Jean Piaget 's Theory Of Psychology

Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. Piaget’s work includes a detailed observational study of cognition in children. Piaget showed that young children think in different ways to adults. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent knowledge is based.

Jean Piaget is a key figure for development, focusing on cognitive constructivism – that being that we must learn from experience and development, building on knowledge that has already been developed. The strengths and weaknesses of Piaget 's cognitive development theory will be discussed.

Vygotsky may have overplayed importance on social influences because he suggests that child’s cognitive development occurs through social interactions, for example children do internalisation of problem solving via mutual interactions. However, if social learning is the essence of cognitive development then learning would be a lot faster than it is. Thus Vygotsky ignores the biological aspects that aid or restricts the cognitive development such as the development of brain and maturation. Therefore Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is different to

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky both agree and disagree in the area of the Nature/Development of Intelligence. Piaget and Vygotsky agree on the idea of constructivism, the certainty that cognitive development happens by accumulation to and building from what is previously recognized and learned. Piaget was a trivial constructivist, he believed that individuals acquire knowledge by interacting with their environment and building on their knowledge and understanding of their environment. On the other hand, Lev Vygotsky was a social constructivist, believing individuals acquire knowledge through social interaction and learning from others. They also both agree that the restrictions of intellectual growth are defined by social interactions. Individuals acquire knowledge from interactions that they have already been exposed to and what other people can teach them, whether if it other children that are older than they are, adults in the life, or teachers. Jean Piaget believed that individuals acquire their knowledge by interacting in their environment, and it comes as a direct outcome of the individual’s actions on to their environment. Piaget believed that individuals must learn before they develop (Educational Psychology). According to Jean Piaget’s theory, the order of acquiring knowledge is an individual acts upon their environment, learning from the consequences of their actions, and then developing knowledge and understanding of

B. Blake & T. Pope. (2008). Developmental Psychology: Incorporating Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s Theories in. Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Education, Vol. 1, No 1,, 59-67. Retrieved from http://jcpe.wmwikis.net/file/view/blake.pdf

Following college, Piaget landed a job at Binet Institute where he became fascinated with the logical thinking of children and the way they processed information differently than adults. He was determined to find out why younger children gave different answers than slightly older children. Was it because they weren’t as intelligent and not as mature? His studies soon lead him to the answer and theory that younger children aren’t dumb compared to older children. The reason they give different answers than older children is that they have a different thought process. His research raised more questions about child development that he was determined to find out. While working at the Institute, his job was to calculate standardized tests that were intended to evaluate the relationship between children and their incorrect answers. He became fascinated with his job and wanted to find out himself as

Chomsky’s theory seeks to explain how children acquire language so quickly. Chomsky asserts that children are born with innate linguistic abilities that are triggered by experience (Universal Grammar 2006).

Jean Piaget had one of the greatest impact in the way cognitive, and lifespan development is observed. He believed individuals go through different stages or as he calls it schemes in life. His observations include actions, or organized mental behavior. The more mature an individual gets; the more complicated and detailed behaviors get. This would include an infant sucking due to his need of food, to a child learning how to ride a bike (Person 2018, 2015, 2012). The brief article goes on to say his work on child development is accurate. Accurate as it may be, different countries and parts of the world experience these schemes in different waves. Piaget also believed that assimilation and accommodation played a big role in the way children understand the world as they are growing.

Piaget *Missing Works Cited* Piaget work has received world wide acclaim and recognition , as well as having a positive impact in areas such as education and social curricula. Though he had made an impact on understanding of the child cognitive development , his theory of cognitive development has suffered a great deal of critics that it neglects the social nature of human development.(Hook, Watts and Cockroft ,2002).So the following essay will discuss on whether this critic is valid or not based on detail discussion of Piaget theory. The theory of Vygotsky shall also be discussed to prove that indeed social factors play a role .

It measures, “Fluid Reasoning, Knowledge, Quantitative Reasoning, Visual-Spatial Processing, and Working Memory. Each of these factors is tested in two separate domains, verbal and nonverbal” (Stanford Binet, 2012). While Piaget was working in the test lab on cognitive intelligence he became interested in cognitive intelligence with children. As he was studying the children, he noticed differences between the way each child thought. Specifically, he noticed these changes with different age groups. “He noticed that young children 's answers were qualitatively different than older children” (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). With this observation, he came out with a conclusion that would ultimately lead him to create the Theory of Cognitive Development. Piaget concluded, “that the younger ones were not dumber (a quantitative position since as they got older and had more experiences they would get smarter) but, instead, answered the questions differently than their older peers because they thought differently” (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). Piaget noticed that children from different age groups thought differently. It did not mean that younger kids were not as smart, but that they learned in different ways.

Piaget is said to be the founder of cognitive development, he has changed the field of developmental psychology and because of him we no longer discussing strategies, rule-governed behaviors and representations but we do talk a lot about stimulus generalization, mental age, Conditioning, and

Cognitive development is the development of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Historically, the cognitive development of children has been studied in a variety of ways. The oldest is through intelligence tests. An example of this is the Stanford Binet Intelligence Quotient test. IQ scoring is based on the concept of mental age, according to which the scores of a child of average intelligence match his or her age. IQ tests are widely used in the United States, but they have been criticized for defining intelligence too narrowly. In contrast to the emphasis placed on a child¡¦s natural abilities by

can put the things they observe in some sort of order the easier it is

In the world of psychology, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are considered to be very prominent figures in the area of cognitive development. Both of these men considered themselves a constructivist, which entails a viewpoint that is concerned with the nature of knowledge. In their lifetime, both of them made contributions in the area of education and even after death, their theories still influence teaching methods. The purpose of this paper is to show some similarities as well as differences in the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky and what can be gained by having a better understanding of their theories.

Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland on August 9th, 1896. He showed signs of interest in the natural sciences very early in life and received his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Neuchâtel. He eventually took a job at the Binet Institute in 1920. “His job included developing versions of questions on English intelligence tests” (Mcleod,1970). It was then that Piaget moved to work in the Psychology field. This job intrigued him and brought up some other questions that still needed to be studied. He became interested with why children answered questions wrong that required some type of logical thinking, more importantly, why the adults would answer the questions correctly and why the children would