Abnormal Theories, Essay Example

Cognitive Behavior

It was Piaget who suggested that children enter the concrete operational stage of development at around 7 years of age. As such, children enter a substantive degree of logic and reasoning over objects and events. At age 11, they reach the fourth stage of cognitive development and a formal operational stage commences. He identified four key stages of learning. Piaget signified the importance of developing a curriculum to assist in the education of children and teachers need to be fully aware and take into consideration environmental factors in consideration of learning:

• Sensorimotor stage – birth to 2 years of age
• Preoperational Stage – age 2-7
• Concrete operations – age 7-11
• Formal operations – age 11 to 15.

It was a Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) who put forward an alternate theory in the teaching of adolescents. He stated that we are all made up from genes and cultures and we make sense of this by utilizing the tools around us. It was the socio-cultural influences that helped in the cognitive development of our minds and in these sense languages, music and material objects.

Psychodynamic Approach

It was Sigmund Freud that introduced the psychodynamic approach in psychology. It contrasts to behavioral psychology in that it ignores scientific explanation but concerns itself more with understanding the human mind and making sense of how relationships are viewed in the world. Similar to cognitive behavior where you seek to understands the development of our minds and the socio cultural influences that surround you. (MaCleod, 2012). The approach embraces all of the psychological theory that considers the driving forces within an individual.

References

MaCleod, S. (2012, 6 24). Psychodynamic Approach. Retrieved from Simple Psychology: http://www.simplypsychology.org/psychodynamic.html