Theories of Development

Tom is a three year old little boy. He knows that airplanes have wings and can fly. When he goes to the zoo with his family and he sees an Eagle, he points to it and tells his big sister “airplane”. She calmly tells him that the Eagle is actually a bird. Tom had made a schema about airplanes, and associated the schema with what the bird looked like. He had to come up with a new schema for birds to realize they are two different things.

Toms story is an example of Piagets Cognitive-Development Theory. Piagets theory, people construct their knowledge based on what happens in the environment around them. A schema is a way of thinking of the world, it is a sort of blueprint that people use to think of the world around them. Piagets theory is what would be considered as discontinuous and monopathed. This means that children make connections with the world abruptly, although they may not be accurate depictions; they are comfortable using their imagination. Piagets theory is one path, there is only one way to develop. A common example of developing in one path is that children must crawl before they can walk.

Piagets theory conceptualizes human development by explaining how people change their mental depictions of the world. People create schemas but sometimes people experience disequilibrium. This means that people have to change their schemas around, they do this by either accommodation or assimilation. In both cases, the person modifies their schema to better fit the meanings of their surroundings. Until a person experiences accommodation or assimilation they will experience a feeling a disequilibrium because essentially their thoughts on a matter have been proven wrong in some way.

Piagets theory is a well known theory and is fa...

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...onsidered as having avoidant attachment. The child doesn’t care if the parent comes or goes, this is caused by a parent not soothing a child when it cries or needs comfort. The child has no attachment to the parent at all. However, if the parent gives a child the attention it needs and gives the child the necessities of life, the child will develop secure attachment. In this form of attachment the child is comfortable when the parent is with them but when the parent leaves they become distressed, then they are easily soothed when the parent returns. This makes sense because if the child doesn’t have attention from the parent the child wouldn’t become attached to the parent; as goes for secure attachment.

Psychology theories helps us understand the way a child develops. It is essential for coming parents to know the possible outcomes of different parenting styles.