piaget's stages of intellectual development

Question 1

sensorimotor stage

Answer 1

birth - 2 years

• egocentric
• object permanence develops

Question 2

pre-operational stage

Answer 2

2 - 7 years
thinking not logical:
* still egocentric
* can’t conserve
* shows animism
* unable to understand class inclusion

Question 3

concrete operational stage

Answer 3

7 - 11 years

• has the ability to decentre/no longer egocentric
• can handle class inclusion, conservation and reversibility
  can conserve: numbers at 6 years, mass at 7 years, weight and 9 years, volume at 11 years
• still concerned with the manipulation of objects rather than ideas - can’t think in the abstract

Question 4

formal operational stage

Answer 4

11+ years

• thinking of an intelligent adult
• abstract and hypothetical thinking
• can manipulate ideas as opposed to objects
• becomes concerned with ideas and beliefs

Question 5

egocentrism

Answer 5

belief that everyone experiences the world from the same point of view as you

Question 6

object permanence

Answer 6

the understanding that the properties of objects and materials remain the same despite changes in outward experience

Question 7

class inclusion

Answer 7

the understanding that some classes of objects are also sub-sets of a larger class

Question 8

abstract thinking

Answer 8

being able to perform a mental operation without the need of tangible objects

Question 9

decentration

Answer 9

an ability to see things from different point of views

Question 10

reversibility

Answer 10

being able to perform a mental operation backwards

Question 11

evaluation : sample

Answer 11

piaget used small, unrepresentative sample, often made up of his own children. this means that his findings about cognitive development in children should be generalised cautiously

Question 12

evaluation : scientific procedure

Answer 12

piaget did not use normal scientific procedures of standardisation and control. interactions were quite informal and each participant was treated slightly differently. replication would be difficult because differences in results could be partly due to how the research is carried out rather than the age of the child