Essay on Reality Assignment

Submitted By shouston19050
Words: 1231
Pages: 5

Houston1
According to Piaget a toddler at the age of 5 should be at the preoperational stage. The study conducted by me using my five year old daughter showed me that she was above the level she should be in relation to Piaget’s theory. It was impressive to see the subject did not need any cueing or repeating of the question. The subject was able to understand and interpret what was being asked of her and gave the answers after a brief thought. I find that using objects the she was familiar with made it easier to understand the task at hand. The subject was able to demonstrate the skills needed to understand conservation and logic. I did note that the subject was able to grasp the concept of logic even though according to Piaget should not be reached until age six. Piaget emphasized that preoperational intelligence overlooks logic. The concepts of preoperational intelligence highlighted is that it included language and imagination. At this age is shows that even though a child can understand some aspects of logic they are not yet in the stage of operational thinking? The subject understood basic principles of conservation because the objects used to test it were materials that are used and incorporated in her lesson plans at school. I find that this kind of material are being introduce earlier in childhood as opposed to in earlier years. Also understanding and concept of egocentrism and seeing it displayed in the subject gave me a better understanding of Piaget’s theory. When Houston2
Doing the glass of milk study the subject was asked which glass had more milk in she was quick to reply, “The taller one and that’s the one I want because I should have more milk than you.” She found a way to make the experiment about her. That was the only part of the experiment that she guessed wrong for all the other aspects she recognized that the material remained the same. I believe that the ages might need to change because children are learning and gaining more grasp of conservation at earlier ages. The first part of the experiment the subject looked at two equal glasses of milk one glass was poured into a taller glass and then she was asked which one contained more and she answered the taller one. That part of the experiment displayed preoperational thinking. The other parts of the experiment included using lines of pennies, pieces of clay and two rulers. For the rest of the experiment the subject was able to recognize that the materials did not change and that there was the same amount even though the property was changed. It was amazing to see children’s thought processes.
I believe that once you have more insight and factual information before performing an experiment it makes it that more interesting to see it in real life. It was more meaningful to me because I was not reading a case study on an unknown Houston3 subject. I was using my own daughter to see where she was according to Piaget’s theory. Also using a present day subject to compare to what Piaget used back when he performed the study it’s sometimes nice to see how things have changed and how human development has evolved throughout the years. One thing I can say is that some parts of the theory are out date and probably should be revised. Children are developing faster in this century and also the school curriculum is more intense and there is a lot more things that are introduced to children at a younger age.

Houston4
The subject interviewed for the marriage contract was a 30 year old African American male. He is currently a Counselor at a Veterans affair. The subject has a bachelors and a master’s degree and is currently working on his doctorate. The interviewee was asked a series of questions in regards to aspects of marriage. The subject seemed to have answers for all the questions asked and it appeared that the person had already considered these things and had a life plan. The subject made a big emphasis on family