Gabrielle Raichle

Ms. Murray

AP Psychology

27 January 2021

Cognitive Development Theory Reflection

Piaget’s Cognitive Theory of Development is quite accurate. Piaget’s theory is the idea that

children think differently than adults do. While most people can deduce this from observing

society, Piaget’s theory paved the way for many other theories and ideas. His theory divided a

child’s life into four separate categories: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational and

Formal Operational. Each of these subcategories had their own aspects and drawbacks.

I believe that Piaget’s Theory has both positive and negative aspects. One of the negatives of the

Theory is the way that Piaget presents a child’s way of thinking. The way that Piaget describes a

child’s thinking is way more consistent than the actual way a child thinks. Another one of the

negative aspects was that Piaget was better at describing the processes rather than explaining

how they operate. This is important because it is difficult for a person to observe a child and

monitor their cognitive development if they aren’t completely sure exactly what they are looking

for. One of the positive aspects in Piaget’s Theory is that he was able to accurately plan out the

stages of major cognitive development in life. This is extremely helpful because a parent or

guardian is able to observe their child and be able to see if their child is on track for cognitive

development or if they should contact a professional to possibly fix the issue before it evolves

into a detrimental problem later in life. Piaget was, and still is, a significant psychologist. Many

of his theories allowed development in other theories and plated seeds for other psychologists to

analyze the brain further and to learn and teach more about the human brain.