Answered: Kenny is now 17 years old, and his…

Ciccarelli: Psychology_5 (5th Edition)

5th Edition

ISBN:9780134477961

Author:Saundra K. Ciccarelli, J. Noland White

Publisher:Saundra K. Ciccarelli, J. Noland White

Chapter1: The Science Of Psychology

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1TY

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Question

Kenny is now 17 years old, and his mother, Anna, is very upset. Anna is relating that she expects Kenny to be able to think as an adult by now and understand the consequences of his actions and how they may affect him in the future.

(a) Using the stages of cognitive development, explain how Kenny’s thinking would be different from that of an adult at this age.

(b) Using the theory of psychosocial development, discuss any 3 challenges that Kenny would have experienced during his life.

Expert Solution

Step 1

The stages of cognitive development were given by Jean Piaget. According to him, there are four stages and they are the sensorimotor stage, pre-operational stage, concrete operational stage and formal operational stage.

The sensorimotor stages span from birth to 2 years and in this stage, the child’s behaviour composes mostly of reflexes. They develop abilities such as understanding object permanence and that some actions can be reversed.
The pre-operational stage spans from the age of 2 to 7 years of age. In this stage, they are not yet performing mental operations. They can understand symbolism. They are unable to consider the perspective of others or understand how objects can be classified. They often treat inanimate objects as if they are living beings (animism).
In the concrete operational stage that spans from the age of 7 to 11, they are able to perform the basic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They are not able to think in terms of abstract concepts yet.
In the formal operational stage that spans from 11 to adulthood, an individual develops the ability to use logic and reason. They can think about abstract concepts.