Category: Cognitive Development

Introduction

`Cognitive development refers to the growth in mental understanding, interpretation and perception of things and the world in general. It entails the growth of various intellectual activities including thinking, reasoning and attentiveness. It is noted that, many approaches on cognitive advancement concentrate on mental development, as opposed to, other cognitive development processes.

Cognitive development

Competence assessment is one of the approaches given to cognitive development of middle childhood. Competence assessment entails how people understand and interpret different aspects of life (Elliot & Dweck, 2005). It is noted that, children at middle age can always make a judgment on their social and physical competence.

This is indicated by a fellow who at his middle age could compare his strength with his other friend and determine the strongest. Considering the fact that perception changes with age increase, middle aged also have their different perceptions of life. Their perception is mostly influenced by the knowledge and skills they obtain in schools. Perception of these middle aged vary from one individual to another as noted by teacher’s evaluation of their performances.

This was experienced by a student who was perceived to have known everything by his other fellows since he was excellent at class work. Perception is reflected on the student results with respect to teacher’s ratings. Middle aged children also tend to concentrate on one object and forget the others. Their attentions are easily influenced and they fully concentrate on entertaining object or event while ignoring others.

Psychosocial development

Psychosocial progression at middle childhood engages children ranging from five to twelve years. At this age, children develop admirable peer interactions and compete favorably among themselves. Their social world expands as they develop new friend and creating new relationships. An indication of pride is noted as they brag about their achievements and ability to perform different tasks uniquely (Cherry, 2010).

For example, a fellow at his childhood believed that he was always right since he was brilliant at class work. A child develops a high self esteem after discovering his unique ability and skills. This can be observed in the manner they interact in their social life i.e. cheerful interaction with tremendous psychosocial engagement. On the other hand, children who doubt their aptitude tend to develop low self esteem characterized by gloomy mood and a discouraging psychosocial engagement.

At middle childhood, children are extensively influenced by comments and opinions made by their parents, peers and teachers. The comments directly manipulate a child’s confidence and certainty of his/her ability or skill. Encouraging remarks on children build confidence on a child’s ability and skills consequently improving their self esteem (Cherry, 2010).

On the contrary, negative and discouraging comments by teachers, peers and parents create doubt in a child’s ability or belief of being victorious. Such a child develops low self esteem and constantly maintaining a gloomy mood. This was noted to a fellow who used to approach examination believing that he was going to fail. This was because of frequent past failures that made his parents’ negative comment on his scores.

Psychotherapies

Varieties of psychotherapy treatment are offered to children to assist in modifying their character and uphold family understanding in the long run (AACAP, 2008). Psychotherapy treatment helps in developing exceptional relationship between parent and children thereby strengthening their family bond. Some of the psychotherapy treatments include cognitive behavior therapy, psychodynamic therapy, family therapy, play therapy and group therapy.

As a psychotherapy treatment, cognitive behavior therapy modifies a child’s behavior, mood and nervousness. It is done by investigating a child’s pattern of distorted thoughts. A specialist on cognitive behavior therapy educates a child on how their moods and behavior are influenced by their thoughts (AACAP, 2008). Subsequently, a child develops a skill of recognizing these hazardous thoughts.

The specialist also helps the child to substitute these harmful thoughts with constructive and positive thoughts. It is renowned that cognitive therapy test has helped in treating various types of disorders anxiety being one of them. A friend’s confirmed of psychotherapeutic help in alleviating her selfish behavior of forcefully snatching other children’s food, toys and never shared his possessions with others.

The next psychotherapy cure is play therapy, a treatment that entails the understanding of how children play with toys, drawings and dolls. At children’s play time, a therapist notes some of the feelings and expressions of a child and uses them to perform the therapy (AACAP, 2008).

It is essential to note that observations are done on how a child plays with the toys for better understanding of the child’s problem. Afterwards, the therapist educates a child how to handle their problems and during play time. This was reflected by a fellow who used to smack his colleagues using toy but fortunately, a therapist rescued him from his intolerable behavior.

Also, psychodynamic psychotherapy can be employed in correcting a child’s feelings and thoughts. It entails the recognition of the factors that influence a child’s feeling and thoughts. This helps the therapist to understand the reasons (inner struggles) as to why a child is behaving in a certain manner. Consequently, the child is subjected to different weekly session of psychoanalysis.

Conclusion

Cognitive development applies to every individual and keeps on varying with an increase in age. Individuals experience changes in life perceptions, understanding and interpretations.

However, some children perceive and understand life in a negatively thus making them portray unpleasant and discouraging behaviors. Fortunately, these obnoxious behaviors can be corrected by employing different psychotherapies that eventually improves a child’s perception and behavior.

References

American academy of child and adolescent psychiatry (AACAP). (2008). Psychotherapies for children and adolescents. Washington: American academy of child and adolescent psychiatry. Web.

Cherry, K. (2010), Stages of psychosocial development. About.com: psychology. Web.

Elliot, J. & Dweck, S. (2005). Handbook of competence and motivation. New York: Guilford press.

Introduction

The paper “Cognitive Development and Social-Emotional Functioning in Young Foster Children” focuses on the investigation of the cognitive and emotional development delays in children. The authors attempt to evaluate the extent to which the social-emotional functioning in foster children is disturbed due to the adverse experiences in early childhood.

According to the research findings, the foster children’s behavior is found to be more problematic, and their competencies are poorer in comparison to normative sample group (Jacobsen, Moe, Ivarsson, Wentzel-Larsen, & Smith, 2013, p. 666). Comprehension of various influences on child’s cognitive and emotional development is important for the efficient intervention aimed at the revealing of individual’s developmental potential.

Delays in Cognitive and Emotional Development in Early Childhood

Foster children are frequently exposed to the “negative caregiving environments early in their lives before being placed in foster care” (Jacobsen et al., 2013, p. 666). As a result, the children are prone to the cognitive and emotional development delays. According to the study, the positive caregiving environments facilitate the sound and healthy brain development and are of significant importance in the first two years of a child’s life (Jacobsen et al., 2013, p. 666).

Through the application of the standardized developmental tests, the researchers established that the foster children’s cognitive performance was significantly lower that children who stayed in touch with their biological parents (Jacobsen et al., 2013, p. 667).

It is observed that foster children are prone to have problems with behavior and emotional control that may negatively affect their social functioning. The early identification of these problems may help parents to avoid challenges in interactions with the adopted child and help to improve the developmental progress.

According to multiple research findings in neuroscience, the personal experiences and environmental factors affect early childhood development of a human to a large extent may affect the course of individual’s adult life.

According to Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, the individual’s development is divided into four stages: “sensorimotor period (birth to age 2); the preoperational thought period (about age 2 to age 7); the concrete-operations period (about age 7 to age 11); and the formal operations period (about age 11 to age 15)” (Lefmann & Combs-Orme, 2013, p. 640).

The sensorimotor period may be considered the fundamental stage of a child development because the basic cognitive abilities start to form during the first two years of life. Then, these elementary cognitive processes facilitate the development of abstract thinking, estimation aptitude, and cognition skills.

Negative environmental factors affect the sensitive period of prenatal neurodevelopment of an infant. The maternal factors include excess stress, use of medicine and substances, infections, and poor nutrition (Richetto & Riva, 2014, p. 20). It is observed that prenatal negative influences result in various cognitive impairments in a child and may result in the social-emotional and behavioral problems.

The favorable cultural, physical, and social environment and sound communication are crucial for children at early stages of development. The sensimotor development commences at the neurologic levels in the brain – the neurons start transmitting messages to each other, and the connections between them become stronger as the child keeps exploring the world (Lefmann & Combs-Orme, 2013, p. 642).

Touch, sound, and visual experience help a child to learn faster. And on the contrary, lack of communication and environmental stimulation result in developmental delays.

According to Bornfenbrenner’s theory, the obstacles and barrier a child faces in the learning environment at the level of “microsystem” such as lack of interactions in the family may negatively affect the patterns of social relationship and cognition at the broader levels of “mesosystem,” “macrosystem,” and “chronosystem” that imply the ability of functioning in the larger cultural and social environments (Lau & Ng, 2014, p. 426).

Intervention

According to the Theory of Cognitive Development by Vygotsky, the development of “higher psychological functions” depends on the style of cooperation between and adult and a child (Alves, 2014, p. 24).

While Piaget focuses on the biological side of the cognitive development in children, Vygotsky emphasizes that cognition process can be constructed through the process of interrelation and the active participation of the child in this process. In this way, the intervention practice needs to involve both perspectives through the consideration of individuals’ developmental needs in early childhood both in terms of physiology and mental stimulation (Tucker-Drob & Harden, 2012, p. 251).

In this way, the caregivers must be instructed to provide a favorable social and cultural environment for a sound development of an infant. Through communication that involves sensory and auditory interactions with a child, the parents may facilitate the development of neurocognitive mechanisms.

And through the “formation of a conceptual system based on reciprocal generalizing relations,” and implementation of other specifically elaborated mental activities it is possible to raise child’s awareness and improve his/her behavior, learning abilities, and emotional expression.

Conclusion

During the early childhood period, the development of elementary cognitive and social-emotional abilities takes place. Researchers emphasize that environmental factors such as communication, mental distress, or physical contacts significantly affect the developmental progression of infants.

Exposure to negative influences in prenatal or early childhood periods may provoke cognitive disorders. The establishment of the supportive and encouraging relationships between a child and his/her caregivers helps to avoid developmental delays. The reduction of the number of negative environmental factors helps to reveal child’s developmental potential.

References

Alves, P. F. (2014). Vygotsky and Piaget: Scientific concepts. Psychology in Russia, 7(3), 24-34. Web.

Jacobsen, H., Moe, V., Ivarsson, T., Wentzel-larsen, T., & Smith, L. (2013). Cognitive development and social-emotional functioning in young foster children: A follow-up study from 2 to 3 years of age. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 44(5), 666-77. Web.

Lau, J., & Ng, K. (2014). Conceptualizing the counseling training environment using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 36(4), 423-439. doi. Web.

Lefmann, T., & Combs-Orme, T. (2013). Early brain development for social work practice: Integrating neuroscience with Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 23, 640–647.

Richetto, J., & Riva, M. (2014). Prenatal maternal factors in the development of cognitive impairments in the offspring. Journal of Reproductive Immunology, 104, 20-25.

Tucker-Drob, E., & Harden, P. (2012). Early childhood cognitive development and parental cognitive stimulation: evidence for reciprocal gene-environment transactions. Developmental Science, 15(2), 250-259.

Introduction

In this paper, Tomasello and Carpenter (2007) argue for the significance of processes of shared intentionality in children’s early cognitive development. To fully explore this idea, they discuss four vital aspects of social-cognitive skills and how they are altered by shared intentionality.

The authors look at two sides of each of these four aspects: a form of individualistic version of the skill and a version based on shared intentionality. As stated by the authors, shared intentionality is a very vital process in children’s cognitive development as it allows brings out the uniqueness out every child during the developmental stage, and is very important towards cognitive development.

Summary

The authors attempt to answer the question on whether shared intentionality is important to the cognitive development of children. The question stems from the fact that human cognition is very different from that of animals, including our closest ‘relatives’, primates.

Although primates have some level of collaboration among them, the extent of the level of collaboration among them remains a controversial subject. Children, on the other hand, engage in collaborative ideas as they find it to be more rewarding as they develop shared goals and plans through shared intentionality.

The answer to the question lies in the authors’ analysis of the four core aspects of social-cognitive skills. They observe that apes are mostly concerned with individualistic objectives while engaging in group activities, in other words, they exploit others by collecting information from them, controlling them, coordinating actions with them for their own advantage, and frequently engage in competitive behavior.

However, children are more concerned with sharing psychological states during collaborative activities by providing them with useful information, forming shared intentions and attention with others, and achieving cognitive development from demonstrations for their own use.

Another answer to the significance of shared intentionality in children would focus on the fact that children are able to construct exceptionally powerful types of perspectival cognitive demonstration when they engage in shared activities. This might be shared intentionality.

Work Cited

Tomasello, Michael. and Carpenter, Malinda. (2007). Shared intentionality. Developmental Science, 10:1 (2007), pp 121–125

According to Hinchliffe & Woodward (2000), the first stage of cognitive development in children starts during infancy and concerns sensorimotor abilities. In this stage, the child begins making contact with the environment using body organs. Research studies have indicated that during this stage the child has many sensory abilities. This can best be described using sensory abilities such as touching, seeing, suckling and feeling. Through the experimentation process, the infant is able to develop the difference between two selves. During this stage, the child develops the ability to coordinate between two different activities. Another important thing worth mentioning here concerns object permanence.

Preoperational stage

During this stage cognitive development is marked by the reaction of the child to objects. Most mothers through studies have indicated that the child’s reaction to objects is as if all objects are similar. The child through the process can be said to be transductive. The child can look at objects and reason. An intuitive period follows and the child is characterized by egocentric behavior. This behavior has been interpreted in a manner that suggests the infants have a belief that everybody thinks like them (Fischer,1980)

Concrete operational stage

Logical reasoning begins to be observed during this stage. In most of the child’s activities and behavior, there is some notable organization. Abstract things cannot be well interpreted or reasoned by the child during this stage. The logic at this stage according to Piaget is characterized by inductive reasoning whereby the child is able to reason from specific concepts to general principles. The child also understands the ability of objects and situations to be reversed. A major achievement during this stage concerns the ability of the child to overcome the limitations of the preoperational stage. (Fischer,1980)

Formal operational stage

This stage commences from eleven to twelve years of age. It is the final stage in the child’s cognitive development process. During this stage, an individual is able to come up with a hypothesis and test them using experiments in the search for answers to problems affecting his or her life. Abstract reasoning and thinking are evident at this stage in life with children demonstrating abilities to handle mathematical problems. Critical thinking also characterizes this stage and individuals can argue for or against facts. (Hinchliffe & Woodward, 2000)

The role of social science in preventing natural disasters

Social science provides an important study of human behavior and interactions. Social science provides theories and explanations to the causes of human interactions and what comes out of the interactions. Natural disasters affect human interactions and therefore within the theories of humanity. Social science attempts to explain the causes of natural disasters especially those that arise as a consequence of human interactions.

A good example concerns human activity that leads to diseases that fall under natural disasters.Social science can also provide solutions to the prevention of some natural disasters using appropriate human interaction mechanisms. (Hinchliffe & Woodward, 2000)The explanations provided by social science on the causes and prevention of natural disasters are important in understanding the patterns of human interaction. Human interactions are characterized by certain behavior patterns. People in society choose whom to interact with because of social reasons that are well explained by social science. A study of human interactions is instrumental in understanding the nature of human conflicts that also result in disaster. Explanations on natural disasters by social sciences highlight the importance of human interaction especially when it comes to coping with and managing natural disasters life famine and drought.

References

Hinchliffe Steve and Kath Woodward (2000) The natural and the social: uncertainty, risk, change London; New York: Routledge, ISBN 0415222893

Fischer, K.W. (1980). “A theory of cognitive development: The control and construction of hierarchical skills”. Psychological Review, 87(2), 477-531.

Introduction

The process of adult development is specific in different transformations in an individual’s mind and behavior on the whole. In this respect it is necessary to mention that a behavioral approach toward the theme of growing up is the most appropriate, for its methods can be helpful in outlining main callings and reasons for some definite actions. People grow and logically they should elaborate their capabilities in various fields of life. Thus, the idea of leadership skills worked out in the process of adult development is at a core of the research. This theme is significant because of its strategic destination for the well-being of a definite community of people. Furthermore, leadership just like growing up is a process which can go forward in its elaboration. However, it may also delay or even by the way of degradation. For the purpose of detailed evaluation of such a viable and significant process in an individual’s life the report urges for making efforts in comparison of adult development and leadership skills in the reciprocal relation toward each other.

Discussion

With a flow of time people notice some changes in their characters due to outside factors and their estimation of events happening at the time. It contemplates different psychological approaches toward processes of cognition and behavioral effects after accumulation and reflection of information about the environment, people, and world, on the whole. The manifestation of leadership skills begins with ordinary communication within peers, then with other age categories of people. This extent of interaction is flexible and provides a dynamic drive in terms of further authoritative attitudes from the side of other individuals. This is why the research deals with relevantly all three stages of adulthood, but the most attention is concentrated in this respect on the middle adulthood.

The development of identity, moral reasoning, and ethical behavior, as well as cognitive frameworks for more sophisticated sensemaking (i.e., epistemic cognition) are all thought to be major developmental tasks for adults. Each of these areas is of fundamental concern in leader development (Day and Halpin 55).

Social aspect of life presupposes correspondence to an individual’s position or status in the society according to how one has risen to prominence. As a matter of fact, the notion of effective leadership can be addressed to those individuals who feel a great responsibility for current goals in personal life, in the workplace, in the society. Moreover, the process of adulthood can be fastened when an individual takes responsibility for other ones. It is so due to the authority of an individual which can appear as a result of taken responsibility. A period of gradual change in character and interests which is observed on different stages of aging provides a cognitive approach of adult development. In this case the point on the plasticity, flexibility, and vitality of current studies in adulthood seem to have a problematic evaluation with the flow of the time reaching toward decline in a person (Hoare 5). That is why from the side of cognition the significance of its existence in a person is too high. The process of aging presupposes rise to mature age when the physiological functioning is at a peak and decline of physical well-being due to natural reasons. According to some studies this process does not correspond to cognitive approach in terms of its longitude. Thus, psychological and physiological attitude toward adult development presupposes the following assertion: “successful aging” can be characterized by maintenance or enhancement of cognitive powers, continued autonomy, superior physiological functioning, and increased longevity” (Hoare 6).

Stating such ideas there should a space for making definite experiments or providing survey on the problem. Thus, it is concerned that with a development of time in everyday life an individual is likely to disregard time limits or transitional points in age due to contemporary fastened tempos of scientific and technological progress. More powers are concentrated on the idea of making some profits for life. In this respect the middle age period is rather appropriate for such analysis. However, the problems and proper estimations of adult development from the scientific point of view can be divided into three main directions, namely: the neuropsychological, the correlational, and the activation imaging approach (Smith & DeFrates-Densch 5). Each approach outlines different cases in growing-up relation. In other words, all traditional and unprecedented cases in adult development with points on progression or retardation are taken into account with the help of above mentioned approaches. In this respect the main goal in an individual’s life should touch upon the positive trends in adult elaboration.

The results of different researches showed the ability of the aging process to follow different trends in the course of natural development. Here the behavioral and genetic evaluation plays a great role for making conclusions about positive or negative perspectives in an individual’s personal life. Thus, it was identified that cognitive powers and functioning in people saves its longevity up to eleven decades (Hoare 7). Theory development is influenced by wider research in brain learning because of an ability of the brain in most cases to preserve its cognitive functions (experience, vocabulary, wisdom etc.) better than physical or those concerned with the speed of reaction (Smith & DeFrates-Densch 5). The researchers are still trying to relate the behavior of individuals in terms of aging to the latest studies in the brain capabilities and structural or functional peculiarities. Nevertheless, neuroscientific methods also have some limitations in terms of age development outlined with cognitive and Socioemotional, for some activities observed in peculiar regions of the brain do not obligatory correspond to a definite psychological process (Smith & DeFrates-Densch 6). All in all, the advantageous points in current psychobiological studies straightforwardly concerned with adult development provide wider scope of knowledge and approaches to be helpful and appropriate for further research in this area.

Conclusion

To sum up, the material represented in the report shows that adult development is a difficult process during which the physical, physiological, social, neurobiological, and genetic implementation of an individual’s characteristics should be touched upon. Thereupon, at each stage of adulthood people go through particular changes in their feeling and perception of the world on theoretical and practical levels. In other words, above described studies showed that aging is a rather dynamic and flexible process which can have different vectors in its developmental variable. Though, there is a wide field for current discussions as of future direction of the research. As for me, theses studies help better underline my personal attitude toward gradual growing up in a cognitive approach. By this I mean that adult development should be concerned with many faceted areas of an individual’s activities, so as not to lag behind the tempos of life. Moreover, such an attitude toward the problem can be quite helpful for personal success in various sectors of employment.

Works cited

Day, David V., and Halpin, Stanley M. An Integrative Approach to Leader Development: Connecting Adult Development, Identity, and Expertise. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2008.

Hoare, Carol Hren Handbook of adult development and learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 2006.

Smith, M. Cecil, and DeFrates-Densch, Nancy. Handbook of research on adult learning and development. London: Taylor & Francis, 2008.

There is no secret that of all complicated mechanisms existing, the one of a human brain must be the most sophisticated one. Even though some major discoveries were made, they were still the tip of the iceberg until Jean Piaget came with his theory of cognitive development.

Explaining in details how the process of learning takes place and splitting it in several key phases, Piaget helped the humankind understand the manner in which the cognitive process takes place. In addition, one of the obvious elements of cognition, which is moral reasoning (Verderber, Sellnow and Verderber 425), is emphasized by Piaget.

Taking a closer look at the theory and the way it is implemented in real life, one can possibly understand the logics of Piaget’s arguments and learning the place that moral reasoning takes in the given chain or ideas.

To start with, it is necessary to mention that the process of cognition, in Piaget’s interpretation, is split into four stages. As McLeod explains, these are the “sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational” (McLeod para. 8) stages; and, since “there is always interaction between ourselves and objects” (TESLAPPE), as Piaget himself explained it, the four are completely inseparable.

The first one, sensorimotor stage, presupposes that the child identify an object with the help of the five senses, thus, recognizing its basic characteristics. As Piaget himself put it, “We can see that the child does not draw what he sees. He draws the idea of it. He draws what he knows of it” (TESLAPPE). The above-mentioned can be traced in one of the numerous examples of how a child reacts to a certain irritant.

For instance, when a child pays attention to a rattle toy, as it is shown in the video by jenningh, the sensorimotor stage of the cognition process is reached. Even though the child does not seem to be interested in the toy much, as it is shown in the video, he still recognizes it, and it becomes clear that whenever he hears this sound next time, he will be aware of the fact that there is a rattle toy somewhere in the vicinity.

Moreover, the baby will have the image of a rattle toy in his mind when hearing the familiar sound, thus, forming an idea about the source of the noise.

The next stage will be the preoperational one. At the given stage, the child is not ready yet to think in a symbolic manner, but offers very basic knowledge about the way a certain phenomenon happens or the way a certain object functions. The given stage can be considered a link between the materialistic perception of a certain thing and abstract thinking.

If considering this process from Piaget’s perspective, one must admit that there is a certain artistic touch to the given stage. As Piaget comments on the given process, “knowledge is always an assimilation or interpretation” (TESLAPPE); therefore, the given stage allows the child to assimilate the basic knowledge about a certain object or phenomenon and interpret it in a way which the child finds clear and convincing.

As the child recognizes the object, the time for a concrete operational stage comes. At this point, the child already has a certain concept about the given object and understands its mechanics. Hence, the stage of abstract thinking is activated. With the help of abstract thinking, the child can deduce a number of ideas from the facts that (s)he has at hand.

Creating a train of ideas, a child reaches certain conclusions, thus, learning to think in a logical way. The given stage is demonstrated in the experiment with a girl drawing a triangle – a new shape which she is attempting to learn to recognize and depict (TESLAPPE). It is evident that the girl already has certain concepts about other geometry figures, since she starts drawing a square by the force of habit.

Even though the girl fails to complete the task, coming up with a square, the given experiment makes it clear that the concept of a square has been cemented into the girl’s mind. Thus, she tries to apply the old concept to the given task, being at the operational stage.

Finally, the process ends up with the formal operational part, “when adolescent begins to think abstractly and to reason hypothetically” (jenningh). At the given stage, a child can think in an abstract manner without any material objects as a support, thus, developing his/her deduction and induction skills.

It is important that the reasoning at the formal operational part can be fully hypothetical. Reached at the age of eleven or more, the formal operational part is the final chapter in the cognitive development process.

It is quite peculiar that in Verderber’s book, the given stages are interpreted as “preconventional morality” and “conventional morality,” while the two are subsequently splits into two stages each (Verderber, Sellnow and Verderber). Hence, the four elements of the idea remain in their places, but the shape in which they are offered is changed a bit.

A Report on a Piagetian Experiment

To demonstrate the concept of the cognition theory and show the way it works when being put into practice, the following experiment was conducted. Three people were picked to answer a certain question. The first participant was a four-year-old boy who referred to himself as “me” and “Jim”, the second one was a twelve-year-old girl, and the third one was a nineteen-year-old man.

The people mentioned above were offered a single question to answer, namely, “What if people didn’t have thumbs?” The latter made a joke, “Then we wouldn’t know how to rate comments on YouTube.” The girl answered, “I don’t know.” Meanwhile, the boy nearly cried in fear, imagining the consequences.

Analyzing the results which have been derived from the “opinion poll,” one will see that the three participants displayed the reactions which are characteristic of the people who are on a certain stage of the cognition of their bodies. Obviously, the boy is yet at the sensorimotor stage, which means that he does not identify his self and his body yet and is only learning to.

Hence, the idea of taking his thumbs away seemed extremely realistic and, therefore, very frightening to him. Meanwhile, the girl displayed in a rather graphic way that she is at the stage of formal operations in the process of cognizing her body. Since she has obviously learned to identify her body and her own self, the idea of not having a certain part of her body seemed ridiculous to her and, thus, left her speechless.

Meanwhile, the nineteen-year-old, who is way past the final stage of learning about his body properties, has these concepts cemented in his mind so hard that he can even make jokes about the idea of not having a thumb. Thus, the three examples make perfect specimens for a corresponding cognition process stage.

Works Cited

jenningh. “Formal Operational Child.” YouTube. 2007. Web.

jenningh. “Object Performance.” YouTube. 2007. Web.

McLeod, Saul. “Jean Piaget.” Simply Psychology. 2009. Web.

TESLAPPE. Piaget on Piaget, Part 1. YouTube. 2010. Web.

Verderber, Rudolf F., Deanna D. Sellnow and Kathleen S. Verderber. “Moral Reasoning: Cognitive Developmental Theory.” The Challenge of Effective Speaking. Ed. Rudolf F. Verderber, Deanna D. Sellnow and Kathleen S. Verderber. Stamford, CN: Cengage Learning. 2011. 425-428. Vance-Granville Community College Library. Web.

The article has three sections written by different scholars, each section talking about different concepts. The works of Ulrich Muller are addressed in the first section. The section talks about various disorders that children are likely to suffer from, including breakup disorders, mourning disorders, discrimination disorders, maltreatment disorders, and eating disorders. The scholar goes a notch higher to suggest some of the ways through which such disorders can be treated. He argues that his methods of curing disorders are parsimonious implying that they can be applied in other parts of the world, irrespective of time and space. The methods developed in the laboratory are easily transferred to real-life situations all over the world.

The second section of the article talks about the role of cognitive processes in the development of the child. The section talks about the works of Nelson and Thomas. Through research, the two scholars established that the behavior of an individual is influenced by the state of the mind. The researchers suggest that developmental psychologists should learn more about neurobiology in case they are to understand the behavior of children. The last section of the article reviews the works of Herve and Yuille on psychopaths. The two researchers conducted a study on the behavioral manifestations and disorders that affect human beings.

Personal Opinion

From the article, it is true that human beings suffer from a number of disorders, including bereavement disorders, eating disorders, and disorders that come about because of divorce. Each disorder is cured using a specific method. In curing disorders, psychologists employ a combination of methods to achieve effectiveness. However, all scholars in the article explain only clinical methods. No scholar explains a social technique yet most disorders are caused by social problems, such as divorce. In my opinion, disorders result from stress associated with a lack of coping skills. Therefore, scholars should devise methods aimed at preventive methods other than coming up with curative methods.

Introduction

The process based upon actions and later progresses into changes in mental operations is what has been defined as cognitive development. These processes can be crystallized into four stages as described in jean Piaget’s theory. There is a sharp difference when ones perception, language, remembering and solving problems are being developed especially when children try to understand and respond to physical experiences. There is no clear level as to when one move from one stage to the other, but previous studies by Jean Piaget between 1896 and 1980 indicate that various forces play in the forming stage. He clearly outlined the levels which virtually are admissible.

According to the Seattle Longitudinal Study conducted by Schaie in 1996, there are detailed insights into the developmental trajectories of several intellectual functions across middle age (Martin and Zimprich, 2005). This can largely be attributed to the fact that conceptualization of thoughts, observation of events and concentration of experiments are reflective in experiential learning. The teaching skills adopted by trainer are ultimately the key towards the developmental process of children. Among the instruments believed to uphold the cognitive process are videos games and experiments which have been introduced in curriculum for elementary schools.

Cognitive development can be monitored from as early as a two week old child. The process by which this can be traced is by carefully examining the behavior and trends of the young one and ensuring that this is record. For most cases, the brain development is mainly formed through observation and quest to experiment things on your own. Children under the age of two years are said to be more vigilant and have a high sensory touch towards things that surround them. This is mainly done through scrolling and practice of speaking. However for the case of participant used for the study, there exists a huge difference since they are at a different stage of development.

The study was set to examine the practical steps in the Piaget’s theory among different age groups. Cultural diversity and social complexity in formal and informal education system has largely attributed the building of cognitive development in solving or addressing problems. The study examines the aspects of change of different age group to reveal the reasons affecting their development process through a self driven approach.

Method

The study examines the practical steps in the Piaget’s theory among different age groups. The study took a stratified random sampling method where two neighboring schools were selected out of four. Approximation of distances and school category were the dependent variables while the category of the school was an independent variable. Two students, Daniel and Becky were selected for the study. Daniel is a male pupil at an elementary school and is eight years of age while Becky is a third year female student at a tertiary college and she is twenty one years of age.

For this study, a score card, twenty tokens and a round table were used to conduct the exercise. The scorecard was used to record the outcomes of the groupings of the tokens. Twenty tokens used for the study were: wristwatch, knife, baseball, pen, pencil, rubber, notebook, orange, banana, nut, screw, spoon, hummer, nail, snail shell, flower and four different pictures.

After a detailed explanation of the intended study, I got the consent of both Daniel and Becky. Daniels mother was available although she did not participate in the study. All the tokens were placed on the table and I requested both Daniel and Becky to group the tokens in to groups. I requested them to put similar ones (ones that are the same) into the same group and they could have as many different groups as they wanted. I was recording the groups.

After different groupings were recorded and no farther outcomes were noted, the data was entered in MS excel for analysis.

Results

Table 1 show the distribution of the tokens in particular groups and the total number of the token for each respondent.

The table helps us to know at what stage or level does each participant is in development. This can be seen clearly from the different sets of group that the tokens used for the study are grouped. This is largely depicted by the fact that children below ten years have no clear difference on specific items and their use. The factors that are key in the groupings can be stationeries, while the participants views them as either large tools and has no idea of specific use of the equipments. The pictures have been clustered in to one group by both participants and this is a clear indication that brain development is mainly through observation.

Discussion

The results of the study reveal seven groups of the tokens that were available for the study. This include: stationeries, tools, fruits, pictures, utensils, fasteners and others. The seven groups studied gave a varying frequency on the number of items that were queued in each group as shown in the pie chat below.

The table above helps us conclude that the two respondents are at different level of cognitive development. It is clear that Becky has entered an adulthood stage that is characterized by stable or ideal reasoning. This attests to her speed in arranging the tokens with ease and according to the way a fully grown adult would categorize the token. Daniel has problems in arranging the tokens and this is evident from how he sorts them in various groups.

One, the time Daniel spends in sorting the tokens is slow and the confusion is evident. While Daniel’s classification is entirely based on the shape and size of the token, it is very different from Becky’s arrangement. Daniel groups most of the tokens as stationeries and this is largely attributed to their needle straight-like shape.

To understand better understand the reasoning ability of each respondents, we examine how they came up with grouping. Daniel for example, largely views things in terms of size and the shape. This explains how his skills are being developed through seeing and practice. Although he classifies the pictures in to on group, there is a big contrast on the grouping of fruits and other.

The limitation for this study was that the number of different equipment’s used for the study. For a case that would deeply address the vast gaps in cognitive development, it would be ideal to monitor the behavior and thought through practice over a longer period of time. This will eliminate the biasness of on sight evaluation which might be influenced by environmental aspects. The best approach would therefore mean an over time assessment that will monitor the change behavior of Daniel. By so doing, you will be able to carefully know when he moves from one stage to the other.

For a sub-sequential kind of study, I would involve a bigger number of respondents and compare what the pack things of the same equipment’s/ items at that given time. Then repeat the same for a different age group and compare their developmental ability.

The pie chart show how the tokens were grouped and how they compare with the overall percentage.

Although the percentages for various group clusters might be the same, the tokens might not be the same indicating different stage of development.

This study can be used for to understand difference in reasoning and observational skills of different age groups. In particular, Becky’s case forms a good example of a fully developed mind in action and thoughts. Daniel on the other hand is in the conceptualization phase of development where he is trying to classify thing according to various standard measures.

However, we can conclude from the study that there are huge differences in thoughts, actions and ideas of different age groups as of the case of Daniel and Becky. Examination of difference in age group in terms of reasoning and understanding can help us know at which stage one is in and despite environmental conditions the speed at which one develops through physiological processes.

Many factors have been given on the process of development by researchers and there is no clear line as to how one move from one stage to the other. Although most of the stages have physical symptoms of development, ladies have been said to be fast growing and maturing since their brain development is very different. Another case which might ultimately give reliable data is taking participants of different sex but of the same years. This will give good results because the reasoning of the same age group with different gender can give amazing results.

References

Martin, M. and Zimprich D. (2005). Cognitive Development in Midlife. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. University of Notre Dame Press.

Schaie, K. W. (1996). Intellectual development in adulthood—The Seattle Longitudinal Study. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

In the scene where the father is talking to his daughter about her falling grades; which stage of Plaget is his daughter, Patti, in? In a scene that follows, Patti will do a math problem, what stage must she be in so that she can do that math problem? Would Piaget agree with this scene?

Patti is approximately five or six years old, which means that she should be in the preoperational stage. To estimate Patti’s stage, one can remember her mother’s words about the preschool attendance. During this stage, children learn to understand objects symbolically. A scene that demonstrates that thinking comes when Patti is reading a book by Franz Kafka with her father; to read, children need to understand how words (as symbols) work. As Ültanir (2012) points out, language development is fast at this stage because children learn to understand relationships between objects (e.g., between words in a sentence and how they construct it).

However, to resolve the math problem, Patti would need to enter the formal operational stage. During this stage, children learn to use abstract thinking to understand ideas (Ültanir, 2012). As Patti is just learning to read, as shown in the scene with the book, it is difficult to imagine that she would be able to resolve a math problem because she is not able to use abstract thinking yet. Furthermore, preschoolers are usually unable to complete complex math tasks because they do not know how abstract thinking works in mathematics in particular.

Piaget would not agree with this scene for the following reasons: children who have not yet reached the formal operational stage are more likely to interpret mathematical symbols and graphs either as pictures or letters, but they usually have a hard time interpreting them as symbols for abstract ideas. As Planinic, Milin-Sipus, Katic, Susac, and Ivanjek (2012) point out, children without developed logical thinking are dependent on their perceptions rather than abstract reasoning.

Analyze the scene where Steve Martin’s youngest son, Justin, is eating the dots. What Piaget stage is Justin in? Which of the three components (assimilation, accommodation or scheme) is Justin using when he is eating the dots like potato chips?

Justin appears to be in the preoperational stage as well. As an example, one can remember the scene where Justin is stuck in a garden chair. During this stage, children are unable to use logical thinking to a greater extent or to deduce why some of the situations happen.

When Justin is eating the dots, he uses a scheme that exists in his thinking and relates to potato chips. The scheme contains bright flat objects (that can also be crispy), which Justin can eat because he (presumably) finds them tasty. Schemas are used to organize knowledge that individuals already have into “blocks” that can be later used for performing some behaviors. As Piaget (2013) points out, a scheme can be defined as “a generalization instrument enabling the subject to isolate and utilize the elements common to similar successive behaviors” (p. 366). In the scene, Justin generalizes and perceives the dots as potato chips.

In the scene with the ‘thumb trick’ which Piaget concept made that scene difficult for Patti, the little girl who screams and runs off?

Adaptation is defined by Piaget (2013) as a process that helps individuals utilize new information to form ideas and adapt to change. Patti shows difficulties in adaption as she cannot use existing information (the finger cannot be removed easily) with the new information (the finger disappears). The same difficulties are shown in another scene, where Patti observes how Justin spins in the yard. She tells her mother that she does not understand why he is doing it. Patti demonstrates that she does not know that some activities can be done for fun and have no other implication. As we observe throughout the movie, Patti only learns to perceive things as practical, and the new information (that people take some actions just to have fun) cannot be adapted into her existing schemes.

References

Piaget, J. (2013). Mental imagery in the child: Selected works. New York, NY: Routledge.

Planinic, M., Milin-Sipus, Z., Katic, H., Susac, A., & Ivanjek, L. (2012). Comparison of student understanding of line graph slope in physics and mathematics. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 2(3), 1-22.

Ültanir, E. (2012). An epistemologic glance at the constructivist approach: Constructivist learning in Dewey, Piaget, and Montessori. International Journal of Instruction, 5(2), 195-212.

Many of the intellectual virtues such as humility, courage, and empathy influence one’s intellectual development and positively impact critical thinking (Germaine, Richards, Koeller, & Schubert-Irastorza, 2016). The mentioned open-mindedness allows people to gain access to knowledge that may be hidden from others. I think that this intellectual virtue can bring many positive outcomes to the person who possesses it. Similarly, the lack of such attributes can limit people’s critical thinking and cultural literacy. For instance, I believe that I have the virtue of curiosity which allows me to be more active in the pursuit of truth and discoveries. Thus, this virtue gives me the energy needed to study more actively without being discouraged. It may also be supported by perseverance, another intellectual virtue. These two characteristics can go hand-in-hand, endowing a person with an endless passion for learning.

Another interesting virtue that may be hard to understand is intellectual humility. According to Samuelson et al. (2015), this particular virtue is a complicated aspect of the personality. While I do not think that I possess this virtue myself, I believe that it is an interesting concept. Its opposition is the vice of pride that reaches abnormal levels. In my opinion, this vice can affect people’s ability to become more advanced in their intellectual skills. For example, while my curiosity allows me to be more open to new information, it also makes me see that I do not know many things. On the other hand, the vice of pride may blindside some people and stop them from making new personal discoveries. Thus, the opposition of these two traits can also be established. It is also possible that my vices are wishful thinking and a lack of self-awareness.

References

Germaine, R., Richards, J., Koeller, M., & Schubert-Irastorza, C. (2016). Purposeful use of 21st-century skills in higher education. Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching, 9(1), 19-27.

Samuelson, P. L., Jarvinen, M. J., Paulus, T. B., Church, I. M., Hardy, S. A., & Barrett, J. L. (2015). Implicit theories of intellectual virtues and vices: A focus on intellectual humility. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 10(5), 389-406.