PIAGET'S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

THEORETICAL CRITICISMS

AGES

• Children possess cognitive abilities earlier than Piaget expected.
• Often improving or altering the method of testing reveal's abilities better.
• Piaget overestimated people's formal operational ability...
• Research suggests that only 1/3 of the population reach this stage.

CONCEPTS

• Piaget's provides us with a description of development, but no explanation.
• Development should be considered a continuous process because of overlap.
• By focusing mistakes, Piaget may have overlooked important abilities they do have.

NEGLECTS

• He neglected cognitive factors that could account for individual differences...
• such as memory span, motivation, impulsiveness, practice, etc.
• He underestimated social influence on development.
• By concentration on maturation and self construction of mental life, he neglected...
• the role of society, child's understanding of social situations, and use of language

METHODOLOGICAL CRITISMS

INAPPROPRIATE TESTS

• Piaget's tests were over-complicated and difficult to relate to.
• By simplifying tasks, Bower, Wishart, and Hughes have demonstrated...
• cognitive abilities in kids who would not be expected to show them.

DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS

• Piaget ignored the child's social understanding of the test,
• possibly leading the child to give a socially desired or expected answer.
• McGarrigle and Donaldson and Rose and Blank demonstrated...
• significantly greater conservation rates in pre-operational children with their...
• Naughty Teddy experiment and one question variation.

OVERALL METHODS

• Piaget's use of clinical interview method, informal experimentation, and
• small sample sizes, lacked scientific rigor.
• The generalized conclusions from these may have been biased.

STRENGTHS

THEORETICAL IMPORTANCE

• Many fundamental aspects of his theory are accepted as valid today.
• Many psychologists have taken his ideas more rigidly than were intended.
• He hoped his theory would be modified and integrated with other theories.

PRODUCTIVITY

• His ideas generated much research which has increased our overall understanding.
• Bruner and others have used his views as a spring board for their own research.

APPLICATIONS

• Impacted educational practice- changing the way children are taught.
• Contributed to psych theories of children's play and moral development.