Jean Piaget, a clinical psychologist from Switzerland, is well known for his theories on child development and for his research in genetic epistemology. The scope of his work focused on establishing how intelligence and knowledge progresses over the span of one’s life. Piaget purported that there are four ubiquitous, incremental stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage. These stages map the constructional process of knowledge from the intrinsic, primitive intuition of an infant to the more complex logical processes typically acquired in adulthood.
The Sensorimotor stage of mental growth is present immediately after birth and typically lasts until a child reaches 2 years of age, almost always following language acquisition. This stage of development is a milestone of exponential cognitive growth which sets a foundation for learning and understanding through physical, environmental interactions. While children at this age have well developed senses and motor skills, excluding adequate vision and depth perception, they conversely do not grasp an understanding of object permanence. This means that children under the age of two typically will not comprehend that objects can exist even if they are not …show more content…
Operations at this point in time can be applied to both abstract concepts as well as concrete objects. In addition to this, hypothetical thinking and systematic formulation become more apparent. Conversely, at this stage, juveniles are susceptible to a type of egocentrism that causes them to believe that other people focus attention on their concerns and shortcomings; this is known as imaginary audience. Piaget in particular ascribed that adolescents merely believe that they are special and important; this type of egocentrism is called personal
The Sensorimotor stage of mental growth is present immediately after birth and typically lasts until a child reaches 2 years of age, almost always following language acquisition. This stage of development is a milestone of exponential cognitive growth which sets a foundation for learning and understanding through physical, environmental interactions. While children at this age have well developed senses and motor skills, excluding adequate vision and depth perception, they conversely do not grasp an understanding of object permanence. This means that children under the age of two typically will not comprehend that objects can exist even if they are not …show more content…
Operations at this point in time can be applied to both abstract concepts as well as concrete objects. In addition to this, hypothetical thinking and systematic formulation become more apparent. Conversely, at this stage, juveniles are susceptible to a type of egocentrism that causes them to believe that other people focus attention on their concerns and shortcomings; this is known as imaginary audience. Piaget in particular ascribed that adolescents merely believe that they are special and important; this type of egocentrism is called personal