...Stages of Cognitive Development Jean Piaget is a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. Piaget believed that children play an active role in the growth of intelligence. He regarded children as philosophers who perceive the world as he or she experiences it (ICELS). Therefore in Piaget’s most prominent work, his theory on the four stages of cognitive development, much of his inspiration came from observations of children. The theory of cognitive development focuses on mental processes such as perceiving, remembering, believing, and reasoning. Through his work, Piaget showed that children think in considerably different ways than adults do and as such he saw cognitive development as a progressive reorganization of mental processes resulting from maturation and experience (1973). To explain this theory, Piaget used the concept of stages to describe his development as a sequence of the four following stages: sensory – motor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations. There are three elements however to understanding his theory of cognitive development. They are schema, the fours process that enable transition from on stage to another, and finally the four stages themselves. He began his studies by making naturalistic observations. Piaget made careful, detailed observations of children, typically his own children or their friends, from these he wrote diary descriptions charting their development. He also...
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...Student’s Name: Cassandra Marie Fernandez Naturalistic Observation This observation took place in a park where a birthday party was celebrating. I looked at a girl of 4 years old or so. The girl was wearing a red blouse and black shorts. I think she was Hispanic. She was about 50 inch tall and weighed about 35 to 40 pounds. I could hear when her dad called her Penelope. Physical development For her age, she had a perfect physical development because I could see how she ran with other girls and boys of the same age. She was jumping the string, and playing hides and seeks, so I could tell that the girl was healthy and had good physical development. Cognitive development (Piaget’s stages) According to Piaget’s stages Penelope is in preoperational stage because for example, she played with her friends building a sturdy house of plants’ leaves acting as if it was a princess castle. Also she used branches of the tree as if they were magic wands, so I realized that Penelope is in the section of mental representation make believe play. Another example that I realized was that Penelope father offered a juice, and gave her a choice of a bottle or a glass and she chose the bottle allowed more amount then the glass. Emotional and Social development (Erikson’s Stage) According to Erikson’s stages, Penelope is in industry versus inferiority because I noticed that she was all the time in cooperation with the other kids. She developed a sense of competence at useful skills and...
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...instrumental and influential figures in the history of psychology to date. His contribution to the world of psychology is based around the field of developmental psychology. He transformed this area of psychology and laid the foundations upon which subsequent research can be based around and undercover more of the truth behind the cognitive development of infants. Piaget believed that the key to understanding children’s thought processes is not whether they get the answer right, rather the key lies within how they arrived at the answer (Holt et. al, 2012). Piaget stated that our brains hold schemas, which are responsible for organising our patterns of thoughts and actions (Holt et al., 2012). Building on this mental framework he introduced the concepts of assimilation and accommodation which helped lay down the foundation upon which he could build his work on. Piaget committed 50 years of his life to study the intellectual development that occurs in children which ultimately led to the development of his well-acclaimed staged theory of cognitive development (Hock, 2009). His theory is based on the idea that four stages are involved in human cognitive development, which constantly occur in the same order as well as occurring relatively at the same age in all humans. The four stages include: sensori-motor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational and formal operational stage and within each stage they are broken down into smaller sub-sets respectively. However, like all great...
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...Running head: STRUCTURED OBSERVATION OF CONSERVATION A Structured Observation of Conservation Tasks with a Four-year-old Child Cheryl Meyer University of Victoria PSYC 335 – S01 Dr. Ulrich Mueller April 7th, 2005 A Structured Observation of Conservation Tasks with a Four-year-old Child The purpose of this study is to observe the cognitive inability to conserve for a child in the preoperational stage of development. According to the Swiss cognitive theorist Jean Piaget, the preoperational stage refers to the second stage of cognitive development, which spans the years 2 to 7, when children begin to form mental representations yet still lack the ability to think logically (Berk, 2005). Piaget discovered a number of tasks that highlight these limitations of preoperational thought, including his well-known conservation task, which is what I used in my observation-based study. Conservation, or “the idea that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same, even when their outward appearance changes” (Berk, 2005, p.320), is deficient in preoperational children. This study looks at three particular conservation tasks: the conservation of numbers, substance and continuous quantity. We will observe how a child at the preoperational stage of thinking is unable to conserve in each experiment. Jean Piaget believed in the cognitive-developmental theory, in which children actively discover and manipulate the world around them...
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...Naturalistic Observation M y observation took place in the daycare of my infant daughter. I was observing the behavior of my daughter Sofia who is 20 months old compared to other children of the same age in their environment. She has around 25 pounds and a height according to their age. Physical Development For her age she is physically developed since I can see as I walk and begins to develop the art of running. I can see how she plays and tries to talk like their peers. I could tell that my daughter is healthy and has good physical development. Cognitive Development According to Piaget's stages Sofia is in preoperational stage because for example, when all children are playing with small toys, my daughter loves to be playing with the cups and plates imagining that there is there food, finding the ramekins from the kitchenette and pretends that she was cooking. (Make- believe-play) Another example is when the teacher offers water in a plastic cup and my daughter asks the bottle because it is easier to handle, faster and can take more water. Emotional and Social Development According to Erikson's stages, Sofia is on autonomy versus shame and doubt, because I have noticed that she wants to be alone, playing with toys alone without sharing, something that made me laugh was, when I saw that children have been playing with her but she will not like to share what she had in her hand until she gets something back. I want to give another example to support my study, it’s when...
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...Cognitive Theorist – Jean Piaget Terry Cross University of Phoenix 10/17/2014 Contribution of the theorist in the field of learning Jean Piaget was one of the pioneer psychologists who concentrated on the systematic analysis of cognitive development. Jean Piaget contributed in the field of learning by developing a theory of cognitive development in children. His detailed and close observational studies of children’s cognition in addition to administering ingenious tests to children revealed varying cognitive abilities. Piaget’s drive to study the cognitive development in children was informed by the psychological assumption that children have reduced or less thinking competency that adults. As such, Piaget made observations that children have a different mode of thinking compared to adult members of the society. Piaget established that children have innate and basic genetically inherited and evolved mental structures upon which later knowledge and learning stems from (Piaget, 1936). The cognitive theory developed by Piaget contributes to the understanding of cognitive development in children. Cognitive development theory by Piaget concentrates more on the cognitive development and does not argue about learning and acquiring information on given behaviors. Cognitive theory details elaborate stages of cognitive development that differ from one another. As such, the cognitive theory contributes to the field of cognition by explaining processes and systems by...
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...David Lockett CD 101 – FH Professor Janvier Jones, M.S. March 4, 2016 Observation: Birth – 18 Months The Child observed here is called JD. At the time of the observation the child was 15 months old. The observation began at 3p.m. on February 21, 2016. The child was at his place of residence with his mother, aunt, and his two sisters’ ages 9 and 12. As a playroom, the children of the home uses the family room because that is where all the toys are along with the laptops and learning aids for the older children. The beginning of the observation started with JD standing inside of the toy chest with nothing inside but his basketball. There were several toys on the floor near JD. The toys consisted of several trucks, a VTech alphabet activity cube, and a VTech Turn and Learn Driver. The VTech Turn and Learn Driver was sitting on a stand directly in front of the toy chest which JD was standing inside of. JD had his left hand on the steering wheel turning the wheel left and right and with his right hand he was hitting center of the wheel making it go “beep, beep”. As the toy produced the beep, beep sounds, JD would imitate them saying “beep, beep also. At different times between the simulated driving, JD would press different buttons on the console of the toy and imitate those sounds also. JD looked up several times at his mother and smiled only to repeat the process again and again. This went on for approximately 15 minutes. JD would eventually...
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...Cognitive Development in Early Childhood Early childhood is not only a period of amazing physical growth, it is also a time of remarkable mental development. Cognitive abilities associated with memory, reasoning, problem-solving and thinking continue to emerge throughout childhood. When it comes to childhood cognitive development, it would be impossible to avoid mentioning the work of psychologist Jean Piaget. After receiving his doctoral degree at age 22, Jean Piaget began a career that would have a profound impact on both psychology and education. Through his work with Alfred Binet, Piaget developed an interest in the intellectual development of children. Based upon his observations, he concluded that children are not less intelligent than adults, they simply think differently. Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple only a genius could have thought of it."Piaget created a theory of cognitive development that described the basic stages that children go through as they mentally mature. He believed that children are like "little scientists," actively trying to make sense of the world rather than simply soaking up information passively. Schemas One of the key concepts in Piaget's theory is the use of schemas. According to Piaget,schemas are cognitive frameworks or concepts that help people organize and interpret information. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to or completely change previously existing schemas. For example, a young...
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...Piaget Versus Vygotsky Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) proposed the classical constructivist theories of cognitive development. Although often compared, the concepts differ significantly. Indeed, the purpose of this essay is to argue that Piagetian theory marginalizes the social contribution to intellectual development and that, consequently, the Vygotskian approach offers a more accurate and comprehensive analysis. This paper will begin with an explanation of the theories of cognitive development propounded by Piaget and Vygotsky followed by a definition of constructivist and social constructivist theory. The superiority of Vygotsky’s theory will be established via a critical examination of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development, his perspective on language acquisition, and the methodology of his classic tests. Piaget maintained that cognitive development is a continuous progression of assimilation and accommodation and that these complementary processes lead to adaptation. Knowledge is constructed progressively via a sequence of behaviours or mental operations, what Piaget termed schemas. Piaget proposed that children develop mental representations of the world based on physical or mental actions, which they execute on the environment. These initially reflex behaviours are repeated while intrinsic motivation encourages the child to apply schemas to different situations. Assimilation occurs when the new experience is incorporated into an existing...
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...Observation and Analysis: Ten Year Old Male In middle childhood, children continue to learn and build cognitive abilities as well as physical skills. During this stage, children go through growth spurts which include changes in height, weight, and increases strength and stamina. Many theorists developed many theoretical interpretations that will tie in the whole developmental status for middle childhood stage whether it is physical, biological, socio-emotional, or cognitive development. Sigmund Freud is one of the well-known theorist that identified the middle childhood as the “Latency stage” because the physical growth of a child at this stage is slow and at a steady pace. The subject of my middle childhood interview was Bryce, a ten-year-old Filipino-American boy who lives in a single family home with his parents, grandma, and two younger siblings (Personal). Bryce weighs about 107 pounds and a height of four feet and seven inches tall (Physical). According to his mother, Bryce is very active not only in school, but also active in the community. Every Sunday, Bryce participates in choir group at their local catholic church. He plays the guitar and ukulele during a church ceremony (Social). According to his father, he also engages in sports activities such as basketball every Saturday at a local YMCA gymnasium. His grandmother also mentioned that he displays cultural ethics as evidenced by his coming home from school, going to his grandmother, holding her hand, and placing...
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...Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development Oral stage: Age Range: Birth to 1 Year Erogenous Zone: Mouth * During the oral stage, the infant's primary source of interaction occurs through the mouth, so the rooting and sucking reflex is especially important. The mouth is vital for eating, and the infant derives pleasure from oral stimulation through gratifying activities such as tasting and sucking. Because the infant is entirely dependent upon caretakers (who are responsible for feeding the child), the infant also develops a sense of trust and comfort through this oral stimulation. * The primary conflict at this stage is the weaning process--the child must become less dependent upon caretakers. If fixation occurs at this stage, Freud believed the individual would have issues with dependency or aggression. Oral fixation can result in problems with drinking, eating, smoking, or nail biting. The anal stage: Age Range: 1 to 3 years Erogenous Zone: Bowel and Bladder Control * During the anal stage, Freud believed that the primary focus of the libido was on controlling bladder and bowel movements. The major conflict at this stage is toilet training--the child has to learn to control his or her bodily needs. Developing this control leads to a sense of accomplishment and independence. * According to Freud, success at this stage is dependent upon the way in which parents approach toilet training. Parents who utilize praise and rewards for using the toilet at the appropriate...
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...Cognitive Theorist – Jean Piaget Terry Cross University of Phoenix 10/17/2014 Contribution of the theorist in the field of learning Jean Piaget was one of the pioneer psychologists who concentrated on the systematic analysis of cognitive development. Jean Piaget contributed in the field of learning by developing a theory of cognitive development in children. His detailed and close observational studies of children’s cognition in addition to administering ingenious tests to children revealed varying cognitive abilities. Piaget’s drive to study the cognitive development in children was informed by the psychological assumption that children have reduced or less thinking competency that adults. As such, Piaget made observations that children have a different mode of thinking compared to adult members of the society. Piaget established that children have innate and basic genetically inherited and evolved mental structures upon which later knowledge and learning stems from (Piaget, 1936). The cognitive theory developed by Piaget contributes to the understanding of cognitive development in children. Cognitive development theory by Piaget concentrates more on the cognitive development and does not argue about learning and acquiring information on given behaviors. Cognitive theory details elaborate stages of cognitive development that differ from one another. As such, the cognitive theory contributes to the field of cognition by explaining processes and systems by...
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...different part of development. The developmental theories offer different ways of thinking about human, growth, development, and learning. Many researchers use theories as a guide them in their observation and to generate new information, the theories are the platform for all research (Mossler, R.A. 2011). Theorists have researched and tested many theories on child development that have been discovered. This paper will show how three developmental theories gave insight on the similarities and differences of the developmental theories of child development. While there are many theoretical perspectives that try to explain the development of children; the theories provide an overall understanding as well as allows educated hypotheses about the different aspects of child development. Behavioral theories within child development allows the focus to be placed on how environmental interactions influences behavior, and in turn how these behaviors are reinforced and learned. Behaviorism accepts that learning happens through interactions that children have with their environment. The theory points out the study of measureable, observable behavior and it also, includes the way the environment controls a child’s behavior. Theorist John B, Watson and B.F. Skinner, theories are based off their belief that, internal thoughts and motivation cannot be used to explain behavior. They believed that only external observable causes human behavior. They feel that through observation behaviors...
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...Span Human Development Psychology 375 Professor Kathleen Phelps March 05, 2012 Life Span Perspective Paper No one brought evolution to light like Charles Darwin. His book, titled On the Origin of Species, offered compelling evidence for evolution within species and drew in large amounts of controversy. This controversy led to more and more field work and observations of nature. Eventually, Darwin’s research and studies turned to people and the study of the human life span (Beddall, 1968). The study of the human life span gained momentum in the years that followed the publishing of Darwin’s famous book as psychologists around the world developed different perspectives and theories regarding life span. The following examination focuses on explaining the life span perspective of development, summarizing two different theories of life span development, and offering an explanation to how heredity and the environment produce differences in overall development. The study of human development centers on how a person changes over a lifetime. A person starts life with the birth stage, and then moves through infancy, adolescence and puberty, adulthood, and finishes with death (Berger, 2008). Berger (2008) describes these changes as being linear, gradual, predictable, and sometimes steady. During their life spans, humans learn to communicate, work together, experience emotions, and how to survive. The life span perspective of development comes directly...
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...Russian revolution. After moving to Moscow in 1924, Vygotsky set out to create what he hoped would become a new way to understand and solve the social and educational problems of his time. At the core of Vygotsky's theory, called the Sociocultural Theory, is the idea that child development is the result of the interactions between children and their social environment. These interactions include those with parents and teachers, playmates and classmates, and brothers and sisters. They also involve relationships with significant objects, such as books or toys, and culturally specific practices that children engage in the classroom, at home, and on the playground. Children are active partners in these interactions, constructing knowledge, skills, and attitudes and not just mirroring the world around them. Vygotsky opposed the psychologists who believed that children's development occurs spontaneously and cannot be affected by education. He also differed with those who claimed that teaching had the power to alter development at any time regardless of the child's age or capacities. Instead, Vygotsky felt that learning could lead development if it occurs within the child's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD contains skills and concepts that are not yet fully developed but are "on the edge of emergence" emerging only if the child is given appropriate support. For the skills and concepts that lie outside a child's ZPD, even significant instructional efforts may fail to produce...
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