Piaget's theory of development

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What did Piaget believe

• saw similarities between adaptation and acquisition of knowledge

• viewed cognitive development as adaptation to the environment

• gaining knowledge allows more effective interactions with environment

What are the 5 of Piaget’s principles of knowledge acquisition

• schemas

• adaptation

• accommodation

• equilibration

• organisation

What are schemas

• knowledge structure used to interpret the world

• modified through experience

• e.g. ‘throw’ schema: some objets bounce, others smash

What is adaptation

• assimilation: adapt incoming information to fix knowledge

• e.g. child refers to camel as ‘horse’

What is accommodation

• adapt knowledge to fit incoming information

• e.g. child refers to camel as ‘lumpy horse’ - adapts horse schema

What is equilibration

assimilation-accommodation balance

What is organisation

• process of linking schemas

• e.g. ‘camel’ and ‘horse’ linked by similarities

• e.g. ‘grasp’ and ‘suck’ linked to coordinate drinking from a bottle

What are two of Piaget’s methods

• small-scale experiments

  • presented children with problems to solve

  • young children: inferred cognitive abilities from behaviour (e.g. object permanence)

• clinical interview

  • with older children

  • conversational style

What are two methodological issues with Piaget’s methods

• danger of inferring cognitive ability from actions

• interviews require verbal ability; errors may obscure reasoning ability

What are the 4 stages of Piaget’s stage theory

1. sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)

2. pre-operational stage (2-7 years)

3. concrete operational stage (7-11 years)

4. formal operational stage (11 years onwards)

What happens in the sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)

• reflexes: basic building blocks of sensorimotor abilities

• child learns about the world through reflexes ‘e.g. sucking’

• gradually gains control of motor system

  • e.g. opens mouth differently when fed with a spoon vs. a bottle

• repetition of actions that are pleasing

  • habits, e.g. thumb sucking

• begins to understand cause-effect relationships

• the major achievement is mental representations

Evaluate the sensorimotor stage

• Piaget’s findings broadly confirmed

• but underestimated young children’s cognitive abilities

  • e.g. children attain object permanence earlier than believed

What happens in the pre-operational stage (2-7 years)

• mental representation improves in pre-operational stage

• major change in pre-operational stage: symbolic thought

  • language develops, thoughts become detached from actions

What are the three limitations of pre-operational thought

• egocentrism

• conversation

• class inclusion

Explain the limitation of pre-operational thought - egocentrism

• unaware of other people’s viewpoints

• Piaget & Inhelder (1956)

  • Three mountains experiment

  • Child and doll sat in different positions

  • Task: choose the picture showing what the doll would see

  • Pre-operational children choose own view

Explain the criticism of Piaget - egocentrism

• Piaget demonstrated an important cognitive limitation, but Hughes (1978) criticised it.

  • Task not very relevant to child’s experience, child not motivated

  • More relevant task: hide doll so it cannot be seen by police officer

  • 4 year old children, 90% accurate in working out what the policeman can see

Explain the limitation of pre-operational thought - conversation

• Piaget found pre-operational children have problems conserving:

  • Superficial changes in a quantity do not affect that quantity

Explain the criticism of Piaget - conversation

• McGarrigle & Donaldson (1974), Criticism of Piaget’s conversation task

  • Children expect that adults carry out actions to change things

  • Children expect there to have been a change

  • The children told the researchers that “naughty teddy” muddled up the objects by accident

  • Children more likely to give correct response than in Piaget’s task

Explain the limitation of pre-operational thought - class inclusion

• Piaget found pre-operational children have difficulty with hierarchical classification

  • “are there more yellow flowers or more flowers”

  • “more yellow flowers”

Explain the criticism of Piaget - class inclusion

• McGarrigle (in Donaldson, 1978)

  • Criticism of Piaget’s class inclusion tasks: unusual question

  • Piaget: “are there more black cows or more cows?”

  • Variant: “are there more black cows or more sleeping cows?”

  • 6 year olds: Piaget = 25% correct, Variant = 48% correct

What happens in the concrete operation stage (7-11 years)

• Child develops new set of strategies called ‘concrete operations’

• More flexible thought

• No longer focus on just one aspect of problem

• Overcome problems of egocentrism, conservation, & class inclusion

• ‘concrete’ because only applied to immediate situation

Explain the limitations of concrete operational thought

• lack of abstract reasoning

  • unable to reason beyond the immediate enviornment

  • e.g. “John is taller then Dave. John is shorter than Mary. Who is the tallest?”

  • concrete operational children cannot solve without props, e.g. dolls

Explain the criticism of Piaget - concrete operational thought

• Piaget was essentially correct, but children can reason abstractly earlier in some circumstances

 

• Jahoda (1983)

  • Compared British & Zimbabwean 9 year olds

  • Played shopping game with children

  • Zimbabweans understood abstract concepts of profit & loss British did not

  • Zimbabweans had learnt abstract concepts through active participation in family business

What happens in the formal operational stage (11 years onwards)

• Ability to reason abstractly marks transition to formal op. stage

• Can think hypothetically

• No longer depend on concrete existence of objects to reason

• Have a systematic approach to problems

  • E.g. make all the words from letters A, S, E, T, M

Explain the study by Piaget & Inhaler (1958)

• 5 chemicals and a test chemical

• Which chemical or chemicals turn the chemical yellow?

  • Concrete operational: unsystematic approach, often top at first positive result

  • Formal operational: systematically try combinations, note down results

Explain the criticism of Piaget - formal operational stage

• Abstract reasoning is not an ‘all or none’ achievement

• Is task dependent

• Martorano (1977)

  • Tested 12-18 year olds on Piagetian formal operational tasks

  • Only 2 of 20 demonstrated formal operational thinking in all tasks

List Piaget’s contribution

• First detailed stage theory of child development using scientific techniques (e.g. experiments)

• Influenced adults (e.g. teachers, etc) to make strong efforts to adapt to the child, as he stressed that children’s thought is qualitatively different to adult’s

• Highlighted importance of active learning:

  • Influenced child-centred learning methods in nursery and infant schools

What are the overall criticisms of Piaget

• Are there really stages?

  • Concentrated on universal developmental norms

  • No evidence of a strong link between abilities in each stage

 

• Underestimated abilities

• Flawed methods:

  • Clinical interview = misleading questions

  • Inappropriate tasks

 

• Ignored social factors

  • Viewed children’s learning as solitary