Psychology - Piaget Domains of Development

who was Jean Piaget?

1896-1980

• swiss psychologist
• researched children & observed them over many years
• proposed that regardless of their culture

schemata (give example)

units of knowledge related to one aspect of the world.

• introduced by Jean Piaget
• schemas become more numerous and elaborate as the child gets older.
• Piaget believed all infants have a small number of innate schemas.

e.g. a schema for a dog would be a four legged animal with a tail.

what did Piaget say about schema?

• developed during cognitive development
• infants have a small number of innate schemata

cognitive development

involves changes in mental abilities

e.g. learning

what are the 2 cognitive processes to altering schema?

1. assimilation
2. accommodation

what is assimilation and when does it occur?

when new experiences are combined with existing schemata.

occurs when a person takes new information and fits it into what they already know.

what is accommodation and when does it occur?

when new experiences cause schemata to change or modify.

occurs when new experiences change or reshape schemata.

equilibrium

when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation.

disequilibrium

an unpleasant state in which new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilated)

• temporary

what is the relationship between equilibrium and disequilibrium?

we do not like being in disequilibrium. we will naturally always seek to restore equilibrium by going through accommodation.

e.g. when we do not understand a concept in class

Piaget's stages of cognitive development (small pigs can fly)

1. sensorimotor
2. preoperational
3. concrete operational
4. formal operational

sensorimotor - age

0-2 years

sensorimotor - general observations

• infants learn about the world through their senses and actions e.g. grasping and pulling

• infants gradually learn there is a relationship between their actions and the external world.

sensorimotor - general observations

• infants learn about the world through their senses

• infants gradually learn there is a relationship between their actions and the external world - manipulate objects to cause effects.

sensorimotor - key developments in cognition

1. object permanence
   (goal-directed behaviour

pre-operational - key developments in cognition

1. egocentrism
2. animism
3. symbolic thinking
4. centration

object permanence

• in sensorimotor stage

infants can use symbols to represent objects

goal-directed behaviour (in relation to object permanence)

• NOT a key development but relative

after achieving object permanence infants become capable of having a thought and carrying out a planned series of actions with a purpose.

invisible displacement (in relation to object permanence)

• NOT a key development but relative

ability to track the movement of a hidden object after initially seeing it placed in

egocentrism

• in preoperational stage

children are unable to view the world from someone else's perspective.

• tested by the Three Mountains Experiment where child is asked to state a view from another's perspective.

animism

• in preoperational stage

children will believe that inanimate objects are alive or have feelings.

symbolic thinking

• in preoperational stage

children develop symbols to represent objects or events. allows the child to participate in pretend play.

centration

in sensorimotor stage

children are only able to focus on one aspect of a task at a time.

concrete operational - age

7-12

concrete operational - general observations

children can solve simple problems involving physical objects

develop an understanding of conservation and show less centration and egocentrism.

however may still find it difficult to solve problems that rq abstract thinking

concrete operational - key developments in cognition

1. conservation
2. seriation

conservation

in concrete operational stage

children struggle to understand that an object's quantity

seriation

in concrete operational stage

the ability to arrange objects in order based on a particular characteristic.

formal operational - age

12+

formal operational - general observations

children develop the ability to think logically and systematically about both concrete and abstract concepts.

able to form hypotheses

formal operational - key developments in cognition

1. ability to use abstract thinking

ability to use abstract thinking

in formal operational stage

a way of thinking that is not reliant on directly observing