DISCUSSION 2

Discussion

Discussion A) 2 1/2-year-old brother
Your younger brother is 2 ½ years old. You are trying to teach him some new words. Using
Piagetian ideas like assimilation and accommodation, what approach would you take and
what would you expect to happen. Give some examples of words you would teach him and
how you would do it. Describe the achievements and limitations of your brother\’s stage of
cognitive development.
Jean Piaget is one of the influential people in the field of psychology. Piaget developed
the theory of cognitive development in which he integrates ideas about the nature of
development and intelligence with a view of understanding how human beings acquire
knowledge. The theory also helps in explaining how human beings use the knowledge that they
acquire. Piaget’s ideas on assimilation and accommodation have a huge impact on teaching.
Assimilation alludes to the system of perceiving and adapting new information. Assimilation is a
process through which new ideas are reinterpreted to fuse with old ideas. When human beings
are exposed to new information, they rely on previously learned information to make sense of the
new ideas. On the other hand, accommodation is a system through which one takes new
information from the environment and changes the pre-existing schemas to accommodate the
new information. The process takes place if the existing schema is not workable and thus needs
to be altered to deal with new situations and experiences.
In teaching my brother new words, examples of words that I would teach him include cat
and donkey. By showing my brother the photo of a donkey, he may start calling it a horse.
Instead of correcting him, I will attempt to show him the differences between a horse and a
donkey. I will name the donkey a grey horse. The implication is that my brother will

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accommodate the new word donkey by changing the preexisting schemas. Assuming that my
brother has a pet cat, he will believe that all creatures that have four legs and are domesticated
are cats. I will, therefore, focus on adding more information to what he already knows and
explain the sound produced by a dog and a cat. The implication is that he will understand that
certain four-legged creatures are dogs and some are cats. At two and half years old, my brother is
at the preoperational stage. I have to take into consideration achievements and limitations
associated with this stage of development. Some of the achievements include symbols playing a
vital role in development, and simple explanations can greatly be helpful. On the other hand, the
limitations include the inability to view things from another person’s point of view. The stage is
also associated with lack of reversibility.
Discussion D) Prenatal Development
Imagine that you are a developmental psychologist working in a hospital on an
interdisciplinary team. Your first patient of the day is a woman who tells you that she is
concerned that her pregnancy is not developing normally. She is two months pregnant.
Please answer the following questions: a. What are the stages of normal prenatal
development? Describe each stage and what occurs in each. b. What physical and
psychological influences could affect the fetus? C. What else would you need to know to
evaluate her situation?
There are three stages of normal prenatal development. The stages are the germinal stage,
embryonic stage, and fetal stage. The germinal stage is the first stage and occurs between
conception and the second week. The stage is characterized by cell differentiation to form the
umbilical cord, placenta, and the embryo. The embryonic stage occurs between the second week
and the eight weeks. The stage is characterized by blood cells starting to develop and grow. The

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brain, eyes, ears, nose, and the spine are formed. The final stage is called the fetal stage and is
characterized by the fetus being recognizable. The size continues to increase through the fetal
stage. The physical and physiological factors that have an impact on the fetus include stress of
the mother and alcohol intake. Stress and depression can adversely affect the fetus. On the other
hand, alcohol and drug intake can result in fetal alcohol syndrome. Other factors that need to be
considered include maternal factors, fetal factors, and placental factors.
Discussion A) Freud\’s Theory

• Select a well-known person (a politician, actor, musician, etc.), and based on what is
  known about that person, identify into which stage of Freud\’s psychosexual stages that
  person would fit. Explain your response. Describe which part of his/her personality (id,
  ego, superego) you believe is strongest (and explain why you think that) and identify any
  defense mechanisms you think are operating.
  Sigmund Freud described five stages of psychosexual development, namely oral, anal,
  latent, phallic, and genital. The oral stage begins at birth and ends after about one year. The anal
  stage begins at one year and extends to three years. The phallic stage takes over from three to six
  years. The latency stage begins at three years and ends at puberty, while the genital stage begins
  at puberty and continues to adulthood. One of the famous musicians is Nelly. Nelly would fit
  into the genital stage. The genital stage is characterized by sexual experimentations. Nelly has
  been involved in various sex scandals that indicate that he is undertaking sexual experiments.
  The end of the experiments will be characterized by settling down and finding one partner.
  Freud explains the psyche to be comprised of three distinctive parts. The id is
  characterized by primitive actions and thoughts. Sexual and aggressive drives are contained in
  the id. To this end, Nelly’s id is the strongest. He is overly aggressive and is involved in sexual

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scandals. Defense mechanisms were developed by Anna Freud. Defense mechanisms are
important since they shield individuals from feelings of anxiety and guilt. The defense
mechanism that would be applicable is repression. Repression distributes the thoughts from
being conscious.
Discussion C) Personality Perspectives
Compare and contrast three of the following perspectives of personality (psychodynamic,
behavioral, humanistic, biological). How are they similar? How are they different? What
strengths and weaknesses do they have?
The psychodynamic view, the humanistic view, and the biological view are not only
unique but have outstanding differences despite being within the same field. The psychodynamic
perspective aims at resolving the individual conflicts that cause emotive suffering. While the
humanistic perspective seeks to understand ways in which individuals perceive themselves and
others. Behaviorism, on the other hand, focuses on learning through classical and operant
conditioning, and that faulty behavior is caused by faulty thinking patterns. The behavioral
perspective uses a scientific approach while the psychodynamic perspective is unscientific. The
psychodynamic perspective compares to the behavioral perspective in that both assume that
humans are driven by instincts. Both the biological and psychodynamic perspectives are
deterministic. Behavior is shaped by innate forces.
Overall, the biological perspective is scientific as its experiments can be measured, and it
is deterministic. However, one of its weaknesses is that it focusses too much on nature and
generalizes theories about disorders on everyone. Unlike the biological perspective, one of the
strengths of the psychodynamic perspective is that it focuses on both nurture and nature. It also
focuses on the effects of childhood experiences on the development of one’s personality. One of

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its major weaknesses is that its assumptions cannot be scientifically proven, and is thus
unfalsifiable. Lastly, the behavioral perspective uses scientific research methods, and the
experiments are thus observable, objective, and measurable. It has weaknesses because it focuses
on nurture, yet cognitive and biological aspect has also been proven to affect a person’s
behavior.