Cognitive Development - Essay Example

? COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT By 9th, May, Cognitive development includes the development of an individual’s thought processes, which comprise aspects of memory, decision-making, and problem solving, from the childhood period to adulthood. Through cognitive development, a person will perceive and understand their world, basing on the learned and genetic factors. Elements of cognitive development include memory, development of language, intelligence, information processing, and reasoning. Over the years, different scholars have studied cognitive development in children, and came up with varying perspectives. While some have viewed cognitive development as a universal process that is common to all people, some have considered it a continuous process, which results in individual differences. Therefore, basing on these perspectives, this essay will address their strengths and weaknesses. The debate on whether cognitive development occurs as a universal process and in discontinuous stages to people everywhere, or whether it occurs as a continuous process, with individual people exhibiting differences resulting from their different learning histories, has persisted today. However, most of the researches conducted show isolation of different elements. For instance, the researches that show stages of cognitive development, do not explain the environmental effects and the differences in individuals, while those that show environmental effects or individual differences, fail to explain the developmental stages. Therefore, this means that the various theories and researches adopted for this subject exhibit different strengths and weaknesses (Fischer & Silvern 1985). The French psychologist, Jean Piaget (1896-1980) developed the theory of cognitive development by observing children in their natural environment. In his theory, he argued that in cognitive development, there are two major principles, and these are adaptation and organization. Adaptation involves the desire for a cognitive equilibrium. If a child is faced with a cognitive conflict, they will adapt through assimilation or accommodation. On the other hand, Piaget considered organization to be the ability of an individual’s mind to organize and structure information, into schemas. Most importantly, Piaget addressed the stages of cognitive development in children, and developed four major stages. These include the sensorimotor stage (0 to 2years), the preoperational stage (from two to seven years), the concrete operational period (from seven to eleven years), and the formal operations (from eleven to fifteen years). Overall, Piaget considered cognitive development to be a universal process, which is common to all people in different regions (Beilin & Pufall 2013). From Piaget’s theory, cognitive development is not continuous, and is universal. The weakness in this view is that it fails to consider other factors, which might influence cognitive development, since Piaget only dwelt on the universal stages of cognitive development and ignored factors such as socio-economic status, culture, and social setting, among others. In addition, this view is solely based on findings from observations and clinical interviews and not laboratory results. Therefore, since this view is based on subjective evidence, then this is more likely to be interpreted in a biased manner. Nonetheless, this view might be considered important because it offers a basis for comparing cognitive development across contexts and across varying cultures. Additionally, this view helps to preserve a meaningful approach for cognitive development in a world, which experiences diverse behavior. Additionally, this explains the stages in cognitive development, since any development is sequential (Fischer & Silvern 1985). Vgotsky (1896-1934), studied about how information from the external environment was transformed and internalized by an individual. He regarded language and social interaction to play a great role. In his study of cognitive development, Vgotsky considered the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and language to be of great influence. Nonetheless, Vygotsky’s approach, unlike Piaget’s, was socio-cultural or sociohistoric. He proposed that any higher psychological function appears first on a social plane, before appearing on the psychological plane. This means that this first occurs as an interpsychological element between different individuals in the social setting, before occurring as an intrapsychological aspect in the individual child. Therefore, according to Vgotsky, there is a relationship between culture, the social setting, and environment of a child, and their cognitive development. Hence, cognitive development is impossible without influence form the environment, and this relationship results in individual differences in the cognitive development of individual children. Additionally, his view holds that cognitive development is a continuous process, since he considered cultural development to be a historical and continuous process (Kozulin 2003). Similarly, Galton Francis (1822-1911) studied variations in humans, including variations in human ability, and concluded that the mental abilities, physical health, and behavioral capacities varied among humans. He argued that this was because of the qualities passed down to an individual through heredity. Therefore, the manner in which humans undergo cognitive development is different in each individual. Additionally, Galton emphasized influence of nature and nurture on the cognitive development of individuals (Bulmer 2004). Therefore, the genetics factor and the external environment result in the individual differences in cognitive development. On the other hand, Karl Pearson, just as Galton, emphasized on the aspect of continuous variation, basing on the factor of genetics. He agreed with the fact that there are individual differences in humans, which are evidence by the existence of inferior and superior races. Additionally, he argued that these differences were continuous, thus no training or laws could change individuals, to make them similar, since these differences are inherent (Pearson 2007). Nonetheless, the weakness of this view is that it does not address different stages of cognitive development. In this view, there is no evidence to show that children, during their cognitive development move from one stage to another. This is quite lame since in any development, there must be sequential progression. On the other hand, this view does not provide any basis for identifying the universal aspects of cognitive development. This view does not also address the constraints upon the nature of environmental impact at a particular period of a child’s cognitive development. However, the main strength of this view is that it puts into consideration other factors in the environment, which influence cognitive development, meaning that cognitive development in an individual does not only depend on biological factors, but other factors in the external environment (Fischer & Silvern 1985). Nonetheless, Fischer & Silvern (1985) argue that both views, which consider cognitive development as a universal process, which applies to everyone, and that which considers it as a continuous process with individual differences, are valid. These have argued that in cognitive development, there is evidence of stages, as well as individual and environmental changes. Therefore, it is important that a framework be developed, which can explain how both kinds of patterns of cognitive development can take place. In conclusion, the two views about cognitive development in children are of importance in the field of psychology. Both have their unique perspectives of explaining the process of cognitive development. These perspectives contribute to the knowledge in the field of psychology, about human cognitive development. Therefore, both views have their unique strengths and weaknesses. Nonetheless, the best way of overcoming the weaknesses in these views is by developing a framework of cognitive development, which integrates the advantages and strengths of both views to come up with an acceptable point of integration. Works Cited Beilin, H. & Pufall, P 2013 “Piaget's Theory: Prospects and Possibilities,” Psychology Press, New York. Bulmer, M 2004, “Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Biometry,” JHU Press, London. Fischer, K. & Silvern, L 1985, “Stages and Individual Differences in Cognitive Development,” Annual Reviews Psychology, 36:613-4, Viewed 9 May 2013 Kozulin, A 2003, “Vygotsky's Educational Theory in Cultural Context,” Cambridge University Press, London. Pearson, K 2007, “The Grammar of Science,” Eds, Cosimo, Inc, London. Read More