Behavioral Development

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Stages of Behavioral Development A reflection on the lifespan of humans, from newborn babies to senior adults, this paper outlines the theories of Piaget, Kohlberg, Erickson and Fowler on the mental development of children. Piaget's Cognitive Theory Piaget's theory differs in mainly that it is focused on child development rather than actual leaning and it suggest small differences rather than an increase in behavior. The basic steps to his theory is Schema, the foundations of knowledge, Assimilation, which is the process of applying existing knowledge to new situations, Accommodation, which is applying new knowledge to new situations and Equilibration, the step between Assimilation and Accommodation. Each step may occur at anytime in a child's life and neither is more important than the other. Kohlberg …show more content…

His research was based on a study of adolescent boys from the Chicago area, he would tell them a story than ask them questions about it and re-ask them every three years to see how their development of moral thinking changed. Problems with his theory though is that it lacks sufficient data. It does not include girls, it was conducted in a small area and does not show the responses of different cultures and it does not clearly define the moral stages. Erickson Erickson painted a general picture of development. He felt the adolescent period of life was the most significant for developing identity. He said there was eight stages and each person had to experience a psycho social crisis before going on to the next stage, he contributed a specific virtue with each successful stage. While his theories are vague in describing the causes of development it brings together the entire lifespan.

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