What Is Jean Piaget Theory Of Cognitive Development

On August 9, 1896, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, One of the most famous psychiatrist in the world was born, Jean Piaget! At the beginning of his life, he was interested in biology but then he turned his attention to studying the evolution of thought in children, which led him to study psychology. “Over the course of his career in child psychology, he identified four stages of mental development, called “schema.” He also developed new fields of scientific study, including cognitive theory and developmental psychology.

Throughout the year we have learned about many different theorists who have done a great but also horrible job at explaining adolescent/ young adult development. In this paper I will be talking about Freud and Piaget, and how I think that Piaget was the better theorist than Freud when it comes to talking about development. I will also be talking about the similarities and difference between the two. For starters, what are their specific steps of development?

Developmental psychology relates to the changes in behaviour and abilities that transpire over time as development advances. (Harwood & Miller, 2008). Infancy and childhood is a time of rapid development of social, sensory and cognitive abilities. Infants acquire perceptual and motor skills which allow them to comprehend the world they live in. Cognitive development is “the growth of cognitive abilities and capacities from birth to old age” (Colman, 2008). In this essay I will address Piagetian Theory, the cognitive performance of children from age seven to eleven, (the concrete operational period), and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development.

Cognitive development Cognition is a central and thus crucial part of human development. Cognitive development is an inclusive and broad abstract idea that refers to a child’s mental activity which entails processing, remembering, organizing, acquisition and the ability to use available knowledge known, but rather by the manner in which information is received, interpreted, organized and altered. Our main concern is two key questions regarding cognition. Firstly, which alterations in cognitive functioning occur in children with their maturity? Secondly, what are the factors are responsible for these changes.

• In addition to what you have already learned about Piaget, know that he is identified with having a guiding metaphor of human development with the child as an independent, curious scientist. Piaget thinks that his theory of cognitive development is clear and that it’s the only perspective that should viewed as correct. He explains how children go through the four stages based on advancement and background and their development occurs in stages.

Piaget did not believe that intelligence was a fixed trait. Jean’s theory was divided into three stages. Stage one, the Sensorimotor: Intelligence in action: child interacts with the environment by shaping objects from ages 0-2 years old . Stage two- Pre-operational: Pre-conceptual- is  ages 2-4 years old.

One of the most well known theories in cognitive development is Piaget 's theory. The psychologist Jean Piaget theorized that as children 's minds development, they pass through distinct stages marked by transitions in understanding followed by stability. Piaget describes four different stages of development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operation, and formal operations. Each stage describes the thinking patterns of a child depending on his or her age. In order to compare the thinking processes of a three-year old and a nine-year old using Piaget 's theory, you must compare two sequential stages of cognitive development: preoperational and concrete operations.

……………….). Consequently, Piaget rigid age-related stages thereby make Piaget’s hypothesis inaccurate. Furthermore, in a study conducted by (Kuhn et al., 1977) suggested that only 30-35% of high school student could achieve Piaget’s (formal operations stage of cognitive development. This implies that Piaget’s idea of one cap fit all was inaccurate, therefore he was criticised for not considering and focusing on individual’s child, because children are individual they achieve intellectual ability at different stages in life. (Gardner………………….

Jean Piaget, known for his interest in the Epistemology in children is seen as the pioneer of Developmental Psychology. Piaget 's Cognitive development theory led to a great deal of research work in the field of educational philosophy . But in the discipline of Psychology, every theory has been faced with a counter theory or an alternative. So is the case with Piaget 's theory. Lev Vygotsky, a soviet psychologist came up with the socio-cultural theory, which is another strong theory emphasizing child development and is seen as a major counter theory to Piaget 's work (Saul McLeod, 2004). Theories of these two cognitive psychologists have been compared and contrasted on different levels. This essay will look into the differences and similarities between their theories.

Brief History Jean Piaget was a Twentieth century Swiss psychologist and was the first psychologist to systematically study the cognitive development of children. Thomas (2005) wrote that early in Piaget’s career he worked with children and his observations and interactions with the students led him to the theory that a young person's cognitive processes are inherently different from those of adults (pp. 188-9). According to Ahmad, et al. (2005) , Piaget showed that when compared to adults, young children think in differently and he then came to the conclusion that cognitive development was an ongoing process which occurred due to maturation and interaction with the environment (p. 72).

According to Piaget’s theory a three year old and nine year old such as reasoning, perception, thinking, and logic. During the seventh and eighth year of childhood a child switched from the preoperational stage to the concrete operations stage. This explains why a three year old and nine year old child would have largely varying thinking pattern. To begin, a three year old cannot understand that changing the shape of an object doesn’t change the amount.

The last stage is the Formal Operational stage, which lasts from age eleven to adulthood. In this phase the child/adult has the increased ability to have idealistic, logical and abstract thoughts. Piaget also developed the idea of a schema. A schema is how people organize the information they gather into smaller

Cognition is the study of the mind works. When we study cognitive development, we are acknowledging the fact that changes occur in how we think and learn as we grow. There is a very big difference in the way that children and adults think about and understand their environment.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Cognition is a process where different aspects of the mind are working together that lead to knowledge. Piaget’s cognitive development theory is based on stages that children go through as they grow that lead them to actively learn new information. Cognitive change occurs with schemes that children and adults go through to make sense of what is happening around them. The change that occurs is activity based when the child is young and later in life correlates to mental thinking. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development start from birth to adulthood

The second stage is between age of 2 to 6 years old, children form ideas with words and images, which is tend to be over generalizing. Developmental phenomena of this stage include pretending play, egocentrism and language development. And then the third stage from 7 to 11 years old, children think logically about concrete events and understand similar events. In this period, abilities of conversation and mathematical transformation get to be developed. Last stage, 12