Human Development and Cognitive Theory: A Lifespan Exploration

This essay provides an overview of human development across the lifespan, with a specific focus on cognitive development theory. It centers on Jean Piaget's influential theory, which posits that children's mental development progresses through four distinct stages: sensorimotor (birth to 2 years), preoperational (2 to 7 years), concrete operational (7 to 12 years), and formal operational (12 years and beyond). The essay explores the key characteristics of each stage, highlighting how children's thinking and understanding of the world evolve. It emphasizes the active role children play in their own learning, adapting and integrating new information. The conclusion reinforces the significance of Piaget's theory as a cornerstone for understanding child development. The essay references several academic sources to support its claims.

Running head: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
Human Development across the Lifespan
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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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

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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,

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known as sensorimotor stage, the children have to surpass a massive growth and learning period.
A massive growth takes place in rather a short time indeed (Bjorklund & Causey, 2017).
The second stage
The name of the second stage is Preoperational stage. The stage falls between 2 and 7
years of age. The features of this stage are the facts that the children begin to think and act using
various symbols (Mischel, 2013). The children are much centered about their ego and they try to
see the different things of the world from the perspective of others. One of the most important
things in this in this stage is the use of the language by the children. The children at this stage
tend to learn through the pretend play but they go through much struggle when arranging the
things through logical development.
The third stage
The name of the third stage is concrete operational stage and the age limit of this stage is
between 7 and 12 years, In this stage, the children tend to think about the different things with
much logic (Mischel, 2013). The thinking power of the children use to become much logical but
it is very much concrete as well. The conception of the conservation enters the minds of the
children in this stage indeed. The use of the inductive logic process is learned by the children
properly. It is apprehended that the thinking process for the children in this stage can become
rigid as well (Ormrod, 2013).
The fourth stage
The name of the fourth stage is the formal operational stage and it continues from age of
12 (Demetriou, Shayer & Efklides, 2016). The emergence of various abstract thoughts comes
into the minds of children at this stage. The kinds of thoughts that the children think about are

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generally ethical, political, philosophical, social and others (Ormrod, 2013). As opposed to the
use of the inductive logic, the children begin to use of the deductive logic indeed. They begin to
think about the abstract situations and ideas and this is one of the most important things for the
development of this stage.
Conclusion
This essay can be concluded by saying that the cognitive development theory by Piaget is
one of the most important development theories for the children. The four stages of development
have been discussed in this section. The different features of this development theory have been
highlighted as well. The development of the brains of the children grows properly through this
theory.

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References
Baltes, P. B., Featherman, D. L., & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.). (2014). Life-span development and
behavior (Vol. 10). Psychology Press.
Bjorklund, D. F. (Ed.). (2013). Children's strategies: Contemporary views of cognitive
development. Psychology Press.
Bjorklund, D. F., & Causey, K. B. (2017). Children's thinking: Cognitive development and
individual differences. SAGE Publications.
Boyd, D. R., Bee, H. L., & Johnson, P. A. (2014). Lifespan development. Pearson.
Demetriou, A., Shayer, M., & Efklides, A. (Eds.). (2016). Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive
development: Implications and applications for education. Routledge.
Mischel, T. (Ed.). (2013). Cognitive development and epistemology. Academic Press.
Ormrod, J. E. (2013). Educational psychology: Pearson new international edition: Developing
learners. Pearson Higher Ed.
Sigelman, C. K., & Rider, E. A. (2014). Life-span human development. Cengage Learning.