Cognitive Development and Growth Essay Paper.

Social theory in many ways stems from individual thoughts and interactions with the social world as they encounter different situations. People’s reactions to situations as explained by the social cognitive perspective is dependent on their experience, conditioning. Also, individuals bring about their expectations and efficacies when situations arise. Cognitive Development and Growth Essay Paper.Here, people choose environments depending on their personalities. They can opt to read books of their own, attend schools of their choice and date people of their liking. It’s all about a matter of making choices depending with what a person deems suitable for them. The chosen environment then shapes a person (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Internal cognitive factor, environment and the environment factors interact with one another to yield outcomes and reactions from people. Social cognitive theory, unlike the other theories, underpins a logical view how people are affected and affect their environments.Cognitive Development and Growth Essay Paper.

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Here the focus is usually on situations with limited evaluation of a person’s inner traits. The focus on situations sharply contrasts the approaches employed in biological and behaviourist theorists. The behaviourist theorists also believe that behaviour is dependent on the outcomes of situations. ( Cognitive Development and Growth )

The theorists explain that if an action bore desirable outcomes such acts are likely to be repeated whereas behaviours from an individual that results in adverse outcomes stand high chances of stopped (Bargh & Ferguson, 2000). Cognitive Development and Growth Essay Paper.The situation and its causal effects has similarity to the social cognitive theory that underpins the postulation that situations affect and shapes individuals (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). The focus here is the observable behaviour and not mental or emotional behaviour. Here operant conditioning can be used to reinforce and discourage a behaviour from an individual. Other behaviourist explores responses from using stimulus. In behaviourism emphasis is put on learning, some of the behaviourist theorists such as Skinner explained knowledge is acquired through learning. The biologists’ theorists focus on the biological makeup of people; their biology and genetics to determine just how much personality is inherited and how much is developed through the course of one’s life. Biological, behaviourist, cognitive, and social-cognitive theories all acknowledge that the environment plays an important in shaping an individual’s behaviour. However, they are different as they are premised differently. As had been discussed earlier in the paper, the biologists’ theorist arguments stem from biological and genetic evaluations of individuals while the behaviourist and the social theorists also base a lot of their arguments on the observed human behaviour and the role of situations in shaping a person’s behaviour (Bargh & Ferguson, 2000, Cognitive Development and Growth ).Cognitive Development and Growth Essay Paper.

The approaches discussed in the paper have various strengths and limitations. Firstly, the biologist cognitive perspective puts a lot of emphasis on the how the genes play integrals roles in determining one’s behaviours. They nonetheless do not discount the fact that the environment also has a stake in determining a person’s behaviour. This approach has a weakness in the sense that it fails to put adequate emphasis on other determinants that also influences cognitive growth and development in people.

Secondly, the behaviourist theorist in as much as the relevance of observable behaviour in explaining cognitive development also fail to explore other key factors that play undiscounted roles in determining cognitive development. Some of the behaviourist explanations on how behaviours could be enhanced through conditionings are fascinating (Bargh & Ferguson, 2000).Cognitive Development and Growth Essay Paper. The behaviourist approach notably fails to encompass the other factors that also influences cognitive growth in their arguments.( Cognitive Development and Growth )

Thirdly, the cognitive theory covers the in-depth explanation of human cognition. It explores thinking and how children progress through different stages of life. Adaptive processes from the theory clearly explain how cognitive structures are modified through constant learning. Various stages are explored in the theory such as the sensorimotor that puts most of its explanations to perspective (Goswami, 2011). The cognitive theory just like the other three fails to put substantial efforts into exploring other factors that equally affect cognitive development.

Finally, the social cognitive theory perspective presents logical arguments on the interactions of peoples thoughts and situations. They give offer clear explanations on how situations are affected by people who in turn end up with opinions, reservations and attitudes from such cases that in a way determine their cognitive growth (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Their arguments, however, do not solely depict the whole reality that exists within the cognitive development. It is hard to discount facts on the role of genes in determining people’s behaviours and reactions to issues.

All the four theories help explain the differences that exist among siblings. The cognitive theory explains that infants exposure to materials in the external environment differ and hence result into varied cognitive development. The situations encountered by individuals and their reactions to issues also vary. Different situations and diverse results lead into siblings with different cognitive growth. The biologist in their study, explains that genes vary within people and therefore result in the differences experienced among siblings.Cognitive Development and Growth Essay Paper.

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References

Bargh, J. A., & Ferguson, M. J. (2000). Beyond behaviourism: on the automaticity of higher mental processes. Psychological bulletin, 126(6), 925.

Bargh, J., & Ferguson, M. (2000). Beyond behaviourism: On the automaticity of higher mental processes. Psychological Bulletin, 126(6), 925-945. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.6.925

Bussey, K., & Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation. Psychological review, 106(4), 676.

Goswami, U. (2011). The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Cognitive Development and Growth Essay Paper.