… y can’t feel guilt about it. Following the pre operational stage in Piaget’s table is the concrete operational stage. “Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations.” (Myers, D.
G. 2000). When children enter this stage of development I think it’s very noticeable, because they feel good about themselves. There are so many more things they can figure out then they ever used to before. Learning to understand so many things outside of school. I remember when I understood that if you threw a basketball at the backboard it would angle into the hoop.
I used this knowledge for playing hockey. I would shoot the puck off the boards on one side of a person and then go around them on the other side. What Piaget said ties in very tightly with what Erikson said “Children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior.” (Myers, D. G. 2000). That is a great way of putting it.
I remember in school how the whole class would race to see who could get things done first and compete over who could get the better grade. We learned to do new things and think in new ways. The next stage Piaget isolated is the formal operational stage. The development of abstract reasoning.
“As children approach adolescence many become capable of solving hypothetical propositions deducing consequences.” (Myers, D. G. 2000). This statement is very vague.
People’s minds’ developing is part of life, but many things can vary the speed. I know from going to school in the suburbs that people in my school were generally more educated then people in an inner city school. Now the reason, I’m not sure, if there is actually only one reason. I feel it’s a combination of reasons ranging from bad teachers, to bad neighborhoods, to bad upbringings. Now I’m not saying that all people who go to inner schools are not as well educated as kids from the suburbs, but it’s a problem that’s got national attention.
This better education I feel helps people to reach this kind of thinking sooner. The same thing happens with children from other countries, which have different educational systems, might reach this stage earlier, or later than in the children in the US. It works other ways though; with being in the USAF you meet many different people. I can tell you that I’ve met people who I feel had much less of a concept on how abstract thinking takes place.
They ” re amazed at simple solutions to problems and how you could come up with conclusions to them. So that brings up a whole other point. With Piaget’s statement about this stage being the entrance into abstract reasoning, I agree in the sense that it is the entrance into deep abstract reasoning where everybody’s mind begins to process information in a different manner. Erikson classified the years into adolescence and broke the stages down a little more. “Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or they become confused about who they are.” (Myers, D. G.
2000). When I was a teenager I was trying to find where I fit in. When I was in high school there were different groups, each one dressed different, acted different and most of them had a main activity they did. Jocks, skaters, eat. , eat…
As an adolescent I hung out with whom I liked and I did what I liked, but I did follow the image that went along with it. I dressed a certain way and I still dress that same way now. People judge you by the clothes you wear more than anything, because it’s the first thing that they see. That’s how our society works.
I think that development of an identity is much more of a complicated process now, then when Erikson studied it. Times have changed so much, finding an identity and becoming an individual is so much more of a trial and error process then he says it is. The formation of an identity is one that is an ongoing process through your whole life. You don’t just become something or somebody and stay that way forever. We are ever changing with everyday, certain events, such as having a baby, have a much bigger impact on what kind of person we become. We set goals of the kind of person we want to be and the image we want to portray.
Overall I think that both psychologists’ were on the right track with the stages of development and that I fit into both of their categories one way or another. As people get older I think it is much harder to pinpoint things that all people feel, we are all different, we ” ve all been through different things and we ” ve all had different feelings. To try to sum up all peoples’ lives and place them into a category, or a stage is a task that can’t be achieved. Adults all develop different traits at different times. Some pick up traits that others don’t. The development of an adult can’t be put into a step-by-step basis.
I feel their analogy of the younger stages, up to adolescence is very well put and that they did excellent analogies of a child’s mind. My developmental years went very smooth, but a child that has experienced a series of traumatizing events might be different. These things might stump their growth; cause them to achieve stages later than most. I was early to their age limits, where other might be on time and yet others might be late. I don’t think that a chart has enough gray area for all the different cultures and environments around the country and world. REFERENCES Myers, D.
G. (2000). What’s out of sight, is out of mind. If needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust.
Toddlers learn to exercise will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities. Representing things with words and images but lacking logical reasoning. A child lacks the concept of conservation- the principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape. Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carryout plans, or they feel guilty about efforts to be independent. Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations. As children approach adolescence many become capable of solving hypothetical propositions deducing consequences.
Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity. Psychology Sixth Edition. p. 128, 130, 149.