PSYC 2110 Chapter 6: CHAPTER 6

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2110
• Professor: jodimartin

Document Summary

We know that the first years of a child"s life, up to age 6, form the most fundamental time in terms of brain development. Research in developmental psychology has been highly influenced by the work of jean piaget, who decided to investigate the origins of knowledge not as philosophers had through discussion and debate but by doing experiments with children. Piaget was different from other psychological theorists of his day primarily in that he thought of intelligent behavior as resulting from a child"s attempts to adapt to the environment. As a result, for piaget, children"s cognitive development arose out of constant interaction between their level of maturation and their experiences in the world. They constantly want to make sense of their experiences and, in the process, construct their understanding of the world. For piaget, children at all ages are like scientists: they create theories about how the world works.