Jean Piaget's Theory Of Cognitive Development

As a child, I frequently had nightmares resulting in me crawling into my parents’ bed. My mother’s comfort gave me a sense of protection against the ‘monsters’ in my sleep. One morning when I was 4, my parents had gone to the gym and left my older brother in charge. I woke up early that morning after another nightmare but when I went to my parents’ room I couldn’t find them. I walked into my brother’s room crying, waking him up and he then asked me what was wrong? I told him that I had a nightmare, although I knew my parents would return, I was still anxious and did not want to be separated from my mother. He told me that if I placed a beanie over my head and covered my eyes then no monsters would get me; I would be able to fall asleep again.
482). This four-stage theory illustrates how children are born with a mental structure that is built up overtime and their cognitive processes which develop as a result of experience. New experiences challenge children’s thinking causing disequilibrium. From this learning experience if the outcome is positive, accommodation of information/learning is made and we can see growth in cognitive abilities. Other ways to develop cognitively is exercising the old scheme in new ways. This theory is outlined in Figure 1
On this morning when I couldn’t be with my mother, I reached the anxious/ambivalent stage (as cited in Crittenden, 2017) when usually I was secure in my mother’s presence because of our bond. My cognitive development was in the preoperational stage thus by placing magical powers on the beanie I believed that I would be protected. My brother’s strategy of calming me down showed his understanding of the preoperational stage whilst he was in the formal operational stage of development. I had an egocentric point of view which is why I could not grasp the concept of nightmares. From that day on, I kept the beanie next to my pillow believing that it would protect me from all nightmares. This reinforced my attached relationship with my mum as I knew that her protection would always be with me, in the