Custom «Cognitive Human Development» Essay Paper Sample

1. Adolescent Experience

The stage of adolescence has numerous challenges to individuals who are at this stage. There occur a lot of changes which happen fast to adolescents, everywhere in what they know, and are a big challenge to keep up with. There are changes in the body caused by increase in sex hormones levels. Thought process of an individual is also affected and it changes, and the adolescent can now be in a position to think on broader issues and also on abstract things. There is a change in the social life for the adolescent, as there is the effect of the peers and also the people in the environment they are in. It becomes a challenge as the adolescent has to deal with all these changes that occur at the same time. Parents and schools due to their knowledge and experience come in and help the adolescent so that they do not lose the way and get confused.

On attaining the adolescent age I was affected by a lot of challenges, I yearned to develop my own identity which is different from my parents who I considered to be old fashioned. I love and still did love my parents then, but I just didn’t want to follow on my parents steps. I made sure I challenged my parents authority in all ways I could, I disobeyed rules set in the house such as attending church, I also was critical of what I considered to be an old fashioned values that they pursued. I did not take heed to most of their suggestions and I gave a lot of credits to my friends especially those who we considered to be “cool”.

Due to the deep yearn to be accepted by my friend and look “cool” I was always in problems with my parents. I attempted a lot of things such as smoking cigarettes and taking alcohol so that I could be accepted and also gain the approval of my friends. I was very shy to members of the opposite sex and it was hard for me to approach boys.

2. Piaget’s Cognitive Theory on 16 Year- old and 8 Year- old

According to Piaget’s cognitive theory, the role played by growing up by an individual or maturation, is that it works in the increase in capacity or ability for an individual to understand of various issues in the world. An individual can only undertake some given tasks only when they are psychologically mature for them to handle those tasks. The theory proposed that children thought process will gradually develop after it reaches some specific points which were referred to as "takes off" and then acquires this new capabilities associated with that age. Therefore according to this theory, before a child achieves a certain age regardless of how bright they are, they will not be able to understanding some certain things and issues.

For a child of 8 years they are in a stage where they can logically think about occurrences and events that are happening but the thought are not advanced. They can be able to classify an event and make rational judgments on the event. Despite all this the 8 year-old has a lot of limitations such as abstract thinking, ability to critically analyze, testing of hypothesis, being hypothetical and having a clear ideology. An individual of 16 years old belongs to a different developmental cognitive stage from the 8 years old. The individual is more developed in their thought process, can think in abstract and broadly, can be able to test a hypothesis and also analyze and plan for the future.

When an 8 year old and a 16 year old are watching a political event their perceptions will be totally different due to their cognitive abilities. The 16 year old will have a perspective which is broader and imaginative and abstract compared to the 8 year old.