Piaget And Erikson's Stages Of Development

In Human development a person develops through several life stages. This starts from conception through to late adulthood. This essay aims to provide a comparison and contrast between two of these life stages, namely; infancy and early childhood; by using theories from well-known theorists, Jean Piaget and Eric Erikson. In each stage of development stress can affect a person in many ways. Using literature from the field of phycology, this essay will seek to explore how an adult cope best with stress, using good nutrition and exercise.

Jean Piaget was a biologist who studied experimental phycology. His research was based on in depth studies and experiments on children (Thies & Thatcher, 2009). He states that children go through cognitive development

During this stage Piaget believed that infants only make sense of the world around them by; touching, tasting, smelling hearing and seeing (Sims & Hutchins, 2011). Using these senses, they begin to learn from their interactions with the world around them. They are not yet capable of symbolic thought (Westman, Costello, & M.S, 2011). In the beginning of the sensorimotor stage a very young infants behaviour is based on reflexes, such as sucking, rooting and grasping. Once they develop more motor control they then start to repeat movements such as; sucking their fingers and kicking their legs, for the sake of doing so. They begin to realise they can make things happen; repeatedly shaking a rattle to make a noise (Thies & Thatcher, 2009). Infants begin to anticipate responses to reflexive movements, an infant may stop crying when laying down on mother’s lap in preparation for feeding (Sims & Hutchins, 2011). Knowledge of the world is limited, but is developing because it is based on physical interactions and experiences (Huitt & Hammond, 2003). In the middle period of this stage the child’s developing motor skills enables

Per operational thinking is referred to as “magical”, a child may believe they could disappear down a plug whole when the bath water is let out (Thies & Travers, 2009). Children begin to fantasise and intitiate pretend play, they regularly use mental representation or symbols in play and language. In this phase children do not understand that others may not see things the way they do. Piaget referred to this as egocentrism (Westman, Costello, & M.S, 2011). Preschool children only focus on one thing at a time, they do not understand how several aspects might interact to produce events, Piaget termed this as centration. When water is poured between a skinny glass and short glass the child thinks the skinny glass has the largest volume, and does not realise it is in fact the same amount. As children move through the preoperational stage their cognitive skills improve, and they begin to develop different types of memory strategies (Thies & Travers,