Jean Piaget's Theory Flashcards
What is Genetic epistemology?
What does Epistemology and Genetic mean separately?
4pts
Epistemology: Study of the nature of knowledge
Genetic: Development or emergence
Genetic Epistemology: study of the development of knowledge
- When does knowledge begin –> When do we actually see when kids develop knowledge
What is knowledge?
2pts
- not a thing, but a process
- involves “acting on the environment”
What are schemes/schemas? Give an example
3pts
-Patterns of organized actions or thoughts
-Like a visual representation of information
Ex- if we see a dog, we have an image of a dog and have created a scheme for a dog
What is assimilation?
2pts
- Fitting reality into existing schemes
- Applying what we already know to understand the world
What is accommodation?
- Adjusting scheme to fit new information
What is equilibrium vs disequilibrium?
Equilibrium: When our existing knowledge fits well with our current experiences
Disequilibrium: When existing knowledge does not fit well with current experiences. Must adjust our schemes.
What are the 4 major periods in Piaget’s theory?
- Sensorimotor period (0-2 years)
- Preoperational period (2-7 years)
- Concrete operation period (7-11 years)
- Formal operational period (12 years and up)
What is stage 1 of the sensorimotor period? When does it occur?
3pts
Stage 1: Exercising Reflexes
- up until the first month
- practice and repetition of reflexes
What is stage 2 of the sensorimotor period? When does it occur?
What circular reaction do we see here?
4pts
Stage 2: Developing schemes
- 1 to 4 months
- Through habituation studies, we show them things and if they keep sucking then that means they recognize it but if they stop sucking it means they are seeing something new
- primary circular reactions (cause and effect) (ex- open and close their fingers)
What is stage 3 of the sensorimotor period? When does it occur? What circular reaction appears?
5pts
Stage 3: Discovering procedures
- 4 to 8 months
- secondary circular reactions focused on external world
- interactions with objects of the external world
- object permanence
What is object permanence and in what stage of the sensorimotor period does it occur?
2pts
- Understanding that things and people still exist even when you can’t see or hear them
- Stage 3: discovering procedures (4 to 8 months)
What is stage 4 of the sensorimotor period? When does it occur?
5pts
Stage 4: Intentional behaviour
- 8 to 12 months
- develop cause-effect understanding
- anticipation of events
- “Coordination of means and ends”
What is stage 5 of the sensorimotor period? When does it occur? What circular reaction appears?
4pts
Stage 5: Novelty and exploration
- 12 to 18 months
- “Little scientist” (in order to see what happens), trial and error
- tertiary circular reactions: has grasped cause-effect and now experimenting with it
What is stage 6 of the sensorimotor period?
3pts
Stage 6: Mental representation- beginning of representational thought
- 18 to 24 months
- Anticipates and solve problems using “mental” combinations
What is the preoperational period? When does it occur?
3pts
- Symbolic representation
- pretend play
- 2 to 7 years
Ways of manipulating and understanding objects in relation to each other.
What concept is this?
Operations
Childs inability to understand another person’s point of view from another person’s perspective.
What concept is this? Elaborate a bit.
Egocentrism
- The child believes that other children feel, think and experience life as they do
What is Piaget’s Mountain Task? what does it show?
3pts
Children are shown a 3-dimensional model of a mountain and are asked to describe what a doll or person from a different angle might see. Children tend to choose a picture that represents their own perspective rather than the doll/other person’s view.
- Shows how often children see the world differently from adults
- Help develop theory of mind- ability to see things from another perspective
Child talking to themselves for self-guidance, usually through an activity. The tendency for pre-operational children to assume that listeners knowing everything that they know, revealing difficulty with perspective taking.
What concept is this?
Egocentric speech
Child’s tendency to focus on only one aspect of a problem at a time.
What concept is this? What is it a lack of?
Centration
- lack of conservation
The knowledge that the quantitative properties of objects are not changed by a change in appearance. This is a concrete operational achievement.
What concept is this? Give examples.
Conservation
- realizing that just by things being stretched, cut, elongated, spread out, shrunk, poured etc they still have the same quantity
Young child’s tendency to attribute properties of life to non-living things.
What concept is this?
Animism
Proposed by Alfred Adler people want to succeed based on their goals and ideals for the future.
What concept is this? Give an example.
Finalism
Ex- Johnny believes he will work in a big company and earn a lot of money after finishing his degree, which motivates him to study more hours
The belief that environmental characteristics can be attributed to human actions or interventions.
What concept is this? Give an example.
Artificialism
Ex- a child might say that it is windy outside because someone is blowing very hard, or the clouds are white because someone painted them that color
What is the 3rd stage of Piaget’s theory, concrete operations? When does it occur?
4pts
- 7 to 11 years
- Acquire operations
- Logical thinking
- less thinking about themselves
What is the 4th stage of Piaget’s theory, formal operations? When does it occur?
4pts
- 12 years and older
- logical
- abstract reasoning and thinking
- hypothetical- come up with theories
