Piagets stages of intellectual development

Piagets stage theory

• thought intellectual development happened in 4 stages, each with a different level of reasoning ability, a child would only go onto the next stage once it had completely mastered the first one

• each stage is seen as a ‘building block’ for the next to rest on, in each stage the child would develop new ways of thinking out of what went before, but were different from previous ways

• exact ages vary but all children go through the same sequence of stages

sensory motor stage

• 0 to 18 months/ 2 years

• the child gains understanding of its environment by using its senses in combination with movement

• a baby’s focus on physical sensations and basic coordination between what they see and body movement

• babies also develop object permanence- the understanding that objects still exist when they are out of sight

how does object permanence change in the sensory motor stage?

• before 8 months, babies immediately switch their attention away from an object once it is out of sight

• after 8 months, babies continue to look for it, suggests babies then understand that objects continue to exist when removed from view

pre-operational stage

• 18 months/ 2 years to 7 years

• the child becomes able to represent objects or events by symbols or signs

• child can now use language and express ideas

• they are developing some general rules about mental operations, includes egocentrism, lack of class inclusion and conservation

pre operational- conservation

• conservation was tested eg by pouring water from wider glass into tall, thin one and asking children if the 2 glasses held the same amount of liquid

• pre operational said no as they looked different, they weren’t able to understand that quantity remains constant even when the appearance of objects changes

pre operational- egocentrism

• tested in the 3 mountains task, Piaget + Inhelder 1956, each mountain had a different feature: a cross, house or snow

• pre operational children tended to find it difficult to select a picture that showed a view other than their own

pre operational- class inclusion

• tested eg using a picture of 5 dogs and 2 cats, ‘are there more dogs or animals?’

• pre operational children tend to respond there are more dogs, (Piaget + Inhelder 1964) they cant simultaneously see a dog as a member of the animal class

concrete operations stage

• 7 to 11/12 years

• the child is now able to use more sophisticated mental operations eg the child is said to have decentred, can take account of more than one aspect of a situation

• they’ve mastered conservation and are improving on egocentrism and class inclusion

• however, they’re only able to reason on physical objects in their presence (concrete operations), tend to think about the world in terms of how it is, not speculate how it might be

formal operations stage

• 11/12+ years

• stage is mainly governed by formal logic and is the most sophisticated stage of thinking

• abstract reasoning develops- being able to think beyond the here and now

• children can now focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content

example of concrete operations- syllogisms

• they can process syllogisms

• eg ‘all yellow cats have 2 heads, I have a yellow cat called Charlie, how many heads does Charlie have?’, the answer is 2 but younger children are distracted by the fact cats don’t have 2 heads

limitation- Piagets conservation was flawed

• Piaget’s method may have led children to believe something must have changed, or why would the researcher change the appearance and then ask them if it was the same

• McGarrigle + Donaldson (1974) used a ‘naughty teddy’ who accidentally rearranged the counters, 72% of children under 7 correctly said the number remained the same

• means children aged 4-6 could conserve, as long as they weren’t put off by the way they were questioned

limitation- class inclusion ability is questioned

• Siegler + Svetina (2006) found when 5 year old received feedback that pointed out subsets, they did develop understanding of class inclusion

• this was contrary to Piaget’s belief that class inclusion wasn’t possible until a child had reached the necessary intellectual development of 7 years old

• means Piaget underestimated the cognitive abilities of young children

limitation- the assertions about egocentrism aren’t supported

• Hughes (1975) found even at 3 and a half years a child could position a boy doll in a model building with 2 intersecting walls so the doll couldn’t be seen by a policeman doll

• they could do this 90% of the time, 4 year olds could do this 90% of the time when there were 2 policeman dolls to hide from

• suggests the manner of Piaget’s studies and tasks led him to underestimate children’s intellectual abilities

counterpoint of criticisms

• in all the studies criticising this theory, the criticisms relate to the age at which a particular ability appears, the sequence of the stages isn’t challenged

• also, Hughe’s evidence shows there is progression

• therefore the core principles of Piaget’s stages remain unchallenged but the methods he used meant the timing of his stages were wrong

evaluation- domain general and domain specific

• Piaget believed cognitive development is a single process (domain general), different abilities develop in tandem, which is the basis for teaching children in age groups

• however, the existence of learning difficulties eg autism, in which some abilities develop much faster than others, suggest cognitive development is domain specific

• so it appears development is best seen as domain specific, which may have implications for education