Summary
The purpose of this issue paper is to compare and contrast two different articles one written by L.E. Berk in 2010 that explores lifespan development. The other article was written by the staff and research team at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford in 2012 that addresses what cognitive development is and the progress of adolescence cognitive development. Cognitive development begins from the moment of birth and continues throughout life. However, this student finds the cognitive abilities are more complex during the adolescent years. Therefore, the issue this paper will address is adolescence cognitive development. Whereas, both articles agree that when a child transitions from childhood to adolescence their
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For example, when an adolescent can only think or reason in concrete operational stage such as the knowledge they have previously acquired and the reality they have experience, they cannot see past that knowledge or experience (Berk, 2010). For instance, this student's 16-year-old son is having issues concerning matters of the heart. He believes that without this girl his life has no purpose or meaning. He bases his reasoning on that he is the only one who can help this girl (she has a lot of issues) so she needs him. He cannot and will not reason or think outside of the reality that he is her savior and protector. Nor will he think about how she is making life so difficult for him. His grades (especially in science, which he loves) are dropping as a result of his lack of cognitive development.
Both Berk (2010) and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford (2012) claim that by this age an adolescent should be thinking in more abstract, systematic and logical ways. Therefore, according to the articles researched for this issue and the behavior exhibited by this adolescent would indicate a delay in cognitive development. This delay not only affects his personal reasoning, but also has delayed his cognitive development to solve hypothetical problems, thus, lower his ability solve situations not yet experienced. Remaining in the concrete operational
At early adolescence TEENAGERS will start to think in different ways. They will understand harder concepts and solve COMPLEX problems easier. They will also be able to blend different information from different sources. This means that they will be able to solve problems in their head without actually seeing them.
First, review what you’ve learned about the adolescent from your interviews. Then, complete Section I of the Adolescent Development Analysis Worksheet to determine the ASCA Development Stage in which you believe the teen falls. Finally, identify and write a description here of the stage in which the teen falls, then give at least two examples that support your stage choice.
a. At this stage of development, adolescents’ intellectual abilities have developed to include abstract thoughts and ideas. They have a higher level of cognitive function that can go beyond the concrete information to more complex concepts.
I choose Chapter 15, Adolescence: Cognitive Development as my project topic. As I was working on my project I used the multiple intelligences developed by Howard Gardner. In my presentation I used spatial learning by creating my project as a powerpoint with all the definitions along with pictures to help explain the definitions. For example, with my slide on high school and middle school I incorporated pictures from the schools that I attended. THe next intelligence I used with my slides was the logical/mathematical and naturalistic learning. I used the mathematical intelligence with the statistics I included on my cyberbullying slide. By looking up statistics and comparing them it helped me see how much of an impact bullying is having on kids in school today. I used naturalistic intelligence by categorizing all my slides to match up with the definitions and have the correct flow to connect to the next topic. By categorizing these slides together I was able to create a flow to my project to present it in an orderly manner. A intelligence I used while organizing my project was musical, as I put together my slides and while writing this paper I was listening to Beethoven. When I
Unfortunately, not every adolescent develops into this stage “The stage of formal operations involves the development of hypothetical-deductive reasoning which is the capacity to think scientifically and apply the accuracy of scientific methods to cognitive task (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958).” Abstract thought, metacognition, meaning, thinking about thinking, and problem solving are the higher order thinking skills that appear in the formal operational stage. In this particular stage, the individual learns to develop assumptions that are not often grounded in actuality, such as hypothetical-deductive reasoning. Adolescents at this point in their development are moving from inductive to deductive reasoning. “Piaget and his colleagues developed an experiment called the “pendulum problem” with which they wanted to assess whether individuals had reached the formal operational stage. Classically, he had children balance a scale using different types of weights (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958).” It is only in early adolescence could children understand the connection between space or distance from the center of the scale and the mass of the weights. This method involves a length of string and a set of weights. AA was asked to take into consideration three factors; the length of the string, the heaviness of the weight, and the power of push. The assignment was to work out which factor was most important in defining the speed of swing of the pendulum. AA was able to change the
The ways of thinking Julian might have developed since adolescence is dialectical thinking, or reflective thinking. Also, the three other ways of thinking is dualistic thinking, relativistic thinking, and pragmatic thinking. Each of these different ways of thinking are news ways that are developed during the early adulthood stage of life. Dualistic thinking is normally during the younger stages of early adulthood in which a person relies on a authority figure to show them the directions between right and wrong, good and evil. Apart from analyzing, they would rather memorize and duplicate an authority figures state of mind. Abstract concepts are not as welcomed as actual facts and statistics. The next way of thinking would be the dialectical way of thinking. For an individual adult, this style of thinking shifts more towards analytical reasoning in order to obtain knowledge, information, and the truth from questions and conflicts. This process of reasoning and relishing in contradictory concepts ultimately aids in the development of moral and intellectual growth. Reflective thinking involves assessment, analysis, and observation that can be overall essential for success in unforeseen and complex situations. This way of thinking also develops the effectiveness of the cognitive process, as well as creating a way to relate new knowledge to previous comprehension. I feel like this goes most with Julian 's realization because he is able to reflect on his past understanding and
Unfortunately, not every adolescent develops into this stage “The stage of formal operations involves the development of hypothetical-deductive reasoning which is the capacity to think scientifically and apply the accuracy of scientific methods to cognitive task (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958).” Abstract thought, metacognition, meaning, thinking about thinking, and problem solving are the higher order thinking skills that appear in the formal operational stage. In this particular stage, the individual learns to develop assumptions that are not often grounded in actuality, such as hypothetical deductive reasoning. Adolescents at this point in their development are moving from inductive to deductive reasoning. “Piaget and his colleagues developed an experiment called the “pendulum problem” with which they wanted to assess whether individuals had reached the formal operational stage. Classically, he had children balance a scale using different types of weights (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958).” It is only in the initial part of adolescence could children comprehend the connection between space or distance from the middle of the scale and the mass of the weights. This method involves a different lengths of string and a set of different sized weights. AA was asked to take into consideration three factors; the length of the string, the heaviness of the weight, and the power of push. The
One must be able to look at situations through the mind and perspectives of an adolescents. Each situation can’t be judged the same because, unknown to the adolescent they may have barriers that might hamper their behavior.
In your opinion, what are the two most important factors that influence adolescent development? Give rationales for your choices.
In support of my perspective, I synthesized the ideas of the following theorists who were able to help me understand on how does a child’s thinking develops and how can we address to them the ways in order to fully understand their condition: Erik Erikson’s Industry vs. Inferiority which is under the psychosocial theory, Jean Piaget’s concrete operational and formal operational under cognitive development, Lawrence Kohlberg’s Preconventional and Conventional under moral development theory, Lev Vgotsky’s zone of proximal development and B.F Skinner’s Social Learning Theory. It is quite surprising that all the theorists mentioned above have different explanations with regards to Middle Childhood years but they all agree at a certain point, that is having the child being exposed to various activities, events and circumstances would guarantee a development on child’s thinking as it tries to condition the mind of the child on a particular aspect which is the environment that in turn will dictate to him/her to think and ponder
Studies show adolescents with history of maltreatment have cognitive deficits higher order functioning ad attention. There is evidence that the cognitive difficulties seen in maltreated adolescents are much broader, and go beyond executive functioning impairments. In this paper, I will discuss the effects of maltreatment in adolescents and the possible long term effects.
Pre-teens are able to think more abstract than they did before. For example, my brother now thinks able all the consequences or possibilities that can happen after making a wrong decision, opposed to how he was as a child, just doing the actions and not thinking about any consequences. The ability to abstract think in cognitive development was termed by Jean Piaget. He called it the formal operational stage. This stage ranges from twelve to adulthood. In this stage, the person can think hypothetically and abstractly; the what ifs of life. (Boundless “Cognitive Development in Adolescence”, N.a) The age variance makes sense since my brother is twelve, he is just at the start of forming this abstract thinking, I can see this by just listening to a conversation with one of his closest friends, he is the most comfortable and honest at this time. He expresses his though process and concerns of the topic they are discussing, even if the topic is about a girl, there is an evident difference in his thought
During the formal operational stage of cognitive development adolescents can “conceptualize abstract relationships, employ inductive thinking, and expand their logical thinking process” (Manning and Bucher, 2012, pg. 48). Within this stage adolescents can consider more than one part of an issue and can examine figure and separate to get in contact conclusions. In like manner they can consolidate information offer and research benevolent trades apply specific methodologies and answers for issues and make more raised measures of sagacious thought. In like way enthusiastic adolescents start to consider the future make commitments to focus standards and experience force about modifying new considerations. Enthusiastic youngsters add to the capacity
So on paper what, theoretically, adolescents are adept to making veracious decisions. Conversely, according to Piaget, this is a period in an adolescent’s life that they become students of observation and interpretation. By observing other people’s behavior, remarks, expressions, and appearance they are able to make sensible conjectures about what another person may be thinking, necessitating, or feeling. As such, these upcoming adults begin to ponder about what other people may be discerning about them. This is called the “imaginary audience.” Adolescents believe that everyone is watching and scrutinizing their every move. This is a time in their lives that they are struggling with insecurities about their altering appearance and identity. Their priority is not being logical and sensible. They want to fit in and be accepted by their peers. This partially explains why they tend to get themselves into some sticky situations. When it comes down to an actual situation in their life and they must make a decision all their capable
While cognitive abilities change through the course of infancy to late adulthood, a majority of our basic mental functions stay the same. Some current cognitive abilities that late adolescents experience include being able to think abstractly rather than concrete thinking. Concrete thinking is way of focusing on facts in the current moment and using the literal definitions of things. Late adolescents are also able to deal with multiple concepts at a given time, while those in late adulthood struggle with being able to multitask (Veroude, Jolles, Croiset, & Krabbendam, 2013). Late adolescents are also able to process harder complex problems at a reasonable speed, and are able to handle a more demanding curriculum because their memory