My view of Jean Piaget's Stages

Jean Piaget (cognitive theorist)

Piaget’s Stages

1. Sensorimotor:

• Occurs from birth until age 2

1. Pre-operational: 

• occurs from ages 2-7
• beginning of symbolic thinking, language use and interaction with the world in an intuitive way. 
• egocentrism- child doesn’t appreciate different perspectives. 

1. Concrete Operational: 

• occurs from ages 7-11
• can perform operations; mental operations that are reversible.
• reasoning through problems from distinct; reasoning must be tied to concrete or physical things.
• are able to classify objects
• seriation 
• transituity can start to tell the difference between similar objects. Beginnings of conductive reasoning.

1. Formal Operational: 

• Ages 11-15 and continues into adulthood
• beginnings of hypothetical deductive reasoning 
• see a new form of egocentrism (adolescent egocentrism) child thinks everyone is as interested in them (the child) and their lives as the child is.

I see issues with Piaget's stages. The biggest problem I have Is that he doesn't take into account the many external factors that can effect children throughout these stages. For example the way they are raised can completely change the way they will move from one stage to the next. Another influence would be the culture in which they grow up in. Another problem is that some children will enter stages at different times and ages. Some might go into the stages in different orders as well. I like the flow that Piaget has throughout the stages and for the most part agree with him I just feel there are some problems that should have been addressed. As a consumer of information we will always find ways to critique input information. However, I feel the biggest problem with this theoretical model is the formal operational stage. It leaves so much room for people to fit into it. It says that it will continue on into adulthood, which is hypothetically ideal but not all will ever reach this stage. An so much of it can be determined upon how one views and understands this stage. What is true cognitive reasoning? What does it mean to be able to make deductive reasoning decisions? With the amount of issues that exist in our society to day I believe there are a lot of individuals who have not yet reached the full potential of this stage and may never do so.
Overall I think Piaget had a good theoretical model.

As a wise consumer how do I feel About the Alison Cameron Video Watched in Class

First off, I feel it is extremely important as an active member in today's society to think about the things we see and hear in the world around us. We shouldn't simply give in to the strategic advertising and 'skewed' information that is so readily available in the media. We need to be constructive, active interpreters so that we can make rational decisions based on information received.


In class we watched a documentary video by Alison Cameron. I will use this piece of material  how to try to be wise consumer of information.


This video spoke on how physical exercise in our schools can improve students grades significantly. 
The very first hesitation I had to this movie was that the topic of physical fitness and living a 'healthy' lifestyle is very popular in media today. The first thoughts that came to my mind is "well is this just another government funded project that is meant to sway me into wanting to live a more healthy lifestyle"? In know way is promoting health a bad thing, but being aware of what could potentially be the underlying motive behind research can prove important. The reason I say this is that if a consumer of knowledge we allow such institutions as the government to sway our thinking without being critical of it, we may fall into the trap of repeating it over and over again. That is a scary place to be because then in essence one is allowing someone else to run our lives.


The next hesitation I have is that the video only showed one study. We need to be very careful not to overgeneralize. The fear would be that I would make a conclusion based on this one study and it would skew every other study I watched or read after this point, because in my head this would be the 'written word'. Very closely aligned with this is the fear that this one study is the defining word and simply shutting down and never having an open mind in the future when it comes to this specific topic.


My last hesitation as a consumer of information is the authenticity of the source in which information comes from. Who is the author? What is their experience? Where are they from? Where have they been? These are all questions a wise consumer should be asking. 


As for this specific video, I have seen a lot of supporting evidence so I feel strongly that the information is valid and concrete. This is a decision I was able to make through the above steps.