Features of Developmental Psychology - Essay Example

DPSYCH question Piaget’s theory of the four stages of development follows the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete stage, and the stage of formal operations. Like any stage based paradigm, it has had its challengers over time, including those who claim that there is too much divergence in individual personality and cognition to allow for a blanket policy type of stage paradigm. However, Piaget’s theory also has a lot of acceptance, particularly among educational professionals. The sensorimotor stage is the first stage, and basically covers infancy and toddlerhood. In the preoperational stage, the child is in a later stage of development, early childhood, and they tend to be more and more focused on the world around them. In the concrete stage, “accommodation increases. The child develops an ability to think abstractly and to make rational judgements about concrete or observable phenomena, which in the past he needed to manipulate physically to understand” (Piaget, 2010). And the stage of formal operations can be roughly equated to adolescence. There are various tasks that Piaget attributes to each stage; for example, in the conservation task of the concrete stage, “They also see that when one of the vessels is emptied into a taller and thinner receptacle, the level of liquid is higher in the thinner vessel than in the other original vessel. Pre-Concrete Operations stage children conclude that there is more liquid in the thinner vessel” (Conservation, 2008). The results of this task may be that the child is not able to differentiate between different volumes in vessels of different shapes. Although, as mentioned, some argue that there are confounding variables, Piaget has general support in today’s society. question 2 Piaget’s concepts of assimilation and accommodation are important to consider in the construction of a childs schema. Accommodation is the tougher concept, in terms of the cognitive effort that the child has to put forth. In assimilation, it is basically like the child taking in new information that fits into a sort of pre-fabricated place in their brain—it is new information that fits seamlessly with old information. Accommodation, however, is more about conflict and compromise. “In accommodation, the internal world has to accommodate itself to the evidence with which it is confronted and thus adapt to it, which can be a more difficult and painful process.  In the database analogy, it is like what happens when you try to put in information which does not fit the pre-existent fields and categories” (Assimilation, 2010). In Piaget’s theory, meaning is both assimilated and accommodated by the individual from the life that they are living and then internalized in the form of knowledge. A student learns language, for example, by having a direct experience of language and participating in it, whether it fits in with their preconceived notions of language (assimilation) or represents some new challenge to these assumptions (accommodation). Children adapt from their environment and show new learning in new ways that are based on their own construction of meaning out of the world they see around them and what they hear as well. From this perspective, children adapt from their environment and show new learning in new ways that are based on their own construction of meaning out of the world they see around them and what they hear as well. For example, if a child learns that the capital of New York is Albany, and they already know about New York and the Hudson River, they can more easily assimilate this knowledge, because they already have assumptions about it. However, if they are faced with a new geography lesson about a place with which they have no familiarity, they will have to accommodate to fit the knowledge. question 3 Vygotskys concept of the zone of proximal development is basically about the difference between what a child does naturally, and what they do with help. Some knowledge comes through experimenting and relating to the world around the child, but other knowledge has to come from another source, because it is outside of the child’s field of experience. For example, in the above example, if the child does not live in New York or the eastern USA, there is no reason for them to know that Albany is its capital, or seek out this knowledge through experience: they have to be told by a teacher, a parent, or perhaps through reading a book. Vygotsky’s approach to child development in a contemporary environment results in the theory of social learning; “Vygotsky’s theory promotes learning contexts in which students play an active role in learning. Roles of the teacher and student are therefore shifted, as a teacher should collaborate with his or her students in order to help facilitate meaning construction in students. Learning therefore becomes a reciprocal experience for the students and teacher” (Vygotsky, 2009). It is interesting to view this thinker in the contemporary environment. Vygotsky’s approach to child development in a contemporary environment went from history to a mainly present based perspective. The idea of there being a zone of proximal development is more difficult to argue with than some of Piaget’s ideas, because it seems like base line common sense that some things go beyond instinct, and need to be explained. However, the quantification of this process may draw its critics. In fact, most psychological theories have their critics, although arguably, they also share something more important in common: the common goal of understanding the child’s cognitive development in a manner that is productive and effective. question 4 Comparing the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky brings up again this above point, which is to say that despite differences, these are two thinkers who shared a common goal of understanding childhood cognitive development. In terms of nature vs. nurture arguments, however, some differences may come up. Really, both theorists seem to fall more towards the nature side of the argument: Vygotsky’s ideas about proximal development are certainly not biological or genetic in nature, and Piaget’s milestones and stages are similarly not skewed towards a genetic (nature) argument. Of the two, however, Piaget tends to place more emphasis on the innate abilities of the child, so his theories perhaps could be more on the nature side of the argument, although they both have aspects of this side as well. The relation to Vygotsky also sketches out nature vs. nurture themes in society, the accountability of this society, and the relationships between science and nature. The relationship goes back to classical as well as modern science and theory of childhood development, including other thinkers as well as these two. Perhaps science is working towards a developmental norm that is stable on either the side of nurture or nature, with no gray areas; in any case, the idea of using developmental norms to assess behavior seems to be the most stable method inherently than using social norms as a proof of intent. Looking at these theorists’ approaches to child development in a contemporary environment, one must also assess the relationship between memory demands and performance as it relates to genetics, stating that the verification of repeated forms and questions is shown to be related to the environment in which the child functions. question 5 Bowlby’s theory of attachment goes back to infancy and toddlerhood, and early childhood, to determine the security of attachment of the child to his/her caregivers, as a lasting issue in his/her life. If the attachment is secure, this theory supports the conclusion that the individual will develop fewer psychological problems. “Detachment, attachment disorder, and problems managing relationships receive frequent attention from both scholars and practitioners. Youth workers often shake their heads over the difficulty of re-educating and encouraging resilience in youth manifesting a history of toxic relationships with the pivotal adults in their lives” (Bowlby, 2010) Although attachment theory also can be applied to adults, most reportage primarily focuses on childhood and infancy as the times at which attachments are perhaps most acute. Therefore, Bowlby thought it important to note the differences between different types of secure and insecure attachment. Attachment theory normally considers relationships to the parental figure, often the mother. However, insecure attachments can have lasting repercussions that may be with the individual for the rest of their life. A secure attachment is the optimal paradigm. In this relationship, the infant or child has a relationship with the parental figure or caregiver, which is reciprocal, safe, and can be understood by the child. They feel that they can rely on and trust the caregiver, and the bond of trust strengthens the relationship. “As the infant grows, so does the bond of trust with the primary caregiver. Secure attachment has a lifelong effect on growth, development, trust and relationships” (Barnett and Vondra, 2003). In secure attachment, loving care is given consistently. Insecure attachments of various forms begin when the child does not have this trust bond. In insecure avoidant attachment, the individual learns that they cannot trust the love and bond between themselves and the caregiver, and the reaction is to isolate and attempt self-sufficiency by revoking these bonds, and avoiding them. question 6 Sensation and perception are similar, but the difference is that one of these processes takes longer, because it involves the brain processing a signal. The other term, sensation, simply denotes the signal, or nerve impulse. When the brain reads that impulse and decides on a reaction, this is the more complicated process of perception at work. For example, if someone touches a stove burner, they will immediately jerk their hand away. The whole process seems like it takes only milliseconds, and it does. But if the process were to be slowed down, the sensation could be separated from the perception. The sensation would start at the first nerve impulse that traveled from the individual’s finger tips on the hot stove. The perception, a split second later, would be the result of the brain reading these nerve impulses, registering pain, and deciding on the correct course of action to remove the pain source. As young children, we easily assimilate information because we do not have the cognitive ability to form complex strategies yet. But when children are older they start to form strategies of organizing knowledge, for example strategies of how to study on tests or memorize facts. When one sees perception in this manner being referred to as the basic unit of course in the definition, one also must remember that in terms of organization, as well as in terms of other issues, “Perception is the process by which an organism selects and interprets sensory input so that it acquires meaning… Sensation is the process in which the sense organs receptor cells are stimulated and relay initial information to the brain for processing” (Lefton, 202). Organization comes after sensation and perception, and involves what people do with their knowledge. It’s about how they compartmentalize what they know. REFERENCE Barnett, D and J Vondra (2000). Atypical Patterns of Early Attachment: Theory, Research, and Current Directions. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 64(3). Bowlby, J (2010). Bowlby on attachment. http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0304-bowlby.html Lefton and Brannon (2008). Psychology. New York: Vango Piaget’s cognitive stages (2010). http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/piaget.htm Assimilation and accommodation (2010). http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm Vygotsky and social development (2009). http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html Read More