Question

1. Describe two reasons why an individual might never reach the formal operations stage of thinking?

2. How does adolescent health in the United States compare to adolescent health in European countries?

Answer 1

1. Formal operational stage thinking is the 4th stage in the development theory given by Jean Piaget and the child enters this stage nearly at the age of 12 and at this stage he is able to think about abstract concepts and understand things using scientific and philosophical meanings. Two possible reasons ann individual might never reach that stage can be

i) The child is mentally retarded and has learning disabilities which will make him unable to grasp abstract concepts as they don't have any physical existence and it takes a high level of cognitive functioning to understand such things.

ii) Piaget understood the contribution of environment and believed that development doesn't take place in isolation as well as it is hugely governed by the social setting, educational level, cultural aspects and most importantly the family. So if a child is deprived of proper care or lacks the appropriate environmental settings to stimulate such development then he may never reach that stage of development.

2. European countries e.g. France, Germany, Netherlands are very open and supportive to their adolescents and provide basic health care facilities very easily, especially contraceptives to help them in developing as healthy and responsible adolescents, they have explicit sex education and government have this unwritten social contract that they respect their right to act responsibly and provide them with the tools to avoid unwanted consequences. They have pragmatic governmental policies as well as societal openness dealing with health issues. That is actually not the case in the US as they are usually conservative and ain't open to discussing things openly and hence the rate of teen pregnancy, birth, and abortion is way higher than European countries. So, it can be concluded that the health of adolescents in the US is miserable while is European countries it is way better.