Cognitive Developmental Psychology and Law

Developmental Cognitive Psychology and Law Child development refers to a psychological, biological and emotional developments that occur between birth and adolescent. Biologically, a child refers to an individual between the time of birth and puberty. In other words, a child refers to a person between infancy and adulthood. In many countries, children between 0-year and 18 years are at a developmental stage because they are unable to make a very serious decision by themselves.

In the United States, children between age of 4 and 6 are referred as preschoolers, and at this stage, they are generally egocentric and unable to see other children point-of-view. Moreover, they are not intuitive and not able to develop a rational thinking. (Kail, 2011). Objective of this paper is to use the field of development psychology and legal system determination to justify when the children who shot other children in the case studies are to be held responsible for their acts.

Characteristics of Children aged between 2 and 6 Preschoolers are children aged between 2 and 6. Children at this stage are able to see patters and organize patterns to explain the world. However, preschoolers have some cognitive limitations. The children of these ages have trouble to control their functions. Moreover, they confuse a superficial appearance with a reality making them to make cognitive errors. The children of these ages imitate adult behaviors especially the behaviors of their parents because they see their parents as models.

According to Piaget theory, children of these ages use symbols and make imaginary friendships. (Berger, 2014). Moreover, children between 2 and 6 can be easily misled. In essence, cognitive abilities of preschoolers are limited because they are unable to distinguish between their own views and other people's view. Biologically, a well-fed preschooler gains 4-1-2 pounds annually and grow by almost 3 inches. By age of 6, the brain can weigh 90% of adult brain. By the age 6, they will like to experiment with climb ladders; tricycles; and kick balls. (Berger, 2014).

Cognitive argument for the Policy in term of Cognitive Argument This paper uses the Piaget theory of cognitive development to argue that the children who shot the fellow children in the case studies are not capable of understanding the consequence of their actions. Piaget argues that these children are at their "pre-operational stage of cognitive development." (Berger, 2014 p 275). Piaget identifies the pre-operational stage by which the children are unable to do certain activities by themselves.

At this stage, children are not capable of understanding a concrete logic and are not capable of executing logical behaviors. Moreover, these children are not capable of manipulating information. Piaget further argues that the mental operations of children at pre-operational stage are logically inadequate because they are unable to perform mental operations effectively. Although, children at this stage may form stable concepts however, they are not able to perform logical operations.

Piaget argues that egocentric behaviors are apparent during the stages of cognitive development, nevertheless, egocentric behaviors are more apparent during the pre-operation stages. Argument for this policy with reference to Social and Child's emotional development. Emotional learning starts from a tender age and as children grow up, they discover different types of emotions. At pre-school years, a child will generally like to be with friends. Between the ages of 5 and 6, boys will like to play with boys while girls will like to play with girls.

What is unique about children of these ages is that they are very sensitive to criticism, and will not like to accept failures. By consequence, they tend to seek for a sense of security from groups, clubs and organized play. At this stage, they will face challenges in handling things that are not going in their ways. More importantly, the child at this stage is not able to understand the ethical behaviors and moral standards.

In essence, a child will be able to distinguish bad from good based on enforced values from others. By consequence, a child typically judges action as being bad when it results to punishments. Thus, a child who is never being informed or punished for holding a gun shot will see nothing wrong in carrying a gun. Typically, the issue of child punishment is gradually declining in the United States and other advanced countries because of fear of being accused of child abuse.

Thus, children who are in the habits of doing wrong things and go scot free will believe that holding a gun is morally good since "every aspect of children's cognitive development is embedded in the social context." ( Berger, 2014 p 7). Additionally, children below eight years of age are at the stage of pre-conventional morality. The children at this stage do not have personal code of conduct or morality. Indeed, the moral code of children of these ages are shaped by adults.

The major thing about the right or wrong behaviors depend on the type of punishment or reinforcement received from performing certain behaviors. Thus, a child is likely to indulge in a bad behavior if he or she believes that he is not likely to be punished by indulging in the bad behavior. Berger, (2014) identifies three type of parents. Authoritative parents make and enforce rules and regulation that their children ought to follow. Thus, style of rules is common among low income parents.

However, permissive parents listen to their children, and punishment is lax. On the other hand, authoritative parents enforce moderate rules. Parents set rules, however listen to their children. Thus, the way parents enforce rules and interact with their children influence children behaviors. (Schechter, & Willheim, 2009). Conclusion This paper explores the case studies of children of 6 years who shot other children. Although, these acts are punishable under the law if the acts.