Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development: Understanding Infant and Childhood Cognition

1. Module 17Part II Infancy & Childhood

2. Cognition and Intelligence • Pioneered by Jean Piaget • Studied how children solve problems in natural settings • Assumes that cognitive development is influenced by maturation, experience, and social learning • Proposes 4 major stages

3. Constructivist View • Intelligence is a form of adaptation—a matter of • appropriate fit • Individuals use schemata to understand features of the world: these are the vehicle of adaptation • These are developed via • • Assimilation: use old methods (schema) to deal with new situations • • Accommodation: changes old methods to adjust to new situations • This happens when experience fails to conform to existing schemata

4. Methods • Observational and interview studies of development • Observed and recorded young children in their play • Questioned them to elicit how they understood the world • Piaget: What makes the wind? • Julia: The trees. • Piaget: How do you know? • Julia: I saw them waving their arms. • Piaget: How does that make the wind? • Julia (waving her hand in front of his face): Like this. Only they • are bigger. And there are lots of trees. • Piaget: What makes the wind on the ocean? • Julia: It blows there from the land. No. It's the waves... • Are Julia’s explanations intelligible?

6. Sensorimotor stage (birth - 2 years old) The child, through physical interaction with his or her environment, develops a set of schema for interacting with objects. • Initially tied directly to what the child can interact with (out of sight, gone)-object permanence • ~9 mos, develop object permanence

7. Preoperational stage (ages 2-7) • The child recognizes that objects continue to exist when out of sight; talks about & draws them; can pretend • Uses words & images in speech & play • Represents world from an egocentric point of view • Not able to conceptualize abstract &needs concrete, physical situations • • Fails conservation tasks; conservation (v): when shape of object/substance is changed, total amount remains same

8. Original Setup Alter as Shown Ask Child Usual Answer Which has more liquid? Conservation of liquid Has more Do they both weigh the same, or does one weigh more than the other? Conservation of mass Weighs more Are there still as many pennies as nickels, or more of one than the other? Conservation of number More Are they the same length, or is one longer? Conservation of length Is longer Is one pencil as long as the other, or is one longer? Conservation of length

9. Cognitive DevelopmentPreoperational Stage “Cut it up into A LOT of slices, Mom. I’m really hungry!!”

10. Concrete operations (ages 7-11) • Begins to be able to take other points of view. As physical experience accumulates, the child starts to represent things allocentrically. • Can classify according to more than one category • Some abstract problem solving is also possible at this stage. For example, arithmetic equations can be solved with numbers, not just with objects.

11. Formal operations (12-adulthood) • Child's cognitive structures are like those of an adult and include theorizing and abstract reasoning; can think logically

13. Cognitive Development “Thinking in a New Key” • Concrete to abstract • If…then • Alternatives • Future perspective • Gray areas • Empathy & Perspective

14. Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory • Impact: • Far more comprehensive than any other theory at the time • Triggered a lot of research & development of additional theories of cognitive development • Many of his ideas have been correct & replicated ●Criticisms: -4 stages not as rigid or orderly as he proposed -Theory does not explain how or why thinking occurs -children failed some of tasks because they did not understand directions

15. New Information • Genetic factors: • Now identify genetic factors that influence memory, learning & cognitive abilities • Recent studies have shown how genetic factors interact with a child’s environmental & learning experiences in the development of cognitive abilities. ●Brain development: -New knowledge of how the brain develops; not known when Piaget proposed his theory

16. Social Development • Social development: how a person develops a sense of self-identity, develops relationships with others, and develops the kinds of social skills important in social interactions. • Three theories

17. Freud’s Psychosexual Stage • Five developmental periods during which -individual seeks pleasure from different areas of the body that are associated with sexual feelings -emphasizes first five years as most important to social & personality development. • Focuses on conflicts between child’s desires & parents’ wishes.

18. Stage 1 • Oral stage; early infancy-first 18 months -Potential conflict: infant’s pleasure is centered around the mouth; pleasure-seeking activities: sucking, chewing, biting -Fixation at this stage: oral wishes gratified too much or little, continue to seek oral gratification as an adult

19. Stage 2 • Anal stage; late infancy-1 ½-3 years • Potential conflict: infant’s pleasure seeking is centered on the anus & its functions of elimination • Fixation at this stage: continue to engage in activities related to retention or elimination, such as being stingy or being rigid; for elimination, being generous or messy

20. Stage 3 • Phallic stage; early childhood-3-6 years • Potential conflict: when the infant’s pleasure seeking is centered on the genitals. • Competes with parent of the same sex for the affections & pleasure of the parent of the opposite sex • Problems in resolving: Electra complex-feelings of inferiority for women & something to prove for men

21. Stages 4 & 5 Latency stage; 6 years-puberty • Potential conflict: child represses sexual thoughts & engages in nonsexual activities, developing social & intellectual skills Genital stage; puberty through adulthood • Potential conflict: individual has renewed sexual desires he/she seeks to fulfill through relationships with members of the opposite sex • If conflicts resolved in first 3 stages, develops loving relationships & healthy & mature personality

22. Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages • Psychosocial stages: 8 developmental periods during which an individual’s primary goal is to satisfy desires associated with social needs • Stage 1: Trust vs. mistrust; birth-first year Problem: needs care & attention metnot met develops world is uncaring; basic trust mistrustful

23. Stage 2 • Autonomy vs. shame & doubt; 1-3 years • Problem: battles of wills between hers & parents’ wishes metnot met develop autonomy feels independence is bad; feels shame & doubt

24. Stage 3 • Initiative vs. guilt; 3-5 years • Problem: child needs to assume responsibility & make plans metnot met ability to plan feels guilty; feels & initiate new things unable to plan for future

25. Stage 4 • Industry vs. inferiority; 5-12 years • Problem: child needs to direct her energy into working at & completing tasks metnot met Develops industry difficulty applying oneself; feeling or inferiority ●Identity vs. role confusion; adolescence Problem: needs to be responsible & plan met not met sense of confidence role confusion; low & positive identity self- esteem & socially withdrawn

27. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory • Social cognitive theory: emphasizes the importance of learning through observation, imitation, and self-reward in development of social skills, interactions & behaviors; behaviors are self-motivated, or intrinsic.

28. Overcoming Childhood Difficulties • Vulnerability: psychological or environmental difficulties that make children more at risk for developing later personality, behavioral, or social problems. • Resiliency: various personality, family, or environmental factors that compensate for increased life stresses so that expected problems do not develop. -Factors that contribute to resiliency: positive temperaments, substitute caregiver, social support, care & trust from their peers & caregivers

29. Overcoming Childhood Difficulties cont. • Studies on resilient children show: • Traumatic events do not necessarily lead to later social-emotional problems • Loving, supporting caregiver can substitute for a disinterested parent • Children observe & imitate normal; social behaviors modeled by caregivers Ex: study of children from Kauai

30. Gender Differences • Gender identity: individual’s subjective experience & feelings of being a female or male • Gender roles: traditional or stereotypic behaviors, attitudes & personality traits that parents, peers & society expect us to have because we are male or female.

31. Question • What was your favorite toy when you were a child? What made it the best?

32. Gender Differences cont. • Social role theory: emphasizes influence of social & cognitive processes on how we interpret, organize, and use information; authority figures reward different behaviors in boys than in girls; learn gender roles -possibly arise from different divisions of labor • Cognitive developmental theory: as children develop mental skills & interact with their environments, they learn one set of rules for male behaviors & another set of rules for female behaviors.

33. Gender Differences cont. • Gender schema: sets of information & rules that say how either a male or female should think or behave.

34. Gender Roles • New theory: Evolutionary theory: emphasizes genetic/biological forces; gender differences due to evolution

35. Social Development • Gender roles • still influence career choices • For males, encourage aggressive behavior ● Different brains -Women’s brains are more effectively wired for processing, coding, and remembering emotional experiences -Women-higher rate of clinical depression than men -Women process language using both sides of the brains; men use only left side

36. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

37. Additions to Piaget’s theory • Stages of cognitive development: • Sensorimotor: • Stranger anxiety -formal operational • Potential for mature reasoning