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Running Head: THE LIFE AND WORK OF JEAN PIAGET
The Life and Work of Jean Piaget in Relation to Developmental Psychology
Taylor C. Valnion
Jacob Hespeler Secondary School
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Abstract
This paper explores the life and work of Jean Piaget as a developmental psychologist. Piaget’s
early life and education led him to the field of psychology in which he is most well-known. For
over seventy years, Piaget was interested in and studied the intellectual development of children
to establish his theory of cognitive development. This theory explains how, as early as infants,
humans go through certain stages of development that allow for the obtainment of knowledge
and comprehension of their world around them. These four stages include the sensorimotor
stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage.
Piaget’s theory further suggests that within these four stages children acquire more complex
ways of thinking and perceiving situations as they explore and experience their environment
throughout their lives. Piaget identifies that humans are programmed with schemas and
eventually build new ones which are considered the mental representations that humans have.
Piaget identifies the processes of assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration and how each
of them is necessary for healthy, beneficial cognitive development of a child. Because of Piaget’s
extensive research and contributions to the field of psychology, society has improved the
education system and the way that children are being taught. Also, social scientists have been
able to benefit from, as well as further develop Piaget’s theories.
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The Life and Work of Jean Piaget in Relation to Developmental Psychology
Background and Early Life
Jean William Fritz Piaget was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland to Arthur Piaget, a
professor of medieval literature, and Rebecca Jackson on August 9, 1896. At a young age, Jean
started showing an interest in natural sciences. While a pupil at Neuchâtel Latin High School, at
the age of eleven, Piaget wrote his first short paper on an albino sparrow. Piaget developed an
interest for mollusks during late adolescence, eventually becoming a distinguished malacologist
by finishing school, around the age of 15. This field remained a lifelong interest as he published
many papers of his findings. Piaget spent a semester at the University of Zürich where he
received his Doctorate in Science and developed an interest in psychoanalysis, after which he left
for France where he spent one year working at École de la rue de la Grange-aux-Belles, a boys’
institution. Here, he started his first experimental studies of development and growing. In 1921,
Piaget had his first article on the psychology of intelligence published in the Journal de
Psychologie and accepted the position as the director of studies at the J. J. Rousseau Institute in
Geneva. In 1923, Piaget married Valentine Châtenay, one of his student coworkers. The couple’s
first daughter, Jacqueline was born in 1925, their second daughter, Lucienne in 1927, and their
only son, Laurent, was born in 1931. Piaget’s studied his children extensively for parts of his
research. In 1929, Piaget started his position as the director of the International Bureau of
Education. He held this position until 1967. In 1940, Piaget became the chair of Experimental
Psychology, the Director of the psychology laboratory, and the president of the Swiss Society of
Psychology. At the end of World War II, Piaget was named the President of the Swiss
Commission of UNESCO after giving many lectures at the Collège de France during the Nazi
occupation of France. During the same time period, Piaget received many honorary degrees
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including ones from Harvard in 1936, the Sorbonne in 1946, the University of Brussels in 1949,
and the University of Brazil in 1949 as well. Also, in 1949 and 1950, he published his synthesis
which is the Introduction to Genetic Epistemology. Following this, in 1952, Piaget became a
professor at the Sorbonne and created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in 1955.
Piaget served as the director of this center for the remainder of his life. In 1956, Piaget created
the School of Sciences at the University of Geneva. After this, Piaget continued his theoretical
work and tying psychological research to biology for many years, as well as continuing his
public service through UNESCO as a Swiss delegate. Piaget had written over 60 books and
produced countless numbers of articles by the end of his career when he died in Geneva, on
September 16, 1980.
Piaget’s Motivation for Research and His Discoveries
Piaget started his career as a young biologist before his interest in psychology. Piaget’s
interest for science, in general, and more specifically mollusks developed into a deeper interest
for the actual thought processes of doing science. Eventually, this interest expanded into a
fascination with the development of thinking and the nature of basic thought itself. At the time,
there was little research and work done in this area so Piaget was motivated to study this aspect
of psychology, labelling it genetic epistemology – the study of development of knowledge.
Piaget was particularly intrigued by the intellectual capability and cognitive development
of children. He noticed in particular that infants have certain skills in relation to their
environment. The skills were simple but displayed a way that children gain knowledge by
various ways of exploring their environment. This fascinated Piaget and made him curious about
how exactly this development happens in a child and grows over their lifetime.
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In particular, the time that Piaget spent at École de la rue de la Grange-aux-Belles
significantly triggered his interest in intellectual and cognitive development in children. While
assisting the head master, Alfred Binet, with marking Binet’s intelligence tests, Piaget noticed
that the young children constantly answered certain questions wrong. Rather than focussing on
the children answering the question wrong, Piaget was more interested with why younger
children make certain mistakes that older children and adults did not which led him to his theory
that the cognitive processes of young children are quite different to those of adults. From this,
Piaget was motivated to examine his theory of cognitive development stages that individuals go
through in which they display “certain common patterns of cognition in each period of
development” (Jean Piaget).
Ultimately, Piaget was influenced to study cognitive development of children based on
his observations of the differences in a child’s way of reasoning and thinking to an adult’s, as
well as just having a genuine interest in the process of thought and how one’s ability to gain
knowledge develops throughout their lifetime.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
In general, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development explains the development of human
intelligence and how children gradually acquire knowledge, construct it, and use it. Piaget’s
theory is a developmental stage theory that deals with the “progressive reorganization of mental
processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience” (Piaget’s Theory of
Cognitive Development). As a child gets older, they build an understanding of their world around
them and the experiences that they go through gradually shape and change the way they think,
perceive and react to certain situations as they mature. Piaget’s theory involves 3 basic
components, including schemas, the processes that allow the transition from one stage to another
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– adaptation, and the four stages of development. Within the second component, the processes
that enable the transition from one stage to another – adaptation, the three key concepts include
assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium; within the third component, the four stages of
development, the four stages include the sensorimotor stage, the proeoperational stage, the
concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage.
Schemas
According to Piaget, schemas are the building blocks of knowledge. Schemas involve a
way of organizing one’s knowledge. Some people think of schemas as “units” of knowledge,
each connected to some aspect or thing in the world – objects, actions, concepts, etc. In Piaget’s
cognitive development theory, schemas are mental representations of the world in which an
individual uses to understand and respond to certain situations. It is assumed that an individual
“stores” these schemas and applies them to their environment when necessary. Piaget argued that
newborn babies, for example, are born with few innate schemas – reflexes that are genetically
programmed into an individual before being able to have had the opportunity to experience and
explore the world. One of these schemas that a baby is born with is a sucking reflex that is
triggered by something touching the baby’s lips. A baby will suck a nipple or even a person’s
finger when either is placed on the baby’s lips; it is assumed that the baby has a “sucking
schema”. The same concept is relatable to the grasping reflex which is triggered when something
touches the palm of a baby’s hand. Over time, schemas change and new ones develop as a child
has greater experience with his or her environment.
Processes That Enable Transition from One Stage to Another – Adaptation
The process in which Piaget viewed one’s intellectual growth is adaptation. The process
of adaptation is achieved through three sub-processes that are key concepts of Piaget’s theory.
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Assimilation. This process is how an individual, more specifically a child, will use an
existing schema to deal with a new object or situation. For example, a baby knows how to grab a
rattle and thrust it into his mouth; the reaction to grab and thrust the rattle into his mouth is the
existing schema. When a baby comes across a new object, like his father’s watch or a television
remote, he transfers his knowledge of grabbing and thrusting something to this new situation.
The baby uses an old schema and assimilates it to a new object. This is called assimilation.
Accomodation. This process relates to when an old schema does not work for a new
situation and the child must change what he or she is doing in order to deal with the new object
or situation. Piaget found, using the “grab and thrust” schema example above, that if a baby
comes across a new object like a beach ball, he will try to grab and thrust it into his mouth. Of
course, this action does not work like intended so he will adapt to the new object by, for example
squeezing and drooling on it instead of grabbing and thrusting it into his mouth. By changing
what he is doing to deal with the new object, the baby is accommodating an old schema to a new
object. This is called accommodation.
Equilibrium. Equilibrium is more of a state rather than a distinguished process. Humans
do not like to be frustrated and will seek means to restore mental balance. This process is
referred to as equilibration. This process is what drives the process of development. When new
information cannot be associated with existing schemas (assimilation), it is said that the
individual is in a state of disequilibrium. Assimilation and accommodation act as mental
balancing forces of development. When in a state of unpleasant disequilibrium, an individual
will attempt to restore the balance by mastering the new situation or challenge (accommodation).
The process of assimilating and then accommodating to a new situation in order to restore
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balance is referred to as equilibration. The restored state of mental balance is known as
equilibrium.
Stages of Development
The main concept of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development deals with the four stages
of development. As he continued his research, Piaget noticed that there were certain periods that
were similar, in timing and nature, among all children when assimilation dominated,
accommodation dominated, and states of equilibrium dominated. Thus, he developed the four
stages of cognitive development. These stages are time periods in a child’s development in
which he or she is capable of understanding some things but not others. As the child matures,
they go through different stages allowing them to grasp more complex concepts and respond
accordingly.
The Sensorimotor Stage. This stage occurs from birth to the age of two. During this
stage, babies experience the world through sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. At this point,
children are not able to understand the world from others’ viewpoints and perceive situations
from their point of view and knowledge capability. This stage can be broken down into six substages.
Simple Reflexes. From birth to one month old, this basic stage involves infants being able
to use simply their reflexes of “following moving or interesting objects with eyes”, sucking, and
grasping to interpret the world around them and react to given situations (Piaget’s Theory of
Cognitive Development).
First Habits and Primary Circular Reactions. From one month to four months old,
infants start to learn the idea of coordination and develops two types of schema – habit and
circular reactions. For example, a baby might brush his hand by his face (this reflex is the habit)
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and end up sucking his thumb; the primary circular reaction is when the baby tries to reproduce
that action that happened by accident, in this case, sucking his thumb.
Secondary Circular Reactions. From four to eight months, babies are more objectoriented; they are aware of things that are beyond their own body. During this stage, babies will
repeat actions that are pleasing to them. The act of shaking a rattle accidently may trigger them
to continue shaking it for satisfaction. This is thought to be, by some, the most important stage as
it displays the beginnings of a sense of logic.
Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions. From eight to 12 months, babies are
capable of doing things intentionally. In this stage, infants are goal oriented and are able to use
schemas to accomplish something, for example, shaking a rattle to make a noise. During this
stage, infants understand that objects exist even though they are unable to see them.
Tertiary Circular Reactions, Novelty, and Curiosity. From twelve to eighteen months,
infants often try different things to achieve different results. They are interested in the
exploration of new possibilities of objects and experimenting with new behaviour.
Internalization of Schemata. From eighteen to 24 months, babies develop the ability to
form mental representations and understand certain symbols. This stage shows the beginnings of
creativity and transitions into the preoperational stage.
The Preoperational Stage. From ages two to seven, children learn to use language as
well as use images and words to represent objects. During this stage, a child’s thinking is still
egocentric and has a difficult time understanding through others’ viewpoints. The act of playing
and pretending dominates this stage as, for example, a child will use a box as a table. This
demonstrates that the child understands the concept of a table and that the box is symbolic of a
table.
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The Concrete Operational Stage. From ages seven to eleven, children are able to think
logically about objects and events and their egocentric behaviour decreases to some extent.
Children are able to know the difference between their own thoughts and the thoughts of others
and they might have a different point of view than other people around them. Also during this
stage, children are now able to classify objects by number, mass, and weight as well as groups
objects by several other features such as appearance or size.
The Formal Operational Stage. This is the final stage from age eleven on into
adolescence and adulthood. During this stage, children demonstrate the ability to think logically
about complex situations and understand abstract concepts. Also, children start to think about
possible outcomes and consequences of certain actions; they become more concerned with
hypothetical situations and possibilities in the future (abstract thought). Also, during this stage a
child’s ability to methodically solve a problem through logical and systematic ways surfaces.
Piaget’s Contributions to Psychology and His Impact on Society
From his research and theory of cognitive development, Piaget has primarily influenced
child psychology and child education, more specifically school curriculums. With Piaget’s
theory, school curriculums have been built around the idea of judging the capabilities of what a
child can and cannot understand depending on their stage of development. School curriculums
and teaching methods have been shaped so that children are able to learn through experience to
move their developmental processes along smoothly. Piaget argued that children must develop
by building on pre-existing structures of knowledge so, for example, teachers are there to ensure
that students are grasping certain concepts and to encourage the “building” of learning and
development.
Piaget’s research has had a significant influence on psychology, more specifically child
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development. His theory has helped society’s understanding of children’s intellectual
development. Piaget’s research has influenced the way we understand how children obtain
knowledge – that they have their own basic theories and respond to them accordingly. Being one
of the most influential developmental psychologists in the world, Piaget’s research has
influenced many other social scientists’ works, including Lev Vygotsky and Lawrence Kohlberg.
Since Piaget, his theory has been improved but thanks to his basic model of development, we are
able to more thoroughly understand the capabilities of children when it comes to gaining
knowledge as well as how children develop their sense of knowledge and understanding over
time.
All over the world, people use his findings and theories in daily practice to improve
children’s social and academic skills. The work that Piaget conducted revolutionized society’s
“way of thinking about children, and about learning, intelligence, and the nature of knowledge”
(Jean Piaget). Piaget’s promotion for hands on, interactive learning has shaped the way children
learn in the classroom for the better, as well as allowed them to obtain as much knowledge as
they desire by exploring different information to fulfil their inner drive for education. Among his
lifetime, Piaget birthed whole new fields of science including genetic epistemology, cognitive
theory, and developmental psychology which has provided many new opportunities regarding
sociological research. Piaget’s work and theories are still frequently consulted today, including
some of his best works: The Child’s Conception of the World, The Origin of Intelligence in
Children, and The Early Growth of Logic in the Child.
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