Evaluate Piaget's Theory Of Cognitive Development

This essay will analyse the evidence both for and against the argument that development occurs in stages. There are many theories relating to child development. Many of which argue the existence of stages within the development process. One of the main theories is Piaget’s, who focused on the cognitive development of children. This essay will look at Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in children and examine any positive and negative aspects of this theory. It will also look at Freud’s theory of sexual development in children and investigate the positive and negative attributes of this theory. The final major theory that will be looked at is the information processing approach, with a brief look at positive and negative features of this
The second stage of development is the Preoperational stage, this occurs between the ages of two and seven. During this stage the child is expanding their language skills but still has a very egocentric view of the world, believing that everyone else sees certain circumstances the same way that they do (Smith, Cowie, Blades, 2003). The third stage is the Concrete Operational Stage, which occurs between the ages of seven and twelve. Throughout this particular stage, children become less egocentric and are able to see things from another person’s point of view (Kaplan, 1998). They are also able to understand "conservation of mass, length, weight and volume", (Smith, Cowie and Blades, 2003). For example this means that they comprehend that beakers of varying height and width can hold the same volume of liquid. The final stage of cognitive development according to Piaget is the Formal Operational Stage. This stage occurs from the age of twelve upwards. At this stage the child can begin to reason abstractly and think somewhat scientifically
He believed that children were sexual beings, who experienced pleasure and sensuality. His theory of psychosexual development states that children’s development occurs in five stages. The oral stage which occurs from birth to about 18 months, involves the child gains through pleasure from sucking and biting. If some trauma occurs during this stage the child may become fixated in this stage and experience what’s known as an oral fixation (Kaplan, 1998). The second psychosexual stage of development takes place while the parents are attempting to toilet-train the child. It’s known as the anal stage and occurs when the child gains pleasure from releasing faeces. Again if the child becomes fixated in this stage it can lead to either an anal retentive personality or an extremely disorganised personality depending on whether the child was toilet-trained strictly or liberally (Kaplan, 1998). The third stage is the phallic stage; this occurs at age four and is when the child becomes "attached" to the sex organs. The child becomes sexually attracted to the parent of the opposite sex and fears that the same sex parent will punish them for these feelings. They experience feelings of jealousy toward the same sex parent. This is known as the Electra complex (in girls) and the Oedipus complex (in boys), (Kaplan, 1998). Freud believed that fixation in this stage could lead to a number of problems, for example