Premium Essay

Jean Piaget's Stages Of Child Psychology

Submitted By
Words 833
Pages 4
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. He died on September 16, 1980, in Geneva, Switzerland.” (Editors, 2015)

The Stages of development and cognitive stages
“Piaget believed that children are like "little scientists" and that they actively try to explore and make sense …show more content…
Children begin a period of trial and error experimentation during the fifth sub stage.

6 - Mental representation (8months-24moths): Children begin to identify the world through the mental processes.

The preoperational stage: begins from (2 to7years), this stage focus on self, the child starts to talk but an inability to conservation and don't understand that other people have different points of you and imagine things. There is two sub stages during this period:
1- Preoperational phase (2-4years): children form a mental image of what they see around them.

2- Intuitive phase (4-7 years): children are sometimes able to grasp a problem solution by how the fell about it .

The concrete operational stage: begins from (7 to11years). at this stage the abilities develop, such as the ability to think and classification and learn the idea of conservation .

The formal operational stage: begins from (11 and above), in this stage the child become an adult and have the ability to moral reasoning and “use abstract reasoning, and imagine the outcome of particular action “ (McLeod, …show more content…
Then I will pour the water from one of the short glasses into the tall glass and ask them again which glass have more amount of water?
I choose my two beautiful nieces for my experiment. Alya 8 years old and ghaya 3 years old. I think that alya will answer my questions correctly because she is the older, but ghaya will only answer the first question correctly because she is too young to understand the experiment trick .
When I showed Alia (8years) the two similar glasses, she kept looking up and down then she said that they has the same amount of water because the 2 glasses look exactly the same, about the tall and the short glasses, she was confused little pit when I asked her and she kept staring at the tall glass then she said the tall glass has more water, I think she said that because the water in the tall glass looked higher than the other

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Teaching Fundamental Moral Principles to Students at Different Age Groups

...Introduction Educational psychology is a branch of psychology concerned with developing effective educational techniques and dealing with psychological problems in schools. It’s a study of methods of training, teaching and their effectiveness. Also, the problems experienced in learning formal material; in particular, the study of how to help people, especial school children, with their learning problems to overcome their difficulties. (Definition) Fundamental moral principles are the principles of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group. (Definition) Moral education is an increasingly popular topic in the fields of psychology and education. It’s been constantly debated in our daily lives. For instance, increased suicide cases, juvenile crimes such as: drug abuse, gang fights, theft and also teen pregnancy and inclining abortion rates have caused many to question the morals of the upcoming generation. This is not only faced in Singapore, but many other nations are also facing serious moral issues with the children these days. Therefore, for today’s programme, I will be focusing on different age groups; children between the age 3 and 5, Primary 5 students (10-11 years old) and High School Seniors/Junior College students (16-17 years old), and teach these students about right or wrong of fundamental moral principles. To learn about cognitive development of young children and teenagers, we will look into Jean Piaget’s theories. Piaget is widely...

Words: 2327 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Jean Piaget

...Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development PIAGET’S BACKGROUND His was one of the most important, yet most controversial theories of cognitive development (Hetherington & Parke, 2000). In 1907 at age ten, he published his first scholarly article in a journal on a rare albino sparrow.1 The career of this philosopher, psychologist and observer of children began the day his wife said to him, “watch the children for a while, will you, Jean?”2 He is a philosopher, psychologist and observer of children.2 He studied in Paris with Alfred Binet. He began to focus on the relationship between psychology and biological science with particular emphasis on development. While assisting Binet to develop standardized IQ tests for children, Piaget noticed not only that children of the same age made similar errors but that these errors differed from those of older or younger children. His opinion about cognitive development began to form as he also observed that these differences in the types of children’s errors seemed to also show unique age-related thought style and understanding of the world. Thus, he opined that the study of what children know or do not know is an avenue to understand the changes in how they think.3 He adopted unstructured interviews with children, such that he would pose the children with a problem to solve or a question to answer. But he substituted detailed observations for formal interviews, and this approach led others to criticize his work. He later...

Words: 2569 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

...Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development Jean Piaget is a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. Piaget believed that children play an active role in the growth of intelligence. He regarded children as philosophers who perceive the world as he or she experiences it (ICELS). Therefore in Piaget’s most prominent work, his theory on the four stages of cognitive development, much of his inspiration came from observations of children. The theory of cognitive development focuses on mental processes such as perceiving, remembering, believing, and reasoning. Through his work, Piaget showed that children think in considerably different ways than adults do and as such he saw cognitive development as a progressive reorganization of mental processes resulting from maturation and experience (1973). To explain this theory, Piaget used the concept of stages to describe his development as a sequence of the four following stages: sensory – motor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations. There are three elements however to understanding his theory of cognitive development. They are schema, the fours process that enable transition from on stage to another, and finally the four stages themselves. He began his studies by making naturalistic observations. Piaget made careful, detailed observations of children, typically his own children or their friends, from these he wrote diary descriptions charting their development...

Words: 2023 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Theories of Development and Application

...Theories of Development and Application General Psychology, PSY101 Theories of Development and Application Understanding the theories of development is key in psychology. Everyone proceeds through specific areas of change and growth in key areas as they go through life. Whatever path is taken during life, understanding theories of development will assist us in motivating and guiding others, as well as understanding ourselves. The following theories of development will be applied to this author’s personal life experience: Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development, Developmental Stage Theory of Erik Erikson, Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development, and Developmental Milestone: Motor Development will all be briefly explained. This author will provide examples of ways thinking has shifted to indicate entering the Formal Operational Thought stage. One stage of Erik Erikson’s Developmental Stage Theory will be chosen and will be applied to this author’s personal life. One decision this author made that was based on Kohlberg’s three levels of moral development will be described. Finally, based on a child this author has known, the description of this child has progressed from rolling over, sitting, standing and walking. This is also known as the four developmental milestones. Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development Jean Piaget is a psychologist who “identified stages of mental development, called Schema, and established the fields of...

Words: 1775 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

A Child's Perception of Death

... Researchers Nagy and Anthony’s proposed model of children’s concepts of death shows the developmental changes children experience when trying to understand death. Their research is validated by Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (citation). Piaget’s model is accepted by professional psychologists as a scholarly index of the cognitive development of children. Piaget’s theory supports articles by Nagy and Anthony (citation). Barbara Kane’s research supports Maria Nagy and Anthony’s developmental model, however Kane’s research disputes Nagy’s suggestion that children tend to personify death (citation). Finally, the research of Gerald P. Koocher is compared and contrasted to Nagy and Anthony’s article. Koocher’s research links Piaget’s developmental model to the development of the children's conceptualizations of death. Koocher’s article also suggests that culture is an important factor that influences the conceptualization of death (citation).   My particular field of study is clinical health psychology with a specialty of working with terminally ill children. In conducting my research, it was difficult to choose articles that discussed how children perceive death. All articles in this literature review are peer reviewed and were published in psychology journals. Many of the articles are based on adult bereavement studies and associated therapies. One...

Words: 1260 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Piagets Theory

...thought processes, including remembering, problem solving and decision making from childhood through adolescense to adulthood.” (Answer.com) According to Jean Piaget, cognitive development progresses gradually through a series of stages. “Jean Piaget was born in 1896 in Menchates, Switzerland. Piaget begain the study on child behaviour through his own kids.” (Newkrik, E) He studied his kids intellectual development from infancy. While conducting his studies on his kids, Piaget developed a theory which was sub divided into four stages of intellectual development. Piaget’s intellectual development theory was divided into four stages and was also known as stage theory. The first stage is Senserimotor stage which starts from the birth of the child till age two. This stage is also named as infancy. According to Piaget, infant “presume that the world profoundly lacks permanence.” (Mitchell P, Ziegler F 2007) Piaget subdivided the stage of infancy into six further stages. In a brief this stage says that the child depends on seeing, feeling, sucking and they learn how to feel though their environment. In this stage it was proven that the infact has the ability to coordinate separate activites. For instance, the coordination between looking and reaching. Object permanence was one of the important concepts developed during this stage. “Object permanence is the awareness that an object continues to exist even when it is not in view.” (In a Nutshell) Once the infant familiarises its self...

Words: 1273 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development in Relation to Children’s Developing Mathematical Knowledge.

...Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in relation to children’s developing mathematical knowledge. Introduction Jean Piaget, a psychologist, made the study of cognitive development. He contributed a lot to the theory of cognitive child development. His study, especially his quantitative concepts, has created much attention in the field of child education. He explored children’s cognitive development to quince his interest in genetic epistemology. His exploration of children’s quantitative development has established mathematical knowledge with vital insights on how children learn ideas and mathematical concepts (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). This essay demonstrates the study of cognitive development of the mathematical knowledge in context of the Australian Curriculum. For that, I have chosen the age level 2. The approach of this essay will provide a discussion of Piaget’s theory in relation to Australian Curriculum, a brief difference of Piaget’s theory with Vygotsky theory, and summary of the study. Justification of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development Piaget believed that, child development occurs through an unswerving transformation of the thinking process. When certain development takes place, the cognitive development stage requires a period of months or years. He also described that the development of children learning is steady and gradual varying the stage. It depends on culture, experience, maturity level, ability, etc. All children have to pass through each...

Words: 1212 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

...Piaget’s Theory of Child Psychological Development There currently exists a great deal of literature based on child developmental psychology from a variety of great psychologists, notably Freud, Erikson, Bowlby, Bandura, Vygotsky, and many others. However, this paper will focus on the theories of Jean Piaget. Jean Piaget, a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher, was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland on August 9, 1896. After working with Alfred Binet in his children’s intelligence tests, Piaget developed an interest in the development of children He is widely known for his epistemological studies regarding children and formulating the Cognitive Theory of Development. Piaget self-identifies as a genetic epistemologist; “What the genetic epistemology proposes is discovering the roots of the different varieties of knowledge, since its elementary forms, following to the next levels, including also the scientific knowledge”. Jean Piaget was the first to believe that children were no less smarter than adults, they just think differently. Piaget refers to children as “little scientists” because they actively try to explore and make sense of the world around them The model Piaget designed was a model that sought to explain how humans made sense of the world around them through collecting and organizing information from experiences with people, applied to children specifically. The model itself has four main stages in children: the sensorimotor stage (birth to two years)...

Words: 1069 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Jean Piaget

...Cognitive Theorist -Jean Piaget Erika Rakes Psy- 390 November 24, 2014 Matthew Pearcy Cognitive Theorist - Jean Piaget Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist & philosopher, when it came to his career of course, has had a profound conclusion on both education and psychology. Throughout his career, Jean Piaget worked to compose a plethora of contributions to learning and also to cognition. This model that has been developed by Piaget still has modern day relevancy. Olson, M. H. & Hergenhahn, B. R. (2013). An introduction to theories of learning (9th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Contributions to learning and Cognition Piaget has created a plethora of contributions to learning and cognition by theories which in being beneficial to understanding the cognitive characteristics between adults and children. He has implemented as well as sustained for the idea of children and adults think differently. Piaget’s endeavors’ also bring about and increased interest in developmental and cognitive psychology. However when students in education and psychology, they study the theories of Piaget to understand learning and cognition. When we speak of implementing Piaget’s theories of cognitive development to education of children is yet another donation that enables the effective teaching of children (Kuhn, 1979). The last contribution of Piaget the creation of the International Center for Genetic Epistemology, this was created in 1955. ...

Words: 886 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

...psychologist Jean Piaget. After receiving his doctoral degree at age 22, Jean Piaget began a career that would have a profound impact on both psychology and education. Through his work with Alfred Binet, Piaget developed an interest in the intellectual development of children. Based upon his observations, he concluded that children are not less intelligent than adults, they simply think differently. Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple only a genius could have thought of it."Piaget created a theory of cognitive development that described the basic stages that children go through as they mentally mature. He believed that children are like "little scientists," actively trying to make sense of the world rather than simply soaking up information passively. Schemas One of the key concepts in Piaget's theory is the use of schemas. According to Piaget,schemas are cognitive frameworks or concepts that help people organize and interpret information. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to or completely change previously existing schemas. For example, a young girl may have a schema about a type of animal, such as a cat. According to her schema, cat's are furry and have four legs. When she first encounters a dog, she might initially believe that the animal is a cat. Once the she learns that this is actually a dog, she will revise her schema for cats and create a new category for dogs. Stages of Cognitive Development * The Sensorimotor Stage: A...

Words: 2022 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Wgu Fht Task 1

...childhood up to the adulthood stage. Cognitive/Intellectual Development is the ability to learn, reason, and analyze the fact that a process begins from infancy and progresses as the individual (Educational Psychology). Cognitive Development contains events that are logical, like thinking and remembering. Some factors remain the same throughout many of the theories on cognitive development. All theorists agree that people go through specific steps and/or stages of learning and understanding. Along with the fact that there are certain principles must be meet before learning can occur. There are many ideas and opinions that cognitive theorist have about the development of a person’s cognition. Two theorists that are commonly known in the field of cognitive development are Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. These two theorists agree on the several concepts of cognitive development but differ on others, the most commonly agreed difference among all theorists involved in cognitive development is the simple yet complex question of how cognitive development occurs. Jean Piaget, born 1896 and died 1980, was a Swiss psychologist; his focused was on the way an individual child acts upon an object in their environment, in order to build mental models of the way the world works. Piaget believed that the physical environment was important to a person’s cognitive development. Ensuring that the environment was rich and stimulating was the adult’s role, according to Jean Piaget. The adult, whether...

Words: 1675 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Jean Piaget

...Jean Piaget Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland on August 9th, 1896. He was the oldest of three children, and the only boy. His father was Arthur Piaget, a professor of medieval literature. His mother was Rebecca Jackson, and his godfather was the Swiss scholar Samuel Cornut. In 1923, he married Valentine Chatenay. The couple had three children, Jacqueline, Lucienne, and Laurent. Piaget died in Geneva on September 16, 1980, after a brilliant scientific career made of over sixty books and several hundred articles (Papert, 1999). Piaget’s greatest contribution was to found the field of cognitive development. He believed children are the biggest manufacturers of their own development, as man’s capacity for logical thought is not learned but embedded along with hair color and sex, in his genes. In other words, a child cannot be forced to develop understanding any faster than the rate at which his powers mature to their full potential, so there is a limit to what overeager parents and teachers can achieve. On the flip side, a child who does not get the chance to apply his developing abilities and test limitations may never reach his full intellectual capacity (Pramling, 2006). According to Jurczak (1997), Piaget believed in four stages of cognitive development: • Stage 1: Sensorimotor – Newborn to Age 2 The child’s primary concern is mastering his own innate physical reflexes and extending them into interesting or pleasurable actions. During this time, the child becomes...

Words: 1869 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Child Development

...Ridley 1    Child Development Theorists: Jean Piaget  Ericka Ridley  March 3, 2016                                       Ridley 2    If one individual has influenced research on child development more than any other, it is  Swiss cognitive theorist Jean Piaget. Piaget’s work has been around since 1930, but did not get  much credit until the 1960s. This was mainly because Piaget’s ideas were at odds with  behaviorism, which dominated North American psychology at the time. Piaget did not believe  that children’s learning depends on rewards from adults, which is behaviorism. In the cognitive  development theory, children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and  explore the  world. Piaget’s view of development was greatly influenced by his early training in biology.    In Piaget’s theory, as the brain develops and children's experiences expand, they move  through four broad stages of development. Each characterized by qualitatively distinct ways of  thinking. The first stage of Piaget’s cognitive development would be sensori­motor, and this  stage applies to children birth­2 years of age. In this stage the infant's think by acting on the  world with their eyes, ears, hands, and mouth. They can differentiate themselves for objects, and  recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally. An example would be shaking a  rattle to make noise.  As a result, they invent ways of solving sensorimotor problems, such as  ...

Words: 532 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Piaget & Vygotsky

...Major Essay- Due 29/4 Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky were two of the main instigators of the development of cognitive theories. These cognitive theories demonstrate the way in which we develop from infancy to adulthood and the mental processes in which each individual goes through (Slavin, 2009, p. 31). This essay will outline how the educational principles of Piaget and Vygotsky are utilized in Ann’s Classroom. Further, it will demonstrate that such principles are the basis for successful teaching. The essay will mainly focus on Piaget’s theory of disequilibrium, accommodation and assimilation, and Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development and scaffolding. Paiget’s cognitive theory was that learning occurred through the interaction between the student and the environment. He advocated for discovery learning with little teacher intervention where children are impacted by their own personal experiences (Piaget, 1971). Piaget’s theory was a stage theory, where he believed that between particular age groups, certain skills and development would occur. In relation to Ann’s year five class, the children would be in the concrete-operations stage. During the concrete-operations stage, the child begins to develop a capacity for logical thinking charactized by mental actions that are reversible and therefore allow the child to arrive at a logical conclusion (Tuckman & Monetti, 2011, p.58). This stage is more advanced than the pre-operations stage, however it still has...

Words: 1443 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Child Development

...“Child Development Theory”1 “Child Development Theory” Ney Brown PSY104: Child and Adolescent Development Instructor: Daniella Atwell August 20,2012 “Child Development Theory” 2 Child development occurs from birth and continues throughout adulthood, and during their life span they go through many different changes, including language, physical growth, and cognitive abilities. Interest in this field has been very important to researchers because they want to know what happens during child development as well as the influences on development. There are a few theorist who have their views on child development and they are Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget. Understanding child development has become very important today as we all want to Know what a child actually goes through during their development, and later on in life because most of these things will affect them later on in life. Many people don’t realize the many different stages a child goes through from birth and into early adulthood. Some of the major ...

Words: 3015 - Pages: 13