Week 2 Post 2

Out of all three of the Grand Theories, I found the Cognitive Theory to be the best at describing the developmental stages of life.  The Cognitive Theory focuses on changes in how people think over time and how our thoughts shape our attitudes, beliefs, and even our behaviors.  Also, in this theory there are two cognitive adaptions that are true in explaining cognitive development.  The first one is assimilation which states new experiences are reinterpreted to fit in with old ideas.  This simply means that the new experiences that we are currently facing can explain why certain things happen to us in the past.  The second cognitive adaption is accommodation which says old ideas are restructured to include new experience.  This means that our old ideas and experiences can help form new ideas because we were able to learn from the past.  Scientist Jean Piaget discussed how equilibrium helps in explaining the process of cognitive adaptions.  Equilibrium is a state of mental balance.  In the state of mental balance, people are not confused because they use their existing thought processes to understand current experiences and ideas.  In addition to that, Piaget also created his four stages of cognitive development to better explain the theory behind cognitive development.  Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development include: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational.  Each of these stages explains how an infant’s mind develops as they become an adolescent.  After being an adolescent, a person should be able to think in more logical and abstract ways based on their past experiences.