preview

Adolescence Cognitive Development Essay

Better Essays

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 …show more content…

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

Get Access