Human Development across the Lifespan

Running head: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
Human Development across the Lifespan
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1HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
Introduction
The purpose of the essay is to build an idea on the topic of the human development by
drawing from several theories. The focus of this essay will be on the cognitive developmental
theory. This theory is believed to be one of the most important theories for the development of
the human children both from the physical and psychological aspects (Boyd, Bee & Johnson,
2014). The human development takes place through several steps and it takes many years. The
growth stages and its attributes would be discussed in this essay. The different aspects of the
human development are quite interesting and the psychological aspects of the growth takes place
through many steps.
Cognitive developmental theory
The cognitive developmental theory is one of the most important theories that can be
attributed to the human development (Boyd, Bee & Johnson, 2014). This theory was developed
by the great Jean Piaget. He had suggested that the mental development of the children has to
pass through four stages. He has concentrated his theory on two things mainly. One thing is the
intelligence of the children and the other is the way of acquiring the knowledge for the children.
The four stages that Piaget has discussed of are Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage,
Concrete Operational Stage and Formal Operational stage. The first stage involves the children
between birth to 2 years of age, The second stage begins from 2 years of age and continues till 7.
The duration of the third stage is between 7 and 11 years of age. The final stage is from 12 years
and continues after that (Sigelman & Rider, 2014).
The developer of the theory Jean Piaget always believed that the children always take a
very active role in the entire learning process. They always like to make some experiments in

2HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
whatever they learn. The children always come in touch with many new aspects of knowledge
and they grasp it with both hands (Sigelman & Rider, 2014). They always adapt with the newly
gathered information and think upon that for the betterment. It is said that the interest of the
Piaget in the cognitive development of the children began through his own daughter and nephew
(Bjorklund & Causey, 2017). Earlier it was assumed that the minds of the children were just the
smaller versions of the adult, grown up people (Baltes, Featherman & Lerner, 2014). However,
the theory he came up with completely disagreed with that notion and it concluded that the minds
of the children were the reservoirs for their future endeavors.
Piaget had widely discovered the fact that the children always used to think in a different
manner than the adults and they have a huge potential within them to contribute to the society.
He had come up with the conclusion that children did not lag behind the adults in the brain
development. The children just think differently than the adults (Baltes, Featherman & Lerner,
2014). Even the great scientist Albert Einstein had praised this discovery of the theory by Piaget.
This process or theory tells that the development of the minds of the children depends on the
cognitive abilities of the brain. According to Piaget, the early developments always involves that
are mainly based on several actions (Bjorklund, 2013). Then these developments used to change
in the mental operations. The development of the children through the four stages would be
discussed in the following section (Bjorklund & Causey, 2017).
The first stage
In this stage, the children only know about this world by their sensations and movement
of the small limbs. The small infants at this stage only know about the world through some
actions like listening and looking. They seem to be different things from the different people who
surround them. Piaget has expressed his views that in this first stage of cognitive development,