Piagets four stages - Essay Example

Piaget’s Theory of Development Piaget believes that the intellectual growth of people is a series of recognizable stages that every individual has to undergo from birth until the maturity stage of development. These periods of growth in the human cognition are in a permanent order, in which the previous stage is necessary for the following stages. In line with this, Piaget introduced his theory on the growth of human intellectual into four stages, and these are sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and the formal operations stage (as cited in Coon & Mitterer, 2010; Jardine, 2006; Shaffer & Kipp, 2010).

In the sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 yrs. old), babies try to explore, perceive, and comprehend the things around them through the use of their senses and motor abilities. For the preoperational stage (2 to 7 yrs. old), children learned to use language and representations as a way of interaction within their surroundings, but they are still intuitive and egocentric with their ideas. The third stage is “the concrete operational stage” (7 to 12 yrs. old); in this stage the children learn to think concretely and operationally with things around them.

The fourth is the formal operational stage (12 yrs old and above), in which adolescents learn to think abstractly, theoretically, and speculatively (Coon & Mitterer, 2010; Jardine, 2006; Shaffer & Kipp, 2010).In addition, Piaget identified six sub-stages for the sensorimotor stage in which they are essential for an infant to form his/her behavioral patterns. First, infants use their innate reflexes, in order to survive in their new environment. The second substage is the primary circular reactions, in which infants repeatedly attend to their bodies for pleasant and enjoyable actions.

The third substage is the secondary circular reactions, in which infants interact to their environment and start to act in a certain manner that gives an amusing outcome. The fourth substage is the coordination of secondary circular reactions. In this substage, a child learns to act in purposive and considerate way. The fifth substage is the tertiary circular reactions, in which a child learns to search around his/her environment for an interesting new results. Lastly, the sixth substage is the mental representation, in which a child learns to use his/her symbolic thought as a skill to think and understand that certain occurrence has a result without even doing something (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 2007; Ormrod, 2008).

According to Piaget, every individual has to attain equilibration. Equilibration is defined as the universal ground for acquiring a state of balance and constancy between the environment and the individual. Moreover, equilibration can be attained through the ability of individuals to assimilate and accommodate new experiences. A person has the schema or the capacity to behave in a specific manner as a unique reaction to a certain environment. For example, a child learns how to count through the process of assimilation, in which the child learns information in response to what is depicted in the child’s environment, for instance, in the learning environment.

Furthermore, the child learns how to add or subtract numbers because he accommodates and fill in new information with regards to the old information (accommodation). Thus, Piaget’s concept of mental abilities has helped experts to understand human intelligence (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2005). With the cognitive approach, intelligence tests were constructed in order to measure the human cognitive capacity. Such tests are Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, Stanford-Binet Test, and others. These tests are reliable and valid when it comes to their structure and content.

However, other studies show that some test has its limitations with regards to measuring human intelligence because of various factors, such as learning capacity, race and culture. Thus, human intellect is indeed an evolving result of the interaction between the person and his/her environment (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 2007).ReferencesCoon, D., & Mitterer, J. O. (2010). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Hergenhahn, B. R., & Olson, M. H. (2005). Introduction to the theories of learning (7th ed.). New Jersey, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Jardine, D. W. (2006). Piaget and education. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.Papalia, D. E., Olds, S. W., & Feldman, R. D. (2007). Human development (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Human learnings (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.Shaffer, D. R., & Kipp, K. (2010). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.