HPS121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Toilet Training, Egocentrism, Irreversible Process
HPS121 WEEK 2 NOTES
Piaget’s stage model (qualitative):
Schemas – organised patterns of thought and action. That is, a mental framework
that guides our interaction with the world.
Assimilation – the process by which new experiences are incorporated into existing
schemas.
Accommodation – the process by which new experiences cause existing schemas to
change.
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development:
Stage Age (years) Major Characteristics
Sensorimotor Birth to 2 Infant understands world
through sensory and
motor experiences
Achieves objects
permanence (the
understanding that an
object still exists even
when it cannot be seen)
Exhibits emergence of
significant thought
Preoperational 2-7 Child uses symbolic
thinking in the form of
words and images to
represent objects and
experiences
Symbolic thinking enables
child to engage in pretend
play
Thinking displays
egocentrism (difficulty in
viewing the world from
someone else’s
perspective),
irreversibility (difficulty
in reversing an action
mentally) and centration
(focusing on only one
aspect of the situation)
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Document Summary
Schemas organised patterns of thought and action. That is, a mental framework that guides our interaction with the world. Assimilation the process by which new experiences are incorporated into existing schemas. Accommodation the process by which new experiences cause existing schemas to change. Infant understands world through sensory and motor experiences. Achieves objects permanence (the understanding that an object still exists even when it cannot be seen) Child uses symbolic thinking in the form of words and images to represent objects and experiences. Symbolic thinking enables child to engage in pretend play. Thinking displays egocentrism (difficulty in viewing the world from someone else"s perspective), irreversibility (difficulty in reversing an action mentally) and centration (focusing on only one aspect of the situation) Child doesn"t understand conservation (the principle that properties like volume, mass or quantity stay the same even though their outward appearance may change. Adolescent can think more logically, abstractly and flexibly.
