Chapter 5 - Developing Though The Life Span

In this chapter I found Piaget's theory very interesting. Piaget's ideas of schemas, and how they are mental molds that we pour our experiences into, and then he proposed two more concepts. The first is assimilate, we assimilate new experiences, or interpret them in ways that we already understand. The second is accommodate, as we grow older we start to adjust or schemas. Piaget also proposed that children progress though four stages, the first sensorimotor, the second preoperational, the third concrete operational, and the fourth formal operational.

Another part of this chapter was babies and their "stranger anxiety". They sometimes greet strangers by crying and reaching for people they know. Part of this is because they form schemas for faces that they know, and can not put new faces into the schema. But another part of this could be that they form attachments to people they know. Because for babies this attachment is a survival impulse. They attach themselves to people, normally their parents, who they are comfortable around and familiar with.

The final part of this chapter that I'm going to talk about is the three types of parenting. The three types of parenting are Authoritarian, Permissive, and Authoritative. The authoritarian are the kind of parents that sets strict rules and expects obedience. The permissive are the parents that gives into their childs desires, they make few demands and use very little punishment. The authoritative are the parents that use a little bit of both, they set rules and enforce them but they explain the reasons behind the rules.