Developmental Psychology
...main theorist being, Piaget', (1896 1980), The, Psychosocial Theory', Erikson', (1902 1994), and, The Psychosexual', of, Freud', (1856 1939).
Cognitive Psychology draws the comparison between the human mind and a computer, suggesting that we like the computer process the information we acquire from around us and then react accordingly. Hearnshaw, (1987), claims that Cognitive Psychology is both one of the oldest and also one of the newest parts of Psychology, cited in T. Malim', (1994). Information is collected through our senses i.e. vision, touch, smell etc and then processed through our brain. Cognitive Psychologists largely seek explanations of Cognitive development, memory, attention, artificial intelligence, perception and social cognition. The methods used are usually Laboratory experiments under controlled circumstances i.e. memory tests, and, Case studies.
Piaget, (J), (1896-1980), carried out case studies on his own children to study the stages of cognitive development. Piaget concluded that the child was an organism which adapts to the environment, he also studied with the opinion that all children went through the same set stages of development and that there were no individual differences.
Piagets' Stages of Development: -
The Sensorimotor stage, (0-2): - Early in the sensorimotor stage the child is entirely egocentric, everything is an extension to the self, they can't distinguish themselves from their environment. The child has no concept of past or future all it is aware of is the here and now. The child relies entirely on it's senses i.e. sight, hearing, touch. It is believed by Cognitive Psychologists that
.. To begin with, a baby will rely on in-built behaviours for sucking, crawling and watching' as cited in Moonie, N, (1995). A child does not understand that an object does not cease to exist when it is out of sight....
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