Psychological Theories Paper

Piaget also hypothesised four different stages – sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational- in which children develop (Woolfolk & Margetts 2013, p.83). It was thought that every person passes through the stages in the exact same order, never skipping a stage. The stages are often categorised by age, from birth to adulthood. However, it was stated that people may experience long periods between stages, and others may show characteristics from different stages at different times. The sensorimotor stage is approximately from ages zero to two years old and involves the development of thinking and understanding through the five senses, and movement. Object permanence, which is the understanding that objects exist whether they are seen or not, and goal-oriented actions are

The preoperational stage is when infants become older, young children and they are able to think in a more symbolic way. In this stage children start to learn the difference between real and make believe, past and future. They tend to have more of an imagination as they grow older. Children in the preoperational stage still are not completely logical with their thinking. They go more off intuition. Do more of what they want to do, not what is the best thing to do. They are still too young to grasp the concept of cause and effect. They also do not understand time and comparison yet.

Children develop cognition through two main stages that Jean Piaget theorized. The stages run from birth and infancy to school age children. Sensorimotor is the first stage and goes from birth to about the age of two. This stage implies that the children learn about the environment they live in and they learn this through the reflexes and movements they produce. They also learn that they are separate people from their parents and they can say goodbye to them and know they will come back. The second stage is called the preoperational stage. During this stage of development, children will learn how to incorporate symbols to represent objects. This is also the beginning of learning the alphabet and speech. The child is still very much egocentric at this point in time, but with the help of understanding educators, the child will grow appropriately onto the next stages of development. Finally, the children need to develop emotionally/socially.

THE PREOPERATIONAL STAGE: GROWTH OF SYMBOLIC ACTIVITY Some time between the ages of 18 and 24 months, According to Piaget, children develop the ability to form mental representations of objects and events. At the same time, language develops, as well as the beginning of thinking in words. These developments mark the transition into the preoperational stage. During this stage, which lasts up until about age seven, children are capable of doing many task they could not perform earlier. For example, they begin make-believe play which includes enacting familiar routines.

Early childhood is often characterized by endless make-believe and sociodramatic play which indicates the development of mental representation. Sociodramtic play differs from simple make-believe play in that it involves play with peers. This stage of play is often referred to as the Preoperational Stage. This is the stage immediately after Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage. The Preoperational Stage spans from two to about five or six years of age. At this stage, according to Piaget, children acquire skills in the area of mental imagery, and especially language. They are very self-oriented, and have an egocentric view; that is, preoperational children can use these representational skills only to view the world from their

Psychology is the study of the behavior and mind of all living organisms. Perspectives are made in psychology in order for us to be able to have a better understanding of human behavior. These “theories” help contribute to studying how people think, feel, and behave. Three of the main perspectives include behaviorism, which is the study of people’s behavior, humanistic, which is the study of the potential good in everyone, and cognitive, the study of mental processes.

1.     Sensor motor Stage (birth – 2 years) – The child, through physical interaction with his or her environment, builds a set of concepts about reality and how it works. In this stage a child still do not know that physical objects remain in existence even when out of sight. They haven’t developed object permanence.

For example, pretending a broom is a horse or an orange is a ball. This is also the stage where role playing first takes place, children begin to believe they are mommy daddy or even doctor. The Preoperational stage lasts from age two up until age six.

There are many perspectives in psychology which involves certain beliefs about human behavior. For instance, psychodynamic, psychosocial, and behaviorism and where psychologists like John B Watson and Erik Erikson developed theories of human behavior. Erikson identified 8 stages and that our personality is developed throughout lifespan. While Feud divided our brain into 3 parts the id, the ego and

The different perspectives of psychology that allow us to create a complete picture have different approaches toward explaining behaviors. A Biological psychologist may attempt to explain aggressive behavior by explaining the neural pathways involved in transferring neurotransmitters that cause anger. According to Biological Psychology the brain is full of neurons that transfer the information around our brains; this allows humans to influence those by tampering with the genes that effect neuron transmission, or heredity temperament.

During this stage the child is beginning to use languages, and their imagination is developing. One technique of teaching during this stage would be to use imagery, props, and have short instruction. The teacher would need to use a kinesthetic type of learning environment and get the student involve with learning.

The preoperational stage takes place between the ages of two and seven. During this stage, children start to use speech, and the expansion of the child’s memory and creative ability is put into play. In the preoperational stage, children take part in imaginative play and can grasp and express connections between the past and what's to come. A child’s knowledge in this stage is egocentric and natural, not intelligent

Piaget believed that there were three processes involved in moving from one stage to the next these were assimilation accommodation and equilibrium. Assimilation is the process of converting new information so

In the first, or sensorimotor, stage (birth to two years), knowledge is gained primarily through sensory impressions and motor activity. Through these two modes of learning, experienced both separately and in combination, infants gradually learn to control their own bodies and objects in the external world. Toward the end of Piaget¡¦s career, he brought about the idea that action is actually the primary source of knowledge and that perception and language are more secondary roles. He claimed that action is not random, but has organization, as well as logic. Infants from birth to four months however, are incapable of thought and are unable to differentiate themselves from others or from the environment. To infants, objects only exist when they are insight

In the sensorimotor stage the child discovers the environment through physical actions such as sucking, grabbing, shaking and pushing. During these first two years of life children realize objects still exist, even if it is out of view. This concept is known as object permanence. Children in the preoperational stage develop language skills, but may only grasp an idea with repeated exposure. As Piaget describes in the next stage, children draw on knowledge that is based on real life situations to provide more logical explanations and predictions. Lastly, in the formal operational stage children use higher levels of thinking and present abstract ideas.