Cognitive theory psychologists try to understand the different mental processes including problems solving and memory. According to the psychologists, when you emphasis on mental processes, it tends to place itself on disagreement in behaviorism. Various stages of human development have been explained in different psychodynamic approaches in human psychology. The approaches have played a major role in helping understand not only the different aspects of human development but human behavior in general. Psychological theories have tried to explain how and why human beings act how they act. although various theories have been developed over the years with some offering similar observations whole others having major differences they have managed to describe some of the human behaviors including feelings, empathy, guilt, regrets, remorse and the failure to develop the sense of right or wrong. The purpose of this paper is to describe how Piaget cognitive development and Erikson psychosocial theory which is some of the most common human behavior approaches. The paper will identify and describe the major assumptions and what the theory says about human behavior. Also, the paper will describe some of the strengths and limitations of both theories and how they influence social oppression or social privileges. Lastly, the paper will describe how Piaget cognitive development and Erikson psychosocial theory can be implemented effectively in a given social work and the impact it will have on the workplace. Piaget cognitive development and Erikson psychosocial theory are some of the most effective theories when trying to understand different behaviors by human beings.
Piaget cognitive development
Piaget cognitive development theory is a broad theory that deals with the nature and development of human intelligence. The theory is commonly known as the developmental stage theory, but it also engages the nature of knowledge especially description of how people acquire, uses and constructs knowledge that they possess. According to Piaget, cognitive development is a process of rearrangement of the mental process because of changes in human beings body including biological maturation, and the influence of day to day experiences in our environment. Jean Piaget (1936) was a development psychologist in Swiss, and he was known for his work in epistemological studies. Through his theory, Piaget explained how children construct a mental model of his environment and the world in general. Also, he disagrees with the idea that intelligence is a fixed trait just like hearing, smelling and other traits in human beings (Ashford, 2013). Through the cognitive development theory, he claimed that intelligence is a process which results from interaction and maturation with the environment.
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Erikson psychosocial theory was articulated by Erik Erikson (1950) and with major contributions was made by Joan Erikson (1963). The theory was psychoanalytical in nature where it used eight stages of human development from infancy to adulthood, to describe the psychological development. According to the theorist, a psychological crisis is experienced by a human being as they move from one stage to another, with the crisis having either a negative or a positive outcome in the development of the human personality. Regarding the topography and structure of personality, Erikson theory was highly influenced by Freud’s theory of 1923 although Erikson theories are highly based on ego psychology while Freud psychological theories are based on the id psychology. When commenting on his theory, Erickson (1950) agreed that his psychological theory is more descriptive in terms of emotional development and human social development (Cooper, 2014).
Major Assumptions
Piaget theory of cognitive development is very broad because it explains the processes of human development from birth, through adolescence into adulthood covering major concepts including scientific reasoning, language, moral development, memory and other concepts. However, Piaget made different assumptions in his theory. Some of the assumptions include: first, the theorist made major assumptions in the first stage of human development and claimed that children construct their own knowledge which helps them a response to their experiences. This meant that children learn different concepts in their lives without the interventions of the adults or the older children they spend most of their time with (Gyr, 1967). Second, according to the theory, children are motivated to learn intrinsically hence they do not need rewards from their parents. This means that children are self-motivated and they can achieve everything without being external motivation.
On the other hand, Erikson psychology theory is based on three assumptions. According to the theory, human beings have the same basic needs. This means that human being undergoes the same stages; want the same things at each stage hence forcing them to develop certain behaviors which were used to understand the general behavior of human beings. Secondly, according to the theory, personal development in human beings is highly impacted by the needs. The theorist claimed that in each stage of human development, there are certain changes which result in changes in human personality. Also, according to the theory, development in human beings takes place in stages. This means that the individual environment has no impact on human development (Weigert, 2005). The last assumptions are because as human beings move from one stage of development to another, the experiences and knowledge they achieve along the way play a significant impact on individual motivation.
The Strengths and Limitations of Each Theory
One of the greatest strengths of the Piaget theory of cognitive development is the impact it had on education. The theory offered instructional strategies which educators can use to understand the varying behaviors among students. When the theory, educators understand the different needs of the students hence develop their teaching and assessment processes based on the needs of each and every student. Secondly, the theory has played a significant role in the understanding of cognitive development (Kesselring, 2011). For example, the theory offers some of the ways adults can communicate with children through the different methods of studying the children behavior including their non-verbal communication styles. Although Piaget cognitive development theory has major strengths, it has various limitations. One of the limitations of the theory is the research method used in the development of the theory were not reliable hence making many critics believe that the theory was developed for the biased sample. For example, the theorist made a conclusion about the theory by only studying his children who have high SES (Cooper, 2014). The other limitations of the study are when developing his theory, Piaget underestimated children abilities where he did not recognize the fact that children posses major abilities where some children have the ability to view other peoples perspectives hence they do not use the egocentric concept only. Also, he failed to agree that there some human beings who belong to two stages of development thus they are motivated by different things, and their needs are different.
On the other hand, one of the greatest strengths of Erikson psychosocial theory is a contribution to the development of a broad framework which can be used to view development through the entire lifecycle. The theory helps uses emphasis the human being social nature and the impact of social relationships on the development process. Secondly, the theory offers some of the most appropriate directions that human beings can take to ensure they have a healthy lifespan. The theorist offered each and every concept in human life and how each influences the development (Weigert, 2005). Some of the limitations of the cognitive development theory include firstly; the theory has major limitations in that it did not describe some of the ways culture or environment influence the human development and human behaviors. Also, critics claim that Erikson psychosocial theory is dominated by manhood or male where it has placed more emphasis Eurocentric perspective which has given too much emphasis on individuality and no attention to social and connection relatedness which are essential in the development of human beings.
The Influence of Social Privileges and Social Oppression
According to the Erikson psychosocial theory, has offered major accounts of social privileges and oppression. The theorist has described the influence of cultural variables and social variables in the human development which is also depicted in human behavior. In his theory, Erikson has tied identity nods to the social context and the external forces (Weigert, 2005). Some of the social elements that were identified by the theorist as creating privileges to some while creating oppression to others include race, gender, class, and color. According to the theory, privilege and oppression can be explained easily by people who have multiple identities. When explaining the issue of privileges and oppression, the Erikson claimed that it is important to treat every individual equality and respectfully regardless of their situations.
On the other hand, although Piaget theory of cognitive development has not offered major attention on the influence of social privileges and social oppression, the theory has offered important factors to understand the human interactions as they grow and mature (Ruffman, 2005). The theory serves as a guideline in understanding emotional conflicts that individuals face when they are becoming familiar with individuality. Through the emotional conflicts, the theory has described some of the ways individual environment outline some of the emotional issues that an individual will experience during his or her growth and the impact the issues will have on their development.
How These Theories Could Be Implemented Effectively In Social Work Practice
When ex-offenders return to the community, they are faced with major disadvantages. Some of the major disadvantages include mental illness, alcohol and drug abuse, limited education and outdated professional skills (Ruffman, 2005). Also, they are highly disadvantaged where they are labeled as criminals hence creating a significant disadvantage when they are trying to access health care services, find jobs and housing among other needs.
Using the Piaget cognitive development theory, social workers can understand the human behavior hence work on measures including rehabilitation which would ensure there are a reduced number of prisoners, and assist the offenders when they are released from the prison. The Erikson psychosocial theory framework can be used by social works to come up with effective interventions. For example, the theory claims that human relationships and behaviors are shaped by unconscious and conscious influences (Kesselring, 2011). Therefore, this can be used to understand the behavior of an individual before they were taken to prison and compared their behavior after they have been released. Through the understanding of the personal and present history, social workers would be able to understand their feeling and behaviors and how they may be affected by the development stage. Therefore, the social workers will develop the interventions based on the individual stage of development if he or she is an individual they might decide to take the client to school where he will gain the knowledge needed to help avoid crime and other offenses which may land him or her to prison again.
On the other hand, using the Erikson psychosocial theory social workers can offer assistance to drug addicts by understanding the eight stages of development and understanding whether psychosocial crisis occurring during a given stage, may be contributing to the wrong choices. During the eight stages, individual interactions, and personality may change hence impact his behaviors. The choices may make it easy for an individual to be lured into drugs where they may do so as a way of running away from the numerous type of crisis taking place in their life. Once the social workers have identified the stage or the crisis which contributed to the behavior of drug abuse, they can provide the client care which will help them get employment and become self-dependent.
Conclusion
From the text, it is clear that human behavior theories have played a major role in understanding why human being behave how they do, and mental processes including memory and problem-solving . However, different theorists have identified different elements of human behavior as demonstrated by the comparison of Piaget cognitive development and Erikson psychosocial theory. Additionally, to come up with the theories, the theorists made different assumptions which have played a significant role in the use of these theories. Some of the assumptions made in both theories include Piaget cognitive development theory assuming that children make their own knowledge hence helping them a response to different experiences. The second assumption in Piaget cognitive development theory is children are motivated to learn intrinsically, thus they do not need any motivation from adults. On the other hand, Erikson psychology theory assumed that every human being has common basic needs and the basic needs have a major impact on personal development. Both theories have strengths which make them more useful, and weaknesses which have limited the application of these theories. Because of the changes being experienced in the demographics, I recommend the modern theorists to try proving the assumption and addressing the weaknesses so that the theories can be used to get a better understanding of the human behavior which is essential in ensuring effective coexisting between human beings.
References
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