COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
The first prominent area of development in my life is cognitive development. According to Jean Piaget, adaptation or adjustment to the environment include two basic processes, which are assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the act of using one’s existing schemes to make meaning or to interpret events in the world—an attempt to comprehend new information by fitting it into pre-existing information or knowledge. Sometimes, distorting new information is necessary to make it fit (Piaget, 1978 as cited in Woolfolk, Perry, McDevitt, & Ormrod, 2016). An example of this was at age 4-5, I would immediately say “American!” whenever I saw a white person without realizing that they could be European, Australian, Canadian …show more content…
If a certain scheme fits into an event and works, we experience equilibrium. If not, disequilibrium or the feeling of discomfort occurs, motivating us to solve the problem through assimilation and accommodation (Piaget, 1975/1985 as cited in Woolfolk et al., 2016). When I was ages 3-4, my parents called Caucasians “Hweh-kee” which is the Fuchian term for “American.” However, the Fuchian term for airplanes was very similar, “Hwee-kee”, and I noticed that white men almost always drove airplanes. Therefore, I thought my parents called Caucasians that term because they were pilots, and I was at a state of disequilibrium when my parents told me “no, the term refers to them as being Americans, not pilots” and to establish my sense of equilibrium, I had to note that Caucasians were separate from pilots. At age 8, I found out Americans composed not only of white people but also of various other races (Chinese, Mexicans, Spanish, Africans, etc.). I accommodated the information that the term “Americans” refers to the inhabitants of America rather than the race of the people. However when the information is too unfamiliar neither assimilation nor accommodation takes place (Woolfolk et al., 2016). For instance, when I heard my classmates speak Korean, I simply ignored the information because I lacked any background knowledge or point of reference, and thus, had no drive to learn (Dalkilic,
The first prominent area of development in my life is cognitive development. According to Jean Piaget, adaptation or adjustment to the environment include two basic processes, which are assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the act of using one’s existing schemes to make meaning or to interpret events in the world—an attempt to comprehend new information by fitting it into pre-existing information or knowledge. Sometimes, distorting new information is necessary to make it fit (Piaget, 1978 as cited in Woolfolk, Perry, McDevitt, & Ormrod, 2016). An example of this was at age 4-5, I would immediately say “American!” whenever I saw a white person without realizing that they could be European, Australian, Canadian …show more content…
If a certain scheme fits into an event and works, we experience equilibrium. If not, disequilibrium or the feeling of discomfort occurs, motivating us to solve the problem through assimilation and accommodation (Piaget, 1975/1985 as cited in Woolfolk et al., 2016). When I was ages 3-4, my parents called Caucasians “Hweh-kee” which is the Fuchian term for “American.” However, the Fuchian term for airplanes was very similar, “Hwee-kee”, and I noticed that white men almost always drove airplanes. Therefore, I thought my parents called Caucasians that term because they were pilots, and I was at a state of disequilibrium when my parents told me “no, the term refers to them as being Americans, not pilots” and to establish my sense of equilibrium, I had to note that Caucasians were separate from pilots. At age 8, I found out Americans composed not only of white people but also of various other races (Chinese, Mexicans, Spanish, Africans, etc.). I accommodated the information that the term “Americans” refers to the inhabitants of America rather than the race of the people. However when the information is too unfamiliar neither assimilation nor accommodation takes place (Woolfolk et al., 2016). For instance, when I heard my classmates speak Korean, I simply ignored the information because I lacked any background knowledge or point of reference, and thus, had no drive to learn (Dalkilic,