Understanding Human Development From a Piagetian Perspective

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Piaget Theoretical Perspective On Human Development

Piaget's Theoretical Perspective on Human Development

Piaget's Theoretical Perspective on Human Development

The theory of cognitive development by Piaget presents a comprehensive approach in evaluating human intelligence development and nature in developmental psychology. Piaget shares that children play active roles in growing of intelligence through learning by doing and by examples. The intellectual development theory involves a focus on believing, reasoning, perceiving and remembering the natural environment. The primary term for this is developmental stage theory dealing with knowledge and how humans gradually acquire, use, and construct nature. Piaget adds that the cognitive development provides progressive mental reorganization for thinking processes resulting from environmental experience and biological maturation. Children construct an appreciation of the real world through experience discrepancies between their knowledge and their discoveries within the environment. According to Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman (2009), the theory insists that the cognitive development idea forms the core of the human organism. Language becomes contingent to cognitive development.

According to Kail & Cavanaugh (2012), Piaget observed that a reality creates dynamic systems for continuous change. The alternatives refer to the conditions defining dynamic systems. The theory explains that the reality incorporates various transformations and states. The changes are inclusive of all kinds of processes that people can implement. States define the appearances and conditions that persons or things can exist between transformations. For instance, changes could exist in shape and forms. An illustration for this is liquids reshaped during transfer one container into another. According to Sigelman & Rider (2014), human beings change their dispositions as they grow. The dimensions of change include size (such as, series of nickel coins placed on the table can be placed closer to one another or apart). Changes occur in location or placement of space and time where different persons or objects are at given places at a given time. Piaget argues that the fact that human intelligence is adaptive; it requires functions towards representing the transformational and static components of reality. The theory proposes that the overall operative intelligence shares a responsibility of representing and manipulating the transformational or dynamic aspects of nature. Figurative intelligence is in charge of representing the static aspects.

The active intelligence aspect is operative knowledge. The component includes all overt and covert actions aimed at following, recovering, and anticipating transformations of interest persons or objects. Figurative intelligence becomes static in assessing intelligence aspect that involves various forms of representation to retention of mind states. According to Sigelman & Rider (2014), the typical illustrations are successive locations, shapes, or forms intervening between the transformations. Other elements include imitation, perception, mental imagery, language, and drawing. The figurative approach to intelligence derives meaning from operative intelligence aspects because states do not exhibit independent existence of transformations interconnecting them. Piaget adds that the representational or the figurative aspects for human intelligence subservient the dynamic and operative aspects. According to Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman (2009), such an understanding is derived from operative intelligence aspects. In all times, the frames of operative intelligence show how the real world is perceived. There are several changes in case the knowledge does not cut across all persons. Piaget states that this concept of change and understanding involves the basic functions of accommodation and assimilation.

In his study with education, Piaget focuses on two major processes namely: assimilation and accommodation. Accommodation refers to the procedure of acquiring new information in the immediate environment and changing the pre-existing schemas to be tallied with new information. According to Kail & Cavanaugh (2013), the technique is mostly used as when knowledge (current schema) is not responsive and requires changes to address new objects and situations. In contrast, assimilation involves a process where humans adapt and perceive to new forms of information. The process seeks to fit new information into the existing cognitive schemas. The element of assimilation happens when people face unfamiliar or new information while referring to learned information to achieve the concept about it.

Across the series of its stages, the theory explains ways through which characteristics can be constructed leading to ascertained forms of thinking. The flow is popular as cognitive development. Piaget considers assimilation as an integration concept for foreign elements to structures of environments or lives. According to Shaffer (2008), the outcomes affect those people experiences are shared. Accommodation is derived through the achievement of assimilation. Accommodation refers to the imperative of how people interpret new frameworks, schemas, and concepts. Assimilation has a differential understanding from accommodation based on how it associates to inner organism regarding the environment. Piaget holds that the human brain is scheduled to evolve through bringing equilibrium. Piaget believes that it has an ultimate influence on the structures through responding to external and internal processes of accommodation and assimilation.

According to Kail and Cavanaugh (2013), the understanding of Piaget is that the services do not exist in the absence of each other. Assimilating an object to form an existing mental schema ensures that the former take into consideration (accommodate) this object's particularities. For example, recognizing (assimilate) an apple in its nature, the individual has to focus (accommodate) on the objects' contours. One should roughly recognize the object size. Development broadens the scope or equilibration across the functions. In order to achieve balance between the two, accommodation and assimilation precede mental schemas for an operative intelligence. When a function is dominant over another, it generates representations attached to the figurative intelligence.

According to Shaffer (2008), the first stage in cognitive development is the sensorimotor. The level extends between birth and acquisition of language. The stage allows infants to develop knowledge and a basic understanding of the environment through coordinating senses (including hearing and vision) with the physical interactions. Some of the activities include sucking, grasping, and stepping. Infants acquire an understanding of the world through physical actions performed within them. The progress includes reflexive and instinctual actions between birth and the start of symbolic thoughts.

According to Ashford & LeCroy (2009), the second stage according to Piaget is the pre-operational stage. The condition begins when a child starts learning speech within two years of age and continues until they are seven years of age. Pre-operational cognitive development stage ensures that children without an understanding of logic cannot manipulate data mentally. This stage allows children to increase play, and pretence takes a significant part in the stage. The child has difficulties in perceiving things from various viewpoints. The play categorizes the symbolic and manipulated of symbols. Play is illustrated by the concept of checkers such as using pieces of paper as plates.

At the age of four years, children do not can transform and manipulate data through logical formulations. According to Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman (2009), they can only think of symbols and images. Illustrations of mental abilities include pretend play and language. The symbolic plays include situations where children establish role-play with imaginary friends. The play turns to be more social through assignment of roles to one another. The form of symbolic play that the children engage connects with the levels of creativity as well as ability to integrate with others.

Children of ages between four and seven years tend to be curious and inquisitive. They start using primitive reasoning. According to Kail and Cavanaugh (2013), there is much interest in expounding on reasoning and seeking to know the reasons why things exist in their form. Piaget considers like the "intuitive sub-stage." Children feel that they embrace amounts of knowledge even though they unfamiliar with how they got it. Conservation, irreversibility, transitive inference, and class inclusion are some of the preoperative thought characteristics.

The third stage in Piaget's cognitive development theory is the concrete operational stage. The stage follows the pre-operational level and happens between pre-adolescence (seven and eleven years). According to Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman (2009), the stage is depicted by appropriate application of logic. The level shows the thought processes of a child becoming mature. They begin to solve problems using logical methodologies. Hypothetical thinking is not fully developed, and the individuals can only elicit questions on concrete objects or events. The stage ensures that the children are subjected to transitions where there is a construction of a concept regulated by rules and organized within units. The theory determines that children develop the ability to integrate inductive reasoning. Such forms of reasoning include drawing inferences through observations for purposes of making generalizations.

The concrete milestones of the child's operational stage include the ability to differentiate between their personal thoughts and those of others. According to Newman & Newman (2010), children realize that their individual perceptions and thoughts can differ from those of other people. The formulation transpires increased classification skills as children are in a position of classifying objects based on their weight, mass, and the number. Another indicator is the child's ability to think in a logical manner about events and objects. Children can handle mathematical problems (addition and subtraction) fluently.

According to Kail and Cavanaugh (2012), the critical processes within the concrete operational level include classification. Individuals have the ability of naming and identifying objects based on their appearances, or sizes. The concept is inclusive of the perspective that various sets of objects are associative of each other. Hierarchical classification involves the ability of sorting objects into subclasses and classes on the basis of their differences and similarities among objects. According to Newman & Newman (2008), conservation is an understanding that even though there are changes in an object's appearance, it maintains its initial quantity. The redistribution of objects does not expressly affect the number, volume, or mass. For instance, children will understand that pouring a liquid in glasses of different shapes does not change the amount of liquid. De-centering involves the ability of a child to consider multiple components of the problem and alternative solutions. For instance, the child does not perceive exceptionally wide and short container to hold less than the normal sized containers. Reversibility is a condition that allows the child to understand that objects or figures can be altered and returned to original status.

Children understand that their toys can deflate and inflate back to their original sizes. Seriation illustrates the children's ability to arrange objects in whichever order including shape, or size. Different-shaded items make color gradients. Transitivity refers to the ability of mentally sorting objects and identifying relationships across various parts in serial orders. Other significant processes within concrete operational stages include logic and elimination of egocentrism. The theory determines that children with concrete operational stages can integrate inductive logic. According to Sigelman & Rider (2014), children within the age encounter difficulties in using deductive logic. The major components include the use of general principles in predicting the outcome of certain occurrences.

The last stage in the model is called formal operational stage. The stage involves adolescence and adulthood for ages between eleven and twenty. The demonstration of intelligence is based on a logical application of symbols in relation to concepts of an abstract nature. The individuals are in a position of deductive and hypothetical reasoning. According to Newman & Newman (2008), people also develop an enhanced capability of reasoning about differentiated concepts. Piaget observes that hypothetical-deductive reasoning is a significant element in enhancing formal operational stages. The form of thinking includes hypothetical situations and requires contributions of science and mathematics. Abstract thoughts are realized in formal operational stages. Individuals think specifically and concretely for earlier stages while considering the possible consequences and outcomes of their actions. According to Newman & Newman (2010), metacognition involves the ability to reason rationally and allow adolescents and adults think about their respective contexts and monitoring systems. Problem solving can be illustrated as children engage guessing to develop solutions to problems. The concept of the systematic solution of problems through methodical and logical approaches is realized. Piaget perceives children's causation conception as marches of primitive conceptions into more mechanical and scientific disciplines. The primitive concepts can be characterized through supernatural grouping a decided natural or mechanical intuition. The basic assumption of Piaget is that infants are phenomenalist.