Jean Piaget Stages Of Development

Jean Piaget observed intellectual growth as a manner of adaptation to the world. This happens through: assimilation, the process through which an individual incorporates new experiences into an already existing schemata, and accommodation, the process of modifying existing schemata to satisfy the requirements of new experiences. Piaget believed the adaption or change of the person them self, to be the product of their ability to assimilate by incorporating new experiences into their pre-existing schemata that they have gained through their previous experiences. Humans slightly shift their views based off of the things that they have seen and endured themselves and the way that these experiences have made them feel. (Salkind, 2004) Egocentrism, …show more content…
However, the notion of stages in development is not unique to Piaget. A great deal of representations of development use stages to unify significant times in one’s life to reflect upon. The psychologists that used these models were Gesell, Freud and Erikson. Piaget differed in a sense that the notion of the stages is closely related to the concept of structural change and distinguished them in eight characteristics. The first characteristic states that “the organism begins in a state of disequilibrium”, during which a sharp increase exists between the core organization of the organism and environmental strains on the organism. Conflict between what the organism can do and what it needs to do is the key motivational factor of development. The second characteristic says that, “states of equilibrium do not last as long as states of disequilibrium.” Various phases of development are branded by sudden changes, but then are usually proceeded by periods of some stability. The third characteristic states that, “the organism does not remain in states of equilibrium and disequilibrium for equal amounts of time at each stage, nor is the rate of progress from stage to stage constant.” Variability is a prominent factor meaning that the period and rate of disequilibrium and equilibrium do not stay constant within any one stage. …show more content…
A person 's ability to break out of their egocentric demeanor is the only way to grow as an individual. Without the understanding that we gain through experience itself, we will never become accepting or empathetic of elements such as the lifestyles or cultures of others. We will also fail to truly consider the viability of the motives that a person may have for their actions at which point we become closed minded and less accepting as human beings. There are certain chapters of our lives that may completely change our views and perspectives of others. For example, when I was younger, I was considered to be popular and at this point in age that made you "better" than everyone else. I carried on with my peers of equivalence and partook in childish antics that I later learned to result in a sense of bullying. It seemed to make life easier and remind me that I was special as compared to other children my age: until one day when I was a far distance away from home with a large group of students that were much older than me and not to fond of my persona. I was tortured for a week with far worse actions than I had previously partaken in myself. With any other group of people I never would have put up with such anguish but this was to be my team the following year as I entered into high-school and I wanted nothing more than to be friends with them so I pretended that it did