Piaget's Cognitive Development

The focal point of the next two chapters was on children ages of three through five, otherwise known as early childhood. Various theories and approaches were reviewed to gain an understanding of a child’s physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development during this age period. Piaget’s preoperational stage, Erikson’s initiative versus guilt phase and Freud’s phallic stage all occur during this time frame. Although these theories emphasize on a specific domain of human development, similarities and differences are present between the three. According to Piaget’s cognitive development theory, children from the ages of two through seven progress to the preoperational stage. In this second phase, children continue to use symbols to make sense
Piaget believed that children in this age group are incapable of understanding that other people may perceive things differently than they do (Papalia & Martorell, 2014). A prime example of egocentrism is when my little cousin picked up the phone and instead of answering the questions that were asked of her verbally, she simply nodded her head yes. My cousin's reaction reveals that she has not yet grasped the idea that the person on the other line cannot see her nod her head, resulting in egocentric behavior. Egocentrism is an example of centration; centration is when children cannot focus on more than one situation at a time. In regards to egocentrism, children cannot focus on more than two perspectives at a given period (Papalia & Martorell, 2014). Another example of centration is conservation. Piaget believed that children in the preoperational stage cannot understand that an object can be the same despite how it is presented to the child (Papalia & Martorell, 2014). A child will not comprehend that a cup can have the same amount of water regardless if it is in a tall skinny glass or a short wide glass because there are two forms of dimensions present. The child does not have the capability of understanding because based on centration, he/she will only be able to focus on one element at a time (Papalia & Martorell,
The phallic stage focuses more on the parental influences as well as innate feelings the child has towards his/her parents. The child is not necessarily exploring new objects but rather learning through observation. During the identification period, the child adopts similar characteristics of his/her same sex parent (Papalia & Martorell, 2014). Piaget focused more on the cognition of learning and how well a child can make sense of the world. Since Piaget argued that children are often egocentric at this stage, it would be difficult for the child to observe the way Freud believed to happen. The child would not be capable of learning the beliefs of his/her parents because they cannot consider different points of views. Therefore, different theories provide various perspectives on one situation. Although many approaches overlap with one another, there are often inconsistencies as