PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE

(MEANS “TO KNOW”) DEVELOPMENT

Stages are sequential but are they “stage-like” as he suggested or are
they continuous?
• Rate depends on maturation and experience

Performance
Continuity view

Discontinuity view
Age
PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT

• Piaget proposed that

children move through
four stages in a fixed
order without skipping
any stage.

• Periods of time are

consistent in age and
developmental
sequence.
• Age ranges are averages.
• Some children are in transition
from one stage to the next.
 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Piaget believed that the driving force behind

intellectual development is our biological
development amidst experiences with the
environment.

Both photos: Courtesy of Judy DeLoache

 CONSTRUCTIVISM

• According to Piaget, knowledge is constructed

• Our cognitive development is shaped by the errors we
make
• Children discover virtually all knowledge about the world
through their own activity (controversial)
 SCHEMES (SCHEMAS)

• A specific structure, or organized way of

making sense of experience that changes
with age

• These are cognitive networks that contain

our associations with certain places,
people, events, or things

• We develop these schemas so that we

have familiarity with them and don’t have
to encode this information EVERY time we
come into contact with them.
 A QUICK CONVERSATION

• F: Jevon didn’t pack my lunch. That’s Dad’s name.

Did you know that his name is Jevon?
• Ms. Vaessen: Yes, I know your dad’s name.
• F: I also know Mum’s name.
• Ms. Vaessen: Really? Wow!
• F: Auntie Rachel, if Dad’s name is Jevon and Mum’s
name is Auntie Melissa, what’s your name?
• F’s initial schema: His father is named
Dad, his mother is named Mum, etc.
what you call someone is their name
 ADAPTATION & ORGANIZATION

• Two processes of change in schemas: adaptation

and organization

• Adaptation involves building schemes (schemas)

through direct interaction with the environment
• Assimilation and Accommodation
 ASSIMILATION
• Assimilation is when individuals use their
current schemas to interpret the external
world
• A toddler sees their first camel at the zoo
and calls out ‘Horse!’
 ACCOMMODATION

• This is where individuals adjust old schemas

or create new ones in response to new
information
• The toddler calls the camel “lumpy horse”
because they noticed the hump(s)
• The horse schema was revised

• F learns that parents have actual names and that Mum and
Dad are titles
 ADAPTATION & ORGANIZATION

• Two processes of change in schemas

• Adaptation involves building schemes (schemas)
through direct interaction with the environment
• Assimilation and Accommodation

• Organization involves internal rearrangement

by linking new structures to old schemas
• F realizing Auntie Rachel also has a name and
title – parents have names and titles applied to
other important adults and family schema
STAGE 1: SENSORIMOTOR (0-2)

• Child knows world mostly through motor schemes

• Proof?
• After sucking on one of these, babies looked longer
at the nipple they had felt in their mouth
 STAGE 1: SENSORIMOTOR (0-2)
• Child knows world mostly through motor schemes
• Child is learning connections between sensations and
motor actions (sensorimotor)
• Key development: Object Permanence
• objects continue to exist even when not visible
 STAGE 2: PREOPERATIONAL
(2-6)

• Child is not logical and can

have magical thinking
• Key development:
Egocentrism
• incapable of seeing another
point of view
 STAGE 3: CONCRETE
OPERATIONAL (7-11)
• Thinks logically about concrete events
• Key development: Conservation
• objects stay the same even when their form changes
CONSERVATION
STAGE 4: FORMAL OPERATIONAL
(11-)

• Able to reason and think logically

• Key development:
• reasoning
• abstract thinking
WHO IS REALLY HOT?
VYGOTSKY!

Similar to Piaget in that knowledge is constructed

but different in that he said it is socially
constructed – it is a sociocultural
perspective

The buzz words that people associate with him are

“zone of proximal development” and private
speech
 SOCIOCULTURAL LEARNING
• Like Piaget, he viewed children as ACTIVE learners
but did not see them as working alone
• Objected to the notion that young children’s language
is egocentric and nonsocial…
• Social and cultural contexts profoundly affect the
way children’s cognitive world is structured
 PRIVATE SPEECH

• “Where’s the red piece? I need the red one. Now a blue
one. No, it doesn’t fit. Try it here.” (5-year-old to self)
• Piaget said it was ego-centric, an indication of an inability
to see another’s point of view – ‘talk for self’

• Children speak to themselves for guidance and self-

direction – it is helping children to think about their own
behaviour when they are talking to themselves
• Vygotsky saw this as the foundation for all higher
cognitive processes
 PRIVATE SPEECH

• Children use this more when tasks are difficult,

after they make errors or when they are confused
about how to proceed
• We still do this as adults but it typically
progresses to whispers then lip movements
• Children who use private speech are more attentive
and show greater performance than less talkative
same age peers
ZONE PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

• Meaning that when people are learning they need to

be challenged enough that they will learn but they
need enough prior learning that they can attach
the new material to
 NOTE THAT…

• Erik Erikson was a follower of Freud who expanded Fruedian theory --

took what was useful then stretched/rearranged it to improve it

• Accepted id, ego and superego but thought that the ego does more
than mediate between id and superego but is in fact a positive force
for development
• Envisioned the ego acquiring skills and attitudes
• Theorized that there was a basic conflict needing to be resolved along
a continuum from positive to negative (this determines healthy or
maladaptive outcomes at each stage)
 ERIKSON’S STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT
• Trust vs. mistrust
• Birth to 1 year
• Treatment by caregivers creates trust in a good world

• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

• 1 to 2 years
• Child is allowed to make independent decisions or is made
to feel ashamed/full of doubt about own decisions

• Initiative vs. guilt

• 3 to 6 years
• Child either develops own purpose/direction (sense of
self) or is made to feel guilty by overly controlling
caregivers or criticism
• Trust vs. mistrust

• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

• Initiative vs. guilt

 ERIKSON’S STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT

• Industry vs. inferiority

• 6 to 11 years
• Child either feels competent from working with others or inferior
(teachers/classmates)
• Identity vs. role confusion
• Adolescence
• Adolescent either grasps sense of identity or becomes confused about
possible future roles as adult
• Intimacy vs. isolation
• Young adulthood (ages 20 to 40)
• Forming deep/intimate relationships with others or becoming socially
isolated – not as simple as having a relationship
• Industry vs. inferiority

• Identity vs. role confusion

• Intimacy vs. isolation

 ERIKSON’S STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT
• Generativity vs. self-absorption/stagnation
• Middle adulthood (ages 40 to 65)
• Generativity refers to contributing to the welfare of a new generation – at
work, home or in the community
• Determining what to leave behind for future generations or failing to
grasp a sense of meaning in life

• Integrity vs. despair

• Late adulthood (ages 65 and up)
• Feeling that life was worthwhile or feeling despair about one’s life and
fearing death
 ERIKSON’S STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT
• Generativity vs. self-absorption/stagnation

• Integrity vs. despair

 FOR NEXT WEDNESDAY…

• Create a hypothetical person and describe their journey

through the different stages of life. You will use Piaget’s,
Erikson’s, Kohlberg’s and Gilligan’s theories to guide you.

• Start by looking at the nature of each stage and then describe

how your individual fits within the stage
• Cognitively what can they do, how are they resolving psychosocial
conflicts (healthfully or maladaptively), morally how do they reason?
• Make your connections to the stage theories explicit
 EXAMPLE

• Arnold was born October 18, 1980

• His caregiver consistently fed him when he would show signs

of hunger and before he cried (a late hunger cue). He was
worn in a sling for much of the time and his caregivers co-slept
with him. He is securely attached and could be said to have
successfully resolved Erikson’s Trust vs Mistrust psychosocial
conflict.
 JUSTICE OR CARING?
GILLIGAN
The Porcupine and the Moles
• Seeking refuge from the cold, a porcupine asked to
share a cave for the winter with a family of moles.
The moles agreed. But because the cave was small,
they soon found they were being scratched each
time the porcupine moved about. Finally, they asked
the porcupine to leave. But the porcupine refused,
saying, “If you moles are not satisfied, I suggest that
you leave.”

• Boys tended to…. & girls tended to….

• Boys-

• Girls-