Over the course of a lifetime, humans undergo many developmental changes, which include physical, emotional, social and intellectual changes. Many psychologists including Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, and Erik Erikson, have created developmental stage theories to categorize and evaluate these changes, especially social and emotional developments. In this report I will outline my lifespan development through the infant, toddler, childhood and adolescent stages of development primarily using Jean Piaget’s theory of stages of cognitive development.
In infancy, many physical and cognitive developments happen during a very short time span. I first spoke when I was one and could speak clear sentences consistently by three and a half years. I started …show more content…
During the pre-operational stage we see the beginning of abstract reasoning, but “children’s thinking is regulated by centering on one aspect of a situation” (Whitelaw, 1982, p. 214). Because egocentrism is another characterizing aspect of this stage, that one aspect is often the sense of self, which is why many children have trouble seeing things from another’s point of view, even though they are quickly developing empathy at these ages. For example, like many children I had several imaginary friends at this age. This demonstrates that I had the ability to empathize enough to imagine how my imaginary friends might act, but still saw things as revolving around me in the sense that my games and activities with them were always what I wanted to play. At age four I went to preschool for the first time. I got along with other children very well at this age and had quite a few friends from school that I liked playing with and celebrating my birthdays with. Socially, I was developing very well and demonstrated a strong ability to empathize with peers and form friendship bonds. However, I did not like going to school and would cry in attempt to get my parents to let me not go. This behavior pattern reflects how I had learned as an infant that crying would get me things I wanted such as food or a clean diaper. I eventually learned that crying would not get me what I wanted anymore. Piaget would consider this insight accommodation, or the modification of existing schema to adapt to new information (Fischer, 1964). In this case, I had to adjust my schema around crying and the results it would bring in order to know that crying would no longer work for
In infancy, many physical and cognitive developments happen during a very short time span. I first spoke when I was one and could speak clear sentences consistently by three and a half years. I started …show more content…
During the pre-operational stage we see the beginning of abstract reasoning, but “children’s thinking is regulated by centering on one aspect of a situation” (Whitelaw, 1982, p. 214). Because egocentrism is another characterizing aspect of this stage, that one aspect is often the sense of self, which is why many children have trouble seeing things from another’s point of view, even though they are quickly developing empathy at these ages. For example, like many children I had several imaginary friends at this age. This demonstrates that I had the ability to empathize enough to imagine how my imaginary friends might act, but still saw things as revolving around me in the sense that my games and activities with them were always what I wanted to play. At age four I went to preschool for the first time. I got along with other children very well at this age and had quite a few friends from school that I liked playing with and celebrating my birthdays with. Socially, I was developing very well and demonstrated a strong ability to empathize with peers and form friendship bonds. However, I did not like going to school and would cry in attempt to get my parents to let me not go. This behavior pattern reflects how I had learned as an infant that crying would get me things I wanted such as food or a clean diaper. I eventually learned that crying would not get me what I wanted anymore. Piaget would consider this insight accommodation, or the modification of existing schema to adapt to new information (Fischer, 1964). In this case, I had to adjust my schema around crying and the results it would bring in order to know that crying would no longer work for