Biological Cognitive Development

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Biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes are all connected in the developmental task of a baby smiling at his or her mother’s touch. Biological processes produce changes in an individual’s physical nature. Cognitive processes bring changes to the individual’s thought, intelligence, and language. Socioemotional processes include changes in the individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions and changes in personality. For the baby, the biological process has to do with the physical touch by the mother and the baby’s response to this touch. The cognitive process deals with the fact that the mother is intentionally touching the baby, something that the baby is beginning to understand. The socioemotional process for …show more content…

One of the “three most important issues” in psychological development is nature and nurture. This issue involves the extent to which development is influenced by nature and by nurture. Nature refers to biology, where as nurture refers to environmental experiences. I grew up with my dad being in the military, which meant that respect and order were a constant in our house. I attended one of …show more content…

This theory stresses that early experiences with parents shape one’s development. Freud is best known for his psychoanalytic theory. Freud believed that sexual motivation was behind development, so his 5 stages of development are known as psychosexual stages. Erikson believed that there were 8 stages of development as we go through life. According to Freud, the primary motivation for human behavior is sexual in nature and our basic personality is shaped in the first five years of life. According to Erikson, the primary motivation is social and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people and that development change occurs throughout the life span. Cognitive theories emphasize conscious thoughts. Piaget and Vygotsky are best known for cognitive theories. Piaget believed that children go through four stages of cognitive development as they actively construct their understanding of the world. Vygotsky’s had a sociocultural cognitive theory that emphases how culture and social interactions guide cognitive development. Behavioral and social cognitive theories emphasize continuity in development and argue that development does not occur in stage-life fashion. Skinner and Bandura are best known for there theories in behavioral and social cognitive theories. Skinner believed in operant conditioning, where the consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of