Describe & evaluate Piaget's theory of cognitive development in children.

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Azhar Ali                Psychology A2

U6G

Describe & evaluate Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in children.

Intelligence for Piaget is the means by which human beings adapt to their environment. It is a process, which involves the individual trying to construct an understanding of reality through interacting with it; knowledge does not come ‘ready-made’ but has to be discovered actively (or even invented), in Piaget’s words.

Piaget proposed that development should be thought of as a spiral (implying a continuous process) rather than as a step-by-step, discontinuous process (as implied by a stage theory proper). To Piaget children did not simply make errors. Rather it seemed to Piaget that older children seemed to organise their thinking in different ways to give better answers to questions i.e. their minds worked differently to that of adults. Piaget argued strongly that knowledge was discovered and constructed through the child’s own activity. Piaget noted that all babies are born with similar biological ‘equipment’ (Piaget used the term ‘structures’).

He introduced the term ‘schema’ to mean a psychological structure that represented everything that the baby or child knew about an object or action. Schemas develop from the child’s own interactions with the environment. New experiences would lead to new schemas being developed. According to Piaget, cognitive development is a progressive move away from thought that is centred on the child’s own body. At first, everything is seen from the child’s point of view and only from that, producing a profound egocentrism.

In his view adaptation has two components. These are assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation- the process of fitting new information and experiences into existing schemas, while Accommodation is the process of changing the existing schemas when new information cannot be assimilated.

Piaget believed that cognitive development went through stages. When a child shows similar ways of thinking across a wide range of situations or problems there is relative stability. But if this thinking is challenged by new information or are experiences that cannot be assimilated, then this may lead to a major reorganisation of schemas. Thus, accommodation would allow understanding at a new level or stage.

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Piaget has identified four major stages in the development of the child’s thought. Each of these stages needs to be completed successfully before the nest one is commenced. The ages at which these stages occur are approximate depending on the intelligence and cultural background of the child. The four stages are: Sensori motor, Pre-operational, Concrete operational and Formal operational. Sensory-motor (birth – 2years) – This is when the child differentiates self from objects, achieves object permanence i.e. realises that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the senses. Pre-operational (2 – 7years) – This is when the ...

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