Piaget's Cognitive Analysis

“As children develop they acquire metal representations or frameworks that are used for understanding and dealing with the world and for thinking about and solving problems” (Geller, 2015, p. 156). This idea was created by Jean Piaget, a Swiss Psychologist from the 1900s. Jean Piaget’s work was originated from observing children’s behaviors, and later came to a conclusion that children’s sequence of development fell into four universal stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor (birth – 2 years), preoperational (2-7 years), concrete operational (7-11 years), and formal operational (11 years and over). Another theory that closely resembles Piaget’s work was created by Mary Ainsworth, which explored the attachment groups of children. These …show more content…
165). The sensorimotor period within Piaget’s theory is the most similar to Ainsworth theory of secure attachment. The sensorimotor period usually occurs in the first two years of life, and involves three major distinct features such as object permanence, deferred imitation, and rudimentary symbolic thinking. The most important aspect of this period is object permanence, which is the realization that objects do not cease to exist when they are out of sight (Geller, 2015, p. 165). Object Permanence in the sensorimotor stage can directly correlate with the secure attachment field in the Ainsworth’s theory. Secure attachment is very similar to object permanence in the example of the game peekaboo. In the game peekaboo, the babies are often confused whether or not the adult actually left the infant by itself. Secure attachment is related to this because some babies do not understand that the adult or the mother did not actually leave and will throw a tantrum and cry until the mother returns to them (Geller, 2015, p. 174). The infant with secure attachment is able to grow the most cognitively because of the nature and nurture of the mother, unlike those with avoidant attachment, where the mother pays no attention to the infant at all which is a lot like the last stage of the Ainsworth’s theory involving disoriented

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