Describe and Evaluate Any Two Theories in Development

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Developmental psychology consists of many different theories and approaches that include the cognitive, behaviorist, social learning, psychoanalytic and the evolutionary approach. In this paper I shall be looking at two of the many theories. The first approach I will be looking at is the cognitive psychology approach which investigates memory, language, perception and problem solving but which is also used in areas such as social and development, I’ll be looking at the cognitive approach in the developmental side of things where it emphasises the importance of understanding in the development of moral values. One of the main contributors to the cognitive approach was Jean Piaget, Whose work has been very influential in the way in which cognitive development is seen in modern day. Piaget (1932) concentrated on young children and was interested in the child’s understanding of right and wrong and how it developed with age. Piaget had two ways in which he gained insight into children’s moral judgments and developments. Firstly, Piaget gave children a game of marbles to play with him, while he was playing Piaget noted how the rules were understood and obeyed while playing. To do this Piaget pretended not to know how to play and started asking questions such as “where do rules come from?” and “Who made them?” From this Piaget notice a few noticeable differences between the different ages and their moral and cognitive development being that the children aged 5-9 although not playing by the rules thought that they were sacred and came from god, whereas children aged 10+ played by the rules and had the understanding that they were something that was agreed by all players before starting. Secondly, Piaget read the children stories, these involved the importance of intentions when judging how wrong the character was. When Piaget asked the children who “Who was naughtier?”
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