Biography
Swiss researcher and philosopher Jean Piaget lived 84 years old, 73 of whom dedicated to science. His bibliography has over 60 books and hundreds of articles, most of which are devoted to the intellect and psychology of children, their cognitive development. In the process of research, the Piaget brought the term egocentrism and created a clinical conversation method.Childhood and youth
Jean William Fritz Piaget was born on August 9, 1896 in Neuzhetel, the French-speaking region of Switzerland. He is the firstborn of the professor of medieval literature Arthur Piaget, according to the nationality of the Swiss, and French Rebecca Jackson.
Piaget early matured: Having mastered the skill of reading, the boy took up not for fairy tales or novels about knights, but for textbooks on biology. His interest in zoology resulted in several articles about the nature of mollusks. The first was released at 11 years old. Already by the 15 years, Piaget has heard an experienced specialist in Malacology.
In the student years, Piaget became interested in epistemology - science on knowledge, its structure and development. Ideas In this area, young talent has developed during training at the universities of Neuncer and Zurich. He released two philosophical labor, which himself refuted, calling "boyish".
Psychology
Having received a diploma of the doctor of philosophy in Neuchatel in 1918, Piaget moved to France. This is a turning event in the biography of the researcher, since here, at school for boys Grange-Aux-Belles Street, the psychologist first noted the features of the child's thinking.The school principal was Alfred Bina, one of the IQ test practitioners. Checking the answers together with Bina, the Piaget noticed that the pupils of the younger group do not answer questions that do not cause difficulties from the older guys, although the mechanics of tasks are similar to the rest. So Piaget realized that the mental processes of children differ from the processes of adults. This idea is now known in psychology as a theory of cognitive development.
Piage-philosopher finally turned to psychology in 1922, when he became director of the Academy of Geneva. The next 58 years he studied the sociological, biological and logical stage of development of intelligence and thinking of children.
Piaget believed that the child would know the world in the 3 stages. The first, from birth to 2 years old, - egocentrism, that is, "I am the whole world." The second, from 2 to 11 years old, - animism, that is, "I am alive, and everything is too living around me." The third, after 11 years, is the artificialism, when the child distinguishes animation and inanimate.
These stages of the Piaget brought the clinical conversation method: he began a conversation with a typical question, and then depending on the child's answer volunteered. In the conversation, the researcher used props: photos, objects and even people.
From birth to 2 years old, the baby realizes itself to the center of the world, guided by the principle of "I do what I want." He does not know how to put himself in place of another. From 2-3 years there is a merger of the principle "I do what I want" with the principle "I do what I should". A considerable role in this is played by adults, who, from the point of view of the child, forcing him to one or another action, for example, learn to walk or talk.
As a rule, until 11-12 years old, the child does not know how to accept someone else's point of view. Attempts to inspire him their egocentric concept of the world turn around the quarrel. Then the child goes into the stage of objective perception of the world. It is formed until death. Formulated piaget mental models of the behavior of children of different ages correspond to intellectual, linguistic and mental models.
The theory of Jean Piaget violently challenged Lion Vygotsky. The Russian researcher argued that the development of children depends on the surrounding social environment, so it is impossible to equate all for one. Other thinkers of the Swiss vinyl for the fact that he did not take into account in his classification such individual indicators as the speed of information processing and memory. After all, they also explain why some people develop faster than others.
Despite criticism, Piaget made a significant contribution to science. His theory of cognitive development is now used in studies on the topic of primatology, artificial intelligence, evolution, child psychology, philosophy, etc.
Personal life
In 1923, Valentin Shatenau became his wife Jean Piaget. They had three children who became a "subject" psychologist.
The spouses did not affect the personal life of the spouses, Valentine watched the openings of her husband, because he was his student and a sequence of cognitive development theory.
Death
Jean Piaget died on September 16, 1980. The cause of death is natural: the psychologist met the 84th birthday. Burning on the cemetery of kings in Geneva, according to the will of the deceased, in an unnamed family grave.Bibliography
- 1923 - "Language and the thought of the child"
- 1928 - "The concept of the child's world"
- 1932 - "Moral judgment about a child"
- 1950 - "Intellect Psychology"
- 1952 - "The origin of the intellect in the child"
- 1954 - "The emergence of a child's reality"
- 1958 - "Development of logical thinking: from childhood to youth"
- 1962 - "Games, dreams and imitation in childhood"
- 1962 - "Child Psychology"