Psychology and happiness of children in the development phase of survival (under age 5)

 

Understanding children’s developmental process helps understand the training and the treatment mechanisms of Youth Mind Training and Mother therapy. The psychological development process adopted by the Theory of Mimind may be different from those adopted by conventional fields of psychology and psychiatry. The concept of the process of psychological development is essential in designing and implementing the training and treatment methods of Youth Mind Training and Mother Therapy.

[The process of psychological development]

- Under age 5 : The phase of survival

- Age 5 to 13 : The phase of adaptation to relationships

- Age 13 to 20 : The phase of formation of self-identity

- Over age 20 : The phase of self-actualization

Let’s first look at psychology and happiness of children in the phase of survival (under ager 5)

Children’s psychology at this phase is operated centered on only survival. They need to be able to survive as a living human being well-fed and well taken care of. From the moment babies are born, all information is perceived with reference to the standard of survival. Information that flows in through sensory organs are judged against whether it promotes or impedes survival. Since psychology operates only with reference to survival, perception, memory, and expression of children at this phase are also tuned to only survival. Perceived information is processed and stored in memory being formed into habits required for survival. Positive expressions are manifested when the environment is favorable for survival, but negative expressions are manifested when it is not.

When children accumulate sufficient information and acquire abilities for survival in memory and feel they are in a stable environment for survival, they may proceed to the phase of adaptation to relationships. It is common that children begin to transfer to the phase of adaptation to relationships at about age 3. The phase of adaptation to relationships covers the ages from 5 to 13, and from age 3 to 7, the phase of survival and the phase of adaptation to relationships coexist.

Since only the psychology for survival is operating in children under age 5, they perceive that they are happy when their survival is secured, and perceive that they are unhappy when it is not. They may not consciously sense that they are happy or not, but their psychology operates with reference to this criterion.

Early education for accumulating knowledge provided for children under age 5 is not likely to be very effective from this perspective. Forcing young children to focus on knowledge aquisition when their psychology is designed to focus on survival may result in adverse effects or work as fruitless endeavors at most.

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Mother Therapy : https://www.mothertherapy.net/
Korea Institute of Psycho-education : http://www.uip.ac/