Piaget's theory of cognitive development: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:20, 22 November 2023

Revision as of 11:21, 22 November 2023

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Piaget agreed with most other developmental psychologists in that there are three very important factors that are attributed to development: maturation, experience, and the social environment. But where his theory differs involves his addition of a fourth factor, equilibration, which "refers to the organism's attempt to keep its cognitive schemes in balance".<ref>{{Citation |last1=Bjorklund |first1=David F. |last2=Causey |first2=Kayla B. |year=2018 |section=Social construction of mind |title=Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences |edition=6th |pages=65-91 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |isbn=978-1506334356}}</ref>

<ref>{{Citation |last1=Bjorklund |first1=David F. |last2=Causey |first2=Kayla B. |year=2018 |section=Thinking in symbols |title=Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences |edition=6th |pages=147-198 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |isbn=978-1506334356}}</ref>

<ref>{{Citation |last=Miller |first=Brittany |date=June 2020 |title=Do Children Learn on Their Own or With Others? |work=You Don’t Say? Developmental Science Offers Answers to Questions About How Nurture Matters, Chapter 17 |publisher=Presswords}}</ref>. Also see Piaget (1977),<ref>{{Citation |last=Piaget |first=Jean |year=1977 |title=The Development of Thought: Equilibration of Cognitive Structures |publisher=University of California}}</ref> and Boom's detailed account.<ref>{{Citation |last=Boom |first=J. |year=2009 |title=Piaget on Equilibration |work=The Cambridge Companion to Piaget, Chapter 6 |pages=132-149 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CCOL9780521898584.006}}</ref>

Equilibration is the motivational element that guides cognitive development. As humans, we have a biological need to make sense of the things we encounter in every aspect of our world in order to muster a greater understanding of it, and therefore, to flourish in it. This is where the concept of equilibration comes into play. If a child is confronted with information that does not fit into his or her previously held schemes, disequilibrium is said to occur. This, as one would imagine, is unsatisfactory to the child, so he or she will try to fix it. The incongruence will be fixed in one of three ways. The child will either ignore the newly discovered information, assimilate the information into a preexisting scheme, or accommodate the information by modifying a different scheme. Using any of these methods will return the child to a state of equilibrium, however, depending on the information being presented to the child, that state of equilibrium is not likely to be permanent.