Lecture 2 - Piaget Flashcards
What did Piaget originally study?
Genetic epistemology
- formed links between biology/ genetics and epistemology
- the study of how we know things
How did Piaget differ from previous development psychs?
- behaviourists and psychoanalysis dominatated dev psych
- saw child as passive in their development
- he saw them as active
What did Piaget notice before doing his work?
- Worked with Binet on IQ
- noticed children thought differently to adults, and made same mistakes at same ages
What is a constructivist theory?
Piaget saw children as active, and who construct their own development
- children adapt to environment, increases their knowledge of the env
What are the key aspects of his theory?
- scehmas - cognitive template that helps us make sense of the world quickly
- Adaption, through assimilation or accomodation
- Equilibrium/ Disequilibrium
- equilibrium = when our understanding of the world is unchallenged
What are the stages and ages of Piaget?
- Sensori-motor (0- 2 - infancy)
- Pre-operational (early childhood)
- Concrete operational (middle childhood)
- Formal operational (adolescence +)
What did he argue his stages were?
- Invariable - dont change across cultures/ contexts
- Universal, age isnt fixed, develop differently
outline sensori-motor stage
- birth to 18 months/ 2 years
- rapid development - start to speak and have reasoning
- Behaviours:
•learn through sense
•learn through reflexes (innate, automatic)
• Manipulate materials
• learn to act on the world
Outline Object permanance in sensori-motor stage
- occurs around 9 months
- understanding objects are the same, even if theyre appearance changes
- understanding objects still exist i they go outside
Outline A not B experiment
- Show a toy/ object
- hide it under cloth A
- swap round cloth A and B in front of child
- Child will still look under the cloth to the side the toy was originally on
- A-not-B error
- if they have no OP they will make this mistake
Outline A not B experiment findings
- 4 months - no attempt to search for object
- 4-9 months - visual search, dont look under cloths
- 9 months - search for hidden object
- also more likely to search for partially hidden object
Outline behaviours in pre-operational stage
- 18/24 months - 7 years
- symbolic stage, not logical
- Behaviours:
• ideas based on perception, what they see - very literal
• centration - can only focus on 1 variable at a time (fail conservation tasks)
• over generalise based on limmited experience - ‘all vehicles are cars’ - need to adapt new info
• more communication (point, speech, draw)
• pretend play
Outline features of pre-operational stage
- egocentrism - cant understand others have a different POV
- rigid thought - problems with class inclusion
- limited social cognition - lack awarenss of others intentions
- become imaginative in play (role play)
- Animism - lifelike qualitites to inanimate objects
- Cant understand invariance - that things that change (without being added/ removed from) are still the same - biscuit breaking into 2
- cant pass 3 mountains task
Outline concrete operational stage
7/8 - 11/12
Behaviours:
- form ideas based on reasoning
- thinking limited to physical objects/ familiar events
- cant use imagination to problem solve
- pass conservation tasks - know it is the same even if appearance changes
Examples of conservation tasks
- CHild has to initally agree the objects are the same (height, number etc)
- object is rearranged and asked again if same
• volume of liquid - skinny beaker
• number of counters
• length of rods - parralell is offset, same length?
Children can do counters first, then weight/ mass, then volume
Can get it right, but cant always say why
