Cognitive vs. Behavioral

385 Words2 Pages
According to Jean Piaget, cognitive development is where the individual innate the characteristics. Individual would then accommodate and assimilate to the environment. Accommodate is process where the individual would change their cognitive structures in order to accept something from the environment. Assimilate is the process where the individual uses or transform the environment so that it can be placed in preexisting cognitive structures. Individual would utilize these processes simultaneously and alternately throughout their life. Piaget believed that infants have reflexes, which are schemes operating at birth. Infants then use the reflexes to adapt to the environment. As infants grew older, their schemes become highly complex. Piaget identified four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor stage, pre-operational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage. On the other hand, behavioral theories are total opposite of cognitive theories. Behavioral theory was developed by B.F. Skinner. It emphasizes the importance effect of the environment. B.F. Skinner system was based on operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is utilizing the consequences to modify the occurrence and form of the behavior. During operant conditioning, the individual encounters reinforcement stimulus. The role of reinforcement stimulus is to increase and strengthen the behavior of the individual. Reinforcement can be done in two ways; they are positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is where the individual received consequences of rewards. Negative reinforcement is where the consequences of stopping or avoiding the negative conditions. The opposite of reinforcement is punishment. Punishments are utilized to weaken a behavior because the individual experienced negative conditions as consequences of the behavior. Throughout Skinner’s
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