Grandma’s advice should be carefully considered before it is disregarded or discounted. The information she has acquired over the years is invaluable and can save time and effort. However, in today’s age of technology, questions can be immediately answered, and professional opinions can be sought out with little trouble. My grandmother used to say, ‘eat a spoonful of mustard to relieve headaches.’ Try as I might, I can’t find any scientific proof of why mustard would help relieve headaches, but the mustard works. Some anecdotes are still relevant, and I have used and given as advise several times. For example, when my child began to walk and would fall, as we rushed to his aid our moms would say don’t pick him up, don’t even look at him. He will get up and keep on playing if you don’t pacify him. True enough he jumped up, brushed himself off and went back to playing learning to get up and keep pressing forward thru adversity and fostering independence. Using liquor on the baby’s gums to help with teething would not have been well received by either of my grandmothers or my children’s grandmothers. My mom did suggest rubbing baby aspirin on their gums or to make a little ball with crushed ice and put it in a washcloth for them to chew. I can see how the alcohol may help by numbing the baby’s mouth, but the thought of giving my child a drink is outrageous. First, it is illegal to give anyone alcohol under 21 and secondly, I find it morally compromising to give babies alcohol, fostering a dependency or craving for it. But for others, it is perfectly acceptable. Old practices have become outdated, and the advances in medicine, technology, and scholarly research have made old remedies and practices outdated for the most part replacing them with proven and tested methods. The methods used by our parents and grandparents would land us in jail or having us answering questions about our fitness to parent. There are oral gels that have the legal amounts of alcohol or some other numbing agent that accomplish the same thing the alcohol being rubbed on a baby’s gums would. A lot of the things Grandma would give as remedies were all they had to provide some relief for their child and have been modified to live up to today’s standard of living.

Overview some of the specific research methods described in the video to study happiness. Which seemed the most effective to you and why?

In the video Endless Questions, 2006, many different methods were used to study happiness. The researchers wanted to see the connection between one’s happiness and their health. The correlation research method stands out to me as the better way to access one’s happiness. This researcher in this method can’t influence or control the variables. The two variables are measured, and the relationship of the results are assessed. Honest opinions and feelings are gathered and evaluated by the same standards and ideologies. In most cases, the subjects are not aware of the research being done because it may manipulate the participant’s actions and cause them to act out of character. It is easy to make inferences from questions that attain honest answers with no expectation of reward or consequence. Some people eat less when stressed, others eat more when in stressful situations so that stress can be correlated to fluctuations in weight.

Why is it important to utilize developmental theory to explain children’s development?

Child development theories emphasize the importance of understanding and explaining how children change, mature, learn, and grow through their developmental stages that center on social, emotional, and cognitive growth. It also gives parents and caregivers an understanding of the impact of the bonds formed with their children and how they affect the rest of the child’s life. A guide to when a child is ready to be exposed to certain aspects of life and to what degree they can function without being over or under stimulated. According to Cherry, K. 2017, “Freud’s psychosexual theory, for example, focuses on different pleasure areas of the body and how the child develops awareness of and how to handle the effects of the energy of the libido at each stage. Effectively finishing each stage promotes a healthy adult personality. Conflicts at any stage can result in fixations, obsessions, and dependencies that can negatively influence them as adults.” (Some Key Ideas About How Children Grow and Develop)

What makes scholarly research different from anecdotal evidence (personal experience) in explaining child and adolescent development?

‘Scholarly research’ has an undeniable advantage over anecdotes because it has been tested and proven in studies and on many people from diverse backgrounds, ethnic groups, and social statuses. The information from scholarly research is reliable, varied, and substantiated by credible sources and professionals that have analyzed the issue from their specific fields of expertise. Anecdotal evidence is derived from anecdotes and is unreliable and suspicious. The anecdotal evidence or personal experience shared by the person affected by it worked in a certain instance but is not assured and hasn’t been proven to aid in any other case as every remedy doesn’t work on everybody. Scholarly research is reliable and holds more merit than anecdotal evidence that is very subjective and is specific to that individual’s circumstance and when applied to another situation may not yield the same results.

References:

Cherry, K. 2017, Very well mind, Some Key Ideas About How Children Grow and Develop https://www.verywellmind.com/child-development-theories-2795068pment-theories-2795068