“Riding in Cars with Boys” Film

Various Ideas on Human Growth and Cognitive Development

Various ideas have been proposed to explain and support human growth. There are various ideas that exist about human cognitive development. These theories directly explain how an individual matures and changes in character. In truth, the theories are applicable in a real-world setting. Two developmental theories will be utilized to study the characters in a film in this paper. The film “Riding in Cars with Boys” will be relevant to this investigation. Penny Marshall directed and produced this film in 2001. The film is a dramatization of a seriocomic narrative based on Beverly D’Onofrio’s memoir. The script of the movie shows a young woman who has her life interfered with radically by different events in their teenage life. This paper will use the Vygotsky and Jean Piaget theories to analyze the film. While integrating the film as a case study with the developmental theories, there will be identification, analysis, and evaluation of significant life themes as well as the strengths and challenges faced by the fictional character, Beverly, in the film. The successes and lack of it in the development of the character according to the theorists are discussed.

Analysis of the Theories and the Main Character, Beverly

The Vygotskian theory just as the Piaget theory stress on the cognitive development of individuals. Cognitive development mainly deals in the acquisition of organized knowledge structures that incorporate the biological concepts, early number sense among others. Vygotskian theory is a contemporary form of Piaget theory. Through the Vygotskian theory, there is the gradual acquisition of strategies that entails remembering, understanding and problem-solving (O’Donnell & King, 2014).

Vygotsky and Piaget: Points of Agreement and Disagreement

Given that Vygotsky was a modern form of Piaget, there are several points in which the two agreed on. One such is that the cognitive development happens in stages that are known to have different styles of thinking. Even though there are several points of convergent, there are areas in which the two theorists differ. One such point of disagreement happened when Piaget mentioned or viewed the child as a lone scientist. Owing to this, Vygotsky laid more stress on social interaction in the learning process and the growth culture of a child.

Influence of Culture and Social Interaction on Beverly’s Development

When analyzing the main character in this film, it is obvious that there are a couple of issues that influence the learning and development of character. In the film, Riding in Cars with Boys, the cognitive development of Beverly is affected mainly by the culture and social interaction in her environment. This is evident through the information that is obtained in the film that Beverly was born and raised up in a working-class neighborhood in Connecticut. Being raised in this kind of environment ends up influencing her development. In regards to the social perspective, the individuals who were around Beverly like the close members also influenced her development. For instance, her father comes out as a tough though good-hearted cop and her mother is seen as a nervous woman who is not ready to imagine having some of the worst happenings in her life. Thus, it is clear that there are several things that affect the development of a child and mostly can be associated with these two theories. Applying the two theories helps in deconstructing the lives of individuals in social angles.

The Role of Culture and Social Interaction in Vygotsky’s Theory

There exist some critical concepts of the theories that apply to the main character in the film. The most significant aspects, in this case, is the role that culture plays and the place of social interaction in the learning process which incorporates culture mediation and tools (Clark, 2011). As noted by O’Donnell & King, (2014), the work of Vygotsky, for instance, started in the early years of the twentieth-century, a period after the revolution and had it affected by the work of Karl Max. Owing to this, Vygotsky laid a lot of stress on culture and the manner in which it shaped the development of a child. The view was also so much in line with that of the contemporary cultural psychology which is more of developed for individuals and affected by social-cultural and the different historical contexts.

Beverly as an Active Agent in her Learning Process

Just like in Piaget work, Vygotsky also perceives the child as one active agent in the learning process. In the film, there are several occasions when Beverly came out as an agent in her own learning. There is a point where she asks her friend to act or rather personify her parents. This according to her is to help her understand the feeling her parents would have if she would be pregnant. She confirms the feeling. This point is akin to taking a personal step towards learning. This is a clear depiction of constructivism as showcased in Piaget’s theory (Demetriou, Shayer & Efklides, 2016). Beverly is an active agent as much as she a child and is able to get her own knowledge knit and come up with a reality.

The Role of Culture in Vygotsky’s Theory: Mediation and Tools

Additionally, Vygotsky also stressed on the degree to which learning is mediated by the culture of the child. The significant point in the Vygotskian theory advanced is the mediation aspect which alludes to the manner in which culture interacts with the individual development of persons. According to Clark (2011), mediation is a critical aspect of the social formation process and gives a way of deterministic account in which the mediators play a role of individual acting upon or being acted upon by social, cultural and the different historical factors in the process.

Psychological and Technical Tools in Vygotsky’s Theory

There are three main groups in mediator that are recognized and they include a psychological tool, technical tools, and other individuals. The tools are grouped into two which include psychological and technical. For the psychological tools, they execute the higher mental functions. According to Vygotsky, children are born with the basic cognitive functions that incorporate perception and the attention. This aspect has been clearly shown by Beverly in the film. A case in point is that she had a keen interest in the literature and even had the dream of going to college in New York where she was to build her career as a writer.

Internalizing Experience and Diverse Perspectives

Apart from having these two aspects, Clark (2011) contends that there seems to be a lack in higher mental functions like thinking and problem-solving skills. For Beverly, she makes some of her decisions at a very tender age and the decisions as much as they are valid they are inapplicable at the time she makes them. Mertz (2013) asserts that in the higher mental function, such thinking is seen as psychological tools of culture where a person lives. The tools are then transmitted to the children by the aged when they are learning such as through lessons in schools.

Beverly’s Perception and Interaction with Others

The other issues that emerge are the experience that an individual has with the rest. The experience that a child gets always becomes internalized and ends up forming the individual mental representation of the child in regards to the issues that they face in the world. Often, individuals from diverse backgrounds have a set of tools that differ hence making them think in different ways. The viewpoint of Beverly in regards to reality is so different from that held by other individuals especially her friends. The time she requests the friend to act as the mother so that she gets the perception of her mother towards her being pregnant, she ends up with a shocking response.

Beverly’s Equilibration and Accommodation Process

Her urge to get her friend’s perception can be expounded by using the Piaget theory. This can be seen as a state of being equilibrated (Bjorklund, 2013). There is some kind of force that is pushing development of Beverly. This force can be some kind of curiosity while growing. As Piaget notes, the cognitive development of a person does not happen at a steady rate but does occur in leaps and bounds (Simatwa, 2010). She is able to deal with the new information she gets from the friend. This is clear when the friend tells her about her feeling when she assumes to be pregnant. Beverly can relate the feeling to what the mother would have. This means that Beverly gets assimilated to the new information just in case such a scenario occurs to her. As Mertz (2013) notes, equilibration is the push that makes one learn as they would want to avoid frustration and will see that they have a balance through mastering the new challenge. Beverly is seeking to avoid the frustrations that concern getting pregnant as she grows. She does this by acclimatizing with other people’s opinions, specifically that of her friend. This would be akin to accommodation.

The Role of Technical Tools and Social Interaction in Vygotsky’s Theory

Apart from the psychological tools, there is the technical tool. Shabani, Khatib & Ebadi (2010) notes that these are the set of tools that affect the interaction of the child with the environment. One kind of this tool is the computer that mainly transforms the culture of many. In this film, the technical tool that affected her life was the party, which later developed his interest in boys. Additionally, social interaction and the zone of proximal development are also significant elements in the Vygotsky theory (Shabani, Khatib & Ebadi, 2010). According to Vygotsky, there is a need to have an interaction that occurs between adults and the experienced peers. The Vygotskian theory stresses that a child cannot acquire any kind of formal operational thinking without getting help or assistance from others. Knowledge, in this case, is considered to take place both inter-mentally and intra-mentally, implying that it happens between two people and in the mind of an individual respectively. This notion is clear in the movie. In fact, much of what Beverly acquires happens through interactions. For instance, when closely associating and interacting with the parents, she had good plans and visions for her life. Nonetheless, the interactions that she had with the outside environment ended up altering her life completely. There is a need for experts to be in existence to impact or instruct the child which ultimately ensures that they achieve their life goals. For instance, when Beverly was in the car with his father headed for the Christmas celebration, she requests to get a bra. The father would then explain to her that she was young to get one. In regards to the Piaget’s theory, this can be an affirmation that the mental processes of Beverly had developed and were developing. She had increased number of schemata and had got to a point she could explain what she perceives around it. That bra is worn by females and she was one of them yet she had none. Beverly’s schemata at this stage can be affirmed to have been in a state of equilibrium.

Successes and Influences of Theories on Beverly’s Development

One of the critical elements that seemingly affected Beverly is the emphasis of socio-cultural context and being so sensitive to diversified developments. Nonetheless, according to the two theories, it is argued that Beverly’s cognitive development was a success. The character was affected by the major human development hence influencing him in one way or another. A case in point is that Vygotsky application of the psychological tool achieves two main things. First, it introduces the new functions that are linked to the use of the identified tool and its controls. Second, it does away with the different unnecessary processes that are accomplished by the tool. It also changes the course and the various individual characters. In a couple of ways, Beverly learning was affected by culture and the social interaction with the other. When she was young, she had a different life but while growing the environment definitely modified her behaviors and plans that she had for life. Beverly, notably, is in a position to make and comprehend the different issues by herself as a way of learning and grasping content a part that is considered to make up the theoretical framework. According to Mertz (2013), Vygotsky affirms that children learn different cultures, values, and the problem-solving skills through interaction with the skilled people, adults, and peers.

Conclusion

The two theories are thus in form and content able to explain the development of Beverly in the film. As much as the development of the theories happened a while back, the current status of them still implies that they are critical in offering an explanation of the human development process. The context of using the theories was appropriate given that several social issues emerged in the film that shaped the development. The two theories have been instrumental in bridging the social and cognitive frameworks in human beings with the case study of the Riding in Cars with Boys“ Film.

References

Beilin, H., & Pufall, P. B. (Eds.). (2013). Piaget’s theory: Prospects and possibilities. Psychology Press.

Bjorklund, D. F. (Ed.). (2013). Children’s strategies: Contemporary views of cognitive development. Psychology Press.

Clark, L. S. (2011). Parental mediation theory for the digital age. Communication theory, 21(4), 323-343.

Demetriou, A., Shayer, M., & Efklides, A. (Eds.). (2016). Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development: Implications and applications for education. Routledge.

Mertz, E. (Ed.). (2013). Semiotic mediation: Sociocultural and psychological perspectives. Elsevier.

O’Donnell, A. M., & King, A. (Eds.). (2014). Cognitive perspectives on peer learning. Routledge.

Shabani, K., Khatib, M., & Ebadi, S. (2010). Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development: Instructional implications and teachers’ professional development. English language teaching, 3(4), 237.

Simatwa, E. M. (2010). Piaget’s theory of intellectual development and its implication for instructional management at pre-secondary school level. Educational Research and Reviews, 5(7), 366.