By : Ni Made Danisya Putri Utami, Guidance and Counseling, Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha
Humans are social creatures created with their own personalities. Personality itself is a unique and distinctive characteristic that distinguishes one individual from another. There are various factors that cause humans to have different personalities. So, it is important for us to know and understand the development of an individual’s personality, which can later provide significant benefits and relevance in various aspects of human life. Personality development is a complex area and encompasses many different aspects of human life, including physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development. To find out how personality development works, various theories have emerged that provide a conceptual framework to help explain and understand these processes. These theories try to explain how individuals grow, develop, and change throughout their lives. By understanding the foundations of this theory, researchers, professionals, and individuals can have a solid foundation for explaining and understanding variations in personality development. There are many famous figures who have contributed to developing theories of personality development, providing insight and a deep conceptual framework of how human personality develops over time. One of the theories that will be discussed this time is the theory of cognitive development proposed by Jean Piaget.
Jean Piaget was a biologist and psychologist who formulated theories that could explain the stages of development of cognitive abilities. The theory of cognitive development developed by Jean Piaget states that intelligence changes as children grow. A child’s cognitive development is not just about acquiring knowledge, but the child must also develop or build mentally. In this theory, Jean Piaget divided the stages of human cognitive development into 4 parts, namely sensory-motor stage that occurs from the age of 0-2 years. At this stage, babies learn about themselves and their world through developing senses such as touching, seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling the surrounding environment, as well as through motor activity – the development of physical movements and gross and fine motor skills. The sensory-motor stage marks the early period of cognitive development during which children begin to perceive the world around them through direct experience and physical interaction with the environment. This stage views child development holistically and understands that cognitive development is not separate from sensory and motor experiences. Next is the pre-operational stage which occurs at the age of 2-7 years. At this stage symbolic thinking begins to emerge, where children at this stage begin to use symbols such as words and pictures to represent objects and events in their world. At the end of the pre-operational stage, children will begin to develop a better understanding of their world and the ability to process information symbolically. Although there are still limitations in their thinking, developments at this stage form the basis for more complex thinking skills at the concrete operational and formal operational stages.
The third stage in Piaget’s theory is the concrete operational stage that occurs at the age of 7-11 years. Children at this stage begin to develop the ability to think logically and concretely. Piaget considered the concrete stage to be the main turning point in the cognitive development of the child, since it marked the beginning of logical thinking. The concrete operational stage provides the basis for higher cognitive development, and children at this stage begin to be able to handle information more systematically and logically. Although still limited to concrete understanding, children can demonstrate more complex thinking skills than in the pre-operational stage. The final stage of the theory is the formal operational stage that occurs at the age of 12 and lasts into adulthood. At this stage, they can think about ideas and concepts that are abstract and hypothetical. This stage reflects a higher level of cognitive maturity, during which individuals can think in a more complex and abstract manner. The formal operational stage is considered the highest achievement in Piaget’s theory, whereby the individual can open the door to a deeper understanding of the world and oneself.
From this explanation, we can know that the cognitive theory developed by Jean Piaget made a significant contribution in understanding human cognitive development, especially in children. Piaget’s theory is clearly very relevant in the process of cognitive development of children, because by using this theory, humans can find out the existence of certain stages of development in children’s thinking abilities at each level. In this theory, Piaget also emphasized the concept of adaptation, which involves two main processes: assimilation that occurs when individuals interpret new experiences based on existing cognitive frameworks, and accommodations that occur when individuals change their cognitive framework to accommodate new experiences. This theory helps to understand how the human mind develops from level to level and how experience and active exploration of the physical and social worlds play a key role in mind formation as well as understanding.
REFERENCES
Marinda, Leny. (2020). Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development and Its Problems in Primary School-Age Children. Journal of Women’s & Islamic Studies, 13(1).
Mu’min, S. A. (2013). Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Al-TA’DIB: Journal of Educational Studies, 6(1), 89-99.
Whildan, L. (2021). Analysis of the theory of the development of human cognition according to Jean Piaget. Gems: Journal of Islamic Education, 2(1), 11-22.
