topic 1 - Piaget's stages of development

Question 1

what are the four stages in piagets theory?

Answer 1

1. sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years old)
2. pre-operational stage (2 to 7 years old)
3. concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years old)
4. formal operational stage (12+ years old)

Question 2

what happens in the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 2

infants begin to utilise their senses and movements to gather information from the world around them. At around 6 months they develop OBJECT PERMANANCE which means that they learn that objects exist even when they are unable to see them.

Question 3

what happens in the pre-operational stage?

Answer 3

there are 2 stages within the pre-operational stage known as THE SYMBOLIC FUNCTION STAGE (2 to 4 years old) and THE INTUITIVE THOUGH STAGE (4 to 7 years old)

Question 4

what happens in the symbolic function stage?

Answer 4

children start imitating one another and can use objects as symbols. They develop SYMBOLIC PLAY which involves using one object to represent others and they also use role play. As well as, they can ONLY SEE THE WORLD THROUGH THEIR OWN EYES, this is known as EGOCENTRISM. children in this stage also believe in ANIMISM which is when children believe objects can behave as if they were alive.

Question 5

what happens in the intuitive thought stage?

Answer 5

children begin to develop reasoning, as they begin to ask a lot of questions and realise that they know a lot and want to know more, however, they can only consider one aspect when something is complex which is known as CENTRATION. children also develop IRREVERSIBILITY, which refers to a child not being able to use the thought to reverse events.

Question 6

what happens in the concrete operational stage?

Answer 6

in this stage children have the abilities of:

• SERIATION which is sorting objects
• CLASSIFICATION which is naming and identifying objects according to size or appearance
• REVERSIBILITY which is the understanding that an action can be reversed such as adding 2 bricks onto 4 gives 6 bricks, they are able to understand that if you take away 2 bricks you can get back 4 bricks.
• CONSERVATION is the understanding that quantity or length of an object is not related to how the object looks
• DECENTRATION is the ability to take multiple views on a situation.

Question 7

what happens in the formal operational stage?

Answer 7

in this stage according to Piaget children are able to have control over their own thoughts. They can think of two or more things when it comes to describing a person. They can also see that actions have consequences.

Question 8

what are the strengths of this theory?

Answer 8

1. piagets work has practical applications
2. his work has generated a lot of research, including experiments that is able to show the existence of the stages he emphasised on and how children build knowledge through creating SCHEMAS
3. research results support his idea such as the 3 mountains task

Question 9

what are the weaknesses of this theory?

Answer 9

1. one of weaknesses of his theory is that he did realise that there are other factors into a childs development such as social interactions or cultural settings.
2. other studies have found that children develop faster than Piaget thought
3. Another weakness is that Piaget’s data came from interviews and observations with children therefore his interpretations of situations may be SUBJECTIVE leading to bias in his findings
4. The lack of validity in his studies compared to other studies using similar methods produce different findings

Question 10

what is piagets explanation of understanding the world?

Answer 10

Piaget believed that children develop through ADAPTATION to the world around them and as they experience new things. The child’s idea is then formed into a schema which represent the world and things they learn. Sometimes, they can fit new things into their existing schemas but in order to this they must change their schemas or create new ones.