Jean Piaget Free Essays

The history of psychology dates back to the ancient Greeks, Callahan and India. There are even some records of psychology dating back to ancient Egypt. Psychology is the study of the human mind and it’s functions. We will write a custom essay sample on Jean Piaget or any similar topic only for you Order Now It used to be a branch of philosophy, but in the asses it developed into an independent science, when Wilhelm Wound founded the first laboratory dedicated to psychology. In the ancient times, psychology had to do with evil spirits and souls, which remedies were incinerations and curses. Right now, In modern times, we know that psychology has nothing to do with that, but with the rain and the way it works. Jean Pigged was born In Nucleus, Switzerland in 1896. He did his license and PhD on biology at the university of his hometown. It was his background on biology, and his interest on epistemology (the theory of knowledge), that made him want to find out how the mind comes to know knowledge, objects and concepts, which then lead him to study the development of children, especially his own. He observed, talked and listen to them, as well as other children, while he performed exercises to test his theories, studies that he then published and helped IM create his theory. Piglet’s theory is called Intellectual Development, it is based on the maturation of the human. It was divided into four stages. These stages happen in between the ages of O and 15 years old. The first stage that happens between the age of O and 2, it is called Seismometer Stage. Children start to differentiate themselves from objects and knows more about himself and where he is. Also a key think kids learn Is that if parents or any object Is outside of his sight It will continue to exist. Pre-operational stage comes around 2-7 years of age, the most important thing happening in this stage is that children learn how to use language and by using this skill they represent objects by words or images. Children begin to use symbols to represent objects, also they don’t have a sense of time and are influenced by fantasy and think others fantasize like them. Concrete Operational is the stage happening while the child is 7 to 12 years old. During this age children get more comfortable with themselves, and develop an ability to think and make judgment about important things. In this stage It Is common that children ask many questions and would like to explain things to their parents. The last stage of Piglet’s theory is called Formal Operational Stage, in this stage teenagers are Individual and know how to make complete Judgment by themselves. Teenagers are capable or reasoning and will be more open and have a wide range of ideas because they can consider many possibilities and see from different perspectives Jean Piglets theory of intellectual development Is very similar but at the same time very different than Erikson theory. Piglet’s theory is based on maturation and what children and adults hint and develop while growing up, while Erikson theory is more about what you feel and who you are as a person and the people you interact with. The theories are similar at only the beginning, in the first stage when they talk about tact and how the children develop feelings with the persons they love. And finally another similarity Is that all the stages last till death. In Piglet’s theory you stop developing at age 16, childhood, allotted and elderly. The two theories are different in many ways but both have the same base idea, you could say that Jean and Erik had the same Houghton, but then developed a different concept for finishing their theories. Pigged is one of the most important psychologists of the modern times, and with out a doubt, the most important child psychologist. He is very well recognized around the world for his theory on child development as well as the series of books he has written on it. Jean Piglet’s theory is more about maturation, rather than Erosion’s, that is more about what a person is feeling throughout his or her whole life. His theory has four stages which are: The seismometer stage (0-2 years), the Pre-operational stage (2-7 ears), the concrete operational stage (7-12) and the formal operational stage (12 and above). Teenagers who are 12 and above have a wider range of ideas and they have judgment. Erickson theory has stages begin from the moment in which a person is born, to the moment in which a person dies. He explains how your life can change if a stage in your life isn’t satisfactory. Usually, a teenager isn’t mature enough until he or she has reached an age above 12. How to cite Jean Piaget, Papers Jean Piaget Free Essays There have been many theorist studying and presenting theories about the development of human learning. Theorists like Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Jean Piaget – to name a few, have all made significant contribution to the understanding of child growth and development into adulthood. No one theory has all the answers, but an understanding of the complexity of children learning is present in them all in some manner. We will write a custom essay sample on Jean Piaget or any similar topic only for you Order Now One theorist whose works I think presents an accurate view of the development of young children is Jean Piaget. Jean Piaget, a Swiss genetic epistemologist (as he referred to himself), was born on August 9th 1896. From an early age he was researching, studying and presenting papers in the natural sciences, and had achieved a Ph. D. in Zoology by the age of 22. He had three children and placed great importance on education. He studied the development of his children from birth and the use of intelligent test on his own and other children caused him to conclude that children thought differently than adults did, and it was this observation from his research that sparked his interest to understand the nature of thought, how it develops, its genetic impact, and an understanding of how knowledge is acquired and grows through childhood and into adulthood. His research made him conclude that children grouped information they acquired into categories and that these categories can either be expanded when new information is received, or the newly acquired knowledge can be placed into entirely new groupings. He believed that children actively constructed knowledge through hands-on experiences and that the role of adults was to provide the materials that would enable the child to build these experiences. As he studied the cognitive development of children he developed a theory that described their intellectual development and the stages they pass through in the growth of their intelligence and logical thought process. The Four (4) stages of his theory are: (1) The Sensorimotor Stage: The first stage goes from birth to about age two. Children at this stage try to make sense of everything that is around them and their reactions are limited to simple movements and responses using abilities they were born with. They look, cry, smile, laugh, suck, grasp, and listen to learn more about the environment around them. Piaget lists the development of â€Å"Object Permanence† as one of the most important accomplishments at the sensorimotor stage. â€Å"Object Permanence† is the child’s awareness that things still exist even when they cannot see or hear them anymore. A baby will be surprised when you suddenly appear before and then disappear as you play â€Å"Peek-a-boo†, but an older child who has developed a sense of â€Å"Object Permanence† will understand that you still exist and will look around to try to see where you are. The Sensorimotor Stage is further subdivided into six (6) sub-stages that reflect the development of new skills as the child moves from birth to two years old: Reflexes (0 – 1 month): Looking and sucking Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months): Adding new knowledge or sensation Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months): Becoming more aware of the environment and responding to it Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months): Recognizing objects and their qualities Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months): Object Experiencing and Experimenting Early Representational Thought (18-24 months): Understanding and developing thought 2) The Preoperational Stage: This stage spans ages 2 through 7. It is the stage of language development, play and pretending, symbol manipulation, and the understanding of real world objects. However, he conducted many experiments on egocentrism and conservation to show that at this stage the child do not yet have the mental ability to process concrete logic or manipulate intelligent information. He demonstrated that children were unable to take on another person’s perspective with his famous â€Å"Three Mountain Task. Children were shown a 3 dimensional mountain scene then asked to pick a picture of their view, which they clearly could and did. But when asked to pick a picture if another person were looking at it from a different viewpoint they almost always chose their own view of the scene. Although not everyone agreed with his assessment, this stage focuses and is centered on abilities that children clearly have not as yet developed. (3) The Concrete Operational Stage: This stage starts at around age 7 and continues through to around age 11. During this stage children are fairly good at inductive logic with a better understanding of mental operations, yet abstract and hypothetical reasoning confounds them. Using inductive logic they are capable of going from specific deductions to a general deduction, but he determined that they experienced difficulties in using deductive logic to use a general principle to determine a specific one. At this stage the understanding of reversibility (being able to reverse the order of relationship between mental categories) is the most important development. The understanding that the family pet is a dog, that the dog is a German Shepard, and that the dog is an animal; is a most significant skill set at this stage. (4) The Formal Operation Stage: From age 12 and continuing through adulthood, skills such as systematic planning, deductive reasoning, logical thinking, and abstract thoughts are developed. Consequences of actions and possible outcomes are now more relied upon than trial and error and even previous experiences as in the earlier stages of development. Jean Piaget work has made a huge impact in the fields of psychology and children education. He realized that children were not less intelligent than adults but just process the limited information they possessed differently. As they continue towards adulthood changes in their cognitive development leads to changes in cognitive process and abilities. He believed that children cognitive development centers on actions and as they progressed through stages of development, further understanding and advances alter their cognitive reasoning and changes into mental operations. Jean Piaget died September 16th 1980. In his book â€Å"Genetic Epistemology†, he explained: â€Å"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†. How to cite Jean Piaget, Papers