Jean Piaget: Difference between revisions

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Piaget created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in [[Geneva]] in 1955 while on the faculty of the [[University of Geneva]], and directed the center until his death in 1980.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html|title=About Piaget|publisher=Jean Piaget Society|access-date=17 October 2016|archive-date=24 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824192513/http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html}}</ref> The number of collaborations that its founding made possible, and their impact, ultimately led to the Center being referred to in the scholarly literature as "Piaget's factory".<ref name="Burman-HoP2012">{{cite journal|last=Burman|first=J. T.|title=Jean Piaget: Images of a life and his factory|journal=History of Psychology|year=2012|volume=15|issue=3|pages=283–288|doi=10.1037/a0025930|pmid=23397918|issn=1093-4510}}</ref>

Piaget moved from Switzerland to Paris after his graduation and he taught at the Grange-Aux-Belles Street School for Boys. The school was run by [[Alfred Binet]], the developer of the Binet-Simon test (later revised by Lewis Terman to become the [[Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales]]). Piaget assisted in the marking of Binet's intelligence tests. It was while he was helping to mark some of these tests that Piaget noticed that young children consistently gave wrong answers to certain questions.<ref>{{Citation |last=Piaget |first=Jean |title=Jean Piaget. |date=1952 |url=http://content.apa.org/books/11154-011 |work=A History of Psychology in Autobiography, Vol IV. |pages=237–256 |editor-last=Boring |editor-first=Edwin G. |place=Worcester |publisher=Clark University Press |language=en |doi=10.1037/11154-011 |access-date=2022-07-07 |editor2-last=Werner |editor2-first=Heinz |editor3-last=Langfeld |editor3-first=Herbert S. |editor4-last=Yerkes |editor4-first=Robert M.}}</ref> Piaget did not focus so much on the fact of the children's answers being wrong, but that young children consistently made types of mistakes that older children and adults managed to avoid. This led him to the theory that young children's cognitive processes are inherently different from those of adults. Ultimately, he was to propose a global theory of cognitive developmental stages in which individuals exhibit certain common patterns of cognition in each period of development.

 

 

In 1923, he married Valentine Châtenay (7 January 1899 – 3 July 1983);<ref>[http://www.fondationjeanpiaget.ch/fjp/site/biographie/index_biographie.php Fondation Jean Piaget – Biographie]. Fondationjeanpiaget.ch. Retrieved on 26 February 2018.</ref> the couple had three children, whom Piaget studied from infancy. From 1925 to 1929, Piaget worked as a professor of psychology, sociology, and the philosophy of science at

# the elaboration of the logical model of intellectual development,

# the study of figurative thought.

 

===Piaget's career before becoming a psychologist===

 

===Biological model of intellectual development===

 

 

To test his theory, Piaget observed the [[habit]]s in his own children.

 

There are a total of four phases in Piaget's research program that included books on certain topics of developmental psychology. In particular, during one period of research, he described himself studying his own three children, and carefully observing and interpreting their cognitive development.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Beilin Harry |title=Piaget's Enduring Contribution to Developmental Psychology|year=1992|journal=Developmental Psychology|volume=28|issue=2|pages=191–204|doi=10.1037/0012-1649.28.2.191}}</ref> In one of his last books, ''Equilibration of Cognitive Structures: The Central Problem of Intellectual Development'', he intends to explain knowledge development as a process of equilibration using two main concepts in his theory, assimilation and accommodation, as belonging not only to biological interactions but also to cognitive ones.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kurt |first=Dr Serhat |date=2022-11-17 |title=Jean Piaget: Biography, Theory and Cognitive Development |url=https://educationlibrary.org/jean-piaget-biography-theory-and-cognitive-development/ |access-date=2022-11-30 |website=Education Library |language=en-US}}</ref>

 

Piaget believed answers for the epistemological questions at his time could be answered, or better proposed, if one looked to the genetic aspect of it, hence his experimentations with children and adolescents. As he says in the introduction of his book ''Genetic Epistemology'': "What the genetic epistemology proposes is discovering the roots of the different varieties of knowledge, since its elementary forms, following to the next levels, including also the scientific knowledge."

|<p>''[[Theory of cognitive development#Concrete operational stage|Concrete operational stage]]'': from ages seven to eleven. Children can now converse and think logically (they understand reversibility) but are limited to what they can physically manipulate. They are no longer egocentric. During this stage, children become more aware of logic and conservation, topics previously foreign to them. Children also improve drastically with their classification skills.</p>

 

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Piaget's research relied on very small [[Sample (statistics)|samples]] that were not [[selection bias|randomly selected]]. His book ''The Origins of Intelligence in Children'' was based on the study of just his own three children.<ref name="Hopkins 2011">{{cite journal |title=The Enduring Influence of Jean Piaget |journal=APS Observer |year=2011 |last=Hopkins |first=J.R. |volume=24 |issue=10}}</ref> This means that it is difficult to generalize his findings to the broader population. He interacted closely with his research subjects and did not follow a set script, meaning that experimental conditions may not have been exactly the same from participant to participant, introducing issues of consistency.

 

As Piaget worked in the era before widespread use of voice recording equipment, his data collection method was simply to make handwritten notes in the field, which he would analyse himself.<ref name="Klahr" /> This differs from the modern practice of using multiple [[Coding (social sciences)|coders]] to ensure [[test validity]]. Critics such as [[Linda Siegel]] have argued that his experiments did not adequately control for social context and the child's understanding (or lack of understanding) of the language used in the test task, leading to mistaken conclusions about children's lack of reasoning skills.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1037/h0078835|title=Amazing new discovery: Piaget was wrong!|journal=Canadian Psychology|volume=34|issue=3|pages=239–245|year=1993|last1=Siegel|first1=Linda S}}</ref>

*Vonèche, J.J. (1985). Genetic epistemology: Piaget's theory. In T. Husén & T.N. Postlethwaite (Eds.-in-chief), ''International encyclopedia of education'' (Vol. 4). Oxford: Pergamon.

*{{Cite journal | last1 = Wynn | first1 = T. | year = 1979 | title = The intelligence of later Acheulean hominids | journal = Man |series=New Series | volume = 14 | issue = 3 | pages = 371–391 | doi=10.2307/2801865| jstor = 2801865 }}

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