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Piaget's Lifespan Theory

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When you hear the word “lifespan,” what do you imagine? Is it an age range, the growth of the body from infant to elderly? Perhaps it’s puberty or is the time-lapse of one’s mental capacity. If you imagined any of these or had something similar in mind, you were correct, for these are all part of the lifespan experience. Personally, I define lifespan as the time from which a human is conceived all the way to their death. It is often characterized by milestone experiences such as finding love, giving birth, starting a career, and acknowledging death. Thus, the study of the lifespan looks at these milestones associated with human development as well as the experiences that give life its individual flare. Therefore, almost anything you may imagine …show more content…

Though his has a multicultural approach with its emphasis on individualism, this makes it difficult to test. In addition, the theory fails to address how development occurs. This is where Piaget’s theory comes in. Piaget’s theory has been widely accepted by developmental theorists as it focuses on how development occurs through childhood and into adolescents. Despite having the potential for yielding based results, his theory has been widely accepted by developmental theorist (Belsky, 2016). Unlike Erikson’s theory, Piaget’s theory is not culturally friendly, in that it is near impossible to apply this theory to children who have intellectual disabilities or those who missed developmental milestones as it can underestimate their cognitive ability. Despite having their limitations, both approaches offer valuable insight on the development of humans and as well as contributions to the counseling and education field. Erikson’s theory has not only influenced research, but has influenced the development of identity theories (Belsky, 2016). Likewise, Piaget’s theory has influenced how children are studied. These studies have then impacted educations structures and parenting as it is so heavily focused on …show more content…

While Piaget preferred to study the evolution of though in stages, Vygotsky was curious about what stimulated thought (Belsky, 2016). Vygotsky’s approach thus had a focus on cultural influence which can be considered contradictory to Piaget’s idea of having universal stages for cognitive development. It is for this reason that Vygotsky’s theory may be more applicable to different cultures, such as those with intellectual disabilities, as it allows for an individual to develop at their own pace rather than offering a universal stage process such as Piaget’s theory. It is also interesting to note that Vygotsky’s theory has a deeper focus on a child’s information processing rather than exploring, as it examines the fundamental processes of attention, memory and

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