When comparing the work of Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget two things come to mind, they both had a lasting and profound impact on the field of psychology and both received a great amount of criticism regarding their theories.
…show more content…
Piaget believed that four stages of cognitive development were the defining periods of which an adult personality would be formed. The first stage of Piaget’s development theory can be defined as the sensimotor stage, where between birth and the age of two, understanding is achieved through perception and action. During the second stage, age two to seven years, a child is in the concrete preoperational stage. In this stage, a child masters independently acquired skills, and is able to represent thoughts with images and words. The third stage of Piaget’s development theory is called the concrete operational stage, and occurs from ages seven to eleven years old. At this stage, children are capable of logical thinking and operations, but imagination becomes constrained. This stage can be related to that of Freud’s latency period, where social skills are the primary focus of development for this age period, and where the superego restrains the ego and id. Piaget’s final stage of development is referred to as the formal operational stage, and the ability to reason logically and abstractly …show more content…
they also disagreed on many key points. It is obvious that Freud and Piaget both shared an unique interest in human development. They both see the understanding of the childhood years as a key to understanding the adult. Freud and Piaget both recognized the similarities between children and adults, however Freud suggested that infants are purely sexual beings, while Piaget showed that young children in fact have the ability reason. they were both stage theorists and used the age to determine changes in development stages. Freud’s research focused on development of the body, whereas, Piaget focused on changes in mental functioning. While they were both concerned with the processes of moral development, Freud was more interested in the process by which the Superego appears, and Piaget was most interested in changes in the reasoning for moral implications. Throughout the stages of development Freud argues that the powerful human influence came from the parents. Piaget believed that peers are as important or more important than parents are. They both agree that a young child is affected by his parents’ standards, but he is not simply a passive recipient of those standards. Piaget did seem to build on one of Freud’s ideas in that while Freud was only interested in moral feelings like guilt and shame, Piaget expanded his theory to look at the development of moral
Piaget believed that four stages of cognitive development were the defining periods of which an adult personality would be formed. The first stage of Piaget’s development theory can be defined as the sensimotor stage, where between birth and the age of two, understanding is achieved through perception and action. During the second stage, age two to seven years, a child is in the concrete preoperational stage. In this stage, a child masters independently acquired skills, and is able to represent thoughts with images and words. The third stage of Piaget’s development theory is called the concrete operational stage, and occurs from ages seven to eleven years old. At this stage, children are capable of logical thinking and operations, but imagination becomes constrained. This stage can be related to that of Freud’s latency period, where social skills are the primary focus of development for this age period, and where the superego restrains the ego and id. Piaget’s final stage of development is referred to as the formal operational stage, and the ability to reason logically and abstractly …show more content…
they also disagreed on many key points. It is obvious that Freud and Piaget both shared an unique interest in human development. They both see the understanding of the childhood years as a key to understanding the adult. Freud and Piaget both recognized the similarities between children and adults, however Freud suggested that infants are purely sexual beings, while Piaget showed that young children in fact have the ability reason. they were both stage theorists and used the age to determine changes in development stages. Freud’s research focused on development of the body, whereas, Piaget focused on changes in mental functioning. While they were both concerned with the processes of moral development, Freud was more interested in the process by which the Superego appears, and Piaget was most interested in changes in the reasoning for moral implications. Throughout the stages of development Freud argues that the powerful human influence came from the parents. Piaget believed that peers are as important or more important than parents are. They both agree that a young child is affected by his parents’ standards, but he is not simply a passive recipient of those standards. Piaget did seem to build on one of Freud’s ideas in that while Freud was only interested in moral feelings like guilt and shame, Piaget expanded his theory to look at the development of moral