Human Development and Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Development and Learning - Essay Example According to Piaget's theory, cognitive development takes place in four separate stages and each stage progresses onto being more refined and conceptual levels of thought. Sensorimotor, the first stage (birth to 24 months) is characterized by knowledge being achieved mainly through sensory impressions and motor action. At the end of this stage, the child will have a little understanding outside what can be sensed. The subsequent stage is the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years) describes how child shifts from sensory testing to the progression of language and using of symbols. The basic characteristics of the stage are reading and a quick increase in vocabulary. The third stage is concrete operational (7 to 11 years) shows significant developments in perception and in the last phase known as the formal operational (11 to adulthood) explains the child's developing the skill to think about hypothetical conditions and reflect abstractly. Lev'Vygotsky, another renowned theorist, proposed the Sociocultural Theory of Development which suggested that children learn through socially interacting with their surrounding culture and communicate with others to learn the cultural values of the society through dialogue. Children progress in the direction of more individualized thought process during these social interactions. The co-constructed development incorporates individuals interacting through shared activities. Once the child is assisted in this process, he or she may be able to use enhanced strategies in the future if a familiar situation arises. This leads to internalization, which further results in the child's independent thought process. There are essential similarities between the natures of development of intelligence in children. This is particularly obvious in their views on the stage-related development process of cognitive abilities. Vygotsky is well known on his position on the importance of social factors in development. Piaget stressed the vital role of social factors in the building of knowledge. According to Piaget, social interaction is necessary in order to develop logic. Furthermore, both Vygotsky and Piaget agreed that it is the development of the individual which ultimately takes place. They also stated that internalization is not a process of copying material from the environment but is a transformative process. Piaget investigated the fundamental mechanisms in the individual constructing its thoughts, while Vygotsky dealt with socially developed mechanisms for constructing language meaning and learning. But both of them relate mental processes to the generative constructions of systems that maintain development, that is, in culture or in the individual interacting with its environment. In Vygotsky's opinion language is makes human species humanized and makes human thought a part of culture. On the other hand, language for Paiget is one of the five behavior patterns that manifest representational intelligence in children. Paiget's theory of intelligence is based on biological factors, but it also implies social dimensions as well. The

Consumption Function Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Consumption Function - Essay Example In technical language, consumption is a function of (determined by) income. This relationship between consumption and income is termed as 'consumption function' or 'propensity to consume'. Keynes (1936) believes this relationship to be 'a fairly stable function'. At an empirical level, consumption function portrays a schedule of various amount of consumption expenditure corresponding to different levels of income. As can be seen in Table 1, when the consumer's income is $0, the consumer spends $60 either from his/her past savings. When the consumer's income is $100, the corresponding level of consumption is $150, which indicates that the consumer's income is inadequate to meet the expenditure. It is only when the consumer's income reaches $250 that the consumption equals income. Until this equilibrium point consumption exceeds income leading to negative saving, and beyond that point the consumer's income exceeds expenditure resulting in positive savings. In Figure 1, income is measured on the X axis and expenditure on the Y axis. The unity line C= Y, which is basically a 450 line, presents a scenario that consumption corresponds to income at all levels of income. The C curve is a non-linear consumption function based on the assumption that consumption increases by a decreasing amount. Its upward slope to the right indicates that consumption is an increasing function of Income. Types of consumption functions: Depending on the consumption pattern of a consumer, the actual functional form of the equation can be linear with a constant slope or curvilinear with a changing slope. 1. A linear consumption function beginning from the origin can be written as C = bY where C = Consumption expenditure, Y = Income and 'b' represents the fraction of income which is spent on consumption, and it represents the slope of the consumption function. 2. A linear consumption function beginning at an intercept can be written as: C = a + bY, where C represents consumption expenditure, Y is income, 'a' stands for the intercept and 'b' symbolizes the slope. The intercept 'a' measures the amount of consumption when income is zero. The value of intercept 'a' is positive, and it is conceptually referred to as 'autonomous consumption'. The term 'autonomous consumption' is used to explain the situation in which the consumer's consumption is unrelated to the level of income (Begg et al 1997). As presented in Table 1 as well as Figure 1, when consumer's income is zero, the consumption expenditure accounts for $60, which is described as 'autonomous consumption' since it is not related to the level of consumer's income. 3. A nonlinear consumption function beginning from the origin can be written as: C = bYn, where n is a positive constant