Iqra Butt October 14 2010

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Biography/Essay

Jean Piaget The Giant of Psychology

Have you ever wondered the secrets of human knowledge hidden behind the cute and illogical notions of children? Jean Piaget was a pioneer Swiss philosopher and Psychologist who just didnt find these secrets but also unveiled for us a whole new chapter into the inner world of our minds. He was the most influential experimenter and theorist in the history of Developmental Psychology and the Study of Human Intelligence. Piaget had a simple point that children didnt think like adults but he wanted to know the answers to why it was like that. From there he started his research on Child Development which is honoured with great respect till this day. He spent his entire 75 year career listening to children, watching children, and understanding them and their behaviours. Along with devoting his life to children and research he developed several new fields of science. Jean Piaget was a giant in the field of Psychology and was the first to take Childrens thinking seriously. Jean Piaget was born on August 9th 1896 in Switzerland. He was the oldest child of Arthur Piaget who was a professor and historian and Rebbecca Jackson who was quite independent and had an interest for nature. But Jean found his mother a bit unstable and mentally challenged which he says led to his interest in this field of Psychology. In 1923, he married one of his research assistants named Valentine Chtenay. Together they had three children whom Piaget studied from infancy. They also became his

observations for his first book The Language and Thought of the Child in 1926. Jean Piaget died at the age of 84 on September 17th 1980 in his hometown due to unspecified causes. Known for his studies of how children learn, Jean Piaget was also sort of a scholar. He wrote more than 50 books and a huge number of articles and lectures. Piaget was so keen and intelligent as a child that at the age of eleven he wrote his first scientific paper on a sparrow that he had found. He also had an afterschool job at the local museum which lead him to write many articles on mullocks. When he was a teenager, he was first introduced to Philosophy and Epistemology by his godfather, Samuel Cornet. When he turned 22, he received a doctorate from the University of Neuchatel. Piaget also studied experimental Psychology in Zurich and along with that worked in Eugen Bleuterts Psychiatric clinic. With all of this he also studied logic and Psychopathology. It wasnt till 1920, during his work with Theodore Simon and Alfred Binet that Piagets career had become clear. Eventually Piaget became bored with what he was doing and instead became fascinated with his discovery that children of the same age often gave the same incorrect answers to questions. This indicated that there were differences in the reasoning of different ages. This event also marked the beginning of Piagets work on identifying changes in the way children thought and how they viewed the in different stages of development. In 1921, Piaget was offered to become the professor of Psychology at the University of Geneva. After his marriage he became the director of the International Centre of Epistemology.

He taught in many universities in Europe, and also got the chairmanship of the International Bureau of Education. Although Piaget retired from his post years before his death, Piaget continued to publish and conduct research. When thinking about contributions this man made to the world of science and Psychology the list is huge. By the last few years of his life, he had produced a huge amount of Literature on the different stages of Intellectual Development and Infancy through Adulthood. Along with that Piaget had did a lot of work on perceptual development and suggested that children play a more active role in creating their perceptions. Piaget also supported Albert Einsteins study of how children understand different scientific concepts. He solved the questions of Theoretical Epistemology and developed the Theory of Cognitive Development. He came up with the four stages of Development, Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational and Formal Operational. Many of Piagets work were questioned but still his contributions to development Psychology changed and totally altered the field in many ways. From Interactions with young people who could barely talk, this man began to discover the special logic and processes behind the innocent faces and behaviours of children. His educational influence on us was deep and persuasive. Piaget proved to the world the belief that looking carefully at how knowledge develops in children will clarify the nature of knowledge in general. Piaget's knowledge and contributions are known all over the world and are
still an inspiration in fields like psychology, sociology, education, epistemology,

economics and law and they will continue to be. Jean Piaget might not be as

great as Sigmund Freud or B.F. Skinner but his ideas and research was definitely longer lasting. Albert Einstein called his discoveries so simple only a genius could of thought of it. Who wouldnt agree with me that Jean Piaget was truly a genius who introduced us to a whole new world of Psychological Development and his ideas still remain the foundation of child Development.