Psychology 3260: Personality & Social Development

1. Psychology 3260: Personality & Social Development Don Hartmann, Spring 2007 Lecture 9: Piaget

2. Overview of Piaget Lecture • Intersects with text, pp. 50-63 • Coffee & Cream • Lecture: • Introduction to Piaget • Piaget’s Theory • A Practical Application • Evaluation • Summary • Black & White Marbles • Next: Lecture #10: Peers I

3. Coffee & Cream • Begin with two identical large cups, Cup 1 containing 8 oz. of cream, Cup 2 containing 8 oz. of coffee (or diet Coke) • Remove 2 oz. of cream from Cup 1 and place it in Cup 2. Mix thoroughly. • Remove 2 oz. of the coffee/cream mixture in Cup 2 and place it in Cup 1. • Question: Is there • More coffee in Cup 1 than cream in Cup 2? • More cream in Cup 2 than coffee in Cup 1? • The same amount of cream in Cup 2 as coffee in Cup 1? • None of the above.

4. Introduction to Piaget • 3rd Most influential psychologist of the 20th century • Father of Cognitive Developmental Theory • Background facts

5. Major Thesis • Social development is a consequence of changes in cognitive development • Responsible in large part for Social Cognition (e.g., gender conceptions, humor)

6. The Nature of Piaget’s Theory • Strong stage theory. Stages are: • Qualitative (rather than quantitative) • Coherent (consistent) • Fixed (just four, no more) • Universal (applicable to all, though not all are believed to achieve all the stages), and • Invariant (we all go through them in the same order; no skipping).! • Based on structure of thought, rather than on content of thought

7. How does Growth Occur? • 1. Through both nature and nurture; maturation + certain critical experiences • 2. In general, through accommodation and assimilation • 3. Though Cognitive Disequilibrium • 4. Though Interactions with Peers—particularly when older

8. Stages (1) • Sensorimotor (0‑2). From reflex to reflective! • Develops distinction between self & non-self • Object… • Delayed… • Preoperational (2‑7). At this stage children have not yet gained the operations that allow them to think logically. Perception is characterized by centration & thinking by egocentrism • Increasing use of symbols (e.g., pretend play), but • Perceptual centration & • Egocentrism, which together • Preclude conservation

9. Egocentrism

10. Stages (2) • Concrete operation (7‑12) • use operations (e.g., transitivity), but fixed on real • Can conserve • Formal operations (12‑?); can deal with • Abstractions • logical reasoning • hypotheticals

11. Some Conservation Tasks

12. Still More Conservation Tasks

13. Some important implications of Piaget: Learning? • Learning is a product of one's cognitive development. • The child's existing cognitive structures determine how he/she interprets social experiences and, hence, what is likely to be learned from interactions with others

14. The Brain: Cognition; you get it, right? What about Personality? • Dependent upon cognitive development; e.g., can't have notion of gender, until conservation.

15. A Practical Application: Teaching Traditional Gender Behavior • Match the instructional approach to the developmental level of the child • Has the child developed the notion of gender constancy? • Help the child form concept that she is a girl.

16. How Stages are “Discovered” • Someone has a notion that a stage-like progression typifies some developmental phenomena (e.g., how babies occur) • Select children of various ages (cross-sectional study), and inquire about the phenomena • Follow up with longitudinal study to insure that the changes typify each individual’s developmental trajectory • Adjust design so that time period covers critical growth period • Insure that sufficient assessments are conducted to distinguish continuous from stage-like development

17. Evaluation: Strengths • Importance of cognition -- even for social content! • Process of thinking rather than content of thought • Wonderful descriptive framework • Wonderful descriptive framework • Always take into account developmental level

18. Evaluation: Weaknesses • Strong on developmental function; weak on IDs • Specific ages often erroneousa. When we think an event or a process occurs is in part a function of how we conduct the assessment! • Characteristics of stages gone awrya: • Coherence of stages: conservation problems not conservation problem....(Gertrude Stein) • Backsliding, • Training individuals at an age earlier than when the operation is to have developed • Universality (e.g., in moral development we have substantial cultural differences) • Description not explanation aKuhn, D. (1992). Cognitive development. In M.H. Bornstein & M.E. Lamb (Eds.) Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (3rd ed.) Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

19. Summary • What about Coffee & Cream? Answer tomorrow. • Piaget in all his glory • Next: Lect. #10: Peers I • Go in Peace!

20. What about Black & White Marbles? • Urn 1 contains 100 white marbles; Urn 2 100 black marbles. • Take 20 of the white marbles from Urn 1 and place them in Urn 2. Mix the marbles well. • Take 20 of the mixture of marbles in Urn 2 and place them in Urn 1 • The Question: • Is there more black marbles in Urn 1 than white marbles in Urn 2? • Is there more white marbles in Urn 2 than black marbles in Urn 1? • Is there is same number of white marbles in Urn 2 as black marbles in Urn !? • None of the above.