Description
The work of the Swiss psychologist/philosopher Jean Piaget on the development of human intelligence is regarded as a momentous contribution to psychology and social science, equal in scope and impact to that of Freud on personality development. Piaget's theories of cognitive growth and structure are based on more than fifty years of empirical research and experiment with children of al] ages, including his own three children from their infancy. Simply stated, his conception of intellectual growth is that "the child discovers conservation-permanence across apparent change-with the aid of reason. It is by reasoning about his experience that the child is able to overcome illusions and discover how things really are. The simplicity of this conclusion should not detract from its significance or from its radical opposition to prevalent views about the growth of intelligence. Piaget is arguing that knowledge about reality is not attributable entirely to experience (the action of things upon us) but also to reason (our mental actions upon things)." The author first presents the basic Piagetian concepts-assimilation, accommodation, equilibration, cognitive structures, mental operations, and schema. He then describes the periods into which Piaget's work falls and outlines the stages of intelligence development as Piaget understands them. Of eleven essays, some are concerned with interpreting the main ideas and findings of Piaget's work for a general audience; others deal with the implications of his ideas for child rearing, education, and clinical practice.
