Describe and evaluate Piaget’s theory of Intellectual development (16 marks)
A01: • Piaget divided childhood into stages, each of which represents the development of new ways
of reasoning.
• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)- According to Piaget a baby’s focus is on physical sensa-
tions and developing basic physical coordination. A baby learns by trial and error that they
can move their body in particular ways and eventually that they can move objects. Baby de-
velops an understanding during the first 2 years that other people are separate objects and
acquire some basic language. Around 8 months the baby is capable of understanding object
permanence.
• Object permanence is the ability to realise that an object still exists when it passes out the
visual field.
- Piaget observed babies looking at objects and watched as the objects were removed from
sight. Before 8 months the babies immediately switched their attention away from the ob-
ject. After 8 months, they would continue to look for it. This led Piaget to believe that it was
from this age that babies understood that objects exist when removed from view.
• Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)-
- Conservation: The basic mathematical understanding that the quantity remains constant
even when the appearance of the object changes. Piaget placed 2 rows of 8 identical coun-
ters side by side. When the counters in one row were pushed closer together, children in the
pre-operational stage struggled to conserve and said there were fewer counters.
- Egocentrism: To see the world from one’s own point of view. Piaget and Inhelder described
how this is shown in the 3 mountain task. Children shown 3 model mountains each with a
different feature, a doll was placed at the side of the model so it faced the scene from a dif-
ferent angle from the child. The child was asked what the doll could see from pictures. Pre-
operational children tended to chose the picture that matched their own point of view.
- Class inclusion: Children begin to understand classification- the idea that objects fall into
categories. But Piaget and Inhelder found that children under 7 struggle with advanced skill
of class inclusion, the idea that classifications have subsets.
• Stage of concrete operations (7-11 years)- Children can only focus on concrete objects.
They still struggle to reason about abstract ideas and imagine objects or situations they
can’t see.
• Stage of formal operations (11+)- Children become capable of formal reasoning. Able to
focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content. Formal reasoning can
be tested by using pendulum task and by means of syllogisms eg ‘ all yellow cats have 2
heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie, how many heads does he have?’ Younger children
get distracted by its content and answered cats don’t have 2 heads.
A03: • LIMITATION- Piaget’s conclusions about conservation have flawed research. Children taking part
in conservation studies may have been influenced by seeing the experimenter change the appearance
of the counters or liquid. McGarrigle and Donaldson set up a study in which counters appeared to be
moved by accident by a naughty teddy who knocked the counters closer together. 72% answered that
there were the same number of counters as before. This means children aged 4-6 could conserve as
long as they weren’t put off by the way in which it was questioned.
• LIMITATION- Findings on class inclusion are contradicted by newer research. Siegler and Svetina
showed children were capable of understanding class inclusion. They gave 100 five year old children, 10
class inclusion tasks. 1 condition they were told there are more animals than dogs because there were 9
animals and only 6 dogs. The 2nd group were told there must be more animals as dogs are a subset of
animals. The scores across the sessions increased for the 2nd group, suggesting children had acquired a
real understanding of class inclusion. Therefore children under 7 can in fact understand class inclusion.
• LIMITATION- Lack of support for Piaget’s view of egocentrism. Hughes tested the ability of chil-
dren to see situation from 2 peoples viewpoints using a model with 2 intersecting walls and 3 dolls- 2 po-
lice officers and 1 boy. Once familiarised with the task children aged 3 1/2 were able to position the doll
where 1 of the police officers couldn’t see him. 90% of the time they could do this. This suggests when
tested with a scenario, children are able to imagine other perspectives much earlier than Piaget pro-
posed.
• COUNTERPOINT- One issue with all the limitations stated is that they are criticisms of the
the age at which particular cognitive stage is reached and not a criticism of the characteris-
tics of the stage. For example Hughes point is that children were able to decentre at a younger age
than Piaget claimed. However we can see from Hughes research that ability improves with age, so core
principles of Piaget’s stages remain unchallenged, but the methods he used meant timings of his stages
were wrong.
,
A01: • Piaget divided childhood into stages, each of which represents the development of new ways
of reasoning.
• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)- According to Piaget a baby’s focus is on physical sensa-
tions and developing basic physical coordination. A baby learns by trial and error that they
can move their body in particular ways and eventually that they can move objects. Baby de-
velops an understanding during the first 2 years that other people are separate objects and
acquire some basic language. Around 8 months the baby is capable of understanding object
permanence.
• Object permanence is the ability to realise that an object still exists when it passes out the
visual field.
- Piaget observed babies looking at objects and watched as the objects were removed from
sight. Before 8 months the babies immediately switched their attention away from the ob-
ject. After 8 months, they would continue to look for it. This led Piaget to believe that it was
from this age that babies understood that objects exist when removed from view.
• Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)-
- Conservation: The basic mathematical understanding that the quantity remains constant
even when the appearance of the object changes. Piaget placed 2 rows of 8 identical coun-
ters side by side. When the counters in one row were pushed closer together, children in the
pre-operational stage struggled to conserve and said there were fewer counters.
- Egocentrism: To see the world from one’s own point of view. Piaget and Inhelder described
how this is shown in the 3 mountain task. Children shown 3 model mountains each with a
different feature, a doll was placed at the side of the model so it faced the scene from a dif-
ferent angle from the child. The child was asked what the doll could see from pictures. Pre-
operational children tended to chose the picture that matched their own point of view.
- Class inclusion: Children begin to understand classification- the idea that objects fall into
categories. But Piaget and Inhelder found that children under 7 struggle with advanced skill
of class inclusion, the idea that classifications have subsets.
• Stage of concrete operations (7-11 years)- Children can only focus on concrete objects.
They still struggle to reason about abstract ideas and imagine objects or situations they
can’t see.
• Stage of formal operations (11+)- Children become capable of formal reasoning. Able to
focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content. Formal reasoning can
be tested by using pendulum task and by means of syllogisms eg ‘ all yellow cats have 2
heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie, how many heads does he have?’ Younger children
get distracted by its content and answered cats don’t have 2 heads.
A03: • LIMITATION- Piaget’s conclusions about conservation have flawed research. Children taking part
in conservation studies may have been influenced by seeing the experimenter change the appearance
of the counters or liquid. McGarrigle and Donaldson set up a study in which counters appeared to be
moved by accident by a naughty teddy who knocked the counters closer together. 72% answered that
there were the same number of counters as before. This means children aged 4-6 could conserve as
long as they weren’t put off by the way in which it was questioned.
• LIMITATION- Findings on class inclusion are contradicted by newer research. Siegler and Svetina
showed children were capable of understanding class inclusion. They gave 100 five year old children, 10
class inclusion tasks. 1 condition they were told there are more animals than dogs because there were 9
animals and only 6 dogs. The 2nd group were told there must be more animals as dogs are a subset of
animals. The scores across the sessions increased for the 2nd group, suggesting children had acquired a
real understanding of class inclusion. Therefore children under 7 can in fact understand class inclusion.
• LIMITATION- Lack of support for Piaget’s view of egocentrism. Hughes tested the ability of chil-
dren to see situation from 2 peoples viewpoints using a model with 2 intersecting walls and 3 dolls- 2 po-
lice officers and 1 boy. Once familiarised with the task children aged 3 1/2 were able to position the doll
where 1 of the police officers couldn’t see him. 90% of the time they could do this. This suggests when
tested with a scenario, children are able to imagine other perspectives much earlier than Piaget pro-
posed.
• COUNTERPOINT- One issue with all the limitations stated is that they are criticisms of the
the age at which particular cognitive stage is reached and not a criticism of the characteris-
tics of the stage. For example Hughes point is that children were able to decentre at a younger age
than Piaget claimed. However we can see from Hughes research that ability improves with age, so core
principles of Piaget’s stages remain unchallenged, but the methods he used meant timings of his stages
were wrong.
,
