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CountMoon788
A. Explain what you like and what you don’t…
A. Explain what you like and what you don’t like about the theory and why?
I believe that the theory that offers the best explanation of development is the cognitive theory, which is also my favorite theory! The cognitive theory of development is essentially the evolution of understanding in an individual (Santrock, 2020, p.23). Unlike the psychoanalytic theory which focuses on the unconscious mind, the cognitive theory focuses heavily on conscious thoughts (Santrock, 2020, p.20). In my opinion, some of the most interesting research within this theory has come from Jean Piaget. Piaget’s theory proposes that children intellectually develop through four stages that reflect the refinement of their thoughts (McLeod, 2022). These four stages that children go through are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Each stage has a goal including sensorimotor obtaining object permanence, preoperational obtaining symbolic thought, concrete operational obtaining logical thought, and formal operational obtaining scientific reasoning (McLeod, 2022).
2. One of the reasons that I chose the cognitive theory as my favorite perspective is due to the fact that it highlights the transition of intellectual development. Rather than focusing on the negatives of development, the cognitive development theory focuses on the positive perspective of development (Santrock, 2020, p.23). In addition, the cognitive theory has a variety of different and unique perspectives that all focus on different objectives; an example of this would be how the sociocultural theory focuses on how culture allows us to assemble our knowledge, while the information-processing theory focuses on how we obtain the capacity to process information and gain complex knowledge (Santrock, 2020, p.22).
3. Out of all the theories, the theory I found to be my least favorite would have to be the ecological theory, which is tied to Urie Bronfenbrenner. In spite of the fact that environmental factors do contribute to the development of every individual, this theory doesn’t exhibit the biological factors as much (Santrock, 2020, p.26). Another reason as to why the ecological theory isn’t my strongest choice is due to the fact that it doesn’t have a strong emphasis on the individual. It could be argued that this theory is supposed to only focus on the environment of the individual, but I find it unbalanced to ignore the mind of the individual when the whole point of developmental psychology is to explain the change and evolution in the lifespan of the individual.
References
McLeod, S. (2022, 8 18). Jean Piaget’s Theory and Stages of Cognitive Development. Simply Psychology. Retrieved January 10, 2023, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html?campaignid=70161000000RNtB&vid=2120483
Santrock, J. W. (2022). Essentials of life-span development (7th ed.). McGraw Hill LLC.
