Studies on Adolescene of Piaget and Erikson Essay

The adolescence stage in one’s life is often portrayed as a time of ‘storm and stress’ (Lipsitz, 1980). However, there are

The chart above denotes the major theories of adolescence development; however in this study we limit ourselves to Erik Erikson’s identity development theory.

At the centre of Piaget's theory is the principle that cognitive development occurs in a series of four distinct, universal stages, each characterized by increasingly sophisticated and

He suggested that children think differently to adults. He thought that the way children learn determines on what stage of development they are at cognitively. As he believes that learning is based on the experiences that children have as they get older. As they grow their experiences change and they change to their beliefs. For example, if they have never seen anything before then they don’t know that it exists. Piaget suggests that children needs to experience as much as they can whilst their young to help them in the future so they can learn more about the world and things in

According to Erikson’s description of developmental eras in the human life cycle, during adolescence children

Adolescence describes the transitional stage in a teenager’s life, from childhood to adulthood, where an individual evolves physically, psychologically, emotionally, cognitively and socially. It is a defined social category that is expressed through immaturity and unpredictability and allows an individual to learn and discover their sense of self and identity. The idea of adolescence came into perspective after children were expected to take on adult roles as soon as they were mature enough to, going straight from puberty to adulthood. As society changed and moulded, so did the ideas about life stages, which is evident in Erikson’s theory.

Adolescence is when people are at the stage of “Coming of Age.” “Adolescence are at the threshold of adulthood” and adulthood will be their enlightenment after period of darkness (Lesko, 148)

Piaget and Vygotsky both believed that young children actively learn from their hands-on, day-to-day experiences. Jean Piaget portrayed children as "little scientists" who go about actively constructing their understanding of the world. His theories hold the essence of developmentally appropriate curriculum since Piaget believed that children undergo cognitive development in a stage-based manner, such that a very young child would not think about things the same way that an adult might. He referred to the knowledge and the manner in which the knowledge is gained as a schema. In order to build on the cognitive stages that children experience, informal learning opportunities, formal instructional sessions, and the utilized curriculum must all dovetail with a child's current cognitive stage so that assimilation of the new knowledge may occur. Working with what the child knows and experiences, parents and teachers create bridges to the next cognitive stage that are characterized by the child's accommodation. Piaget argued that optimal learning took place in this manner and that adults should avoid thinking that they can accelerate a child's development through the age-based, maturity-referenced stages. This is because a child works toward establishing an equilibrium between the assimilation and application of new knowledge and changing their behavior to accommodate their newly adopted schemas.

Piaget’s theory also allowed us a way to accept and understand that children's cognitive behavior is intrinsically motivated. Social and other reinforcements do influence children's cognitive explorations but children learn because of the way they are built. In Piaget’s mind cognitive adapts to the environment through assimilation. Also accommodation is a type of biological adaptation (Flavell, 1996). According to Piaget in order to characterize cognitive development in humans we need to understand co-present in cognitive activity which is cognitive structure (Flavell, 1996). Piaget was the first psychologist to try explaining describing cognitive development. His argument is that intellectual advances are made through the equilibration process that has three steps: the first step is for the cognitive equilibrium to de at a low development level; then, cognitive disequilibrium has to be induced by discrepant or inassimilable phenomena and lastly cognitive equilibration has to be at a higher developmental level.

Education is not the teacher but rather what the teacher does to encourage the transfer of knowledge. Students learn by an innate nature. It is this innate nature that drives humans to be curious and inquisitive enriching the learning process. Jean Piaget’s Developmental Stage Theory deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans come gradually to acquire, construct, and use it. According to

Educational Implications of Piaget’s Theory. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is well-known and provides a basic understanding of the cognitive process and how children

The transition from adolescent to adulthood, is one that has been discussed and debated upon since humans could understand the age differences between children, adolescences and adults. There are various theories which state the mental, physical and psychological changes within people as they age, one such theory is the “Theory of the Seasons of Life”, by Daniel Levinson. Within this, Levinson states that there are six stages of adulthood that everyone goes through. Each stage, corresponds with the individual’s dream and the importance of their life structure; the dream is what the individual believes to be the ideal life, this, is constantly modified and revisited as the entity’s perception of reality changes. The life structure, on the other

Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget are quite similar in their theories. Jean Piaget’s cognitive theory is only slightly different than Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory. Both theorists use the idea of developmental stages. Although the stages vary in what they entail, the carry the same idea of progressive development. Jean Piaget was born September 16, 1980, in Switzerland. His research found “that the growth of knowledge is a progressive construction of logically embedded structures superseding one another by a process of inclusion of lower less powerful logical means into higher and more powerful ones up to adulthood. Therefore, children 's logic and modes of thinking are initially entirely different from those of adults” (Smith, 2000). On the other hand, there’s the theory of Erikson, born in Germany in 1902. His theory saying, “Developmental progression — from trust to autonomy, initiative, industry, identity, intimacy, generativity, and integrity — was conceived as the sequential reorganization of ego and character structures. Each phase was the potential root of later health and pathology. By focusing on the social as well as the psychological, Erikson’s stages represented a quantum leap in Freudian thought, which had emphasized the psychosexual nature of development” (EI, 2013). Both theories are equally interesting. Although only slightly different, they both advocate for the nurture side of nature versus nurture debate.

The adolescent individuals begin to reach sexual maturity and established their identity as an adult. This period marks the transition in which individuals think and reason. They also start to encounter conflicts between their family and their peers.

Adolescence is the distinct transitional stage between childhood and adulthood in human development, extending primarily over the teenage years and terminating legally when the age of majority is reached (Rathus, 2014). However in some instances, this biological, cognitive, social and emotional maturity may not be reached until a later stage and may be dictated by gender. Adolescence is characterised by rapidly changing and unpredictable behaviour (Freud, as cited in Rathus 2014), heightened and unstable emotions (Hall, as cited in Rathus 2014), disturbances in identity, the gradual development of one’s moral reasoning (Kohlberg, as cited in Rathus, 2014) and the gradual establishment of one’s independence. Several of these changes may occur at differing phases in adolescent growth. This development is categorized into three separate stages; early adolescence, middle adolescence, and late adolescence. Early Adolescence, commencing from the ages of eleven or twelve until the age of fourteen, comprises of several features such as rapid biological development and maturity, heightened stress levels and limited coping capabilities. On the other hand, middle adolescence, from the approximate age of fourteen to sixteen, involves the gradual cease of biological change, an increase in coping strategies and declined stress levels. Furthermore, late adolescence, commencing from the age of sixteen until the age of eighteen or nineteen, encompasses physical maturity, whereby the