Studies on Adolescene of Piaget and Erikson
Adolescence is considered a difficult time of life and one in which a number of changes occur as the individual achieves a certain integration of different aspects of personality. One approach to the cognitive and emotional transitions made at different times of life is to consider how the changes in, say, adolescence are linked to a continuum of change beginning in childhood and continuing throughout life. Some theorists, such as Piaget, were interested primarily in the transitions of childhood and youth, while others, such as Erikson, saw all of life as a series of transitions and offered a continuum of stages covering all of life.
Piaget became fascinated in his early studies with his discovery that children of the same age often gave the same incorrect answers to questions, suggesting that there were consistent, qualitative differences in the nature of reasoning at different ages, not simply a quantitative increase in the amount of intelligence or knowledge. This discovery marked the beginning of Piaget's continuing effort to identify changes in the way children think; how they perceive their world in different ways at different points in development. Piaget's contributions can be summarized by grouping them into four main areas. First, he produced literature on the general stages of intellectual development from infancy through adulthood. This concern occupied him from 1925 to 1940, and after 1940 he began to describe some of the developmental stages in formal, structural terms using models from symbolic logic (Flavell, 1963, 1-9).
The different stages postulated by Piaget help to explain different rats of learning at different ages as well as the types of learning possible at different ages for the majority of the population. Learning itself is seen by Piaget as a process of discovery on the part of the individual, and learning as a formal activity becomes a system of organization by which instruction is enhanced by the way the teacher arranges experience. Learning is thus experiential, and Piaget suggests that experiences have meaning to the extent that they can be assimilated. Such assimilation does not take place without accommodation, an aspect of considerable importance from the point of view of adaptation and possible development:
One of the principal aims of the teacher wil...
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...enerativity versus stagnation--the individual needs to be needed and to assist the younger members of society, and generativity is concerned with guiding the next generation. The last stage is that of ego integrity versus despair, and this is the time when the way the other conflicts were decided has an influence. If the preceding conflicts were not suitably handled, despair may result in later life (Liebert & Spiegler, 1982, 88-92).
Piaget was most interested in the learning stages for the child, while Erikson carried his stages through the life cycle. Both indicate how the stage of adolescence is part of a continuum, however, prepared for by childhood and leading to adulthood. Further research may differentiate even more divisions over the adolescent years.
References
Flavell, J.H. (1963). The developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. New York: D. Van Nostrand.
Furth, H.G. (1969). Piaget and Knowledge. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Liebert, R. M. & M. D. Spiegler (1982). Personality: Strategies and issues. Homewood, Illinois: The Dorsey Press.
Whitbourne, S.K. & C.S. Weinstock (1986). Adult development. New York: Praeger.
Jean Piaget became fascinated with the reasons behind why children cannot correctly answer questions that require logical thinking. Piaget was the first psychologist to conduct an organized study of the intellectual advancement in children. Before Piaget’s study, many believed children were merely less efficient thinkers than adults. Due to his study, however, Piaget proved children think in remarkably different ways than adults. Children are born with a very primitive mental complex that is genetically inherited and learned on which all the following knowledge and learning is based (McLeod, 2015).
Erikson, E. H. Late adolescence (1959). In S Schlein (Ed.), A way of looking at things (pp.
Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. Piaget placed great importance on the education of children. According to Piaget, children are born with a basic mental structure on which all learning and knowledge is based. They challenge the behaviourist theory as most of their research was done on animals and is missing knowledge. The implications of this theory are that not only should we be interest in the answer the learner gives but also the method of how they got there. I find that due to the gaps in the learner’s education, they may be missing important parts that they have had to find out for themselves these methods are not always the easiest ways of calculating. I try and make it as stress free as possible so will demonstrate other methods that may be easier for them. Piagets theory accepts that children go through the same development stages but that they may go through at different times, I ensure I make effort to cater for these different paces and ensure tasks are differentiated to accommodate this. I am aware however that this theory relates to children’s development, and I work with adults, I can still apply parts of this
Jean Piaget was a developmental psychologist, who in the 1920 began pioneering research into children’s cognitive development. He began this research after administering intelligence test to children, and saw the similarities between the wrong answers given and the age group of the children. Up until he began his research, it was believed that children were merely less competent thinkers than adults. Piaget proved that this assumption was incorrect, that children reasoned differently, and broke their cognitive development into four stages.
This theory is crafted by Jean Piaget (1896– 1980) and his work concentrated on seeing how kids see the world. Piaget trusted that from outset, we have the fundamental mental structure on which all ensuing information and learning are based and because of natural development and ecological experience, the mental procedures will have a dynamic rearrangement. Piaget's presumption was that kids are dynamic takes part in the advancement of information and they adjust to nature through currently looking to comprehend their condition. He proposed that cognitive advancement occurs in four phases, 0 to 2 years being the sensori motor, 2 years to 7 years the preoperational, 7 to 12 years the solid operations, and 12 years or more the formal operations.
Erik Erikson developed eight psychosocial stages that occur through life. These stages help parents of younger children understand what the child is thinking and why they are acting the way that they do. For a person to become a well-rounded adult they need to succeed in each level. This essay will discuss the first six stages into young adulthood.
Jean Piaget was one of the most prominent researchers of the 20th century in the field of psychology and human development. He concentrated his attention on the biological influences on the psychological portrait of the person and developmental stages. Piaget pointed out that the development of a person passes through certain stages; each stage can be characterized by specific features. He argued that learning about the world was possible through personal experience. However, his inspiration of developing the idea of cognitive growth and changes of people came while researching child behavior. Moreover, it is important to note that his research was based on the observation of behavior of his own three children (Berlin, Zeanah & Lieberman, 2008).
“The influence of Piaget’s ideas in developmental psychology has been enormous. He changed how people viewed the child’s world and their methods of studying children. He was an inspiration to many who came after and took up his ideas. Piaget's ideas have generated a huge amount of research which has increased our understanding of cognitive development.” (McLeod 2009). Piaget purposed that we move through stages of cognitive development. He noticed that children showed different characteristics throughout their childhood development. The four stages of development are The Sensorimotor stage, The Preoperational Stage, The Concrete operational stage and The Formal operational stage.
Both Piaget and Vygotsky agreed that children's cognitive development took place in stages. (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P.149). However they were distinguished by different styles of thinking. Piaget was the first t reveal that children reason and think differently at different periods in their lives. He believed that all children progress through four different and very distinct stages of cognitive development. This theory is known as Piaget’s Stage Theory because it deals with four stages of development, which are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. (Ginsburg, Opper 1979 P. 26).
Jean Piaget proposed four major periods of cognitive development the sensorimotor stage (birth- 2 years), the preoperational stage (ages 2-7), the concrete operational stage (7-11), and the formal operational stage (ages 11- adulthood). He called these stages invariant sequence and believed that all children went through all these stages in the exact order without skipping one. The ages in these stages are only average ages some children progress differently. The point of this message is that humans of different ages think in different ways (Sigelman and Rider, 2015)
He implemented eight psychosocial stages which includes trust versus mistrust. One example of the specified inclusions are infants. In order to come to a resolution for these feelings of insecurity, infants look towards their care givers for care and stability to fulfill their desired needs. With autonomy versus shame stage, children begin to assert their independence, utilizing their skills otherwise they will end up doubting their abilities. Initiative versus guilt is another stage where pre-scholars develop initiative by devising and carrying out bold plans. These people plan activities, developing a sense of initiative with others therefore feeling secure in their ability to lead and make decisions. The identity versus role confusion stage is noted as Erikson’s most popular. He characterized adolescence as a crucial and critical time of identity development. To achieve a sense of identity some adolescents attempt to define and explore who they are regarding their career choice, religion, political views, sexual orientation etc., figuring out a way to fit into society. According to Erikson, “the adolescent mind is essentially a mind or moratorium, a psychosocial stage between the morality learned by the child, and the ethics to be developed by the adult” (Erikson, 1963, p.245. As they go through the different sexual and
Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development demonstrates a child’s cognitive ability through a series of observational studies of simple tests. According to Piaget, a child’s mental structure, which is genetically inherited and evolved, is the basis for all other learning and knowledge. Piaget’s
It is at the beginning of this stage that children start tobecome able to have complex logical thoughts and are able to focus on more than one part of aproblem at a time. These logical thoughts, however, are limited to real world objects and personal experiences or events. This limited thinking makes it very difficult for children in thisstage to understand and logically answer hypothetical situations or abstract ideas.The fourth and final stage of Piaget’s theory, beginning around early teens and continuing on all through adulthood, is the formal operational stage. Unlike the previous stage, adolescentsin this stage are able to logically use symbols related to abstract concepts and think about multiple variables to consider possibilities (WebMD.com). Although formal operational thought starts at the beginning of this stage, it always continues to increase in sophistication as a persongets older. It is for this reason why some people are better at thinking about hypothetical questions and ideas than others.Although Piaget’s theory has been used as a basis for many research studies, there are aspects of it that have been challenged. Some of the most criticized points of the theory is thatPiaget underestimated both the cognitive abilities of young children and the impact that socialenvironments and culture has on cognitive development. It is also
In the first stage, children will undergo the process of assimilation where they will be using their existing schema to handle a new situation or something new when felt. In the second stage, they will go through the accommodation process in which if their existing schema does not work, it will be ‘upgraded’ or changed with newly acquired knowledge. During the third stage of adaptation process, they will go through the stage of equilibration when external pressure from knowledge acquire is being used to modify prior knowledge. This only happens when children are able to allow their existing schemas to handle new information through the first process, assimilation. The last of Piaget’s theory is the stages of development. We will look at the first two stages which are the sensorimotor and preoperational stages. During the stage of sensorimotor which happens during the first two years from birth, they will undergo a key feature of knowing and having object permanence that also means that if a particular object was hidden or covered by a cloth, he or she will be able to actively search for it. The preoperational stage takes place from two years of age till they are of seven years old. During this stage, children will be building up their incidents or encounters through adaptation and slowly move on to the next stage of the development as they are not able to
The two theories that will be discussed throughout this paper are Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development and Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development. The major themes and concepts of the two theories share both differences and similarities. Specific emphasis will be placed on the earliest years of life and will also be related to separation, individuation, and attachment theory.