PSYCH 140 Chapter 4: Chapter 4

• School: Berkeley
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH 140
• Professor: Alison Gopnik

Document Summary

How understand theories of child development can yield benefits. Developmental theories provide a framework for understanding important phenomena. Developmental theories raises crucial questions about human nature. Developmental theories lead to better understanding of children. There are in total of 5 theories of cognitive development. Nature and nurture, continuity and discontinuity and the active child. Emphasize precise characterizations of the mechanisms that give rise to children"s thinking and that produce cognitive growth. Focus on the surprisingly early knowledge and skills that infants and young children show in areas thought to be of evolutionary importance. Emphasize the ways in which children"s interactions with other people and with the products of their culture guide cognitive development. Highlight the variability of children"s thinking, even from moment to moment. Piaget"s fundamental assumption about children: mentally active from the moment of the birth and that their mental and physical activity both contribute greatly to their development.