Personality Lecture 10: Piaget / Constructivism (Spring 2024)

This lecture outlines Piaget's genetic epistemology, explaining how patterned relationships can combine into increasingly abstract structured systems. He referred to his theory as constructivism and suggested that construction refers to the creation of a structure (schema) through ongoing cognitive processes. This is due to assimilation (taking-in environmental factors) and accommodation (remodifying behavior due to experience). A reciprocal influence leads to equilibration. In a psychologically healthy individual, when assimilation brings about a disequilibration, the organism is motivated to bring accommodation into play to thereby achieve a new level of equilibrium. This balancing process results in learning, including in the development of personality.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of mental development. These are the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage.