By Cristina Matos Quiroz
Jean William Fritz Piaget Jackson was born on August 9, 1896, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, into a middle-class family. He grew up in an academic environment, acquiring from his father, a professor of medieval literature, a critical mindset and an interest in writing and living things. At just 10 years old, he sent his first article on the alpine sparrow to a local natural history magazine.
In 1918, he graduated with a bachelor’s and doctorate degree in Natural Sciences and began to take an interest in psychology and develop his theory on the nature of knowledge. This psychologist was particularly interested in the development of the mind in childhood and adolescence and developed one of the most important theories on child cognitive development.
In 1921, he published his first article on intelligence, after which he received an offer to work as director of the Rousseau Institute in Geneva. A year later, he participated in the Berlin Psychoanalysis Congress, where he had the opportunity to meet Freud in person.
Piaget married Valentine Châtenay in 1923, with whom he had three children. Fatherhood proved to be very enriching for him on a personal and professional level, as observing and analyzing his children’s growth and development led him to write his best-known work, the cognitive-evolutionary theory, in which he outlined the different stages of development and discussed his constructivist vision. Indeed, for Piaget, the learner is the main driver of their own learning. In other words, children assimilate information according to their own schemas, not exactly as it is presented to them, which means that knowledge is a construction, an elaboration that intermingles new information with what was already known. This point of view has marked a different way of understanding learning in the field of education.
For Piaget, the principles of logic begin to develop before language through the sensory and motor actions of the baby in interaction with its environment. He identifies different stages in the development of intelligence:
- The sensory-motor intelligence stage in infants precedes language and thought and focuses on the development of psychomotor skills.
- The stage of intuitive intelligence, spontaneous feelings, and social relationships of submission to adults. It lasts from ages 2 to 7. Children act out movements without executing them; it is a time of egocentrism and development through play. From age 4, they develop intuitive thinking.
- Between the ages of 7 and 12, logical thinking, concrete intellectual operations, and moral and social feelings begin to develop.
- During adolescence, between the ages of 12 and 15, abstract intellectual operations and hypothetical-deductive reasoning develop, personality is formed, and the stage of emotional and intellectual integration into society begins.
It should be noted that the age ranges proposed by Piaget are indicative, since each child has their own personal development and the pace of learning can vary from one child to another.
For Piaget, a child’s intellectual development is the result of their interaction with the environment in which they live, that is, their social and cultural life, rather than biological development and environmental influence. He also studied children’s moral development, noting that moral autonomy is acquired around the age of 7, when children begin to accept the rules they recognize as good and develop a sense of right and wrong and responsibility.
He held various teaching positions. In 1919, he moved to Paris to teach psychology and philosophy at the Sorbonne. In 1925, he became a professor of philosophy at the University of Neuchâtel, and in 1929, he became a professor of psychology and history of science at the University of Geneva. He also taught psychology and sociology at the University of Lausanne and in 1936 was appointed director of UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education.
Jean Piaget occupies one of the most important places in contemporary psychology and, without a doubt, the most prominent in the field of child psychology; He wrote numerous studies and books, including The Language and Thought in Children (1923), The Child’s Conception of the World (1926), The Origins of Intelligence in Children (1936), Memory and Intelligence (1968), and The Development of Thought (1975).
In 1950, Piaget developed genetic epistemology, in which he worked on cognitive structures and the evolutionary and historical changes in the relationship between consciousness and the environment. Five years later, he created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva, an institution he directed until his death.
Jean Piaget died on September 16, 1980, at the age of 84, in Geneva. He was a leading figure in the field of psychology because he had a profound and analytical view of children’s behavior, with the curiosity of a researcher who wanted to understand children’s logic. He left behind one of the most extensive legacies in psychology of the last century, but also made important contributions to the fields of philosophy, sociology, and biology.
Throughout his professional career, he received numerous international titles and awards, and the universities of Harvard, Paris, Brussels, and Rio de Janeiro awarded him the title of Doctor Honoris Causa.
Bibliografía:
Fernández, Tomás y Tamaro, Elena. «Biografía de Jean Piaget». En Biografías y Vidas. La enciclopedia biográfica en línea [Internet]. Barcelona, España, 2004. Disponible en https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/p/piaget.htm
Castillero Mimenza, Oscar. «Jean Piaget: biografía del padre de la Psicología Evolutiva». En Psicología y Mente. Biografías. [Internet]. Disponible en https://psicologiaymente.com/biografias/jean-piaget
Menéndez Martínez, Natalia. «Jean Piaget: biografía y resumen de sus aportes a la ciencia». En Biografías. Médicoplus [Internet]. Disponible en https://medicoplus.com/biografias/jean-piaget
