L'influence du milieu social sur la formation du besoin d'interaction sociale des enfants de 9 à 12 mois. - article ; n°3 ; vol.36, pg 225-232

Jan Kaiser

Description

Enfance - Année 1983 - Volume 36 - Numéro 3 - Pages 225-232
La genèse du besoin d'interaction et de contacts sociaux est analysée, en fonction des conditions de milieu, par la comparaison de deux groupes de 10 enfants chacun, âgés de 9 à 12 mois: le groupe A, composé d'enfants élevés en milieu familial; le groupe B, composé d'enfants élevés en orphelinat.
Les situations expérimentales consistent principalement à présenter à chaque enfant trois sortes de cibles-stimuli : un ensemble d'objets, un autre enfant de même âge, un adulte connu par l'enfant.
Les enfants du groupe A fournissent les réactions les plus intenses à la présentation des objets. Ceux du groupe B réagissent surtout au stimulus adulte connu.
Ce résultat paraît contredire la théorie du conditionnement selon laquelle l'activité de l'enfant se différencie progressivement en fonction de la satisfaction de ses besoins biologiques élémentaires. Or ce sont les enfants les moins satisfaits (les orphelins en institution) qui se distinguent par leurs réactions plus intenses à la présence' de l'adulte. L'auteur rend compte de ce paradoxe apparent par le recours aux deux notions de scheme fonctionnel et d'entropie. La réaction des orphelins serait le symptôme d'une contre-réaction active à la dégradation (entropie positive) de schemes fonctionnels concernant l'apport social du milieu.
The work is concerned with the small child's activity aimed at social goals. The main contention of the article is that the occurrence of this parti cular form of activity is dependent upon individual experience acquired since the very beginnings of ontogenesis.
The research was carried aut within two groups of ten children each taken from adifferent environment. The first group of children was brought up in the Small Childs Home /Institution / while the second group consisted of children brought up at their family and attending a day nursery. The children were aged from nine to twelve months. The experimental situation was arranged as follows : each child was in turn isolated and put into surroundings without differentiating the stimuli ; then he was shown a particular object; as soon as the child showed a distinct motor reaction aimed at that particular object, the latter was blocked with some particular obstacle. The whole experiment took 5 minutes. In experiment we showed three types of objects: a set of inanimate objects differing in size, some of them familiar, others unfamiliar to the examined children; a child of the same age; and adult person with whom the examined children were familiar. The obstacles used to the above objects were also different in each of these cases. Thus, the first type of obstacle consisted of cardboadrd screen, the second was a glass pane, and the third a looking-glass /mirror/. Every variant of the experiment was repeated five times with each child. In the two groups, a total 900 experiments was carried out.
Recordings were made of the time of the motor reaction to the exhibited object /I1/, of the time of motor reaction to the obstacle /I2/, and of the number of approaches to obstacle /L. pd. — No. ap. /.
The obtained results have permitted to state that the children brought up at the Small Child's Home show an increased aiming /statistically valid/ at social objects /the adult person/ as compared to the aiming of their behaviour at non-soci objects /inanimate objects/.
The children brought up in their own homes and attending a day nursery show a stronger aiming of behavior /statistically valid / at inanimate objects in comparison with behaviour aimed at social goals.
Adopting Piaget's view according to which experience has the character of assimilation schémas I assume a spontaneous entropy of these schémas. Living organisms are capable to fight entropy by assimilating substance and information. The assimilated elements are subject to structuration, organizing the scheme. To protect the organism against disorganization and chaos it is necessary to preserve and extend its own organization by assimilating its specific group of elements coming from outside. The organization is composed of a number of assimilation schémas. When there is increase in the entropy of a given assimilation schema, the organism reacts in a defensive way, looking for information which would preserve the given schema, and then assimilating it. Defensive reaction is initiated by need which is a function of the entropy of the given assimilation schema. Assimilation schémas are able to evaluate information from the standpoint of its preserving fitness; simultaneously, the growth of entropy within a schema results in an increased mobilization of energy in the organism. This is due to the fact every kind of structuration is an enforced process, expending energy as opposed . to entropy which follows a spontaneous course. The search for optimal conditions in which the organization of an organism can exist and evolve is an essential factor which regulates every kind of activity.
In the light of these reflections the increased aiming of behaviour in children brought up in the Small Child's Home at grown-up persons is an example illustrating how the assimilation schémas inadequately preserved by social information, defend themselves against the threat of entropy. It is characteristic of the Small Child's Home environment that it has an inadequate number of social stimuli.
8 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Médecine

Informations

• Publié par: ENFANCE0
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1983
• Nombre de lectures: 29
• Langue: Français

Extrait

Jan Kaiser

L'influence du milieu social sur la formation du besoin

d'interaction sociale des enfants de 9 à 12 mois.

In: Enfance. Tome 36 n°3, 1983. pp. 225-232.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Kaiser Jan. L'influence du milieu social sur la formation du besoin d'interaction sociale des enfants de 9 à 12 mois. In: Enfance.

Tome 36 n°3, 1983. pp. 225-232.

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/enfan_0013-7545_1983_num_36_3_2813