Developmental Psychology : Major Models Of Psychosocial And Cognitive Development

There are three main theories of development that I shall discuss in this assignment, 'Cognitive', the main theorist being, 'Piaget', (1896 - 1980), The, 'Psychosocial Theory', 'Erikson', (1902 - 1994), and, The 'Psychosexual', of, 'Freud', (1856 - 1939).

Piaget asserts that, the instincts children have when they are born are inherited scripts, called schema, these schema are building blocks for cognitive development. As a child grows, he acquires more of these building blocks; moreover, these building blocks become more complex as the child progresses through different stages in development (Huitt, Hummel 2003). Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development are as follows. First, The sensorimotor stage where an infant has

Professionals within the field of developmental psychology focus on how people grow and develop throughout their lifetime. Developmental psychology concerns the interest of the humans on a physiological and biological level (Weiner & Easterbrooks, 2012). The many contributing factors considered when observing the developmental changes that occur in any individual also include physical ecological, cultural, and historical influences to a person. Developmental psychologists conduct research on a diverse array of topics, such as the effects of divorce on adults, parenting, and how infants learn language, and influences on antisocial activity during adolescence (Kuther & Morgan, 2012).

This theory states that children’s understanding of the environment comes through immediate direct (sensory) experiences and motor activities (Otto, 2010, p. 30). It supports the idea of active, hands on learning. Piaget also placed emphasis on the concept of object permanence (the awareness that an object remains even though it is removed from sight) and believed it was a precursor to language development (Otto, 2010).

As a Social Work major I have begun to ponder Ideas and theories that have been used within my classes so far. One of the theories that stood out to me the most was the Cognitive Developmental Theory. I have always found it rather fascinating to study the different stages of human development and I am learning a lot about it. Neuroscience is beginning to put a new twist on the older models of Jean Paiget and L.S. Vygotsky. As we develop as humans we will understand more deeply how we can create better situations for a holistic development.

The first of Piaget’s stages of development is the Sensorimotor stage. This stage lasts from birth to approximately 2 years old. “the child uses his senses and emerging motor skills to explore the environment. Verbal interaction, an object-rich setting and the freedom to explore are of paramount importance at this time” (Webb, p.94). In addition, the child develops object permanence – “The knowledge that an object exists even when it’s not in sight” (lecture**). For example, this is why children at this stage enjoy the classic game of peek-a-boo. _____ In addition to object permanence, Piaget structured the sensorimotor stage into multiple sub-stages.

Piaget claims that infants do not conceive objects which have independent existence. Infant’s perspective of objects is that objects pop in and out of existence in a child’s sense. Before the age of eight or nine months, infants won’t be able to search for a toy hidden under a cloth in front of it. Therefore Piaget concluded that objects seize to exist in a child’s mind because according to

Working with children from the early 1920s to the late 1970s, Piaget discovered that there are four stages of mental development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations (“Jean Piaget”). Each stage is defined by what a child is or is not able to do, as well as specific milestone accomplishments. Beginning at the sensorimotor stage, the focus of cognitive development for children from birth to age 2 is to “distinguish themselves from the objects around them.” The main accomplishment of this stage is for the child to develop object constancy. When first born, children are unable to recognize or understand that when an object is not in sight, it still exists (TB.) This is what

Developmental psychology consists of topics like the duration to which maturity happens over the continuous growth of understanding in contrast with phase progress. Many developmental psychologies are involved in the effect among particular characteristics, how a person acts, and surrounding elements as well as social environment and the effect that it has on development.

Developmental Psychology is a scientific study that shows psychological changes in human being to birth to adulthood. It was first made to help infants and children, but now it has expanded to help the adolescence and adults just as well. Paul B. Baltes, has apply the six principles of human development, lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, gains and losses, contextual and historical, and multidisciplinary. There are several fields of developmental psychology like Adolescence, Attachment, Cognitive development, Education, and Parenting that will be address. Developmental psychology also examines the nature and nurture of our human development change, by the studies done. Researchers like to see the difference between human personal characteristic. It shows there have been discussions over the essentials and dynamic development and the development of the stages and hypothesis. Behavioral and cognitive psychology studies how human functions from infant into adulthood , but among the theories lifespan psychology by Paul B. Baltes explore the biological, cognitive, and psychological changes in humans lifetime.

Who is B.F Skinner? And why is he important in the study of developmental psychology? And what ideas did he add to it?

Jean Piaget, one of the well-established name in psychology, conceived that children actively gain knowledge through manipulation and interaction with objects around them. Piaget founded four developmental stages in children’s

Piaget believed that children are like “little scientists” and that they actively try to explore and make sense of the world around them. He developed a stage theory of intellectual development that includes four distinct stages: sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage and formal operational stage. In his stages especially the second stage which is the preoperational, the child rises above simple sensory experiences. Words can be used as symbolic representations of objects and events. Children in the preoperational stage can be egocentric. They cannot distinguish between themselves in the place of others. At this stage, the child does not seem to be capable of certain logical operations and the child thinks that more things are alive than an older child or adult would. Further, because the child is egocentric, there is a tendency to blame oneself for the event (Crain, 2011). With this, Piaget believed that children learn through pretend play but still struggle with logic and taking the point of view of other people (Cherry, 2016). Piaget theory and its concepts is applicable to this study because thru this theory, the researcher was able to develop play activities which involves cognitive, affective, and psychomotor to enchance the childrens’ potential and improve their

I am now going to discuss the views on how young children learn from the perspective of Jean Piaget. Wood (2007) says that Jean Piaget was the initial psychologist to make a logical study of cognitive development. He believed that at the heart of learning and development was self-directed problem solving and action. Piaget was a great believer in children learning in stages and these stages in fact followed a natural time scale, as the child gets older they will progress through each stage. This theory can be explained by the term walking before running. These stages are classified into four different stages. The four stages are called; the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage and lastly the formal operational stage. Each of these stages have age boundaries (Marlowe & Canestrari,2005). The preoperational stage is one of the stages which is evident within my placement. Within this stage children start to consider the use of images and words to represent objects. They are between the ages of two and seven years old. The children in fact find it

The Sensorimotor Stage starts from birth until two years old. During this time frame, infants begin to be aware of methods and with certain actions, results are established. Within Cognitive Development, the interpretation that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen or heard, touched or smelled in any way. This is called Object Permanence. Jean Piaget’s experiments includes an