I.

Biography
Jean Piaget was a 20th century psychologist and theoretician best known for his creation of the
developmental stages of children.

II. Personal Life

Jean William Fritz Piaget was born in Neuchatal, Switzerland in 1896. He studied zoology at the
University of Neuchatel and received his doctorate in 1918. Next, he studied psychology in
Zurich briefly, and he spent two years at the Sorbonne in Paris studying the philosophy of
science, logic, and abnormal psychology. While in Paris, Piaget worked with Theodore Simon
and Alfred Binet, evaluating responses to an intelligence test Binet and Simon had developed
for children. Piaget recognized that some of the errors were consistent among children of the
same age, and he began to consider the possibility that younger children possessed different
cognitive processes than older children or adults.
In 1921, he was hired as director of research for the Jean Jacques Rousseau Institute in
Geneva. Eventually, he became co-director of the institute. Piaget became a professor of
philosophy in 1925 at the University of Neuchatel, a professor of the history of scientific thought
in 1929, and professor of experimental psychology in 1940 at the University of Geneva. From
1952–1963, Piaget taught child psychology at the Sorbonne. He also directed Geneva’s Centre
International de l'Épistémologie Génétique from 1955–1980.
Piaget married Valentine Chatenay. The couple had three children, each of whom Piaget used in
his experiments. He died in 1980.

https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/jean-piaget.html
Harwood, R. L., Miller, S. A., Vasta, R., & Ellis, S. (2008). Child psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Mays, Wolfe. (2006). Jean Piaget. Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from

http://www.gale.cengage.com/InContext/bio.htm.

Whitman, A. (1980, Sep 17). Jean Piaget Dies in Geneva at 84. New York Times. Retrieved
from http://search.proquest.com/docview/423982153?accountid=1229

III. Works
Schemas
Piaget suggested that children sort the knowledge they acquire through their experiences and
interactions into groupings known as schemas. When new information is acquired, it can either
be assimilated into existing schemas or accommodated through revising an existing schema or
creating an entirely new category of information.

Stages of Cognitive Development

Today, Jean Piaget is best known for his research on children's cognitive development. Piaget
studied the intellectual development of his own three children and created a theory that
described the stages that children pass through in the development of intelligence and formal
thought processes.
The four stages of Piaget's theory are as follows:

* Sensorimotor stage: The first stage of development lasts from birth to approximately age 2. At
this point in development, children know the world primarily through their senses and
movements.
* Preoperational stage: The second stage of development lasts from the ages of 2 to 7 and is
characterized by the development of language and the emergence of symbolic play.
* Concrete operational stage: The third stage of cognitive development lasts from the age of 7 to
approximately age 11. At this point, logical thought emerges, but children still struggle with
abstract and theoretical thinking.
* Formal operational stage: In the fourth and final stage of cognitive development, lasting from
age 12 and into adulthood, children become much more adept at abstract thought and
deductive reasoning

Piaget's Contributions to Psychology

Piaget contributed to psychology in various ways. He provided support for the idea that children
think differently than adults and his research identified several important milestones in the
mental development of children. His work also generated interest in cognitive and
developmental psychology.
For two decades, from the early 1960s to the early 1980s, Piagetian theory and Piaget's
research findings dominated developmental psychology worldwide, much as Freud's ideas had
dominated abnormal psychology a generation before. Almost single-handedly, he shifted the
focus of developmental research away from its traditional concerns with social and emotional
development and toward cognitive development."6

MSEd, K. C. (2022, November 2). Jean Piaget Biography (1896-1980). Verywell Mind.
https://www.verywellmind.com/jean-piaget-biography-1896-1980-2795549

IV. Appointments
Appointments
* 1921-1925 - Research Director, Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Geneva
* 1925-1929 - Professor of Psychology, Sociology and the Philosophy of Science, University of
Neuchâtel
* 1929-1939 - Professor of the History of Scientific Thought, University of Geneva
* 1929-1967 - Director, International Bureau of Education, Geneva
* 1932-1971 - Director, Institute of Educational Sciences, University of Geneva
* 1938-1951 - Professor of Experimental Psychology and Sociology, University of Lausanne
* 1939-1951 - Professor of Sociology, University of Geneva
* 1940-1971 - Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Geneva
* 1952-1964 - Professor of Genetic Psychology, Sorbonne, Paris
* 1955-1980 - Director, International Centre for Genetic Epistemology, Geneva
* 1971-1980 - Emeritus Professor, University of Geneva
Jean Piaget. (2022, November 21). https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35446