Jean Piaget and the developing person - Essay Example

Jean Piaget and Sigmund Freud: Person’s Development Jean Piaget is considered to be the pioneer of cognitive developmental psychology and one of the greatest XX century psychologists. The ideas of Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development state that childhood plays a very important role in formulating of all the later human’s development and contributes to the intellectual development. Some of the thoughts of Piaget ere criticized, such as egocentric speech, but most of his conclusions influenced further development of psychological science.

Another one very famous psychologist covered by our research, Sigmound Freud, has made a significant contribution to developmental psychology and determined the stages of the personality’s development which explain domination of certain traits of character. Jean Piaget and Sigmund Freud: Personality’s Development Introduction The XX century has given an impulse for development of all the spheres of human’s activity, and the science of psychology is not an exception. The raising interest to the development of the personality resulted in originating of a new direction in psychology – developmental psychology.

The most prominent scientists in this field are a Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and an Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud, into whose activity we will now investigate. The Ideas of Jean Piaget The researches of Jean Piaget in the fields of epistemology and developmental psychology were aimed at clarifying the matter of growth of knowledge. He concluded that knowledge growth is “a progressive construction of logically embedded structures superseding one another by a process of inclusion of lower less powerful logical means into higher and more powerful ones up to adulthood.

” (Smith, 2015). This means that the children’s modes of thinking and their logic are totally different from those of the adults. (Smith, 2015). According to Jean Piaget, there are four stages of the personality’s intelligence development: sensorimotor period, preoperational period, concrete operational page, and forma; operational stage. The children construct their understanding of the world by means of coordinating of sensory experiences with physical actions, that is, motorical ones.

This first stage was divided into six sub-stages by Piaget: 1) simple reflexes, 2) first habits and primary circular reactions; 3) secondary circular reactions; 4) coordination of secondary circular reactions, 5) tertiary circular reactions, novelty, curiosity; and 6) internalization of schemes. (info.psu.edu.sa, 2015). “By the end of the sensorimotor period, objects are both separate from the self and permanent.” (Smith, 2015). The second stage, according to Piaget, precedes formulating of totally new kinds of activities.

He divided this stage also in two sub-stages: the symbolic function sub-stage, occurring between the years 2-4, when a child can formulate design of the objects that are not present, and the intuitive thought sub-stage, between 4-7 years, when a child, being very curious already, asks many questions and starts using primitive reasoning. The third stage occurs between 7-11 years, and the appropriate logic use is its main characteristic. There are such processes present in this stage: seriation, transitivity, classification, decentering, reversibility, conservation, and elimination of egocentrism.

The last stage starts at the age of 11 and continues to the adulthood. This is when abstract thinking, logical reasoning and conclusions drawing emerge, including their application to the situations that are hypothetical. (info.psu.edu.sa, 2015). The Ideas of Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud also developed important ideas in the field of developmental psychology. He was the first scientist to divide the human’s mind into conscious and unconscious. Freud characterized personality development as the desire for resolution of the problems faced by the persons as the human beings immediately.

According to Freud, this motivation, or libido, is the driving force for the personal progress. When this libido is sublimated by energy that is desexualized, the energy directs at other, productive and destructive, activities. (www.personality-development.org, 2015). Freud distinguished such stages of psychosexual development of personality: 1) oral (0-1 years, the libido is focused around the baby’s mouth); 2) anal (1-3, focus on anus); 3) phallic (3-5/6 years, focus on genitals); 4) latency stage (5/6-puberty, no focus, development of protective mechanisms); 5) genital (puberty-adult, focus on genitals, the sexual maturity is reached).

(McLeon, 2008). Conclusion Jean Piaget and Sigmund Freud have both made valuable contribution into development of psychology as a science, particularly into its branch of developmental psychology. Their ideas of personality development are helpful for understanding formulating of human’s intelligence and motivations for personality development. References info.psu.edu.sa. (2015). Piaget’s Four Stages. http://info.psu.edu.sa/psu/maths/Piagets%20four%20stages%20(2).pdf McLeod, S. (2008). Psychosexual Stages.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.html Smith, L. (2000). A Brief Biography of Jean Piaget. http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html www.personality-development.org. (2015). Sigmund Freud. http://www.personality-development.org/theories-personality-development/sigmound-freud