Theorists

Main aspect of theorists
Piaget
Jean Piaget was a zoologist who became interested in children’s cognitive development as a result of working on intelligence tests. He noticed that children cosistantly gave ‘wrong’ answers to some questions and began to consider why this was. Piaget used his own children to make detailed observations and gradually developed a theory that has been very influential. Piaget’s theory is a ‘constructivist approach’ as he suggested some children constructed or built up their thoughts according to the world around them. He thought learning was an ongoing process, with children needing to adapt their original ideas if a new peice of information seemed to contradict their conclusions. Piaget used specific vocabulary to describe the process of children learning this way.
Piaget’s theory can help us to understand why children’s thinking is sometimes different to ours.
Freud
Freud’s theory suggested that there were three parts made up of our personality. The ‘id’, the ‘ego’ and the ‘superego’. Not all of these parts are present at birth but develop with the child.
  * The id- this is the instinctive part of the personality. It is governed by the drives and the needs of the body, such as hunger or pleasure. The id does not consider how meeting desires and wants will affect others and so is often thought of as the selfish and passionate component. Freud suggested that babies had only the id when they were born.
  * The ego- The ego has a planning role. It works out how to meet the id’s needs and desires in the best way. The ego develops from the id in the first few months. In some situations the ego may make the id wait for its demands to be met.
  * The superego- This develops later in childhood. It tries to control the ego. It compromises two elements: the conscience and the ego-ideal. The conscience will punish the ego if it misbehaves, or will reward if it shows good behaviour. This is the source of pride and confidence....