Developmental Profile #1
Children 0-2 Years Old
Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory
Swiss Theorist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of the most influential researchers in the area of developmental psychology during the 20th century. Piaget originally trained in the areas of biology and philosophy and considered himself a "genetic epistemologist." He was mainly interested in the biological influences on "how we come to know." He believed that what distinguishes human beings from other animals is our ability to do "abstract symbolic reasoning." Piaget was interested in how an organism adapts to its environment. Behavior is controlled through mental organizations called schemes that the individual uses to represent the world and designate action. This adaptation is driven by a biological drive to obtain balance between schemes and the environment.
Piaget hypothesized that infants are born with schemes operating at birth that he called "reflexes." In other......
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