MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY THEORIES ORGANISMIC PERSPECTIVE Unit 3 Theoretical Perspectives of Human Development

Overview Organismic Perspective Cognitive Development √

Cognitive Development - Piaget Born: August 9, 1896 Died: Sept. 16, 1980 Birth Place: Neuchatel, Switzerland Education: Received PhD from University of Neuchatel Married in 1923 to Valentine Chatenay and bore 3 children (Piaget, 1952)

Cognitive Development - Piaget Jean Piaget ( ) was one of the 20th centuries most influential researchers in the area of developmental psychology. Piaget originally trained in the areas of biology and philosophy. Piaget believed : Children are constructivists, and they are intrinsically motivated to learn He noticed that young children's answers were qualitatively different than older children.

Cognitive Development - Piaget This suggested to him that the younger children were not less knowledgeable but, instead, answered the questions differently than their older peers because they thought differently. This implies that human development is qualitative (changes in kind) rather than quantitative (changes in amount). There are two major aspects to his theory: - the process of coming to know and - the stages we move through as we gradually acquire this ability.

What is cognition? Virtually everything we do involves thinking or cognitive functioning  Recalling a phone number  Remembering a list  Following directions  Reading your watch (how much time until…?) How do children become able to do all these things? Why are some better at some tasks? Why are some quicker to develop?

A Constructivist Approach Jean Piaget’s theory remains the standard against which all other theories are judged  Often labeled constructivist because it depicts children as constructing knowledge for themselves Children are seen as  Active  Learning many important lessons on their own  Intrinsically motivated to learn

Nature and Nurture Piaget believed that nature and nurture interact to yield cognitive development  Adaptation: The tendency to respond to the demands of the environment to meet one’s goals  Organization: The tendency to integrate particular observations into coherent knowledge

Process of Cognitive Development Piaget described two processes used by the individual in its attempt to adapt:  assimilation and  Accommodation Both of these processes are used throughout life as the person increasingly adapts to the environment in a more complex manner.

Process of Cognitive Development Assimilation: The process by which people translate incoming information into a form they can understand Piaget described two processes used by the individual in its attempt to adapt: Accommodation: The process by which people adapt current knowledge structures in response to new experiences Equilibration: The process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding

Process of Cognitive Development AssimilationAccomodation  The process of using or transforming the environment so that it can be placed in preexisting cognitive structures.  The process of changing cognitive structures in order to accept something from the environment. Example  an infant uses a sucking schema that was developed by sucking on a small bottle when attempting to suck on a larger bottle.  the infant modifies a sucking schema developed by sucking on a pacifier to one that would be successful for sucking on a bottle.

Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Birth–2 years Understands world through senses and actions Preoperational 2–7 years Understands world through language and mental images Concrete operational 7–12 years Understands world through logical thinking and categories Formal operational 12 years onward Understands world through hypothetical thinking and scientific reasoning

Stages of Cognitive Development Piaget’s theory identifies four developmental stages and the processes by which children progress through them. The four stages are: 1. Sensorimotor Stage (birth to 24 months) 2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years old) 3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years old) 4. Formal Operational Stage (11-15 years old)

Piaget`stages of cognitive development

1.Sensorimotor Stage Birth – 24 Months In this period, intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity without the use of symbols. Knowledge of the world is limited (but developing) because it is based on physical interactions and experiences. Some symbolic abilities are developed at the end of this stage.

1.Sensorimotor Stage Birth – 24 Months Sensory contact understanding. The child explores the world surrounding them using it’s senses Initially sucking/grasping reflex and moving onto reaching for objects out of reach. Initially the baby cannot understand a object exists out of sight. As the baby reaches around 7/8 months a child will begin to understand the object/person still exists when out of sight.

6 Stages of Sensorimotor Stage 1.Modification of reflexes (0-1months)  Strengthens and differentiates reflexes 3.Secondary Circular Reaction (4-8 months)  Focus is on the outside world 2. Primary Circular Reaction (1-4 months)  Circular pattern of having a stimulus and responding  Focus is on own body 4.Coordination of Secondary Schema (8-12 months)  Goal oriented behavior  Apply ability to other things

6 Stages (Continued…..) 5. Tertiary Circular Reaction (12-18 months)  Active potential  Explore object’s potential 6. Invention of New Means through Mental Combinations (18-24 months)  Child moves from overt to covert thoughts  The child can use mental representation instead of physical objects (Piaget, 1952; Brainerd, 1978).

2.Preoperational Stage (2-7 years old) In this period, intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols. Language use matures. Memory and imagination are developed. Thinking is done in a non-logically nonreversible manner Ego centric thinking predominates Children use symbols but there are many errors in thinking  Egocentrism  Centration  Confuse appearance and reality ( Conservation)

2.Preoperational Stage (2-7 years old) Semiotic Function  Language develops  Uses symbols to represent ideas  Verbal and written language develops Semi-logical Reasoning  They get the general idea  Conservation Egocentrism  It is all about them  They can not differentiate between themselves and the world Limited social cognition Morality of Constraint  No bending of the rules Rigidity of Thought  Centration: focus on one aspect of an object Morality of Co-Operation  They bend the rules a little bit

An example of young children’s egocentric conversations. Egocentrism

Piaget’s train problem If two trains start and stop at the same time, but one stops farther up the track, children below age 8 usually say that the train that stopped farther up the track traveled for more time.

WHY CAN’T CHILDREN IN PIAGET’S PREOPERATIONAL STAGE CONSERVE? CAN CHILDREN IN THIS STAGE BE TAUGHT TO CONSERVE? QUESTIONS

What is CONSERVATION? “the awareness that a quantity remains the same despite a change in its appearance” =

CONSERVATION Make sure that the children do not fail to conserve because they do not understand the terms used in the questions- Piaget has been criticized for using difficult questions. Do you have more blocks or do I have more blocks or do we have the same amount of blocks?

Procedures used to test conservation of liquid quantity, solid quantity, and number Most children below age 7 say that the taller liquid column has more liquid, the longer sausage has more clay, and the longer row has more objects.

Conservation Tasks

Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years) Children begin to reason logically about the world They can solve conservation problems, but their successful reasoning is largely limited to concrete situations Thinking systematically remains difficult

Formal Operational Stage (11-15 years old) Intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. There could be a return to egocentric thought early in the period. Cognitive development culminates in the ability to think abstractly and to reason hypothetically Individuals can imagine alternative worlds and reason systematically about all possible outcomes of a situation

Formal Operations (Continued…..) Children formulate hypothesis by taking concrete operations and generate hypothesis about logical relations Pendulum Swing  The process is more important than the solution (Piaget, 1952; Brainerd, 1978).

Implications for Education Curriculum: Educators must plan a developmentally appropriate curriculum that enhances their student’s logical and conceptual growth. Instruction: Teachers must emphasize the critical role that experiences, or interactions with the surrounding environment play in student learning (Bybee & Sund, 1982). Piaget’s view of children’s cognitive development suggests that children’s distinctive ways of thinking at different ages need to be considered in deciding how best to teach them

Implications for Education In addition, because children learn by mentally and physically interacting with the environment, relevant physical activities, accompanied by questions that call attention to the lessons of the activities, are important in educational practice.

Criticism Underestimates cognitive competence in infants; overestimates in adolescence Although Piaget’s theory remains highly influential, some weaknesses are now apparent  The stage model depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it is  Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized  Object permanence in 3-month-olds (Bower, 1974)  Number conservation in 4 year olds (McGarrigle & Donaldson, 1974)