fandomhigh | Child Development- 1st Period- Class #6

"Good morning, class," Lily greeted them after the bell had rung. "Today we're going to be dealing with psychology, specifically developmental psychology. Here's the thing: this is a scary scary topic because it is huge. There are a lot of different guys with theories, some more famous than others, and there's a lot to it. But we're only using one class period to discuss it, because I already talked enough this weekend and you all might fall asleep on your desks. But," she said, handing out a stack of work sheets, "I want you to look these over. Find something you want to discuss and we'll go over it here in class. And if you want some extra credit, next week come in with a summary of one of the theories. Do not copy off Wikipedia, that's the easiest thing to check in the world.

"Of the most famous theories is Piaget, who came up with four stages of development that children go through on their way to adult intelligence. So far we've been covering children in the sensorimotor stage, and we're moving into the preoperational. And preoperational can be broken down further, so that the age we're getting into here is in the preconceptual stage. Wherein they're selfish little brats, but it explains a little bit about why they think their stuffed animal might be sad if it's left behind. It's worth a read.

"There's also social learning, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. This will come up more when we get into Nature vs. Nurture, but this is the theory that you learn by what you see, and though reinforcement and punishment. You know, monkey see, monkey do. You ever see a toddler trying to imitate his dad or big brother? Same thing.

"Then there's Erikson, not to be confused with my husband the professor." That was still kind of awesome to say. "Where Piaget had four stages, Erikson went ahead and amped it up to eight stages of psychosocial development. This may take a little more in-depth reading. Sorry. At the toddler stage, which is where we'd be at now, the kids are starting to recognize that they're their own cute little tiny persons. This stage is called Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt. You want to encourage the kids to be their own individuals, but at the same time you have to let go a little and let them start making their own decisions, or they will tend to have issues. This is why you hear the word 'no' a lot at this age.

"And there's one thing that isn't on these sheets that we're going to be playing with, and I'm sure everyone's heard of it. It's called reverse psychology," Lily said. "Remember two seconds ago, when I brought up Erikson and letting your toddlers start to make their own choices? Sometimes those kids will make bad ones. Of course they will; they're kids. Adults hardly make the right choices, and three-year-olds have less practice. Say the kid doesn't want to play with a toy you just spent a lot of money on, and he'd rather play with the box. You try to take away the box, the kid wants it more. You all know this behavior, you're teenagers. You might turn it around on the kid and try to make the toy the thing they want to play with, by trying to play with it yourself, or taking it away from them, and see what happens. This plays on someone's sense of reactance.

"What you're going to do today is to pair up and try to use reverse psychology on the other person. I don't care what you use, but try to convince the other person they don't want something they would ordinarily want, or just try and make them want the thing you want them to want. If that makes sense. If you want to pretend you're five, which I think everyone should do once in a while, there are plenty of toys around to make someone choose between. Or, you know, be teens and try to get convince some poor sap to go to the dance with you. Though I am not responsible for any Jerry Springer-like fights that may occur as a result."

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"Of course... they are really sexy," Peyton said thoughtfully. "So if there was someone you were really wanting to impress..."

"Like who?" Triela sounded confused by the idea.

"Some guy you like maybe?" Peyton suggested. "Someone you might want to get to know a little better?"

Triela pursed her lips thoughtfully. "No one who cares about me wearing a dress comes to mind."

"Well, see, there you go," Peyton said with as much reverse psychology-ese as she could muster up. "Who cares if you look weird and totally out of place without a dress or if people whisper and point, right?"

Triela blinked in obvious confusion. "What?" That made no sense.

[Boo sick! *hugs*]

"Hey, don't get me wrong, that kind of attention and embarrassment would just make me cringe, but you look tough, you can probably take it," Peyton continued. "Yay for no dress for Triela. You are brave."

Triela was, by now, thoroughly lost. What were they even discussing anymore.

"Yay me?" she ventured.

"Or, maybe if you're not feeling quite that brave," Peyton said thoughtfully. "Maybe you should wear a dress."

"Wait..." Triela was blinking rapidly trying to get some traction on the conversation. "Why would I want to wear a dress again?"

"So people won't make fun of you?" Peyton said. "Remember?"

"No one makes fun of me though."

Peyton laughed. "See, I totally suck at this, too."

"Well... at least we're both even more sure about what we were already going to do?"

"I guess," Peyton said. "At least that's something, right?"

"Maybe it counts..."

It probably didn't.

"We can totally pretend we convinced each other of something if we're asked," Peyton suggested.

"True! I convinced you not to ask Dean to the dance, and you convinced me not to wear a dress..."

"Well, there we have it," Peyton said. Though she did look a little wistful.

Triela grinned suddenly. "It's not too late to change your mind."

Peyton shrugged. "All my arguments still stand."

"You don't look entirely pleased by that."

"Yeah, well, such is life," Peyton said.

"Such is life," Triela agreed.

"Well, I think we have both made a most valiant effort to complete the assignment," Peyton said. "Think we should call it a day?"

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