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BHS105A - Cognitive Development in Children Report

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Australasian College of Natural Therapies

   

Biochemistry (BHS105A)

   

Added on  2020-03-04

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On this topic of cognitive development in children, this report will discuss the key issues regarding the nature Vs nurture debates. The key issue regarding the nature and nurture debate is whether human culture, personality and behaviour are caused by nature or nurture. In this debate, nature is portrayed as the genetic or the hormone-based behaviour and nurture is defined as the environmental exposure and experience. This report will describe the theories of nature and psychological approaches.

BHS105A - Cognitive Development in Children Report

   

Australasian College of Natural Therapies

   

Biochemistry (BHS105A)

   Added on 2020-03-04

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Running head: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDRENCOGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDRENName of the StudentName of the universityAuthor’s note
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1COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN1.1The key issues regarding the Nature Vs Nurture debateThe key issues regarding the nature and nurture debate is whether human culture, personalityand behavior are caused by nature or nurture. In this debate nature is portrayed as the genetic orthe hormone based behavior and nurture is defined as the environmental exposure andexperience.1.2 Nature vs. nurture argumentNature vs. nurture argument is one of the oldest arguments in the history of psychology.Each of the side supports some good points and it is really difficult to conclude whether thecognitive development of a child depends upon the gene or on the environment he is beingexposed to. The physical features may be identical to the parents like the eye color, hair andsome more but the environment obviously have an impact on the behavior of a certain person. THE NATURE THEORYThe different traits present in the human beings like the color of the eye, height, ear size,hair color, baldness are dependent upon the expression of the genes located in the chromosomes,however it is still unknown whether certain factors like the intelligence, personality, sexualorientation, behavior are also coded in the DNA (Powell, K., 2012). One of the controversial issue against the nature theory is the presence of the ‘gay gene ’that explains that gays are born in that way, although there are no strong evidences in support ofthis fact. Another issue is that, the various criminal acts can be justified by the presence of the‘behavioral genes’ once the scientific world have proven the authenticity of the fact.
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2COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDRENOn the other hand, the existence of the behavioral genes can be evident if we look at the fraternaltwins (Powell, K., 2012). In some cases if the fraternal twins are brought up separately, theyoften show the same characteristics and responses as if they have been brought up together. Thisis how the nature theory goes.THE NURTURE THEORYThe nurture theory supports that genes might be responsible for the presence of theabstract trait, but environment plays the real roles when it comes to the behaviors (Powell, K.,2012). This involves the use of the training in order to induce a new behavior in a child. As saidby the famous psychologist John Watson, the environmental factors take a stronger side in theNature Vs Nurture debate. According to him a baby randomly chosen can be trained to becomeany type of specialist, which depends on the training. He said that he would be able to train himregardless of his potential, race and talents. It can be true that fraternal twins show similarbehaviors even when raised apart, but changes in the behavior would always exist dependingupon the environmental exposure (Powell, K., 2012). Thus in the end, one is still left with open end questions and confusions and the debate wouldjust continue forever unless any such valid evidences are available.2.1. 5 main theorists in cognitive development of infants and young child1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive development in children.2. Lev Vygotsky who developed the different Zones of the proximal development3. Erik Erikson’s theory of Psycosocial behavior
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3COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN4. Freud’s theory of Psycosexual development.5. Kohlberg’s theory of Moral development.2.2. Theories of developmental and cognitive practitioners.1. Cognitive developmental theory proposed by Jean Piaget(Baldwin. 1967)Cognitive study is the scientific study of the mental function, which includes the learning,reasoning, memory, attention, perception and decision making. The modern concept of cognitionrests on the foundation that brain can be assessed as a complex computing system. Piaget hasproposed 4 stages of cognitive development. They are as follows-The sensorimotor stage, the pre operational stage, concrete operational stage and theformal operational stage.According to Piaget, cognitive development can be defined as a progressivereorganization of the different mental processes that might occur due to biological maturation orenvironmental experience.2. Kohlberg’s theory of moral development(Baldwin. 1967)Kohlberg discovered that children are confronted with several moral issues, and thedilemma faced by them whether to act positively and negatively depends on certain factors.Kohlberg proposed different levels and the stages of Moral development (Mooney 2013).Level 1. Preconventional morality
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