Helene Loxton's Theory Of Fear

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This essay will investigate Loxton’s research on children’s fears, it will discuss the ethical guildlines implemented by her research and it will evaluate how her research was conducted in a child-friendly in association with both Piagat’s theory of cognitive development, as well as Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory. The articles “Monsters in the dark and other scary things: preschooler’s self reports” and “Young children’s self-reports of coping with fears and perceived effectiveness of coping strategies in the South African context” by Helene Loxton are writings on her investigation of fears among preschoolers, the way in which children cope with these fears and the benefit of the different coping strategies implemented by children (Loxton, …show more content…

This method is child-friendly as it makes reference to both the children’s abilities to understand words as well as the corresponding emotions of those words (Loxton, 2009a). The manner, in which Loxton’s research required that children draw their fears, makes use of children’s natural ability to convey their thoughts about the world around them through the medium of artistic expression (Loxton, 2009, p. 52). The semi-structured interview and the method of expressing fears through drawings are both practical implementations of child-friendly research that are associated with Piagat’s pre-operational stage of development in children, which is centered around children’s developing ability to portray objects and notions through linguistics and images (Louw & Louw, …show more content…

The ecological theory divides this environment into four categories. The first is the microsystem, which is the child and the social systems and institutions that are in their immediate environment. Followed by this is the mesosystem, which is the result of these reacting microsystems. The ecosystem refers to the broader social influences that impact the child’s development. Lastly is the macrosystem, which is the system of moral codes and principles whereby the microsystem, macrosystem and ecosystem are all rooted and merged within (Louw & Louw,

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