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There are three main theories of development that I shall discuss in this assignment, Cognitive, the main theorist being, Piaget, (1896 1980), The, Psychosocial Theory, Erikson, (1902 1994), and, The Psychosexual, of, Freud, (1856 1939). Cognitive Psychology draws the comparison between the human mind and a computer, suggesting that we like the computer process the information we acquire from around us and then react accordingly. H earnshaw, (1987), claims that Cognitive Psychology is both one of the oldest and also one of the newest parts of Psychology, cited in T. Mail, (1994). Information is collected through our senses i. e.
vision, touch, smell etc and then processed through our brain. Cognitive Psychologists largely seek explanations of Cognitive development, memory, attention, artificial intelligence, perception and social cognition. The methods used are usually Laboratory experiments under controlled circumstances i. e.
memory tests, and, Case studies. Piaget, (J), (1896 - 1980), carried out case studies on his own children to study the stages of cognitive development. Piaget concluded that the child was an organism which adapts to the environment, he also studied with the opinion that all children went through the same set stages of development and that there were no individual differences. The Sensorimotor stage, (0 - 2): - Early in the sensorimotor stage the child is entirely egocentric, everything is an extension to the self, they cant distinguish themselves from their environment. The child has no concept of past or future all it is aware of is the here and now. The child relies entirely on its senses i.
e. sight, hearing, touch. It is believed by Cognitive Psychologists that... To begin with, a baby will rely on in-built behaviours for sucking, crawling and watching as cited in Movie, N, (1995).
A child does not understand that an object does not cease to exist when it is out of sight. However, in contradiction, Bower & Wishart, (1972), used infrared cameras to see what the child does when an object disappears. The child is shown a bottle in the light, when the child reaches to grasp the bottle the lights are turned out. Bower & Wishart recorded that the child continued to reach for the bottle for up to 1. 5 minutes after the lights are turned out.
Another point made by Piaget is that not only does the child look for an object, which is hidden, but also the child will not look for it even if part of it is showing. The object must be fully visible for the child to look for it. Between the ages 6 - 7 months the child will recognise a partly visible object and by 8 months the child will look for an object that is totally hidden, (all ages are approximate, although Piaget believed children went through the same stages, he concluded that they dont necessarily do so at the exactly the same age). This realization that an object still exists even when out of view is called, Object Permanence.
The Pre-operational Stage, (2 - 7 years): - Later in the sensori meter stage the child will begin to develop the use of language and thought, this is one of the main continuing developments in the pre-operational stage. This stage derives the title of pre-operational because the child has yet to develop its logical thinking and the ability to understand how things operate. Piaget went on to divide the pre-operational stage into two parts, the first being, Pre-Conceptual, from the ages 2 - 4 the child has no concept of varying differences at this stage everything is either all the same colour, size etc. For example a child a child is given 5 large red bricks and 5 small red bricks, the child is then asked to sort the large red bricks from the small red bricks, the child cannot distinguish between the large and the small therefore the child would just put all the red bricks together. Piaget called this, Syncretic Thinking, putting objects together because of similarities i.
e. colour even if the objects are of a different shape or size, four balls of different colours would not be conceived as different colours by a child they would just be seen as four balls as this is their similarity. At the age of 4 - 7 the child reaches the, Intuitive, stage, at this stage the child has some concept of differences i. e.
the child can distinguish between the size and colour of different coloured bricks. However the child is still what Piaget called, Egocentric, unable to see things from another's point of view. One amusing example (Phillips, 1996) is of a four year old boy who is asked Do you have a brother? to which he replies Yes. Then he is asked Whats his name? to which he replies Jim.
Finally in response to the question Does Jim have a brother? he says No. The Concrete Operational Stage (7 - 11): - A this stage the child can operate objects and understand them providing they can se them and / or are holding them. The child can count, spell, read etc. Although the child still needs some objects i. e.
fingers, toys to count there is still a need for visual assistance. The child is developing a less egocentric perspective. The formal Operation Stage (11 - 15): - At this stage the child or adolescent can now think hypothetically, (think about situations, experiences that they may not have experienced). The adolescent can think about different outcomes to situations.
The formal adolescent can now count without the aid of objects and can read and write quite efficiently. Freud, (1856 - 1939), believed that personality which he called, Psychic Apparatus, was divided into three parts, the ID, the EGO, and, the SUPEREGO. Freud also concluded that these parts were part of an energy system not part of the brain or the physical self. In brief the ID is a Psychic Energy, which is ruled by the, Pleasure Principle. For example instinct tells the id we are hungry, the id does not want us to feel unsatisfied therefore we react by seeking food, fulfilling our need and subsequently experiencing pleasure. Although our id is present at birth and continues to exist to death relatively un-changed when we are infants we still need to understand that although we cry when we are hungry it is up to another to interpret our crying and feed us until we develop the abilities to feed ourselves.
The id does however carry a reflex reaction i. e. blinking when there is something in our eye, scratching when we itch, rubbing ourselves if we have a bump etc. The entire point of the id is to maintain satisfaction. The Ego is the part of the id, which is ruled by the, Reality Principle, it develops through social influences and is the part of the id that is logical and rational. The Ego can control our Psychic energy by postponing needs, for example if we were in a traffic jam and we were hungry the majority of people would not just get out the car and seek food, our ego would tell us that we should wait until we get to the next service station.
Infants do not have this ability straight away a child will cry until another feeds them. The ego also considers the feelings of others i. e. the ego would not consider it appropriate to brake wind in a room full of people! The difference between the id and the ego is, the id is only concerned about what it wants whereas the ego is concerned about when and how to get it. The Superego, this is the conscience and moral part of the id.
The conscience tells the ego when we do something wrong i. e. we feel guilty for doing something. On the other hand when we do something right or good we feel good our self-esteem is increased. For example a young person wants to smoke a cigarette but they are in their parents home and their parents are not only in but they would be angry if they caught them, the id wants a cigarette, the ego tells the id to go outside and the superego tells both that wherever the cigarette is smoked it is wrong so the ego feels guilty. One aspect of Freud's theory of development is that infants and young children are capable of sexual pleasure and do have sexual experiences, Infantile Sexuality.
It is important to note that the use of the term sexuality is not used to describe sexual gratification i. e. sexual intercourse; Freud uses the term To describe the need by babies and older children for physical pleasure, i. e. some children like to have their back tickled, or, their hair played with. Infantile Sexuality, is a term used to describe any form of sexual pleasure received from another and not necessarily a member of the opposite gender.
Freud believed that if the child did not receive adequate pleasure i. e. by parents then this would result in their id becoming frustrated therefore in later life the adult would be affected. Freud strongly believed that if the child does not receive enough pleasure in the correct adequate way throughout their stages of Psychosexual development then this would be the root of all future problems. Development for Freud is a complex interaction between a biologically programmed timetable of change and the environment or social context in which it happens (Stevens, 1995) and if we want to understand the adult, we need to retrace their childhood; hence the child is father to the man. Gross, (R), The Science of Mind and Behaviour, (1996) Psychosexual stages of development: - Oral Stage (0 - 1 year), This stage can be divided into two, the Receptive/ Incorporative Substage, at this stage, the early few months, the child is almost entirely dependent and passive.
At this stage the child gets great pleasure from sucking, swallowing and putting things in their mouth. The mothers breast is very important to the child as it gives most pleasure. The child will suck anything even if there is no food. After a few months the child moves into the. Biting/Aggressive Substage, at this point the child starts chewing and biting things it is also at this stage that the child starts to express love and hate for the same object i. e.
the mother. Anal stage (1 - 3 years), the pleasure at this stage is focused on the anal cavity, and again this stage can be divided into two substage's, Expulsion, the child has the desire to pass faeces where it wants to and when it wants to and it is at this point that they learn that pleasure is gained through praise from parents when they have done something good i. e. potty training, staying dry through the night. However in the later stages, Retention, the parents can now be seen as authority figures as it is a this stage that the child gains pleasure from anal retention and few parents see this is as a point of praise. Phallic stage (3 - 5 / 6 years), at this stage the child becomes aware of their genitals, although boys find them a source of pleasure girls do not until they reach puberty.
Boys have to learn to control their desire for their mother, for fear of castration by their father. This conclusion is drawn firstly because it is at this stage that boys begin masturbating and the fat...
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Research essay sample on Pre Operational Stage Stage The Child
