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Educational Psychology

Development of the Individual
Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson and Kohlberg
Piaget
Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland in 1896. His interest in cognitive development came from his training in the natural sciences. Piaget was very interested in knowledge and how children come to know their world. He developed his cognitive theory by actually observing children (some of whom were his own children). He believed that every human being is endowed or burdened with unique characteristics that distinguish him or her from all other people. Those characteristics influence the ways in which the individual confronts challenges and responds to external pressures such as instruction. Although there are many variations in the ways that people, including youngsters in school, react to circumstances and interpret and acquire information, there are also many similarities. The similarities manifest themselves among human beings in the same stage of development.
In Piaget's view, heredity, environment, and maturation – the process of growing up – all interact in the development of intelligence. Children, and adults, strive continually to adapt to their environments. Adaptation, Piaget believes, represents a never –ending attempt to achieve a state of equilibrium or balance between individual and environment. Piaget calls that the equilibration factor. An example of equilibration: feeling energetic on a bright spring afternoon, you toss a ball, go jogging or bike-riding, or play some fast sets of tennis to work off the surplus energy; tired or sleepy, you read in the shade of a tree or take a nap to restore your energy. Because none of us is ever static, a perfect, continuing balance remains beyond our reach; but Piaget's view we keep trying for it.
Achievement of equilibrium even briefly involves, Piaget says, two processes that he calls assimilation and accommodation, which are essential to mental growth. Each of us has what psychologists describe as a cognitive...