Explain the values of the cognitive perspectives in supporting individuals. Using Piagets and Kellys theories on cognitive development

• Age 0-2: Sensorimotor stage Here children begin to explore the world, largely through their senses and through movement. Children at this stage haven’t developed object permanence.
• Age 2-7: Preoperational stage Children are now beginning to use mental representations. However, their thinking is not logical and it can be much centred on them. For example, a child might shut their eyes tight. The child can’t see us, and so they think that we can’t see them! Children in the preoperational stage haven’t mastered the idea of conservation.
• Age 7-11: Concrete operations Children’s thinking is becoming less rigid and more logical. For example, children can sort things into order of size and they can also classify things in terms of their similarities and differences, e.g. big red bricks, small red bricks, big and small blue bricks. They are also beginning to grasp the idea of conservation. Their thinking is not yet abstract. It is based on things that are real concrete, which might be objects or actual experiences.
• 11-16: Formal operation this is abstract and logical thinking. The children or young people are not limited to concrete thinking. They can form ideas that are not based on their own experiences and they can run through ideas in their heads. They can consider alternatives and can also think deductively, drawing conclusions about particular cases from general principles.

Piaget’s theory has been very influential in education, particularly in nursery and early primary. Piaget stressed that young children are active learners. You cannot tell them what they need to know; instead they need to work this out for themselves. So Piaget’s theories are often used to support the idea of active, play-based learning.  

Assignment 8.5b

Describe how cognitive behaviour therapy works to help people who are suffering from conditions such as depression, stress and anxiety.

Piaget’s ideas cognitive development in children has been highly influential in education. The view has changed from a pupil as a passive recipient of knowledge to a child as an active and creative being who is capable of adapting to, and learning from, the environment. Teaching methods have been adapted to meet the developmental stages of children by including a high focus on learning by doing and making new information available in small steps. A second use of cognitive theory is in the field of abnormal behaviour with the use of cognitive therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy. This approach focuses on understanding how people’s thoughts influence their emotions which in turn influence behaviour. The psychologist Aaron Beck has formulated a helpful approach to understanding both eating disorders and depression. This perspective begins by understanding how distorted and irrational negative thoughts influences feelings, which then lead to changes in behaviour. An example of this process is given in people with learning difficulties can experiences enormous frustration in their daily lives. The cognitive approach can be used to help individuals who misread situations. By identifying irrational thoughts, an individual can be guided to change them, with the consequent benefits to emotions and behaviour.

Cognitive work of this type can improve self-esteem and reduce outbursts which are triggered by lack of understanding of requirements of a given situation for example, having to wait in turn for a meal. Cognitive therapy is also used to support people with post-traumatic stress disorders. PTSD occurs as the result of an individual being exposed to a traumatic event in which they experience, witness or are confronted with actual or threatened death or serious and where the person’s response is intense fear, helplessness or horror. PTSD can become apparent through the person’s experiencing other psychological or emotional symptoms such as anxiety disorders, depression, phobias, and substance abuse or relationship problems. The person will utilise a range of defence mechanisms to cope with the psychological or emotional effects of trauma, such as rationalisation. However, their schemas that relate to that event will have become wounded or damaged and this will make it difficult for them to make sense of the world on its previous terms. Old belief systems will be resurrected as they try and make sense of what they have experienced and their own identity as a results of events.