THEORIES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people’s freedoms and
opportunities and improving their well-being. Human development is about the real
freedom ordinary people have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live.
THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget
SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
The sensorimotor stage is the first of the four stages Piaget uses to define cognitive
development. Piaget designated the first two years of an infant’s life as the sensorimotor stage.
During this period, infants are busy discovering relationships between their bodies and the
environment. Researchers have discovered that infants have relatively well-developed sensory
abilities. The child relies on seeing, touching, sucking, feeling, and using their senses to learn
things about themselves and the environment. Piaget calls this the sensorimotor stage because the
early manifestations of intelligence appear from sensory perceptions and motor activities.
PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
Ages 2 to 7. During this stage, children can use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas,
which is why children in this stage engage in pretend play.
Example: A child’s arms might become airplane wings as she zooms around the room, or a child
with a stick might become a brave knight with a sword.
CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
The concrete operational stage is the third stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive
development. This period spans the time of middle childhood—it begins around age 7 and
continues until approximately age 11—and is characterized by the development of logical thought.
Thinking still tends to be very concrete; children become much more logical and sophisticated in
their thinking during this stage of development.
While this is an important stage in and of itself, it also serves as an important transition between
earlier stages of development and the coming stage where kids will learn how to think more
abstractly and hypothetically.
FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
Ages 11 to adulthood. Develop the ability to think in abstract ways. This enables children to
engage in the problem-solving method of developing a hypothesis and reasoning their way to
plausible solutions. Children can think of abstract concepts and have the ability to combine various
ideas to create new ones.
The formal operational stage begins at approximately age twelve and lasts into adulthood. As
adolescents enter this stage, they gain the ability to think in an abstract manner by manipulate ideas
in their head, without any dependence on concrete manipulation (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958).He/she
can do mathematical calculations, think creatively, use abstract reasoning, and imagine the
outcome of particular actions.
ATTACHMENT THEORY
Attachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term social relationships between humans.
Attachment in infants is primarily a process of proximity-seeking to an identified attachment figure
in situations of perceived distress or alarm for the purpose of survival. In other words, infants
develop attachment to their caregivers—upon whom they are dependent—as a means of survival.
The development of parent-infant attachment is a complex process that leads to deeper and deeper
attachment as the child ages.
Bowlby conceived of four stages of attachment that begin during infancy: preattachment,
attachment-in-the-making, clear-cut attachment, and formation of reciprocal relationships.
• Preattachment (birth to 6 weeks): Built-in signals, such as crying and cooing, bring a
newborn baby into close proximity with their caregiver. Babies recognize a caretaker’s
smell and voice and are comforted by these things. When the caretaker picks up the baby
or smiles at her, the beginnings of attachment are forming.
• Attachment-in-the-making (6 weeks to 8 months): Attachment is getting stronger during
this stage, and infants respond differently to familiar people than they do to strangers. For
example, a 5-month-old baby will be more “talkative” with his mother rather than with an
uncle he sees only once a month.
• Clear-cut attachment (8 months to 18 months): Attachment to trusted caregivers
continues to strengthen in this stage, and separation anxiety is likely in a caregiver’s
absence. Toddlers generally want to be with their preferred caregiver at all times, and they
will follow the caretaker, climb on them, or otherwise do things to keep the caregiver’s
attention.
• Formation of reciprocal attachment (18 months to 2 years): Rapid language growth
facilitates the understanding of new concepts, and children begin to understand a parent’s
coming and going.
