THEORIES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Elyse BoileauKenna CreelKara Irvin

WHAT ARE THE THEORIES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL AND COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT? Our chapter focused on three main theorists

and their theories concerning psychosocial and cognitive development: -Erickson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development -Piaget’s Theories of Cognitive Development -Vygotsky’s Theories of Cognitive Development

ERICKSON’S THEORY OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Erickson’s theory states that personality development is based on an epigenetic principle

Throughout the stages personality development occurs as one successfully resolves a series of psychosocial crisis, or turning points.

ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL

DEVELOPMENT STAGESErikson hypothesized that the personality of an individual forms as the ego progresses through 8 interrelated stages.

Birth to one year: trust vs. mistrust 2-3 years old: autonomy vs. shame and

doubt 4-5 years old: initiative vs. guilt 6-11 years old: industry vs. inferiority

PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTInvolves:

Organization: tendency to combine processes into logically interrelated systems Adaptation: tendency to adjust to environment Scheme: organized pattern of behavior or thought Assimilation: new experience is fitted into

existing scheme Accommodation: scheme is created or revised to fit new experience Equilibration: tendency to organize schemes to

allow better understanding of experiences

PIAGET’S 4 STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years): schemes reflect sensory and motor experiences; develop object permanence

Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years): child forms many new schemes but does not think logically; develops ability to conserve and decenter but not capable of operations and unable to mentally reverse actions

Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years): child is capable of mentally reversing actions but generalizes only from concrete experience

Formal Operational Stage ( 11 years and older): child is able to deal with abstractions, form hypotheses, engage in mental manipulations

KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT TABLE

CRITICISM OF PIAGET’S THEORY

Researchers suggest that preschoolers’ cognitive abilities are more advanced in some areas than Piaget’s work suggests.

Others suggest that Piaget may have overestimated the formal thinking capabilities of adolescents.

Some believe that Piaget is vague when specifying the factors that are responsible for cognitive growth.

Some argue with Piaget’s prediction that one who can think in a formal operational stage will always do so.

Also, the argument that the formal operational stage cannot be the final stage of cognitive development.

VYGOTSKY’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Vygotsky believed: The way we think is influence by current social as

well as historical cultural forces. Psychological tools aid and change thought process.

Ex. Writing, gestures, diagrams, chemical formulas, musical notation, etc.

Cognitive development is strongly influenced by those more intellectually advanced.

Teachers should help students learn how to use psychological tools.

Cognitive development is promoted by instruction in the zone of proximal development.

Scaffolding techniques support student learning.

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION AT FAYETTE INTERMEDIATE

Subjects Observed: Language Arts & MathObserved things such as: addition and subtraction, shape identification, patterning, one-to-one correspondence, sequencing of events, knowledge of punctuation, and identification of proper words that should be capitalized. Grade Level/Age: 2nd grade (8-9 year olds) Number of students: 21 Student Demographics: 11 female, 10 male. 15

Caucasian, 4 African American, 1 Hispanic/Latino, 1 Asian American. Varies from Upper Middle Class to Lower Middle Class.

Length of observation: Observed the class twice, for an hour each day.

MAJOR FINDINGS Instructor: Mrs. O’Shaughnessy has been an early childhood teacher for roughly

10 years. Instruction: The teacher’s main goal for instruction is to provide a nurturing

learning-focused environment in which students and parents form a partnership with her to share the responsibility for challenging students to reach their highest potential.

Students: Demonstrated certain characteristics that help determine which of Piaget’s stages they currently reside in. Some even displayed characteristics that could be considered a part of multiple cognitive stages. Ex. When asked questions, some students answered on impulse rather than thinking of different possibilities to solve the problem. Also, some children displayed a higher level of cognitive development in certain areas but not others.

Teacher-student interaction: Demonstrated frequent, positive communication with one another. Teacher appeared extremely supportive and determined to reach academic achievement. Displayed encouragement and praise for exceptional behavior and resorted to discipline procedures for unacceptable behavior.

Student-student interaction: Like all classrooms, student-student interaction became disruptive at times.

Class management: Through observation we were able to see that Mrs. O’Shaughnessy manages her classroom well. She appeared extremely flexible and it looks as if she has established a productive learning environment.

RELEVANCE Throughout observation, we were able to relate

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development with the students in Mrs. O’Shaughnessy’s class. We did some further research after we made the realization that some of the students displayed signs of multiple stages. Can a child be in more than 1 cognitive stage?

Also, after determining that some of the higher level children had reached/or are nearing the formal operational stage, we began to wonder, how can an 8 or 9 year old be in the same cognitive stage as we are? Could this not be the last stage?

EVIDENCE Even with college educated adults, people who

use formal operational skills on one task may not use them on another.

Is Piaget wrong about formal operations being a stage attained by everyone? Piaget attains that all individuals attain formal operations, but perhaps with only areas in which they’ve had a lot of experience.

Piaget insists that the formal operational stage is the final stage of cognitive development; however, adults continue intellectual development with further accumulation of knowledge.

VIDEO http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA04ew6Oi9M&feature=related

RESOURCES Snowman, Jack, R. R. McCown, and Robert F.

Biehler. Psychology Applied to Teaching. 13th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2012. Print.

http://children.webmd.com/piaget-stages-of-development

http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_198110_day.pdf