Psychology 2: Piaget

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  • Piaget
    • Stages
      • 1. Sensorimotor
        • child's knowledge is limited to what senses tell them when exploring their surroundings
        • main achievement of this stage is object permanence - knowing an object still exists, even when hidden
          • requires ability to form a mental representation of the object
      • 2. Pre-operational
        • child has some language but makes logic mistakes
        • child is egocentric - can only see the world from their perspective
        • able to think about things symbolically, can use language to represent objects.
        • show irreversibility - don't understand you can undo an action
        • show centration - focus on small aspects of a task, not the task as a whole.
      • 3. Concrete Operational
        • major turning point in a child's development - beginning of logical/operational thought
        • can complete conversation tasks
        • don't show egocentrism, irreversibility or centration
        • realise that quantities don't change even if the appearance changes
        • objects are sorted into categories by features
        • can work things out internally
      • 4. Formal Operational
        • begins at age 11-12 and lasts into adulthood
        • people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts
        • they can logically test hypotheses
        • display idealistic thought - can imagine future change
    • believes we are all scientists
    • interested in the way in which fundamental concepts like the idea of number, time, quantity etc.emerged
    • first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development
      • before his work, the common assumption - children are merely less competent thinkers than adults
    • focusses on development instead of learning
    • explains mechanisms and processes by which a child develops into an individual who can reason and think using hypotheses
    • cognitive development is a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience
    • Schemas
      • basic building blocks
      • enable us to form a mental representation of the world
      • use to understand and respond to situations
      • as we get older, schemas be more numerous and elaborate
      • Assimilation
        • using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation
      • Accommo-dation
        • existing schema does not work + needs to be changed to deal with an object or situation
      • Equilibrium
        • force which moves along development
        • child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation
    • Applications
      • Readiness - you can't teach a child something if they aren't mature enough
        • teaching activities should be appropriate for the learner's stage
      • Logical Thinking - needs to be taught to encourage a higher level of cognitive development
        • science, maths are important subjects
      • Motivation to Learn - cog. growth comes from the desire to resolve conflict/test hypotheses
        • teachers should ask questions to encourage discovery learning
    • Evaluation
      • GOOD
        • he changed how people viewed the child's world
          • new methods for studying children
        • generated a huge amount of research - increased understanding of cognitive development
        • practical use of theory to understand and communicate with children
      • BAD
        • other theories suggest development is a continuous process - NO stages
        • age ranges are questionnable
          • other research shows children moving on earlier
        • didn't consider the effect of social setting and culture on cognitive development
        • methods are open to biased interpretation
          • diary descriptions of observations and interviews alone
          • data is based on his own subjective interpretations of events
        • underestimated children's abilities because his tests were sometimes confusing or difficult to understand
          • child may have object permanence but not be able to search for something
        • may be biased - tested his own children

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