Jean Piaget Flashcards
What period was Jean Piaget alive in?
1896-1980.
Briefly explain the history of how child development was viewed.
First seen with nativist and innate ideas.
Observations of child development (Darwin, Stanley Hall).
Nature-nurture debate prevailed which led to educational stratification via IQ.
Acquisition of language became of interest.
Hypotheses and testing became important.
What did genetic epistemology mean for Piaget?
It was the idea of understanding the human mind and its capacity by studying the way a child’s mind goes from a lower to a higher level of knowledge.
For Piaget it was the emergence of cognitive operations in the child.
What did the term genetic mean during Piaget’s time?
Biological emergence over developmental time.
Explain the terms assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation is the idea that new information is fitted into a pre-existing schema.
Accommodation is the idea that new informations leads to a change in a pre-existing schema.
Briefly explain the sensorimotor stage.
This is where trial and error learning occurs.
There is no object permanence.
Briefly explain the pre-operational stage.
This is where symbolism and pretend play occur.
Egocentrism.
Conservation of properties not mastered.
Briefly explain the concrete operations stage.
This is where logical thought occurs.
Conservation is mastered.
Classification without hierarchies.
Briefly explain the formal operations stage.
This is where hypothetical and deductive reasoning occur.
Abstract thought.
What was Piaget’s main focus on children?
How they grew up to be like scientists.
How did Barbel Inhelder contribute to Developmental Psychology?
Worked with children with developmental delay.
Theorised formal operations.
Was involved in Cognitive Psychology - visited Bruner’s centre for cognitive studies, had lots of conversations with B. F. Skinner and Bruner.
Succeeded Piaget at the Geneva institute.
Briefly explain Kolhberg’s theory of moral development.
This theory assumed that adult ethics began in the natural curiosity of the child.
The 6 stages involve concern for others and taking others’ perspectives.
Advanced moral reasoning is only reached by the ability to grapple with complex moral dilemmas.
This theory was an extension to Piaget’s Cognitive theory.
What are the 3 levels moral development?
Pre-conventional level: obedience, punishment, egocentrism.
Conventional level: social norms, law & order.
Post-conventional level: social contract, universal ethical principles.
Name two ways in which Kolhberg’s universalism was challenged.
Gender - masculine logic is focused on reason and the individual. Feminine logic is focused on care (Gilligan).
Culture - diverse moral foundations: individual, binding (Haidt).
What were the two main critiques of Piaget’s work?
Piaget underestimated what the child might know.
Children were less egocentric than Piaget thought. The testing context could have been the reason for this (Donaldson).
