Lifespan Development: Piaget's Four Stage Theory of Cognitive Development

Question 1

Dos everyone pass through the stages at different rates?

Answer 1

Yes

Question 2

Does everyone he reach the finial stage? Why/why not?

Answer 2

No, due to education or everyday experiences

Question 3

True or false: individuals can’t progress to the next stage without developing the mental abilities in the previous stage.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

What are the four stages and their age ranges?

Answer 4

1. Sensorimotor 0-2yrs
2. Pre-operational 2-7yrs
3. Concrete operational 7-12yrs
4. Formal operational 12+yrs

Question 5

Define the sensorimotor stage.

What cognitive achievements occur during this stage?

Answer 5

Understanding of the world is constructed through the coordination of sensory experiences (vision, touch) and motor abilities (movement).
Object permanence and goal directed behaviour.

Question 6

Define object permanence and provide an example.

Answer 6

The understanding that objects still exist even if they cannot be seen or touched.
Eg. Explains why babies are amused by peekaboo

Question 7

Define goal directed behaviour and provide an example.

Answer 7

Behaviour that is carried out with a particular purpose in mind
Eg. Learning to reach objects on a table by pulling themselves up.

Question 8

Define the pre-operational stage.

What cognitive achievements occur during this stage?

Answer 8

Individuals develop their ability to internally represent events, ie. To think and imagine things in their own mind.
Symbolic thinking, egocentrism/decentring, animism, transformation, centration and reversibility.

Question 9

Define symbolic thinking and provide an example.

Answer 9

The use of symbols to represent objects - may lead to “pretend play”.
Eg. A box becomes a TV

Question 10

Define egocentrism and describe it in relation do decentring.

Answer 10

When children have difficulty seeing situations from another person’s point of view (not selfish behaviour)
Decentring is when children are able to see things from another person’s perspective, usually happens by the end of the pre-operational stage.

Question 11

Define animism and provide an example

Answer 11

The belief that everything that exists has some sort of consciousness or awareness
Eg. A toddler may think a rusty bike is sick.

Question 12

Define transformation and provide an example.

Answer 12

The understanding that something can change from one form to another - at this stage, they can understand WHAT happens but not WHY.
eg. Can identify that ice changes to water but not because it has melted.

Question 13

Define centrism and provide an example.

Answer 13

The ability to focus on one quality or feature at a time.
Eg in two lines of dots (the second spread apart much further) they will identify the second line as further apart because they can only focus on the size of the line, not the quantity or the spacing

Question 14

Define reversibility and provide an example

Answer 14

The ability to follow a line of reasoning back to its original point.
Eg. 2 statements read in order, but can’t link the second statement to the first.

Question 15

Define the concrete operational stage.

What cognitive achievements occur during this stage?

Answer 15

Revolves around what they know and what they can experience through their senses - concrete and definite.
Conservation and classification.

Question 16

Define conservation and provide an example.

Answer 16

The idea that an object does not change in weight, mass, volume or area when the object changes its shape or size.
Eg. Conservation of volume: same amount of liquid, different sized glasses
Conservation of mass: same sized pieces of play dough but one is squished.

Question 17

Define classification and provide an example.

Answer 17

The ability to organise information into categories based on shared distinctive characteristics.
Eg. Organising superhero cards into superpowers

Question 18

Define the formal operational stage.

What cognitive achievements occur during this stage?

Answer 18

More complex thought processes become evident and thinking becomes more sophisticated in this stage.
Abstract thinking, logical thinking, adult thinking

Question 19

What are other cognitive achievements of the formal operational stage?

Answer 19

Thinking in idealistic ways, thinking about the future, plans and goals

Question 20

Define abstract thinking and provide an example

Answer 20

A way of thinking that does not rely on being able to see or visualise things in order to understand concepts.
Eg. Intangible concepts (what is honesty?) beliefs, values, morality

Question 21

Define: logical thinking and provide an example

Answer 21

The ability to develop strategies and to solve problems, identify a range of solutions, develop hypotheses and systematically test solutions.
Eg. Understanding the concepts of distance and time

Question 22

Define adult thinking and provide an example

Answer 22

An extension of the abilities that develop area

Question 23

What are 3 criticisms of Piaget’s theories?

Answer 23

Infants sometimes know more information and completed cognitive achievements earlier than Piaget thought - varying age range
Overestimated language abilities - assumed answers were from faulty thinking but may have come from misunderstandings or loss of concentration
Small sample size (sometimes from his own children) so the results can’t be generalised.

Question 24

What does Piaget’s Four Stage Theory of Cognitive Development involve/suggest?

Answer 24

That we move through four distinct and sequential stages from birth to adulthood in developing our cognitive abilities.