A Discussion of Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development in Understanding the Personality Development of Samantha
By Judith Hunt
Chicago State University
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- Cognitive Development of Samantha
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Introduction
Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) the biologist, philosopher and psychologist was born in Switzerland. Piaget became interested at an early age in nature and wrote his first paper when he was 10 years old. He continued publishing in high school on the subject of mollusk. At the age of 22 he was awarded a doctorate in zoology but Piaget was becoming interested in the function of the human mind. After World War I Piaget relocated to Paris and began working at a boy’s school, Ecole de la rue de la Grange-aux-Belles here is where he began observing, interviewing, and listening to young children. This was the beginning of Jean Piaget’s lifelong passion to understand the growth of intelligence from infancy through adolescence. This gave him the ability to gain insight on the child and their cognitive psychology. Piaget’s efforts found the discipline of genetic epistemology which is the biological foundations for knowledge. Piaget Theory of Cognitive Development states that children moved through four distinct stages in their development and the order of these stages were fixed: Sensorimotor Stage (Birth-2 Years), Preoperational Stage(2-7), Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 Years), and Formal Operational Operational Stage (7-11 Years) for this is Samantha’s current stage of life. Samantha is 10 years old, of African American decent, and the third out of five children. She belongs to a very large extended family and is in middle childhood period. Samantha’s cognitive development will be expressed through Jean Piaget’s four stages of development with some projections.
Sensorimotor Stage (Conception to 2 years)
The characteristics of the Sensorimotor Stage (conception to 2 years) can be divided in to six separate