Essay On Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget’s (1896-1980) theory of cognitive development began in the 1920’s. His partner, Theodore Simon, designed a standardized test that was meant to measure a child’s intelligence and how his/her age could be responsible for the nature of the mistakes made. Piaget found this test to be too constricting however, and so created a revised version. With this less rigid version, Piaget studied a child’s intelligence and their reasoning for the errors they made. He found that, if they did not have experience regarding the subject, they used their imagination to come up with solutions. Following this discovery, Piaget would have two children. He would spend a substantial amount of time watching them and their reactions to experiments he conducted. From this, he would come to the conclusion that there were four successive stages in development. The first stage, the sensorimotor stage, typically lasts from birth to the age of two and is defined by its use of sensorimotor intelligence. It goes through six important sub-stages. They are; simple reflexes, first habits and primary circular reactions, secondary circular reactions, the coordination of said secondary circular reactions, tertiary circular reactions and the beginning of thought. In the first sub-stage-which begins within the first month of life- the child relies heavily on innate/inborn reflexes. These reflexes allow for the child to find nourishment and avoid harmful situations. In the second sub-stage (one to four months) the infant is able to perform multiple actions at once. For example, grasping and suckling or staring and touching. From the ages of four to eight months, the child begins to interact with the external world. From there, the child will have the ability to remember and pursue certain goals. Afterwards, from the ages of twelve months to eighteen months, they will begin investigating actions and reactions. Finally, one of the most important milestones of this stage is the beginning of thought, which results in object permanence- the knowledge that something/someone exists even if they are hidden from the child, and the beginnings of mental representations. The second stage, or the preoperational stage, lasts from the ages of two to roughly six or seven years old and is considered to be a transitional period between the first …show more content…
This final stage encompasses adolescence and adults alike, and is defined predominantly by its usage of abstract thinking and its ability to solve problems using logic and reasoning. During this time, people are able to think of things in a more hypothetical sense, rather than just seeing things on a “surface” level. It is believed- by Piaget- that many are not able to reach this stage of development.
Assimilation is the ability to incorporate new material or information into existing schemas or mental frameworks. For example, an art student learning new techniques for his medium, would add this new information into an already existing schema for art techniques.
Accommodation, on the other hand, is reconstructing existing schemas to incorporate new information. This happens when newly gained information does not fit with previous thoughts. This can be seen when one’s stereotypes or prejudiced behavior is challenged and causes their opinion toward that matter to change. For example, an individual may believe that all atheists are evil, however after seeing one perform a kind act, they may instead think that only some atheists are evil.