Jean Piaget's Impact On The World Of Psychology

One of life’s greatest mysteries is the human brain. It is powerful, complex, and not able to be replicated, although many have tried. Throughout the human race’s time here on earth, many great minds have tried to crack this impossible puzzle that resides in everyone. Many theories have formed about how the brain thinks, learns and evolves throughout a human’s lifetime. Jean Piaget is one of the great minds to make an impact on this field of study. He made impressive strides in the world of psychology through the study of children and how they develop and learn as they grow. Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Piaget excelled in science at an early age and wrote many essays and papers on the subject. He found a great interest in mollusks in
Dr. C. George Boeree, a retired professor from Shippensburg University and a fan of Piaget defines genetic epistemology as “the study of the development of knowledge”. Piaget’s theories mainly revolved around children and how they learn throughout the different stages or their lives. He believed that the young did not need any inspiration from adults to learn, but that they are highly receptive learners. Humans react to, interpret, and remember information differently as they mature. He believed that there are four cognitive stages, also called schema, which a person goes through in a lifetime of education: the sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and then formal operational stage. Lasting from birth to about 2 years, the sensorimotor stage describes how babies learn using their senses. Next, is the preoperational stage where children start to recognize and communicate with images and symbols. This stage lasts from approximately two years old to six or seven. From then on children are within the concrete operational stage until they’re about eleven or twelve. Kids begin to learn and remember pieces of information, think critically, and understand the views of others. Finally, after the third phase has been completed, the formal operational stage begins. It is within this stage that people begin to gain morals and form beliefs, develop hypothetical thinking, and understand cause and effect. This cognitive stage continues long into adulthood. Piaget had his own definition of learning, that he called adaptation. Basically, adaptation is the act of absorbing new information and updating old knowledge in order to function more efficiently. The two ways someone learns something new are through assimilation and accommodation. The act of using a known skill to interact with a new object or circumstance is