Quotes About Development

The reflexes of interest to Piaget are distinguished from simple reflexes (e.g., sneezing reflex) in that they change as a result of experience and thus have a history (OI, p. 40).

Contemporary causal representational approaches to infant development, such as Baillargeon's, represent, in this respect, a step backward because they ignore epistemological questions and are unaware of their own epistemological commitments.

Organs are supple and capable of adapting to different situations and domains. Finally, they are open to development, and this is precisely what "stable systems" (Case, 1992a, p. 5) are not. But organs are much more complex than such systems, and it is much more difficult to understand them.

Piaget's third way (i.e., alternative to empiricism and nativism) is that knowledge develops through the child's actions on the world. In addition, knowledge is always tied to a particular framework (see Chapter 3, this volume), a paradigm case of which are the structures that emerge as any knowing subject interacts with the world.

for example, in grasping a new toy, this toy is assimilated to the grasping scheme, the toy attains the functional meaning of being "graspable.

As a biologist, Piaget considered cognitive development to be part of a much more general tendency of living systems to grow, change, improve and maintain themselves.

Piaget, J. (1985). The equilibration of cognitive structures: The central problem of intellectual development. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published in 1975)

Piaget, J. (2001). Studies in reflecting abstraction. Hove: Psychology Press. (Original work published in 1977)

Piaget, J., & Garcia, R. (1989). Psychogenesis and the history of science. New York: Columbia University Press. (Original work published in 1983)

the relevance of epistemology for the study of psychology and psychological development is that epistemological assumptions often remain tacit. Practically, this amounts to many psychologists basing their theories on assumptions that originate in the empiricist tradition (Piaget, 1970/1972a, p. 10).

Needs themselves are not static but become more complex with the differentiation and integration of sensorimotor schemes (OI, p. 170).

During this substage, infants start to reciprocally assimilate or coordinate two different schemes. For example, infants grasp what they are seeing, and they move in front of their eyes what they are grasping.

According to Piaget, infants' reactions to the bottle or other stimuli cannot be explained by external stimulus-response relations because the stimuli have a meaning for the infants to begin with; without this meaning, it would not be possible to explain why these stimuli become relevant or how the associations could be confirmed or strengthened (OI, p. 127).

Boom, J. (2004). Individualism and collectivism: A dynamic systems interpretation of Piaget's interactionism. In J. I. Carpendale & U. Müller (Eds.), Social interaction and the development of knowledge: Critical evaluation of Piaget's contribution (pp. 67–85). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Chapman, M. (1988). Constructive evolution: Origins and development of Piaget's thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapman, M. (1992). Equilibration and the dialectics of organization. In H. Beilin & P. B. Pufall (Eds.), Piaget's theory: Prospects and possibilities (pp. 39–59). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Unlike Kant, for whom normative categories are a priori and fully formed in their use, for Piaget any framework has a formation in time through its serial use; that is, human development is the successive replacement of frameworks, from simple to complex (Smith, 2006, 2009).

In contrast to primary circular reactions, secondary circular reactions are centered on the effect that infants' actions – often by chance – produce in the external world. Essentially, secondary circular reactions aim at reproducing the effect by repeating the action that generated this effect in the first place.

For Piaget, the differentiation and coordination of sensorimotor schemes leads to the construction of increasingly complex relations between objects in the world (OI, p. 211).

The completion of sensorimotor development leads to a Copernican revolution (Piaget, 1970/1972a, p. 21; see Smith, 1987) in the sense that, for the infant, his own action is no longer the whole of reality and instead now becomes "one object among others in a space containing them all; and actions are related together through being coordinated by a subject who begins to be aware of himself as the source of actions" (Piaget, 1970/1972a, pp.

Piaget's account of equilibration is not only crucial for understanding his approach, it also sets his theory apart from most other theories concerning cognitive development.

Social equality is not a subject to be legislated upon, nor shall I ask that anything be done to advance the social status of the colored man, except to give him a fair chance to develop what there is good in him, give him access to the schools, and when he travels let him feel assured that his conduct will regulate the treatment and fare he will receive.

I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.

T]he full and complete development of a country, the welfare of the world and the cause of peace require the maximum participation of women on equal terms with men in all fields." [ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979)]

A half-baked idea is okay as long as it's in the oven.