Jean Piaget Essay -- Essays Papers

Jean Piaget Introduction Now known as one of the trailblazers of developmental psychology, Jean Piaget initially worked in a wide range of fields. Early in his career Piaget studied the human biological processes. These processes intrigued Piaget so much that he began to study the realm of human knowledge. From this study he was determined to uncover the secrets of cognitive growth in humans. Jean Piaget’s research on the growth of the human mind eventually lead to the formation of the cognitive development theory which consists of three main components: schemes, assimilation and accommodation, and the stage model. The theory is best known for Piaget’s construction of the discontinuous stage model which was based on his study of children and how the processes and products of their minds develop over time. According to this stage model, there are four levels of cognitive growth: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. While a substantial amount of psyc hologists presently choose to adhere to the constructs of the information processing approach, Piaget’s ground breaking cognitive development view is still a valuable asset to the branch of developmental psychology. Whether or not Piaget uncovered any answers to the mysteries of human knowledge is disputable, but one belief that few dispute is that Jean Piaget did indeed lay a strong foundation for future developmental psychologists. Historical Background In 1896 the summer in Switzerland was just an ordinary, uneventful three months. However, during this ordinary and uneventful span of time, a child was born who would become an extraordinary developmental psychologist and fulfill the future with ground breaking events in the field of cognitive psychology. He was the son of an intelligent man and a stern, smart religious woman, and the godchild of respected epistemologist Samuel Cornut. With such scholarly surroundings, there is little surprise that Jean Piaget developed into such an intelligent individual. At age eleven, young Piaget wrote a paper on albino sparrows and got it published. This publishing provided him with the opportunity to meet a man who would turn out to be very influential, Paul Godet, the curator at the local museum. Young Piaget also benefited highly from his prestigious high school in Neuchatel, along with the aforementi... ...they themselves are innovative theoretical components. Impact on Society Jean Piaget was the leaning experimental epistemologist, thanks in some part to Simon and Binet’s work, but he set the standard that would not be accepted by the ethnocentric Americans until they were desperate during the Cold War and decided to open their eyes and accept his findings. Once they did this, they implemented Piaget’s theory into many American school systems which would have had a much more beneficial outcome had the powers that be implemented the great man’s work more carefully. Yet Piaget and his theory have survived and he is labeled as â€Å"the dominant force in shaping the cognitive-field and perceptual-field theories.† His theory was strong because he placed intellectual development over the child’s emotional, social, and moral development because he viewed the intellect as having influence over these other developing entities. In conclusion, Piaget summarized the cognitive development theory best in this statement: â€Å"M y secret ambition is that the hypotheses one could oppose to my own ill finally be seen not to contradict them but to result from a normal process of differentiation.†