DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

1. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 11 PIAGET’S COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

2. Basic Piagetian Concepts 1 Scheme: Specific mental structures, or organized ways of making sense of experience, that change with age. Grasping scheme, dropping scheme, hitting scheme, pushing scheme... Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

3. Basic Piagetian Concepts 2 Adaptation: The process of changing schemes by acting directly on the environment and being influenced by it as a result. Combines assimilation and accomodation. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

4. Basic Piagetian Concepts 3 Assimilation: Interpreting the world in terms of current schemes. The part of adaptation in which the external world is interpreted. Kangaroo  bunny Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

5. Basic Piagetian Concepts 4 Accomodation: Creating new schemes or changing old ones to make into account new aspects of the environment.  equilibrium, disequilibrium Kangaroo  funny bunny Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

6. Basic Piagetian Concepts 5 Equilibration: The back-and-forth movement between equilibrium and disequilibrium that occurs throughout development. A better fit with the environment Organization: The process of linking schemes into a strongly interconnected system, so they can be applied jointly to the environment. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

7. Sensorimotor Stage • Reflective schemes (birth-1 months): Newborn reflexes. • Primary circular reactions (1-4 months): Simple motor habits. • Secondary circular reaction (4-8 months): Action aimed and repeating interesting effects, imitation • Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12 months): Intentional or goal-directed action sequences. • Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months): Exploration of the properties of objects by acting • Mental representation (18-24 months): Internal representation of objects and events. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

8. Preoperational Stage Piaget’s second stage, in which rapid growth in representation takes place. However, thought is not yet logical. Spans the years from 2 to 7. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

9. Preoperational Stage Advances in Mental representation Language: the most flexible means of mental representation. When we think in words, we overcome the limits of our momentory perception. We can deal with the past, present, and future all at once. The Development of Make-Believe Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

10. Limitations of Preoperational Thought Egocentrism: The others perceive, think, and feel just the way they do. Animistic thinking: Inanimated objects like animated. Perception-bound thought: make judgements based perceptual appearance of objects. Centration: older  taller neglect of other important features. States versus transformations: focus on momentary states, failing to consider dynamic transformations between them. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

11. Limitations of Preoperational Thought Irreversibility: they cannot think through a series of steps in a problem and then go backward, mentally returning to the starting point. Transductive reasoning: reasoning from particular to particular (not particular to general, general to particular) Why does it get dark at night? Because we go to bed. Lack of hierachical classification: Preoperational children have difficulty grouping objects into hierachies of classes and subclasses. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

12. The Concrete Operational Stage Piaget’s third stage, during which thought is logical, flexible, and organized in its application to concrete information. However, the capacity for abscttact thinking is not yet present. Spans the years from 7 to 11. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

13. Major Characteristics of the Concrete Operational Stage Decentration: The ability to focus on several aspects of a problem at once and relate them. Conservation: Certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same even when their outward appearance changes. Reversibility is the ability to mentally go through a series of steps in a problem and then reverse the direction, returning to the starting point. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

14. Major Characteristics of the Concrete Operational Stage Classification: By the end of middle childhood, children pass Piaget's class inclusion problem. They can now group objects into hierarchies of classes and subclasses. Collections become common in middle childhood. Seriation is the ability to order items along a quantitative dimension, such as length or weight. Transitive inference is the ability to perform seriation mentally. Spatial Reasoning: Piaget found that school-age children have a more accurate understanding of space than they did earlier. Distance, directions, time, speed. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

15. Limitations of Concrete Operational Thought 1 . Children think in an organized, logical fashion only when dealing with concrete information that they can perceive directly. 2. Their mental operations work poorly when applied to abstract ideas. 3. Horizontal décalage is gradual development that occurs within a Piagetian stage. For example, children usually grasp conservation problems in a certain order: first number; then length, mass, and liquid; and finally area and weight. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

16. The Formal Operational Stage Piaget’s final stage, in which adolescents develop the capacity for abstract, scientific thinking. Begins around 11 years of age. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

17. Major Characteristics of Formal Operational Stage Hypothetico-deductive reasoning: A formal operational problem-solving strategy in which adolescents begin with a general theory of all possible factors that could affect an outcome in a problem and deduce specific hypotheses, which they test in an orderly fashion. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün

18. Major Characteristics of Formal Operational Stage Prepositional thought: Formal operational adolescents can evaluate the logic of statements by reflecting on the statements themselves. They do not need to consider them against real world circumstances. Prof.Dr. Mustafa Ergün