Theories of Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Theories of Development - Essay Example This theory was developed by Jean Piaget. The developer of this particular theory is a Philosopher who belonged to Switzerland. This theory has provided many central concepts in the field of development psychology. The theory of cognitive development is mainly concerned about the growth of an individual's intelligence levels. "The cognitive theory prides itself on taking into consideration all parts of the mind - thinking, knowing, memorizing, and communicating - and how they work together. In this sense, they see the mind as a computer, hardware and software interacting to form the personality. This perspective also points to general learning and how it is handled, rather than individual experience, as the main factor in shaping the personality. It sees the mind as a set-out frame waiting to be filled, rather than one shaped by experience. It is most like the behavioral view, but has humanized it by including the idea of individual thinking, personal reward, anticipated reinforcemen t, and social relationships (Phillips, 1999)." When the theory of cognitive development is applied to one's individual life, it can be surely said that it has got its own influence. This statement can be justified in the following way. As individuals, we learn many things as we grow up. Our knowledge levels are not the same when compared to our childhood days to our present day life. As we progress in our learning period in schools, colleges and the universities, out knowledge levels definitely improve and the amount of things about which we get aware of increase drastically. Socio-cultural Theory The socio-cultural theory was brought into light by a psychologist named Lev Vegotsky who hailed from the Soviet Union. According to socio-cultural theory, thinking and speaking are two different concepts. Though, according to the socio-cultural theory, thinking and speaking are two separate concepts, both of them are strongly interrelated. According to Vegotsky, individual cognition occurs in a social situation. They cannot be separated which correlates with the integrated nature of holism. The group is therefore vital to the learning process for all initiates who learn higher forms of mental activity via more knowledgeable peers and adults who jointly construct and transfer this activity primarily through language (Jaramillo, 1996). "Constructivism has a spectrum of contributors whose divergent theoretical orientations subsequently provided this theory with a range of teaching styles. Although one end of the spectrum is delineated by Piaget's notion that we learn in various stages of development, rather than in leaps and bounds, Vygotsky's view is a nonlinear learning sequence, which constitutes the other. Vygotsky's version of constructivism, then, is a non-development view of education whereby a child's intellectual personality and socio-moral knowledge is "constructed" by students internalizing concepts through self-discovery (Jaramillo, 1996). In the classroom setting, students learn through interacting with their peers, teacher, manipulative, and their contextual setting (Jaramillo, 1996)." This theory when applied to individual lives is something different from the cognitive theory of development. According to the former, human beings learn in a step-by-step process. They gain knowledge of many things in various stages of their life as part of their study or through the surroundings. But, according to the