Piaget Stage Theory
The project is based on Piaget`s stage theory of cognitive
development
Prediction Based on Piaget`s theory, children during the pre
- operational stage
have acquired the ability to stand apart and view
themselves from another person`s
perspective. They are able to describe
themselves as different from other
children by listing their unique
characteristics, especially the fact that their
names are different. They
develop a more complex understanding of themselves,
such as age, name, family
etc.. During the same stage children become aware of
and use gender as a
dimension by which to classify people. Once children become
aware of their
own sex, they learn to label themselves as boy or girl. Early
childhood is
the time when children start to learn family values, and become a
cooperative
part of the family with their own responsibilities. They spend
countless
hours of play and other activities with their siblings. Although
young
children may use words reflecting an understanding of time, such as
minute,
hour, day, or week, they still confuse the concept of time and space.
Based on
Piaget`s theory, I believe that the interviewed children will
know their age,
name, gender, and their siblings. I do not expect to know
their exact birthday
and address because it is still too abstract for them.
Furthermore, I do not
expect that the background/culture is influencing the
children`s answers to my
questions. I believe that all four tested children
do understand and are able to
answer my questions. Methods Interviewing four
children from different
backgrounds was the method use to assess the
children`s cognitive development.
The four-year-old identical twin girls
were interviewed in the living room of
their parents` house. Each girl was
interviewed separately. The five-year-old
German boy was interviewed by
phone, and the six year old Asian - American boy
was interviewed at the
neighborhood playground. Each interview took
approximately 10 minutes. Hanna:
4 years old, female, white, American, has an
identically twin sister and a
younger sister. Emma: 4 years old, female, white,
American, Hanna`s twin.
Hanna and Emma are not going to school yet. They are
staying with a nanny and
their younger sister at home, while both parents are
working. Max - Raphael:
5 years old, male, white, German, youngest of three
children, parents are
divorced, living with mother and older sisters, no contact
with father,
staying home with mother. Timothy: 6 years old, Asian - American,
oldest of
two boys, bilingual, living with both parents, going to a
private
Christian school. Questionnaire: 1. Name: Tell me your name. If
child gave only
the first name: What is the rest of it? 2. Age: How old are
you? If fingers
shown: How many does that make? If still no answer, let the
child count fingers.
3. Sex/Gender: Are you a boy or a girl? 4. Siblings:
Do you have any brothers
and / or sisters? What are their names? How old are
they? 5. Birthday: When is
your birthday? 6. Address: Where are you living?
What is your address? Results
Hanna and Emma were both able to give me
their names immediately. They also knew
their age, gender, and they were able
to name and give me the age of their
sister. However, they did not know their
address or birthday. I did not have to
tease the answer out bit by bit. They
were ready to give me a concrete answer.
The answers I got from both were
short and specific. Max - Raphael knew his
name, age, sex, and was able to
name and give the age of his sisters. He, like
Hanna and Emma, did not
know his address and birthday. Max - Raphael gave me his
age, gender, and his
sisters' name and age immediately, but I had to ask him
about his surname.
Timothy could answer every question. His answers were
concrete and given
readily. I did not have to tease any question out of him. The
results support
my prediction in most points. All children were able to give me
their age,
gender, sex, and the name and age of their siblings. I was not too
sure if
Timothy would be able to give me his correct birthday and address,
although
he is already attending school. Discussion The study is only based on
four
pre - operational children but the results show that there are no
major
differences cross - culturally in the children`s knowledge and
experience. The
five-year-old German boy knew as much as the four-year-old
American girls. The
fact that the six year old Asian - American was able to
give me his address and
birthday might be due to the fact that he is the only
one in the study who is
already attending school. It is also possible that
the parents of the three
other children never thought it is necessary to
teach them the address because
the children are not yet leaving home
unattended, and are spending most of their
time at home. Knowing the address
becomes more an issue when children are
attending school because it is the
first time when they are more or less on
their own, without their parents.
For children in school, knowing their birthday
and address becomes more
important because of the interaction and socializing
with a lot of other
children; for example, many schools celebrate birthdays. I
doubt that
children in the pre - operational stage, especially if they are not
attending
school, understand the concept of age because they emphasize too much
on
visual inputs, they confuse age with height. Piaget said, physical time
of
young children is at first nothing other than egocentric time, the
projection of
inner time into external objects based on their egocentrism.
Furthermore, age
and numbers are related to logic and pre - operational
children do not think in
logical terms. Although the interviewed children
knew their age, most likely
because their parents told them though, they
would, in my opinion, fail to
answer questions like: how old are you going to
be in two years, or how old were
you last year? One reason for failing to
answer these questions might be the
lack of memory. The children cannot, are
not able to think backwards, for
example they are not able to solve the
conservation test. Children in the pre -
operational stage are also not able
to plan or think about the future. Moreover,
children do not internalize
events by the real order of time. Events are linked
together on the basis of
personal interests. Children project inner time to
external objects, and they
confuse age with height (age is equivalent to
growing), as Piaget concluded.
Although children might not understand the
concept of age, it is till
possible for them to know it because other people
focus a lot on it. The
first questions are always about the name and age. The
easiest way to
classify people is to put them into categories by their age,
gender, and
name. I am not surprised that these results show a culturally
universal
ability to answer my questions because all questions were within the
realm of
the child`s immediate knowledge and experience; at least for
Western
Cultures which emphasize on questions about the name, age,
gender, and family.
In Western Cultures the knowledge about these things
is an important part of one`s
own concept of self. It is amazing to look back
over these short interviews to
see how fully the children have revealed
themselves. Some children had their
answers at their tongue`s tip, ready to
give, whereas with others some items had
to be teased out bit by bit. It is
also amazing to see that the development is
cross - culturally universal,
that a child in Germany knows as much as the child
at a similar age in
America. I suggest further testing on questions like: Do
schools contribute
to children`s cognitive development? Do pre - operational
children understand
the concept of age? Does bilingualism have influence on
cognitive abilities?
Does gender influence cognitive abilities or skills, is
there a difference
between girls and boys? (Is there a difference in
cognitive development /
abilities between children in highly industrialized
societies versus
nonindustrialized societies?
Bibliography
Gormly, Anne. Lifespan
Human Development, Sixth edition: pp. 168 - 184 and
206 - 213. Piaget,
Jean. The Conception of Age, Basic Books, Inc., New York,
1969 Chapter
III, Age and Inner Time, pp. 197 - 229 Bee, Helen. The Developing
Child,
9th Edition, Allen and Bacon, pp.164 - 193 Dasen, Pierre R.
Piagetian
Psychology - Cross - Cultural Contributions, Gardner Press,
Inc. New York, 1977