Piaget suggested that we go through four distinct stages of cognitive development
Cognitive development are the changes we go through in terms of our thinking, problem solving, perception and language
These four stages are:
the sensorimotor stage
the pre-operational stage
the concrete operational stage
the formal operational stage
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The Sensorimotor Stage
From birth to 2 years old
Babies learn through using their senses
They begin with reflex actions and then learn to control their movements
At 6 months, they develop object permanence; they know things exist without seeing them
They often repeat actions to understand cause and effect
By the end of the stage, the child has a sense of themselves as existing separately from the world around them
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The Pre-Operational Stage
From 2 to 7 years old
Splits into two sub-stages
Symbolic function stage (2-4):
symbolic play - representing ideas with objects
egocentrism - inability to see the world from another pov
animism - personifying inanimate objects
Intuitive thought stage (4-7):
start of reasoning skills; children will ask a lot of questions
centration - hyperfocusing on one feature of a situation, ignoring other relevant features
no understanding of conservation and reversibility
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The Concrete Operational Stage
From 7 to 12 years old
Children can apply rules and strategies to aid their understanding and thinking
They struggle with abstract concepts such as morality
Decentration - they are no longer egocentric
They understand seriation, classification, reversibility and conservation
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The Formal Operational Stage
From 12 years and above
Young people can think about more than two things at once
They develop the ability to understand how time changes things and sequences
There is an understanding of consequences and punishment
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Evaluation (AO3)
Strengths:
Applicability – Piaget’s work has practical applications and can be used in education to help children to develop into the next stage
Research support – research shows the existence of the stages which increases the validity of the theory, such as Piaget and Inhelder (1956): Three Mountain’s Task
Validity – Piaget’s data came from interviews and observations with children which means there is a lot of in-depth data which increases the validity of the theory
Weaknesses:
Validity – some studies show children develop earlier than Piaget thought which reduces the validity of the theory
Reliability – repeating Piaget’s research in a more natural setting produced different results therefore the theory is not reliable
Not useful – Piaget’s theory did not look at the influence of social interactions or cultural setting which could impact on a child’s development. As well as that, the observations may be subjective to the interpreter
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