Human Developed Theories - Case Study Example

Human Development Theories Task Diverse human development theories have been developed to predict, explain the different stages of the development. The paper will do an introduction to the key concept of the human development theory, the research evidence and the contemporary issues of the cognitive and psychosocial theories of the human development. The cognitive theory refer to ego development that is understanding of how the child emerges and shapes a personal identity with goals, beliefs and strategies for achieving goals within the constraints of the society. On the other hand, the psychosocial theory describe development stage that are assumed to be build upon accomplishment of the earlier stage that help to identify factors and processes that are likely to contribute to the observed decline in self-esteem of the children. These theories are outlined in turn, their similarities and differences are noted, and common criticisms are discussed to help understand the importance of each theory. The theories use stage models with similar concepts but organize them in different ways; the psychosocial theory has eight development stages that show how the child develop at each stage; on the other hand cognitive theory has four development stages that discuss the mental development of the child. Finally, the dominant stage in the two theories, the adolescent stage, is described, and some vital areas of the stage and the research based on it are mentioned. Introduction According to Damon and Lerner (2006), the human development reflect the view that individual functioning is interactive product of biology, physical and social environments that are gradually changing and evolving over time. It emphasis the nature of human development is fundamental to understand the changes that occur in children from the day of birth and the early adulthood. A child in the first three years of life experience is the period of immaturity and vulnerability that is longer than that of any other known species, and many skills need to be acquired, tried, modified and mastered ( Keenan, 2002). Therefore, much of the child’s time is spent in the care of nurturing, loving, protective adults who will provide the strong, predictable attachment and environments important for human development. The two types of human development, cognitive and psychosocial theories will help us understand the significant of development in human beings. Psychosocial Theory Erikson’s psychosocial theory is noted for its emphasis on the roles of social interaction and relationships as contributing to adaptive human development throughout the lifespan, it describes characteristic crisis, experienced predictably at different stages of the lifespan (Lerner, 2002). Development in each stage is assumed build upon accomplishment of the earlier stage that help to identify factors and processes that are likely to contribute to the observed decline in self-esteem that commonly occurs during these development stages. According to Lerner (2002), the foundation stage of human development occurs from the time of birth to 1 year of age, with its crisis being that of trust verses mistrust. The final objective of this stage is for the child to develop sense of trust that other people will understand and accomplish her or his basic needs. The next crisis is that of autonomy verses shame and doubt that shows the goals and objectives of developing an age-appropriate sense of independent capability in effecting desired outcomes between the age of one and three years. The purpose for these stages is for child to feel comfortable pursing his or her own goals in life, while still showing consideration for others’ right to pursue different goals. At the end of these stages, the child develops sense of self-assuredness that holds up when one compares him or herself to the rest of peer group. In addition, all these stages cover the span of ages and tasks associated with the period of the lifespan that classifies the child. At the age between 12 and 20, it is development stage of identity versus identity confusion that helps the child to understand the changes in self-esteem that occur during this period in the lifespan. The significant of development task of psychosocial theory is to establish an enduring set of ideologies that one remains faithful that will collectively comprise one’s identity (Gollwitzer, 2000). Newman and Philip (2007), suggest that the high self-esteem seen in the childhood is a result of child’s immature cognitive development because their egocentricity at young ages is exaggerated. Meanwhile, when a child enter adolescence their cognitive abilities become more refined and they increasingly incorporate external feedback into their self evaluation, resulting in the formation of a less view of their personal abilities and attributes; in turn, adolescent’s realization of their own limitations causes the decline in self esteem that occurs during psychosocial development period. Finally, the psychosocial theory forms the integral stage of identity formation that end result is to determine set of beliefs and principles to which the child embrace those essential qualities in the process of development; hence, the child aim at seeking independence in terms of taking interest in exploring new and varied possible identities (Keenan 2002), Cognitive Theory Keenan (2002) suggest that cognitive theory describes the development in children that involves changes in cognitive process and abilities in mental operations. One major contribution of Piaget theory of cognitive is that many teachers and parent have found sources of ideas about the ways to increase children’s development. Cognitive growth occurs as child construct his or her own understanding of the environment surrounding, so the two parties have a role to create environments where the child will discover for themselves how the world works ( Keenan, 2002). For instant, a teacher should not simply try to tell children how addition and subtraction are complementary, but instead should provide children with materials that allow discovering the complementary themselves. In this theory, it is assumed that the development can be rapid if the parents and teachers allow the child to discover inconsistencies and errors in their own thinking to discover what he or she is doing right. In Piaget’s view, children formulate a grand, comprehensive development that attempts to explain how the child reason about objects, people and morals and infants are born with rudimentary knowledge of the world that is elaborated based on the experiences (Lerner, 2002). This theory believes that the child can transform the experiences from the child environment interactions into systems of signs that govern the adaptation of the child by promoting action towards permissible, and away from non-permissible, action patterns. This theory claims that the product of child environment interaction is organized in specialized structural systems that preserve different reality domains. Meanwhile, the theory note that the organization of cognitive structures occurs in stages and these development stages is a period when the child’s cognitive structures are qualitatively similar. The stages have two main traits; first, they occur in an invariant order in development; that is, stages are applicable to all children and are not affected by cultural or social norms. While children may progress through the stages at different speeds as a function of inherited traits, the nature of the stages through which they progress does not change. Finally, the sensorimotor stage comprises the first two years of an infant’s life where the children move from responding to the environment in a simplistic, reflexive manner, to being able to think about the environment using symbols. According to Keenan (2002), the major achievement of the sensorimotor stage is the development of object permanence that objects continue to exist independently of the child ability to perceive them or act on them. Comparison of Psychosocial and Cognitive theory The two theories emphasized the stage of adolescence; in noting the significant of increasing cognitive complexity that is significant in adolescence that contributes to changes in self-esteem. In psychosocial, the adolescents exhibit a unique type of egocentric thinking that reflect their awareness of their changing appearance that is characterized by the most rapid growth spurt since infancy, as well as an increased production of sex hormones. In Erikson’s conceptualization of the psychosocial theory, the adolescents would apply these newly acquired capabilities toward considering life possibilities, weighing alternatives, and making decisions that will affect the future. In cognitive theory, four stages culminated in adolescence with the ability to add abstract thinking to imaginary audience phenomenon, adolescents believe that others are as attentively aware of them as they are of themselves. This contributes to the increase in self-awareness that occurs during the adolescence, and during this stage, the capability for abstract thought develops. This means that, in addition to thinking concretely about the present circumstances, adolescents are able to think logically about hypothetical possibilities for future (Lerner, 2002). Note that there was no limit to what adolescent could understand and work with in both theories that indicate that adolescent stage was very significant in both psychosocial and cognitive theories but in different ways. To compare the development view of both cognitive and psychosocial theory approach focus on development as a product of discrepancies referred to as disequilibrium in cognitive developmental theory and psychosocial crisis in psychosocial theory. The cognitive like psychosocial approach, proposes a set of stages of development, with each stage growing from integrating the achievements of earlier stages. Meanwhile, in the psychosocial approach, cognitive development is referred to as ego development that is understanding of how the child emerges and shapes a personal identity with goals, beliefs and strategies for achieving goals within the constraints of the society. Ego development involves planning, making decision, coping with challenges and facing the future with a sense of purpose that is embraced in both types of theories (Lerner, 2002). The psychosocial theory provides significant link from the emphasis on the cognitive maturation of logical reasoning to the emphasis of the psychological approach on the maturation of self in society by trying to explain the interpersonal nature of cognition. The idea of development relate closely to the idea of expanding network of social relationships, capturing the unique interpersonal and cultural context of all aspects of knowing. Whether knowing about the logic of the physical world or about the logic of relationship, the cognitive theory shares with the psychosocial approach a strong emphasis on the role of culture in guiding social and cognitive development. Damon and Lerner (2006) suggest that the two theories view development as an ongoing interaction of the two theories of the person and the culture context. The cognitive notion of movement from the intrermental to the intramental is a forerunner of the psychosocial concept of identity with gradual internalization and integration of the roles and social expectations of others into meaningful sense of one’s role in society. Therefore, the two theories argues that a child achievement in different activities could be scientifically measured rather than viewed on the basis of how the child felt about his or her life (Keenan,2002), Contrast between Cognitive and Psychosocial Theory According to Sigelman and Rider (2008), the cognitive theory did not offer any hypotheses about the qualitative changes that might follow the period of formal operational reasoning, whereas the psychosocial approach makes clear predictions about the direction of ego development in early, middle, and later adulthood. The cognitive focused on the cognitive domain especially on the process of knowledge acquisition and logical reasoning (Gollwitzer, 2000). This means that the meaning a person makes of a situation depends largely on the stage of mental development attained, feelings; social relationships and self-understanding are viewed as cognitive schemes that are constructed with the same logic that the person applies to the understanding of object. On the other hand, psychosocial theory does not believe on the social and cultural relationship like the case of cognitive theory, but emphasis on the developments in the personality that take place during the five stages from infancy through adolescence with the emphasis on the first five or six stages. Therefore, it does not emphasis on the development because of children interaction with others like in the case of cognitive where learning take place through interaction with older siblings who can answer their questions and show them how to solve problems. Plotnik and Kouyoumdjian (2010) suggest that in psychosocial the child development in motor skills is established by participation in activities and games requiring coordinated muscle movements and innate ability. In cognitive, on the other hand, thoughts of the children at school are no longer dominated by their perception, thus their ability to understand the world expands. The children are able to use symbols to carry out operations in thought rather than action; therefore, the mental process of classification becomes more complex during the school years (Wadsworth, 2004). In contrast to the assumption of psychosocial theory, that children development in reaction to environment and rewards and punishments is provided, cognitive theory argued that children actively explore their world and their thoughts are ultimately derived from the child’s action on the world. In addition, the theory believed that children construct their reality as manipulate and explore their world; what children actually construct are cognitive structures that are termed as schemes (Keenan, 2002). Conclusion The major focus of the two theories is the stage of adolescent that that show the cognitive abilities of the child become more refined and they gradually incorporate external feedback into their self-evaluation. This results in the formation of a less view of their personal abilities and attributes; in turn, adolescent’s realization of their own limitations causes the decline in self-esteem that occurs in the two theories (Keenan, 2002). The cognitive theory main stage that is sensorimotor stage comprises the first two years of an infant’s life where the children move from responding to the environment in a simplistic and reflexive manner. The psychosocial theory emphasis on the roles of social interaction and relationships to adaptive human development throughout the lifespan, it describes characteristic crisis, experienced predictably at different stages of the life (Wadsworth, 2004). In comparison, the similarities of the two theories portrayed that some ideas of cognitive theory were imported into the research on the psychosocial theory like emphasis on the role of culture in guiding social and cognitive development. Although, this seems to pose a challenge to social cognition models, the two approaches are not necessary incompatible, especially if the idea is extended to automatic activation of earlier formed intentions. Finally, the vast of majority of studies are non-experimental in the main concept of the two theories, therefore, making the two theories to have much stronger evidence of causal effects. References Damon, B., Lerner, M. (2006). Handbook of Child Psychology: Theoretical models of human development. United Kingdom: Routledge Press. Gollwitzer, P. (2000). Goal achievement: the role of Intentions. European Review of Social Psychology, 4, pp. 141-185. Keenan, T. (2002). An Introduction to Child Development. United Kingdom: SAGE Press. Lerner, M. (2002), Concepts and Theories of Human Development. London: Routledge Press. Newman, B. Philip, R. (2007). Theories of human development. New York: Cengage Brain press. Plotnik, R. & Kouyoumdjian, H. (2010). Introduction to Psychology. New York: Cengage Brain press. Sigelman, C. & Rider, A. (2008). Life-Span Human Development. London: Routledge Press. Wadsworth, B. (2004). Piagets Theory of Cognitive and Affective Development. New York: Pearson press.   Read More