Piaget And Vygotsky's Cognitive Development Theory

The author made much use of ethos in his writing, and he wrote to inform the audience that has a background on science about the advancing/developing process of gene mutation. Hayes states that many other scientists, biochemists,

Interactionists argue that language development is both biological and social. Interactionists argue that language learning is influenced by the desire of children to communicate with others. The Interactionists argue that "children are born with a powerful brain that matures slowly and predisposes them to acquire new understandings that they are motivated to share with others" ( Bates,1993;Tomasello,1995, as cited in shaffer,et al.,2002,p.362). The main theorist associated with interactionist theory is Lev Vygotsky.Interactionists focus on Vygotsky 's model of collaborative learning ( Shaffer,et al.,2002). Collaborative learning is the idea that conversations with older people can help children both cognitively and linguistically (

Cognitive Development can be explained as the emergence of thought processes beginning from infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood. The aim of this essay is to focus on Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories of cognitive development. Jean Piaget is a Swiss developmental psychologist who is known for his epistemological studies. On the other hand, Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, a Soviet psychologist best known for his theory known as the Cultural-Historical theory. Both Vygotsky and Piaget were particularly interested in Cognitive Development in children.

Cognition is the study of the mind works. When we study cognitive development, we are acknowledging the fact that changes occur in how we think and learn as we grow. There is a very big difference in the way that children and adults think about and understand their environment. Jean Piaget (1896-1980), a biology student did extensive research work in the area of child development and is attributed with the development of the theory of cognitive development which has played a major role in this field (child development). His approach of studying the development of the human mind was a synthesis of ideas drawn from biology and philosophy.

Rather, he believed that cognitive development is more like a process which occurs due to biological maturation and interaction with the environment. Through his studies on cognition in children, a series of simple but clever tests revealed different cognitive abilities in children at different age stages. Children from birth understand their environment through cognitive development stages that are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Sensorimotor is the first stage of cognitive development which starts from birth to 2 years of age. During this stage, children acquire their knowledge through their movement and sensations.

One of the most well known theories in cognitive development is Piaget 's theory. The psychologist Jean Piaget theorized that as children 's minds development, they pass through distinct stages marked by transitions in understanding followed by stability. Piaget describes four different stages of development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operation, and formal operations. Each stage describes the thinking patterns of a child depending on his or her age. In order to compare the thinking processes of a three-year old and a nine-year old using Piaget 's theory, you must compare two sequential stages of cognitive development: preoperational and concrete operations.

Key Person in Lifespan Development: Erik Erikson Erik Erikson was a fundamental person who expressed his ideas of lifespan development occurring from birth to death. Erik Erikson, the son of Karla Abrahamen and a father whose name remain unknown (Psyography: Biographies on Psychologists, n.d.) studied at various schools studying arts and language. He became the first child analysts during his attendance at Harvard Medical School. (Sharkey, 1997). Also, he was employed in various educational schools.

There are two theorists associated with cognitive development; Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget believes that things children learn and do are organized as schemes, groups of similar actions and thoughts are repeated in response to the environment. Vygotsky believes that thoughts and language are separate functions for infants and toddlers. This is important for me to know because when teaching my first graders using Piaget’s belief that children curiosity to adapt to their environment, will help me in setting up my classroom so as to provide the friendliest environmental atmosphere. Another useful belief of Piaget that I intend to use, is by exploring and manipulating physical objects, children gain a relationship with their physical environment.

Throughout the year we have learned about many different theorists who have done a great but also horrible job at explaining adolescent/ young adult development. In this paper I will be talking about Freud and Piaget, and how I think that Piaget was the better theorist than Freud when it comes to talking about development. I will also be talking about the similarities and difference between the two. For starters, what are their specific steps of development? Jean Piaget used observations of his own children to develop the four stages that we know he created today.

This essay will discuss the role of ecological validity in psychological research, drawing on material from the DE100 textbook ‘Investigating Psychology’. It will begin by giving a description of what ecological validity is, and consider it in relation to different examples of research. The research used to discuss the role of ecological validity will be based around social learning and aggression, behaviourism, and memory. Firstly the study of Bandura et al. will be considered, his experiments on children copying violent behaviours using the Bobo doll experiment.