Developmental Psychology Children And Adults Change Over...

According to (simplypsychology.org), developmental psychology is â€Å"a scientific approach which aims to explain how children and adults change over time†. This theory mainly focuses on an individual’s childhood with a direct concentration on the earliest stages of when the child is developing into an adult as this is seen to be the most valued stages of development. However it is now understood to be a lifelong process. There are a number of prominent theories from different psychologists that support much of the existing thinking in developmental psychology. Jean Piaget, who is thoroughly known among developmental psychologists, was interested in understanding the form of adaptation relating to the environment. He suggested that children†¦show more content†¦They found that Piaget’s experiment design caused issues for the children to give correct answers. They criticised Piaget’s underestimation of language acquisition and ability of memory skills in young children. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development outlined how a child’s ability to think develops through a number of different stages as they mature. Piaget believed that these stages were maturational which means development is genetic and unaffected by environmental factors. However, Samuel and Bryant advocate a cognitive approach to child development. Samuel and Bryant’s experiment showed that children under five were capable of more sophisticated thought than Piaget claimed. Samuel and Bryant argue that Piaget s theory of cognitive development places too much emphasis on maturational factors. Using a cognitive approach they believe that children learn new strategies and skills. Samuel and Bryant also criticise Piaget for emphasising how children learn as individuals. Samuel and Bryant argue that children do not learn in isolation and that they learn far more readily and efficiently when they are working together than when they are alone. Despite this the Samuel and Bryant experiment did demonstrate two findings which support Piaget. Firstly, they found that older children did do considerably better than younger children on the conservation tasks. 8 year olds did better than 7 year olds, who did better than 6 year olds, and so on, perhaps supporting