Jean Piaget's Views On The Development Of Self

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Humans are designed to act with self-awareness, apply self-control, illustrate conscience, guiltiness, and make decisions based on some symbol of what they are, what they have been, as well as what they desire to be. Development of self has numerous descriptions including the development of physical or motor self to that of the mind. In the center of this all, three sociologists, including Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, and Jean Piaget offer varying views on the development of self. The varying theories offered by these and other sociologists means that there is no universally accepted concept of development of self or how people come to aware of themselves. In fact, each individual has their own answer when it comes to answering …show more content…

The first stage is the sensorimotor stage where children develop sensory skills such as seeing, listening and touching (Piaget, 1964). For the preoperational stage, kids form the capability to use symbols that help them experience things with no direct contact. A key similarity among all Cooley, Mead, and Piaget is the role of language as a significant symbol in developing self. Language acts as a channel for socializations enabling the development of one’s self-concept. In the third stage, humans can understand reasoning such as causation, size, numbers, and speed (Piaget, 1964). The final stage involves the development of abstract thinking to solve theoretical problems. Piaget makes concrete points, but these stages are controversial since they do not illustrate how socialization and development of self are connected. Moreover, not all humans can make it up to the fourth stage to develop self-concept because of social experiences or biological conditions. For instance, some teens face difficult challenges due to increased social experiences such as bullying that can lead them to develop psychological issues or mental illnesses lacking the ability for abstract skills (Wylie, 1974). People also draw their cognitive skills based on their cultural background, meaning they undergo different experiences; thus the stages may not apply to

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