Psychology (Piaget - Cognitive Development) Flashcards
What did Piaget believe?
He was a stage theorist who devised a domain-general account and who believed that everyone goes through the same stages.
Viewed children, for the first time, as “little scientists” (Every child is experimenting to explore different objects, what is good, what is bad.)
1 stage Piaget
Sensorimotor stage - 0-2 years.
The world is experienced through actions and senses.
Can not form mental representations e.g cannot picture a mental image of their favorite food.
They also lack object permanence, which is the idea that an object is permanent even when it is not visible or hid from you e.g if you would take children within the sensorimotor stage, position a chair in front of a door and then close the door, the children within the sensorimotor stage will think that the chair has disappeared or is invisible.
2 stage Piaget
Occurs at 2-6 years
Use words and images to represent things (i.e mental representations), but lack logical reasoning.
children are limited by egocentrism (for example when someone asks children within this stage what they think their favourite food is, they would answer with their favourite food, see the world through their pov “what they see, everyone else must see and what they like and hate must be what everyone else likes and hates).
They are unable to perform what Piaget called operations (conservation tasks such as the liquid one or the biscuit in half one).
This is where they can also talk more about feelings beyond the here and now (past - future)
They also have the tendency to think that non-living creatures (such as toys) have a life and feelings like a person.
3 stage Piaget
Concrete Operational stage 7-11
During this stage, children begin to think logically about concrete events and analogies.
Children begin to understand the concept of conservation; understanding that, although things may change in appearance certain properties remain the same.
During this stage, children can mentally reverse things (e.g picture a ball of plasticine returning to its original shape).
During this stage, children also become less egocentric and begin to think about how other people might think and feel.
Cannot yet be asked to reason about abstract or hypothetical problems.
4 stage Piaget
The Formal Operational stage 12 years and over
Concrete operations are carried out on things whereas formal operations are carried out on ideas. Formal operational thought is entirely freed from physical and perceptual constraints.
During this stage, adolescents can deal with abstract ideas (e.g. no longer needing to think about slicing up cakes or sharing sweets to understand division and fractions).
They can follow the form of an argument without having to think in terms of specific examples.
Adolescents can deal with hypothetical problems with many possible solutions. E.g. If asked “What would happen if money were abolished in one hours time?” They could speculate about many possible consequences.
This stage sees emergence of scientific thinking, formulating abstract theories and hypotheses when faced with a problem.
Piagets theory STRENGTHS
The influence of Piaget’s ideas in developmental psychology has been enormous. He changed how people viewed the child’s world and their methods of studying children. He was also an inspiration to many others that expanded upon his ideas.
Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a stage theory of children cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.
His ideas have been of practical use in understanding and communicating with children, particularly in the field of education (discovery learning supporting evidence)
Piagets theory LIMITATIONS
Development is more continuous than Piaget believed.
His tests had high task demands (children actually reveal much more knowledge than he would have known). His tests revealed to be confusing and sometimes difficult to understand.
His theory was based on his observations of this three children (Subjective and biased influence). He also engaged in observations and clinical interviews to gather the information about his theory.
It focuses on development, rather than learning per se, so it does not address learning of information or specific behaviours.
Only concerned with children, rather than all learners.
Vygotsky (other view of nurture having a bigger influence, social factors such as the more knowledgeable other) questioned the existence of these developmental stages.
He is only looking at cognitive development from a nature viewpoint (as he was a biologist) and did not consider the nurture viewpoint i.e social influences.
