Personal Reactions and Observations on Chosen Video

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.