Assignment on Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory.
The assignment should include the following:
The assignment should be typed, double spaced, 5-7 pages in length.
Assignment will contain a title page at the beginning and a references page (APA format) at the end.should contain 5 scholarly references minimum.
Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who developed a theory of cognitive development in children. His theory states that children’s understanding of the world grows in stages that are directly linked to their motor and cognitive development. According to Piaget, children construct an understanding of the world through experiences and interactions. He identified four main stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.
Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 Years)
The sensorimotor stage is the first of Piaget’s stages, occurring from birth to around age 2. In this stage, infants learn about the world through senses and physical interaction. Intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity without use of symbols. Important developments during this stage include object permanence, the understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of sight, and the beginnings of causal reasoning.
Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 Years)
The preoperational stage occurs from around age 2 through age 7. In this stage, children begin to use language and symbols to represent objects, but are not yet able to mentally manipulate information. Egocentrism, or the inability to see another person’s point of view, is characteristic of this stage. Children also tend to focus on a single aspect or dimension of their experiences, which Piaget called perceptual centration. Important developments include pretend play, drawing, and the beginnings of mental representation.
Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 Years)
During the concrete operational stage from about age 7 through 11, children begin to think logically about concrete events but have difficulty with abstract concepts. Children can classify, seriate, and think logically about real or concrete objects, but have trouble understanding hypothetical situations and abstract concepts. Important developments include mental manipulation of information, conservation of quantity, and reversibility of actions.
Formal Operational Stage (11 Years and Up)
The final stage, formal operational stage, begins around age 11 and extends into adulthood. In this stage, adolescents gain the ability to think abstractly and hypothetically, to consider more than one variable systematically, and to develop and test hypotheses. They can also think about abstract concepts and hypothetical situations systematically. Important developments include the ability to think scientifically, use abstract logic, and consider more than one variable at a time.
Piaget’s theory provided a framework for understanding cognitive development in children. His stages are still widely used today as a general description of changes in cognitive processes. However, some criticisms of the theory include that it does not account for cultural differences and that children may demonstrate abilities from higher stages before reaching the appropriate age. Overall, Piaget made enormous contributions to the field of developmental psychology through his detailed observations and formulation of the stages of cognitive development.
References
Berk, L. E. (2013). Child development (9th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Flavell, J. H., Miller, P. H., & Miller, S. A. (2002). Cognitive development (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. New York: International Universities Press.
Siegler, R. S., DeLoache, J. S., & Eisenberg, N. (2011). How children develop (3rd ed.). New York: Worth.
