5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2010-2011 Edition - Laura Lincoln Maitland [113]
Formal Operational (Fourth) Stage
According to Piaget, after about age 12, children reason like adults in the fourth stage, the formal operational stage. In this stage, youngsters are able to think abstractly and hypothetically. They can manipulate more information in their heads and make inferences they were unable to make during the previous stage. Teens are able to consider questions involving abstract concepts, such as truth and justice. Some believe that the ability to think abstractly decreases in older adults partially because these skills are not utilized as often.
Piaget emphasized that increases in reasoning skill over time were punctuated by shifts in perspective, which were qualitative from one stage to the next. For example, in moving from the preoperational stage to the concrete operational stage, children decenter their perspective from egocentric to taking other people’s perspectives. With more experience, concrete operational thinkers cognitively reorganize their thinking to become the abstract thinkers of the formal operational stage. Although psychologists agree with the sequence of cognitive development steps and milestones proposed by Piaget, critics fault him for not acknowledging that children go through the stages at different rates, often more quickly than he predicted, and for not understanding that change is more gradual and continuous.
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development
Whereas Piaget emphasized maturation (nature) and development in stages (discontinuity), Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky emphasized the role of the environment (nurture) and gradual growth (continuity) in intellectual functioning. Vygotsky thought that development proceeds mainly from the outside in by the process of internalization, absorbing information from a specified social environmental context. Children learn from observing the interactions of others and through their own interactions within the environment. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development assigns a significant role to mentors such as parents, teachers, and other students. A key concept is his zone of proximal development (ZPD), the range between the level at which a child can solve a problem working alone with difficulty, and the level at which a child can solve a problem with the assistance of adults or more-skilled children. Working close to the upper limit of a child’s capability, the instructor and child work closely together to reach that goal, and then through continued practice, the child is able to attain it more and more independently. When the goal is achieved without help, then that goal becomes the lower limit for a new ZPD. Both Piaget and Vygotsky have influenced the ways that teachers are trained to help children learn.
Cognitive Changes in Adults
Piaget did not study changes in cognition as adults age. Adult thought is frequently richer and more adaptive than adolescent thought. Middle-aged adults tend to reason more globally and make more rational decisions than younger people. Gerontologist Warner Schaie has found that while fluid intelligence—those abilities requiring speed or rapid learning—generally diminishes with aging, crystallized intelligence—learned knowledge and skills such as vocabulary—generally improves with age (at least through the 60s). In situations that access their skills and long-term memories, older adults may show superior functioning to younger people. Decline in mental abilities can be slowed if we stay healthy, live in a favorable