Personal Reactions and Observations on Chosen Video

This article provides personal reactions and observations on a video about cognitive development in humans, focusing on Jean Piaget's four stages of development and Lev Vygotsky's scaffolding theory.

Running head: PERSONAL REACTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS ON CHOSEN VIDEO
PERSONAL REACTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS ON CHOSEN VIDEO
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PERSONAL REACTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS ON CHOSEN VIDEO
The video talks about Cognitive Development in humans and has focused primarily on
Jean Piaget and his ‘four-stages of development’. At the beginning of the video, the presenter
talks about cognitive development and the ways, it enables humans to think, react, distinguish
between and interpret different objects and thoughts ("The Growth Of Knowledge: Crash Course
Psychology #18"). He states that the genetics and environment of human beings influence their
development even before they are born and continues to influence until they die. Developmental
Psychology is the study that explores the physical, social, emotional and cognitive changes that
occur throughout human beings’ life. Later in the video, the presenter explains the different
aspects of the ‘growth of knowledge’ or cognitive development like maturation and then
highlights the contribution of Jean Piaget, the developmental psychologist from Switzerland.
After providing a brief background about Piaget, the presenter then talks about his view on
children’s development. As the video progresses, the presenter explains the term ‘schemas’ that
was introduced by Piaget and which means mental frameworks that deduce information . After
that, the presenter moves on to describing ‘cognitive equilibrium’, which he describes the
harmony between the schemas and the environment. Piaget’s concepts of ‘assimilation and
accommodation’ are explained next in the video. Children assimilate the different things they
learn from the environment and try to fit in to their understanding. Later, as they grow, they
begin to accommodate or adjust to new experiences of the world. The four stages of cognitive
development proposed by Piaget are then explained in the video. These stages are – the
sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, concrete operational stage and the formal
operational stage. At the end of the video, the presenter introduces Lev Vygotsky, another
psychologist who spoke about cognitive development. A brief contrast between Piaget’s four-
stages of development and Vygotsky’s scaffolding theory has been provided in the video.

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PERSONAL REACTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS ON CHOSEN VIDEO
In my personal view, I found this video very informing. The different concepts and terms
related to cognitive development have been present lucidly by the presenter. The four stages of
development by Piaget have been explained clearly with relevant examples that made it clearer.
However, I feel that Vygotsky’s theory could have been explained more elaborately and the
comparison and contrast between Piaget and Vygotsky could have been given more time. It
would have allowed the viewers to have a better understanding of the different theories of
cognitive development and their relevance in the contemporary setting. Although the video has
explained Vygotsky’s views on cognitive development, it does not clearly explain it with
examples as it did with Piaget’s theory. Nonetheless, the video provided some very useful
explanations about cognitive development and some concepts that were unknown to me prior to
watching this video. To provide an instance, I was not aware of the terms like object
permanence, egocentrism, animism, reversibility and centration including the theory of mind that
are a crucial part of the four stages of development. In the end, I can conclude that I have closely
observed this video and found it very informative and interesting as well.

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PERSONAL REACTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS ON CHOSEN VIDEO
References:
"The Growth Of Knowledge: Crash Course Psychology #18". Youtube, 2018,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nz2dtv--ok&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 21 July 2018.