Anyone know anything about child psychology?

[hitch1978]

1) Is a (advanced) two yr old capable of the same learning capability in relation to cause and consequence as an adult? Not second level thinking, but like, if you do X, I'll do Y EVERY time.

2) Is a (advanced) two yr old capable of comprehending another person's (parent) emotion. (know they respond to a parents feeling fear, and stress, but what about like, 'you've upset mummy'?)

Trying to do the best I can to raise my daughter, so any help would be appreciated.

[vhawk01]

1) no
2) yes

I hope that helps, i am drunk and just finished my exams so my opinion should be aproporiately discounted

[Tristessa]

I think:

Yes for 1: You'll probably need to reinforce each example several times though.

Maybe for 2: Opinions are pretty divided...research basically says "somewhere between 1 and 4 this happens".

Maybe Google/Wiki "Operant conditioning" and "Theory of Mind" if you're very interested.

Hope this helps!

[Jamougha]

1) IIRC, the area of the brain responsible for dealing with punishment and reward is not normally fully developed until people reach their 20's. A two year old has a very limited capacity in this area.

2) Even very young babies seem to respond to other's emotions. They will do stuff like give gifts to another baby who is distressed to cheer them up. However children don't develop a true 'Theory of Mind' until age 3-5. We experience other's emotions through our brains 'mirroring' another person's state i.e. empathy. It's possible that while they experience your pain, joy and so on and associate it with you, they don't truly connect it with an external mind until later. Still I don't think anyone knows for sure.