Developmental Psychology Has Been Able to Contribute to Improving Children’s Lives
Jean Piaget argued that when children of certain ages watch water being poured from a short, wide container into a tall, thin container, they think that the amount of water has changed. Discuss with reference to research evidence.
Conservation is the ability to understand when appearance of something changes the amount is the same as before. Piaget argued that young children are unable to consider points of view different to their own and at the pre-operational stage’s children will not be able understand conservation. This essay will first illustrate the basic components of Piaget’s cognitive theory and then will discuss Piaget’s experimental evidence tests in Chapter 2 of Book 1 and in DVD Media Kit part 1, for stages in development. These tests were designed to see at what stage of development a child was currently at and also test Piaget’s ideas that children's thinking develops through a fixed set of stages. Finally, this essay will discuss how the later researchers have questioned Piaget’s theory. Hughes and Grieve (1980) have carried out new investigations by using ‘make sense’（cited in ED209 2005 Chapter 2, p.70）to the children. Donaldson (1978) devised new tests which made more sense to the children and experimental evidence for stages has been challenged.
Constructivism is one of the four most important ‘Grand theories’ of development. These theories offer general explanations of a child’s development and have been and continue to be especially influential, underpinning much contemporary theory and research. Constructivism is an approach to human development which attempts to resolve the tension between NATIVISM and EMPIRICISM. It was developed by Jean Piaget, a philosopher from Switzerland. Piaget argued that individuals develop progressively and constructively on the basis of their interaction with the environment and there is an ‘inherent logic’ (cited in ED209, 2005 Chapter2 p.63) to the development of human knowledge. Children construct their
Conservation is the ability to understand when appearance of something changes the amount is the same as before. Piaget argued that young children are unable to consider points of view different to their own and at the pre-operational stage’s children will not be able understand conservation. This essay will first illustrate the basic components of Piaget’s cognitive theory and then will discuss Piaget’s experimental evidence tests in Chapter 2 of Book 1 and in DVD Media Kit part 1, for stages in development. These tests were designed to see at what stage of development a child was currently at and also test Piaget’s ideas that children's thinking develops through a fixed set of stages. Finally, this essay will discuss how the later researchers have questioned Piaget’s theory. Hughes and Grieve (1980) have carried out new investigations by using ‘make sense’（cited in ED209 2005 Chapter 2, p.70）to the children. Donaldson (1978) devised new tests which made more sense to the children and experimental evidence for stages has been challenged.
Constructivism is one of the four most important ‘Grand theories’ of development. These theories offer general explanations of a child’s development and have been and continue to be especially influential, underpinning much contemporary theory and research. Constructivism is an approach to human development which attempts to resolve the tension between NATIVISM and EMPIRICISM. It was developed by Jean Piaget, a philosopher from Switzerland. Piaget argued that individuals develop progressively and constructively on the basis of their interaction with the environment and there is an ‘inherent logic’ (cited in ED209, 2005 Chapter2 p.63) to the development of human knowledge. Children construct their