Jean Piaget's Theory Of Genetic Epistemology

Jean Piaget has held a fascination for me since first learning about him in my developmental psychology class. Piaget’s tireless journey to figure out how knowledge grows is a fascinating one. In the interest of obtaining a greater understanding for Piaget’s theories as well as the processes behind those theories, we must first look at Piaget’s Theory of Genetic Epistemology. Piaget’s theory of Genetic Epistemology, as well as the criticism of his theory, will be the focus of this paper.

Jean was born in Switzerland on August 9, 1896 (Smith, 1997). Jean began volunteering at the Neuchâtel Museum of Natural History at the age of 10. While volunteering at the museum, the director took Jean on as his assistant and apprentice, “paying Jean for his work by giving him rare specimens of mollusks for his personal collection” (Plucker, 2003). Jean exhibited evidence of his brilliant mind at the tender age of 11, when he wrote a short paper on the albino sparrow (Smith, 1997). In fact, as stated in the brief biography of Jean Piaget displayed on the Jean Piaget Society, “The short paper is considered as the beginning of a brilliant scientific career made of over sixty books and several hundred articles” (Smith, 1997). During his adolescence, Piaget’s interest in mollusks had “developed to the point that he became a well-known malacologist by the time he entered into finishing school” (Plucker, 2003). In fact, “Piaget’s doctoral thesis, written at the age of 21, was written on the classification of mollusks” (Plucker, 2003).

After completing his Ph.D., “Piaget showed promise while studying psychoanalysis, but choose to work instead in standardizing reasoning tests on children” (Plucker, 2003). During his work, Piaget noticed that ch...

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...e was extremely intelligent, and I admire the dedication to his research.

Works Cited

Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2003). Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved April 28th 2011from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cogsys/piaget.html

McLeod, S.A.(2007). Simply Psychology. Retrived April 29th 2011, from http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Plucker, J. A. (Ed.). (2003). Human intelligence: Historical influences, current controversies, teaching resources. Retrieved April 30th 2011, from http://www.indiana.edu/~intell

Smith, L. (1997) Jean Piaget Society: Society for the Study of Knowledge and Development. Retrived April 30th 2011 from http://piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html

Thio, Alex. (2009). Sociology: A Brief Introduction. Seventh ed. Allyn and Baycon.