Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory - Essay Example

_______________________________ Essay Describe Piagets Cognitive Development theory as it relates to Meads Role Theory (Taking the Role of the Generalized Other). Note that they are both stage theories and both use age as a factor in development. In your answer, explain how Meads theory complements and informs Piaget. Then, explain how an individual would need Formal Operational thought and Meads I-me Dialectic to describe the process of refining/perfecting his or her set of roles for everyday life. This is a BIG question so do a good job. Based on your answer to #1 above, explain how the concept of Social Intelligence might fit into both theories. Also note the ways in which Vygotskys explain the importance of an individuals development. This question requires a somewhat shorter answer. Piaget’s cognitive development theory relates to Mead’s role theory directly on a common basis where both seek to explain human development through stages, though Mead’s theory emphasizes the social aspects of individual development where Piaget is more biased towards the individual subjectivity. From this it can be concluded that both an understanding of the process of human development psychologically and also socially is required for a fair and balanced scientific analysis or consensus on the process. Mead’s theory compliments Piaget’s by adding a perspective of interpretation based in the social role of the individual and not only the mental processes of psychological development. The process of individualization occurs with the a priori of formal operational thought and through this process an unconscious awareness of the difference between the body-self and environment is conditioned in infancy through exploration. The trial and error process that characterizes environment exploration, operant conditioning, and memory is variable in the family or community environment, but the social role and operational ability represents a further level of complexity residing in the learned rules and codes of conduct of the social conditioning rather than the environmental exploration period. The Me-I dialectic reflects the epistemological function in human development when the self is seen as forming or becoming defined through knowledge verification. Epistemology is also used in self-knowledge valuation when it is applied to social roles by the individual in the adolescent experience or young adulthood particularly, as this is when the widest range of community exploration will occur as the individual seeks for definition in social roles. Social Intelligence refers to different aspects of the community, group, or personal relationships of an individual such as awareness of the symbolic base and logic of a culture, subtle gestures, habits, expectations, or linguistic accents, etc. The majority of these are transmitted as language but differ from alphabetic speech and formal grammar so that there may be multiple languages related to social role identities. Understanding the interplay of the symbolic, subliminal, informal, and cultural languages, as well as their modes of operation, is an aspect of semiotic interpretation. Social Intelligence is different than semiotic interpretation as it relates to the community, group, and individual and the complexity of language, meaning, and interpretation as reflected in human individuality in operant behavior. Vygotsky’s contribution is to recognize how the social definitions also evolve over time and change, as well as to illustrate how different social and community environments and groups differ in complexity of organization. Essay #2 - Ultimately, individuals must enter the larger society, using what theyve learned about the world and their place in it. Explain how an individual can cognitively move from self-centered child to an adolescent who is able to 1) maintain social relationships and 2) use those relationships to further develop. Feel free to use your own development for examples if you wish. In human development, the exploration of the natural environment in infancy and early childhood leads to a self-centered personality in the child which becomes more open, tolerant, and respectful of the needs of others through maturation as part of the process of greater socialization that occurs and the adoption of social roles that lead to self-fulfillment or self-realization. I believe that knowledge, education, and experience all operate through a conditioning process that occurs in synchronicity with important moments in the stages of human development or individualization. The imprint of conditioning on self-definition psychologically is important is determining how an individual will self-define his or her own social role in the community. Knowledge is different in many ways from education, having a basis in personal understanding in the individual. Education is formal training and conditioning that provides the social programming required to be operant in a community, as well as inter-relating to form the meaning, symbols, language, culture, etc. in macro and micro viewpoints or interpretations. Experience tests knowledge in individual subjectivity, learned through education or elsewhere in the environmental context resulting in further knowledge acquisition through feedback, reflection, learning, synthesis, etc. In my own experience, the person must be trusting, open, and honest fundamentally for strong and genuine relationships to develop or to be a fully loving individual. This points to the importance of positive conditioning at critical life moments of development, but as life is unpredictable and tragic at times, there must be a social balance or a type of transcendence in personal psychology to build a wider operant knowledge. Essay #3 - Discuss four of the social or socio-historical changes that have occurred over the last 50 years and explain how these have impacted on parent-adolescent relationships. Try to keep the discussion of cognitive and social development in mind as you answer. The rise of influence of television and mass-media in culture during the last 50 years has led to many adolescents receiving a wide variety of social programming, lifestyle choices, and behavioral roles for self-individuation that did not exist in previous ages. In comparing modern media culture to traditional, indigenous, or 19th Century lifestyles, the trend has been towards a greater expression of individual identity primarily through consumer spending habits, style, fashion, clothes, or music/lifestyle identities. This can be seen in many instances as a re-tribalization of public culture and institutions that occurs in many ways that weakens traditional family structures and promotes identity outside of the nuclear family itself. The rise in divorce rates after WWII is reflective of modern culture also in many ways promoting shorter term relationships in economics, or lifestyle identity patterns and commitments. The information age is a historical trend that reflects the many opportunities that younger generations have in access to knowledge in education that did not exist in traditional educational systems previously. The transformation from oral culture to text culture to digital culture will all be expected to have an effect on the way individuality is defined in the human being socially and psychologically. These all share a general tendency to weaken the authority of the family, the parents, and to limit their ability to restrict the development of children to a narrow range of self-definition due to lack of information. Instead, the human child is much more reliant on society than the personal family in receiving operant conditioning, imprints, and knowledge in the last 50 years. Thus, human development and socialization becomes a process of citizenship, employment, career, and wider social status as related to objectivity but family remains primarily a conditioning force on concepts of subjectivity. Essay #4 - Theorists Blos and Ausubel both discuss the idea that as children move through middle childhood to adolescence and beyond, they move their attention from their family of origin to their frienship network and then back to their family of origin and family of procreation (listen up in class for this discussion). Your job here is to use the terms supplied by Blos and Ausubel to describe this process, then evaluate what normal development would require from a person. Keep in mind that there may be competing demands for a persons attention during this period, including their own perceived needs. Ausubels theory of adolescent autonomy relies on three main concepts to explain the process of environmental exploration that leads to expansion, information gathering, and identity processing in the human individual psychologically and socially by discussing satellization, desatellization, and resatellization. In the desatellizing process, the human individual becomes free of family protection and fully operant in the society or community. This can be contrasted with the satellization of infancy and early childhood patterns that restrict human individuality primarily to the nuclear family. In desatellization, the individual operates in the community toward ever greater complexity in social relationships and organizations. In this manner, he or she may the resatellize with other people and groups and rebuild the same type of loving, encouraging, and growth-oriented relationships that are characteristic of the familial organization on larger social bases or foundations. Blos focused on the differentiation from family as a normal and characteristic aspect of human individuation, or the process of becoming unique and singular human individuals in a complex society. Blos stresses the importance of family life and also the interrelated way that this and core identity will play in determining further evolution of the individual in society, as well as also how the community knowledge is related socially in the family unit or psychologically in the individual. Essay #5 - Throughout the class weve emphasized the individual who is developing within an array of environments. Pick two environments - friends and family - and compare the demands each environment makes on the individual. How important is Conformity and its relative importance to individual development. To answer, you will need to grapple with Mertons theory which provides social definitions. Now compare the emotional aspects of the types of love listed in the text and notes to the objective reality of love. How might a parent provide tools for teenagers to use in making objective choices about love and attachment. Describe the functions of friendship described in the text, and give an example for each. Note how these functions may vary by age and gender and compare these to the functions Friends and family represent a multiplicity of influences, possible and actual, on a human individual, the difference between which can be found in the self-organizing or self-defining principles of the groups themselves or the individuals in them. Different families will define themselves differently, and even within families there will be a conflict or negotiation on what defines the rules, authority, collective good, or unique personality and culture of the group. Friendship groups operate in the same manner, as groups of individuals in negotiation over common or agreed upon standards of behavior, belief, activity, expression, etc. Both friends and family provide a supportive and encouraging role for the individual’s self-realization or self-actualization along the terms or ideals defined by the human being psychologically as part of the development of subjectivity or personality. Part of the support of these groups may include different viewpoints or challenges to the self as well as a shared ideological or genetic basis. Typically friendships aim towards a level of loyalty and trust associated with family patterns of relationship. Conformity is a variable that is also a part of the way families, friendship groups, or societies operate. If a society represses those who do not conform, then it may be problematic, and this also may occur in family or friendship groups. Generally, family groups are viewed as mandatory socially or fundamental while friendship groups are voluntary and part of free-association on ideological, attraction, or other patterns of affinity. Mertons “Anomie Theory of Deviance” suggests that everyone in society is assumed to have the same broad and fundamental goals, as these are what are actually constitutional in the group or society itself. Thus deviance away from these goals may be perceived differently from common self-expression in the process of individuation socially. The parent typically provides unconditional love to the sibling in making life decisions as long as they do not determine or develop into social deviance. From this, familial problems may be seen in a root of social development problems in some theories of human development. The parent should assist the child or adolescent in developing both affectionate love and romantic love as part of the human development process by being the example of unconditional love that the person can expand and return to existentially in acquiring social roles or knowledge. Typically, the loving relationship between father and mother is taken to be archetypal in imprinting or conditioning the human child-as-individual, and from unhealthy examples of relationship further problems can develop. Whether or not every example of family behavior is directly determinant on the development of further healthy or unhealthy relationships in the human individual is not clear is studies in psychology or sociology, because in many instances the child or adolescent will learn to correct problems developed in the family conditioning through friendships or inter-personal relationships. The responsibility of parenting is that it requires the direct teaching of loving-kindness to the human individual as well as the economic burden of child-rearing and education. Friendship exists to support and provide companionship that is more in accord with self-identity and personal needs than the biologically determined family organization, and may repeat, compliment, or negate family imprints upon the individual depending on the needs of subjectivity in attaining a type of self-defined wholeness or completeness in human personality development. The needs of each human individual will be different in seeking this type of personal wholeness, thus gender, age, and other factors will determine the expression in individual behavior. Source: Santrock, John (2007). Adolescence – 12th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities, Social Sciences, & Languages. Read More