Developmental Psychology General overview of Theories of Developmental Psychology.
Developmental Psychology
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Transcript of Developmental Psychology
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“Teaching adolescents is a challenge because of physical, cognitive and psychosocial changes they undergo” 3
Piaget’s theory and cognitive development 3
Piaget’s theory and learning 3
Cognitive Stages 4
The sensorimotor stage: birth to age 2 6
The preoperational stage: age 2 to 7 6
The concrete operational stage: age 7 to 11 6
The formal operational stage: age 12 and beyond 7
Psychosocial development 8
Erik Erikson: eight psychosocial crises of development 8
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“Based on insights and experiences developed during the course,
examine how you as a teacher can support adolescent students’
learning experiences”
You may refer to any pertinent theories in the domain of
educational psychology.
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Using educational psychology to support student’s learning 10
Problems impacting on adolescents learning: depression, suicide
and delinquency 11
Erikson’s Crisis of adolescence 12
References 14
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Piaget’s theory and cognitive development
From his observation of children, Piaget understood that children were creating ideas.
They were not limited to receiving knowledge from parents or teachers; they actively
constructed their own knowledge. Piaget's work provides the foundation on which
constructionist theories are based. Constructionists believe that knowledge is constructed
and learning occurs when children create products or artifacts. They assert that learners
are more likely to be engaged in learning when these artifacts are personally relevant and
meaningful. In studying the cognitive development of children and adolescents, Piaget
identified four major stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and
formal operational. Piaget believed all children pass through these phases to advance to
the next level of cognitive development. In each stage, children demonstrate new
intellectual abilities and increasingly complex understanding of the world. Stages cannot
be "skipped"; intellectual development always follows this sequence. The ages at which
children progress through the stages are averages, they vary with the environment and
background of individual children. At any given time a child may exhibit behaviors
characteristic of more than one stage (Wood, Smith, Grossniklaus, 2001).
Piaget’s theory and learning
An important implication of Piaget's theory is the adaptation of instruction to the learner's
developmental level. The content of instruction needs to be consistent with the
developmental level of the learner. The teacher's role is to facilitate learning by providing
a variety of experiences. Discovery learning provides opportunities for learners to explore
and experiment, thereby encouraging new understandings. Opportunities that allow
students of differing cognitive levels to work together often encourage less mature
students to advance to a more mature understanding. One further implication for
instruction is the use of concrete hands on experiences to help children learn. Additional
suggestions include:
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-Provide concrete props and visual aids, such as models
-Use familiar examples to facilitate learning more complex ideas
-Allow opportunities to classify and group information with increasing complexity; use
outlines and hierarchies to facilitate assimilating new information with previous
knowledge.
-Present problems that require logical analytic thinking; the use of tools such as brain
teasers is encouraged.
-Use visual aids and models.
-Provide opportunities to discuss social, political, and cultural issues.
-Teach broad concepts rather than facts, and to situate these in a context meaningful and
relevant to the learner
Huitt and Hummel (1998) assert that only 35% of high school graduates in industrialized
countries obtain formal operations; many people do not think formally during adulthood.
This is significant in terms of developing instruction and performance support tools for
students who are chronologically adults, but may be limited in their understanding of
abstract concepts. For both adolescent and adult learners, it is important to use these
instructional strategies
Cognitive Stages
Cognition refers to the processes of thinking and memorization and cognitive
development refers to the changes happening in these processes.
Piaget’s Stages:
Sensorimotor stage ( birth to 2 yrs)
Preoperational stage ( 2 to 7 yrs)
Concrete operational stage ( 7 to 12 yrs )
Formal operational stage ( 12 years and up)
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The sensorimotor stage: birth to age 2
In Piaget’s theory (1984, 2003), the sensorimotor stage is first, and is defined as the
period when infants think by means of their senses and motor actions. As every new
parent will attest, infants continually touch, manipulate, look, listen to, and even bite and
chew objects. According to Piaget, these actions allow them to learn about the world and
are crucial to their early cognitive development. The infant’s actions allow the child to
represent or construct simple concepts of objects and events. During much of infancy, a
child can only barely talk, so sensorimotor development initially happens without the
support of language. It might therefore seem hard to know what infants are thinking, but
Piaget devised several simple, but clever experiments to get around their lack of
language, and that suggest that infants do indeed represent objects even without being
able to talk.
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The preoperational stage: age 2 to 7
At this age, according to Piaget, children acquire representational skills in the area of
mental imagery and more especially language. They are very selforiented, and have an
egocentric view; that is, preoperational children can use these representational skills only
to view the world from their own perspective.In the preoperational stage, children use
their new ability to represent objects in a wide variety of activities, but they do not yet do
it in ways that are organized or fully logical.
One of the most obvious examples of this kind of cognition is dramatic play, the
improvised make-believe of preschool children.
The concrete operational stage: age 7 to 11
Piaget called this period the concrete operational stage because children mentally operate
on concrete objects and events. As children continue into elementary school, they become
able to represent ideas and events more flexibly and logically. Their rules of thinking still
seem very basic by adult standards and usually operate unconsciously, but they allow
children to solve problems more systematically than before, and therefore to be
successful with many academic tasks. They are not yet able, however, to operate or
think systematically about representations of objects or events. Manipulating
representations is a more abstract skill that develops later, during adolescence.
Concrete operational thinking differs from preoperational thinking in two ways, each of
which renders children more skilled as students. One difference is reversibility, or the
ability to think about the steps of a process in any order.
The formal operational stage: age 12 and beyond
In the last of the Piaget cognitive stages, the child becomes able to reason not only about
tangible objects and events, but also about hypothetical or abstract ones. Hence it has the
name formal operational stage—the period when the individual can operate on forms or
representations. The hypothetical reasoning that concerned Piaget primarily involved
scientific problems. Piaget’s studies of formal operational thinking therefore often look
like problems that middle or high school teachers pose in science classes. The fourth
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stage in Piaget’s theory is really about a particular kind of formal thinking, the kind
needed to solve scientific problems and devise scientific experiments.
Piaget did not design instructional strategies, but teachers have interpreted Piaget’s theory
to suggest broad instructional principles. If a teacher is using a specific method, it should
be a method that depends on the teacher’s understanding of the student’s thinking .
According to Marcy Driscoll,there are three basic instructional principles on which
Piagetian theorists generally agree. (Driscoll,1994).
Principle 1:
The learning environment should be an active discovery oriented environment to support
the activity of the child .
Principle 2:
Peer interaction is important and the children’s interactions with their peers are an
important source of cognitive
Principle 3:
Instructional strategies that make children aware of conflicts and inconsistencies in their
thinking should be used.
Psychosocial development
Social development
Social development is defined by the long-term changes in relationships and interactions
involving self, peers, and with family and this includes both positive changes, such as
how friendships develop, and negative changes, such as aggression or bullying. The
social developments that are the most obviously relevant to classroom life fall into three
main areas:
(1) Changes in self-concept and in relationships among students and teachers,
(2) Changes in basic needs or personal motives, and
(3) Changes in sense of rights and responsibilities.
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As with cognitive development, each of these areas has a broad, well-known theory that
provides a framework for thinking about how the area relates to teaching. For
development of self-concept and relationships, it is the theory of Erik Erikson; for
development of personal motives, it is the theory of Abraham Maslow; and for
development of ethical knowledge and beliefs, it is the work of Lawrence Kohlbergand
his critic, Carol Gilligan.Their theories are definitely not the only ones related to social
development of students, and their ideas are often debated by other researchers. But
their accounts do explain much about social development that is relevant to
teaching and education.
Erik Erikson: eight psychosocial crises of development
Erik Erikson developed a theory of social development that relies on stages, but
compared to Piaget, Erikson thought of stages as a series of psychological or social (or
psychosocial) crises which are turning points in a person’s relationships and feelings
about himself or herself .Each crisis consists of a dilemma or choice that carries both
advantages and risks, but in which one choice or alternative is normally considered more
desirable or healthy. The way one crisis is resolved affects how later crises are resolved.
The resolution also helps to create an individual’s developing personality. Erikson
proposed eight crises that extend from birth through old age; they are summarized in the
table below. Four of the stages occur during the school years.
Eight psychosocial crises according to Erikson
Psychosocial crisis Approximate
age
Description
Trust and mistrust Birth to one
year
Development of trust between caregiver and
child.
Autonomy and
shame
Age 1-3 Development of control over bodily functions
and activities.
Initiative and guilt Age 3-6 Testing limits of self assertion and
purposefulness.
Industry and Age 6-12 Development of sense of mastery and
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inferiority competence
Identify and role
confusion
Age 12-19 Development of identity and acknowledge of
identity by others
Intimacy and
isolation
Age 19-25+ Formation of intimate relationships and
commitments.
Generativity and
stagnation
Age 25-50+ Development of creative or productive activities
that contribute to future generations
Integrity and
despair
Age 50+ Acceptance of personal life history and
forgiveness of self and others
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II “Based on insights and experiences developed during the course, examine how you as
a teacher can support adolescent students’ learning experiences”
You may refer to any pertinent theories in the domain of educational psychology.
Using educational psychology to support student’s learning
Studying educational psychology is very useful for an educator to help his students
namely to understand:
(i)Individual differences
Since there are wide variations in different abilities among students, a teacher has to deal
carefully with a group of students in class room situation. At the level of growth and
development, it is very essential to understand the individual difference of students
concerning their ability, interests, attitudes and need.
(ii)To know the classroom teaching-learning process
To transmit effectively the content of teaching to the students, a well developed theory of
class room teaching and learning is helpful and this includes classroom climate and the
teaching competence which are required for effective communication and presentation of
content. Knowing the appropriateness of principles of teaching and learning and the
different approaches to teaching is important for teaching and learning process.
(iii) Awareness of effective methods of teaching
The developmental characteristic of the students is important for the methods of teaching.
Therefore the classroom teaching depends on the teachers’ knowledge about the interest
of students and methods of teaching for the students of various specificities.
(iv) Curriculum development
Knowledge of psychology can be useful in developing the curriculum of different levels
of students in different subjects. The developmental characteristics and needs of the
students are also taken into account in the formulation of curriculum.
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(v) To study mental health of students
In the process of teaching and learning the mental health of teacher and students must be
normal or healthy. There are different causes of mental illness of the teacher and the
students
(vi) Guidance to the students
Guidance is a type of assistance to the students to solve their problems by themselves.
The knowledge of psychology enables the teacher to provide necessary educational and
vocational guidance to the students of different age groups especially on problems
associated with development such as depression, suicide and delinquency prevention.
Prevention of depression, suicide and delinquency are important when supporting
adolescent student’s learning experiences. A student who is mentally depressed cannot
concentrate on studies. The role of an educator is to identify any possible causes
depression, suicide and delinquency as a form of prevention.
Problems impacting on adolescents learning: depression, suicide
and delinquency
Depression
Feeling sad, frustrated and hopeless about life, loss in most activities and disturbances in
sleep, appetite, concentration and energy are symptoms of depression and is the most
common psychological problems of adolescents .Depressive symptoms increases sharply
between ages 13 and 15 .Depression prevents young people from mastering crucial
developmental tasks and this disrupts the identity development and is also associated with
persistent anxiety, poor school performances and drug abuse.
Suicide
The suicide rate increases from childhood to old ages but it jumps sharply at adolescence.
Suicides tend to occur in two types of young people. The first group includes adolescents
characterized as being highly intelligent and solitary, withdrawn and unable to meet their
own standards or those of important people of their lives. The second group of people
show antisocial tendencies and express their despondency through bullying, fighting,
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stealing, increased risk taking and drug abuse. They are usually hostile and destructive
towards others so they turn their anger and disappointment inwards themselves and these
suicidal behaviours are influenced by biological and environmental factors. Some
triggering factors are parents blaming the teenager for family problems, breakup of
important relationships and humiliation. Suicidal prevention starts by picking up signals
of the troubled adolescent.
Delinquency
Juvenile delinquencies are children or adolescents who are involved in illegal activities.
Children with difficult temperament, low intelligence, and a history of poor school
performances, peer rejection and association with antisocial peers are linked with
delinquency and as well as children of families with where there are high level of
conflicts and low monitoring
Erikson’s Crisis of adolescence
One of the crisis stages of Erikson is the crisis of adolescence where there is the identity
and role confusion.
Identify and role
confusion
Age 12-19 Development of identity and acknowledge of
identity by others
The crisis of adolescence: identity and role confusion
As they make the transition from childhood to adulthood, teens may begin to feel
confused or insecure about themselves and how they fit in to society. As they seek to
establish a sense of self, teens may experiment with different roles, activities and
behaviors. According to Erikson (1963, 1968), this is important to the process of forming
a strong identity and developing a sense of direction in life.
Those who receive proper encouragement and reinforcement through personal
exploration will emerge from this stage with a strong sense of self and a feeling of
independence and control. Those who remain unsure of their beliefs and desires will
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insecure and confused about themselves and the future. Teachers can minimize role
confusion in a number of ways. One is to offer students lots of diverse role models by
identifying models in students’ reading materials, for example, or by inviting diverse
guests to school. The point of these strategies would be to express a key idea: that there
are many ways to be respected, successful, and satisfied with life. Another way to support
students’ identity development is to be alert to students’ confusions about their futures,
and refer them to counselors or other services outside school that can help sort these out.
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References
Driscoll, Marcy Perkins (1994). Psychology of learning for instruction.Needham Heights,
MA: Allyn & Bacon
Erikson, E.H. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E.H. (1963). Childhood and Society. (2nd ed.). New York: Norton.
Huitt,W. & Hummel, J. (1998). Cognitive development. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associated, Publisher
Piaget, J. (1984). The attainment of invariants and reversible operations in the
development of thinking . Social Research, 51, 167-184.
Piaget, J. (2003). Development and learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,
40(March 2003 supplement), S8-S18.
Seifert K., Sutton R. (2009) Educational psychology , second edition,
Wood, K. C., Smith, H., Grossniklaus, D. (2001). Piaget's Stages of Cognitive
Development. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and
technology
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