Jean Piagets Views of Development

1
Jean Piagets Views of Development

• Piaget believed that the effect of any experience
  on knowledge or thinking depended on the persons
  maturity combined with previous experiences
• He began his psychological career administering
  IQ tests, but found it boring
• however, fascinated by the incorrect answers that
  children would give.

2
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• Piaget believed that a child constructs new
  mental processes as child interacts with the
  environment
• Behavior is based on schemata (singular -
  schema.)
• A schema is an organized way of interacting with
  objects in the world.
• New schemata are added, and old schemata are
  changed as child matures.

3
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• Adaptation of old schemata takes place through
  two processes.
• Through assimilation, a person applies an old
  schema to a new object.
• Through accommodation, a person modifies an old
  schema to fit a new object.
• People in all stages switch back and forth
  between these two strategies, but ultimately
  cognitive change is accomplished through
  accommodation.

4
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• The four stages of intellectual development
• Sensorimotor Birth to 1 years of age
• Preoperational 1 to 7 years of age
• Concrete Operations 7 to 11 years of age
• Formal Operations 11 years of age and older

5
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• The sensorimotor stage
• Piaget called the first stage the sensorimotor
  stage because at this early age behavior consists
  primarily of simple motor responses to sensory
  stimuli.
• Examples of these would be the grasping and
  sucking reflexes.

6
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• The sensorimotor stage
• Object Permanence
• Jean Piaget believed that infants lacked a
  concept of object permanence during the early
  months of life.
• Object permanence is the idea that objects
  continue to exist even when one cannot see them
  or otherwise sense them.
• According to Piaget, an infant does not know that
  a hidden object is still there until about 8-9
  months of age.

7
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• The Sensorimotor Stage
• As infants progress through the sensorimotor
  stage, they seem to develop a concept of self.
• At about 1 year of age, they begin to show signs
  that they recognize themselves.
• They also begin to show self-conscious emotions
  such as embarrassment.

8
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• The Preoperational stage
• Piaget called the second stage of cognitive
  development the preoperational stage because the
  child lacks operations.
• The term operations refers to reversible mental
  processes.
• The lack of operations leads to errors in
  cognition such as egocentric thinking the child
  for example knows that he has a brother, but
  doesnt understand that he is his brothers
  brother.

9
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• The Preoperational Stage
• Another example of a concept that preoperational
  children lack is conservation.
• The inability to conserve results in a failure to
  recognize that changes in shape and arrangement
  do not always signify changes in amount or number.

10
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• The Concrete Operations stage
• From about age 7 children begin to exhibit
  reversible operations and seem to understand the
  conservation of physical properties.
• According to Piaget, during the stage of concrete
  operations children can perform mental operations
  on concrete objects.
• They may, however, have trouble with abstract or
  hypothetical ideas.

11
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• The Formal Operations stage
• Formal Operations is Piagets term for the mental
  processes used to deal with abstract,
  hypothetical situations.
• These are processes that demand logical,
  deductive reasoning and systematic planning.
• Piaget proposed that children reach this stage
  just before adolescence (at about age 11)
• Researchers have found that some people take
  longer to reach formal operations, and some
  people never do.

12
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• Are Piagets stages distinct?
• Piaget believed that the four stages of
  intellectual development were discrete, and that
  each one represented a major reorganization in
  cognitive processes.
• More recently though, researchers have shown that
  this conclusion is not entirely warranted.

13
An Overview of Piagets Theory

• Implications for education Piaget
• Children must discover certain concepts on their
  own.
• Childrens attention must be directed to key
  aspects of concepts when they are ready to learn
  those concepts.
• The teacher needs to determine the childs level
  of functioning and then teach material
  appropriate to that level.

14
Eriksons Ages of Human Development

• Erikson divided the human life span into eight
  ages, each with its own social and emotional
  conflicts.
• In this way he sought to provide a model of why
  people behave the way they do, given the
  decisions that they are facing according to age.

15
Eriksons Ages of Human Development

• Ages 0 - 1
• The infant faces the issue
• Is my social world predictable and supportive?
• The conflict is basic trust versus basic
  mistrust.
• Ages 1 3
• The toddler asks the question
• Can I do things for myself or must I always rely
  on others to help me?
• The conflict of is autonomy versus shame and
  doubt.

16
Eriksons Ages of Human Development

• Ages 3 6
• The preschooler needs to figure out
• Am I a good person or a bad person?
• The conflict is initiative versus guilt.
• Ages 6 12
• In an expanding social world, the school-aged
  child wants to know
• Am I successful or am I worthless?
• The preadolescent faces the struggle with a sense
  of industry versus inferiority.

17
Eriksons Ages of Human Development

• Adolescence
• Teenagers seek independence and the answer to a
  fundamental question
• Who am I?
• The adolescent must resolve the conflict between
  a settled identity versus role confusion.
• Young Adulthood
• Young adults deal with the importance of
  companionship and connection
• Shall I share my life with another person or
  live alone?
• The conflict is that of intimacy versus
  isolation.

18
Eriksons Ages of Human Development

• Middle age
• In the mid-adulthood one seeks to have
  contributed meaningfully to society -
• Will I add anything of value to the world?
• Conflict is achievement of generativity versus
  stagnation.
• Late Adulthood
• Toward the end people face a deep question -
• Have I lived a meaningful life, or squandered my
  time?
• We struggle to determine whether we have arrived
  at a stage of ego integrity, versus despair.

19
Infancy and Childhood

• Attachment theory
• Attachment is a long-term feeling of closeness
  between a child and a caregiver
• Early developmental psychologists believed that
  feeding was the primary cause of attachment
  between mother and child.
• Later, John Bowlby (1973) and other developmental
  psychologists theorized that infants who develop
  a good sense of attachment to adults who care for
  them have a better sense of safety and confidence
  as they start to explore the world around them.

20
Infancy and Childhood

• Early attachment in humans
• Some researchers wanted to know why the quality
  of attachment between human children and their
  parents seemed to vary so much in quality.
• Mary Ainsworth devised a test called the Strange
  Situation to examine what factors might
  contribute to this variation.

21
Infancy and Childhood

• Early attachment in humans
• In the Strange Situation study
• A mother and infant (12 to 18 months of age)
  enter a room with toys in it.
• A stranger enters the room.
• Mother leaves the room.
• Mother returns to the room.
• Mother and the stranger leave the room.
• The stranger returns to the room.
• Mother returns to the room again.

22
Infancy and Childhood

• Early attachment in humans
• The psychologists who observed the Strange
  Situation classified the infants responses as
  follows
• Securely attached
• Anxious or insecurely attached
• Anxious and avoidant
• Disorganized

23
Infancy and Childhood

• Early attachment in humans
• Uses of the Strange Situation
• Has been used with fathers as well as mothers and
  children
• Predicts the quality of the childs future
  relationship with parents
• Has also been used with grandparents and
  grandchildren, and even pets and their humans

24
Infancy and Childhood

• Early attachment in humans
• When interpreting these results remember
• Parental behavior does have an effect on
  attachment and possibly temperament
• child born with a pleasant and calm temperament
  may elicit more affectionate behaviors from a
  parent than a less predictable and fussier
  infant.
• study may have limited applicability across
  cultures.

25
Adolescence

• Over the course of the twentieth century,
  adolescence in our society has lengthened.
• generally recognized to begin at puberty, the
  onset of changes that result in sexual maturity.
• The end of adolescence is harder to discern.
• most of last century characterized adolescence as
  a period of storm and stress.

26
Adolescence

• Identity development
• Adolescence is the time of finding oneself.
• Western society offers many choices to teenagers.
• This is invigorating and yet also can cause
  anxiety.
• An adolescents concern about the future and
  achieving self-understanding has been referred to
  as the identity crisis.
• The crisis may or may not be so turbulent,
  depending on the adolescent.

27
Adolescence

• Identity development
• James Marcia developed set of identity statuses
  based on 2 elements of identity development
• Whether or not one is actively exploring the
  issues of identity development crisis
• Whether or not one has made any decisions
  commitment

28
Adolescence

• Identity development
• Having given decisions no real thought and having
  no clear sense of identity is identity diffusion.
• Having made firm decisions without giving them
  much thought is foreclosure.
• Seriously considering issues without making any
  decisions is a state of moratorium.
• Having explored the possibilities and made ones
  own decisions is state of identity achievement

29
Adolescence

• Identity development
• Marcias statuses are useful for thinking about
  the important dimensions of finding a stable
  identity.
• It is possible that identity achievement does not
  happen all at once.

30
Adolescence

• The Personal Fable
• According to David Elkind, teenagers are
  particularly prone to harbor beliefs such as
• It wont happen to me!
• Nobody understands how I feel.
• Everyone cares about how I look and what I am
  wearing. also known as the imaginary
  audience.
• These beliefs may be adaptive in some situations,
  but can also lead to risk-taking behavior and
  feelings of alienation from parents and peers.

31
Adulthood

• The beginning of young adulthood is marked by
  commitments in the areas of career, relationships
  and lifestyle.
• The quality of the period known as middle age is
  influenced in part by the outcome of these early
  adult decisions.

32
Adulthood

• The midlife transition
• midlife crisis is a dramatic expression for the
  reassessment of personal goals
• A more low-key and accurate term is midlife
  transition.
• Some abandon unrealistic goals set in youth set
  new goals that fit with their current lives
• Others try to fulfill some of those early life
  dreams, or set new ones

33
Adulthood

• Old age
• Despite the stereotypes we hold, old age is not a
  uniform experience for humans.
• Some people do deteriorate rapidly, either
  physically or intellectually.
• Others remain active and alert into their 80s and
  well beyond
• elderly in our society have been experiencing
  improved health, activity, and intellect

34
Adulthood

• The psychology of facing death
• Death can occur at any age, but we usually
  associate it with the later years of life.
• The way we deal with death is culture-based and
  is constantly evolving.
• Terror-management theory states that we cope with
  our deep fear of death by actively avoiding the
  thoughts of it and maintaining an optimistic and
  hopeful world-view.
• Even being casually reminded of mortality
  increases peoples defense of their belief
  system, whatever that may be.

35
Gender Influences

• Cognitive differences
• Females tend to perform better in
  language-related tasks, especially language
  fluency.
• Males generally do better on difficult spatial
  and mathematical tasks.

36
Gender Influences

• Male-female relationships
• As adolescence begins, males and females may not
  be prepared to communicate with each other.
• Males tend to demand what they want, and women
  tend to cooperate.
• Males are more concerned with issues of status
  compared to other men.
• Women prefer expressions of sympathy from
  listeners men often fail to understand this.
• These are generalizations. Not all male-female
  relationships are hampered by these issues.

37
Ethnic and Cultural Influences

• Membership in a minority group molds a persons
  development in two ways
• The customs of the group may differ significantly
  from those of other groups.
• Members of the minority group are affected by the
  attitudes of other people who may treat them
  differently or expect certain behaviors of them
  based on stereotypes.

38
Ethnic and Cultural Influences

• Acculturation is a transition from feeling
  connected to the culture of origin to feeling
  like part of the culture of a new country
• It is a gradual process and may take more than a
  generation to complete.

39
The Effects of Parenting Style

• Diane Baumrind described 4 basic parenting styles
  based on dimensions of warmth control
• Authoritative parents impose controls but show
  warmth and encouragement to the child.
• Authoritarian parents impose control but tend to
  be emotionally distant from the child.
• Permissive parents are warm but impose few
  limits.
• Uninvolved parents are distant and do little more
  than provide resources.

40
The Effects of Parenting Style

• Children of authoritative parents tend to be most
  self-reliant and cooperative.
• Children of authoritarian parents tend to be
  obedient but also distrustful and not very
  independent.
• Children of permissive parents are frequently
  socially irresponsible.
• Children of uninvolved parents tend to be
  impulsive and hard to discipline.

41
Parental Employment and Child Care

• Although we tend to assume that western models
  are the norm, child-rearing practices vary
  greatly between world cultures
• Communal child rearing, use of paid help, and
  many other variations exist from our traditional
  model of the stay-at-home mother.
• In general, whether loving stay-at-home parents
  rear children or children receive high quality
  day care for part of the day, child development
  proceeds normally.

42
Parental Conflict and Divorce

• Not so long ago, divorce was an unusual outcome
  for marriage.
• An estimated 75 of African-American and over
  one-third of European-American children will
  experience the divorce of their parents.
• These children show more academic, social, and
  emotional problems than children whose parents
  have not divorced
• This may be partly explained by the reduced
  attention and increased economic hardship
  experienced by these children.