In the past century, numerous developmental psychologists have attempted to explain the development of a child. According to different developmental theorists, children centre their development on separate aspects of development; cognitive, physical, social and behavioural. Biology over time has sculpted our behaviour as human beings yet we are also a product of experience. Developmental psychology studies the various skills and knowledge we have including how we acquire them and it is so important that we have an understanding of it so that parents/caregivers know what to expect and how to support their developing child. Jean Piaget, born in Switzerland in 1896, is one of the developmental theorists; he suggested that children develop through …show more content…
Piaget said that ‘from around puberty the ways in which many children think change again. They become more adult like, and can rely more on ideas rather than needing to manipulate real objects. By 12 years of age most children can do some mental arithmetic. Teenagers start to think about moral and philosophical issues too’. (G.C. Davenport 1994). However I find this part of the theory difficult to relate to because I don’t feel that at the age of 12 I was thinking morally about many things. For example, as I started high school I didn’t understand that some of the things I said, other people would find offensive because I wasn’t thinking morally and I didn’t understand that other peoples views are not always the same as mine. So much so that at the beginning of high school I said something which offended someone (unintentionally) and subsequently, my head of year arranged a meeting with me where she explained why it wasn’t okay for me to be saying things like it, which was an eye opener for me because I had never recognised that other people think differently before. From this point I was a lot more conscious of what I would say to people. Philosophical issues were another thing that I didn’t tend to think about just because I never really needed to until I got to high school. I had an hour a week in an RE class where we looked at different topics which wasn’t really enough for me to be able to …show more content…
Leo Vygotsky was born in 1896 and died at the young age of 37, so a lot of his theories are incomplete simply because he hadn’t had the time to do the research. His theory is a cultural- historical theory, the main focal point of the theory is the role of culture and social interactions the child has with others which able him/her to develop. The first main assumption of Vygotsky’s theory is that when a child communicates with an adult, the adult is able to channel how their culture thinks and feels about the world on to the child. An example of this from my own experience is that with no conversation with any adult, me being a child had no idea about food and how food differs from country to county until it was explained to me. As a child my parents would often explain what types of food belong to our country and what different types of food belong to other countries as well as where the specific foods came from. From having types of food explained to me from an adult, only then I began to understand our food culture. Vygotsky would explain this by me developing an understanding of food because of knowledge that someone else is reflecting on to
According to McLeod (2012), Piaget had many findings/studies, and published over fourteen works over his studies, some of the works he published were: The Origins of intelligence in Children, The Growth of Logical Thinking From Childhood to Adolescence. None of these works compare to his greatest finding, which is his defining of the four stages of intellectual development. Before this approach was founded there were two other theories to intellectual growth, one being that biology and surroundings create human intellectual make-up and that human intellectual growth was continuous, not discontinuous, the second theory was that we’re pre-programmed on what we could become (citation); moreover, thanks to Piaget, we now know the intellectual development occurs in stages, is discontinuous, occurs at different rates in people and is affected by assimilation and
When studying human development, it is helpful to understand the main developmental domains (i.e physical, cognitive, emotional and moral) and the ways in which people develop within each domain at certain age stages. Use of psychological theories is also helpful to understand the reasons for this development and the ways in which it manifests at different age stages. The objective of this essay is to analyse the influences on development from conception to late adolescence. It will describe theories of lifespan development with information regarding my own development used to support these theories. It will be concluded that theories of lifespan development can be used to explain life experiences in the different developmental domains at different
There were different theories made by different philosophers and scholars. Piaget’s argument was based on logic of adaptation and bodies. He conducted research on his own child and made assumptions that children think differently of the world. Children cannot
How does knowledge grow? As someone who spends most of their time with children in one capacity to another looking at both these theories in terms of which is more applicable is interesting. To compare Piaget and Vygotsky is like comparing apples to oranges, both have similarities to one another; they were both brilliant people, with brilliant theories on how humans developed; nonetheless, they also cannot completely explain human development with their theories alone.
Piaget one of the first researchers to focus on children and think about how they developed. He stated, development drives learning meaning children have to be physically and mentally ready to learn new things. To create his theory he used different schemes based off experience. For example sequence of events when children first attend school they are taught to stay seated inside the classroom daily. So as the child moves on to different grades they know automatically to
The pre-operational stage of Piaget’s theory is characterized by the child’s inability to perform logical thought processes, which relates to the idea of egocentrism. Cognitive egocentrism is defined as being “a lack of differentiation of the physical and psychosocial features” of others in comparison to oneself, and thus “a lack of appreciation of their perspective” (Young, 2011, p.299). This concept links to Theory of Mind, which is the ability to “attribute mental states…to oneself and others, and to understand that others have” mental states that may differ to one’s own (Wikipedia, 2015). It could be inferred that by no longer being egocentric, a child has theory of mind. Piaget found from his research that by the age of seven children have overcome their egocentric thinking. Arguably, by no longer being egocentric we become better at interacting with others and more equipped for life, as we are aware that others may have different thoughts to our own. Therefore, insinuating that not being egocentric is beneficial for a child’s
in traditional ways such as how well they could spell, count, or solve problems. He was more concerned with the processing of these things much more than the result came up with. Many people had the idea that children were less competent of thinkers then those older than them. Piaget did not think this way however, he designed a systematic study and was the first psychologist to do this. Piaget believed that genetics played a role in mental structure do to children being born with a certain mental structure. One of the biggest difference in Piaget’s theories was he was not concerned with all learners and narrowed it down to only involve children. With the children he was not concerned with how much they learned but how much they were developing. Piaget’s theory was to identify mechanisms and processed infant and children use to
Piaget brought new insight into the area of cognitive development. He described intellectual development as a sequence of four principal stages, each made up of several sub-stages. All children move through these stages in the same order, but each moves at his or her own pace. The Preoperational Phase is associated with the child of approximately two to seven years. The child’s thought process in this phase is characterized by egocentrism; that is, the child cannot look at something from another’s point of view.
Jean Piaget was a successful and inspirational man. He is known all over the world and has contributed to the fields of psychology, sociology, philosophy, and education. Jean was born in Switzerland in 1896 to Arthur Piaget, a professor of literature at the University. He developed an interest in psychoanalysis at the University of Zurich. He was employed at the Binet Institute where he realized through his studies that there are differences in the way children and adults think. Piaget developed four stages of cognitive development. He was very interested in the way children think and so he did many case studies. Jean Piaget formed a theory of cognitive development that deals with “the process of coming to know and the stages we move through
Jean Piaget discovered a cognitive development theory based on how children comprehend the world. It consisted of four stages, the sensorimotor stage, the
Piaget and Vygotsky differences seemed to outweigh their similarities. Piaget believed that learning was solitary while Vygotsky believed that learning was social. Piaget cognitive developmental view suggested that children progress through stages through maturity, and learning skills, whereas Vygotsky believes a child development depends on guidance from others. The two are similar in a way because they both believed that social interaction is an important phenomenon in cognitive development and it being necessary. A good understanding of these theories is that both of their concepts were significant that one could learn and benefit from their studies. Their theories played off each other. Piaget theory seems only touch on a child thought processing and how a child is not necessary wrong or right but they answer differently and think differently from adults. Even though Vygotsky theories were cut short by his death, his studies were more so outside-in meaning that a child development was influenced by the child’s social culture. Piaget theory expounded on a child being curious and finding out information by their personal experiences without the help of an adult, for example, allowing a child to challenge themselves, whereas Vygotsky believes that by a child receiving guidance helps a child expand their thinking skills and
Piaget “became intrigued with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers to the questions that required logical thinking. He believed that these incorrect answers revealed important differences between the thinking of adults and children” (McLeod, 2015). Dr. Klaczynski who is a Professor at the University of Northern Colorado and whose primary focus is developmental psychology has stated in a lecture of his that Jean Piaget is known as one most influential researchers in the field of developmental psychology. He explained that this is, because before Piaget, it was commonly believed and accepted in the field of Psychology that children were simply “less competent thinkers” (Klaczynski, 2016) as compared to adults. Through Piaget’s numerous studies he was able to come to the conclusion that children were not “less competent thinkers” but, rather they had a whole different way of thinking as compared to
Developmental psychology is an area of research devoted to explaining the continuing growth and change that occurs over the course of one’s life. Throughout history many varying theories have been used to attempt to explain the complex process of childhood experiences altering who individuals become as an adult.
The Critique of Piaget's Theories Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) was a constructivist theorist. He saw children as constructing their own world, playing an active part in their own development. Piaget’s insight opened up a new window into the inner working of the mind and as a result he carried out some remarkable studies on children that had a powerful influence on theories of child thought. This essay is going to explain the main features and principles of the Piagetian theory and then provide criticism against this theory. Cognitive development refers to way in which a person’s style of thinking changes with age.
Jean Piaget was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Here he studied at the university and received a doctorate in biology at the age of 22. Following his schooling he became increasingly interested in psychology and began much research and studying of the subject. From this research Piaget created a broad theoretical system for the development of cognitive abilities. His work, in this way, was much like that of Sigmund Freud, but Piaget emphasized the ways that children think and acquire knowledge.