Genetic psychology: what it is and how it was developed by Jean Piaget

Genetic psychology is one of the fields of research promoted by Jean Piaget.

The name genetic psychology is probably unfamiliar to many, and it probably makes many people think of behavioral genetics, even though, as formulated by Piaget, this field of psychological study has little to do with heredity.

Genetic psychology focuses on ascertaining and describing the genesis of human thought throughout the development of the individual. development of the individual. Let's take a closer look at this concept.

Genetic psychology: what is it?

Genetic psychology is a psychological field that is responsible for investigating the processes of thought, its formation and its characteristics. It tries to see how mental functions develop as early as infancy, and seeks explanations that make sense of them. This psychological field was developed thanks to the contributions of Jean Piaget, a very important Swiss psychologist during the 20th century, especially with respect to constructivism.a very important Swiss psychologist during the 20th century, especially with respect to constructivism.

Piaget, from his constructivist perspective, postulated that all thought processes and individual characteristics of the mind are aspects that are formed throughout life. The factors that would influence the development of a particular thinking style and associated knowledge and intelligence would be, basically, all external influences that one receives during one's life.

The name genetic psychology may mislead one into thinking that it has something to do with the study of genes and DNA in general; however, it should be said that this field of study has little to do with Biological inheritance. This psychology is genetic in that it it deals with the genesis of mental processes, i.e., when, how and why the thoughts of human beings are formed.that is, when, how and why the thoughts of human beings are formed.

Jean Piaget as a reference

As we have already seen, the most representative figure within the concept of genetic psychology is Jean Piaget, who is considered, especially in developmental psychology, one of the most influential psychologists of all times, together with Freud and Skinner.

Piaget, after obtaining a doctorate in biology, began to study psychology in depth under the tutelage of Carl Jung and Eugen Bleuler. Some time later, he began working as a teacher in a school in France, where he had first-hand contact with the way in which children were developing cognitively, which led him to begin his study of developmental psychology.

While there, he was interested in understanding how thought processes were being formed in early childhood, and he was also interested in seeing what changes were occurring as a function of the infant's stage of development. to see what changes were occurring depending on the infant's stage of development and how this could have a long-term impact on adolescence and adulthood. and how this could have repercussions, in the very long term, in adolescence and adulthood.

Although his early studies went rather unnoticed, it was in the 1960s that he began to acquire greater prominence within the behavioral sciences and, in particular, in developmental psychology.

Piaget wanted to know how knowledge was formed and, more specifically, how it passed from childlike knowledge, in which simplistic explanations abound and are not very far from the 'here and now', to a more complex one, such as the adult one, in which abstract thinking has a place.

This psychologist was not a constructivist from the beginning.. When he started his research, he was exposed to multiple influences. Jung and Breuler, under whom he was tutored, were closer to psychoanalysis and eugenic theories, while the general trend in research was empiricist and rationalist, sometimes closer to behaviorism. However, Piaget knew how to extract what for him was the best of each branch, adopting an interactionist type of position.

Behaviorist psychology, led by Burrhus Frederic Skinner, was the current most defended by those who tried, from a scientific perspective, to describe human behavior. The most radical behaviorism defended that personality and mental capacities depended in a very relevant way on the external stimuli to which the person was exposed.

Although Piaget defended this idea in a partial way, he also considered aspects of rationalism, he also considered aspects of rationalism. The rationalists considered that the source of knowledge is based on our own reason, which is something more internal than what the empiricists defended and that is what makes us interpret the world in a very variable way.

Thus, Piaget opted for a vision in which he combined both the importance of the external aspects of the person and his own reason and ability to discern between what must be learned, as well as the way in which he learns that stimulus.

Piaget understood that the environment is the main cause of the intellectual development of each person, however, it is also important the way in which the person interacts with that same environment that makes him develop certain new knowledge.

Development of genetic psychology

Once his interactionist view of thinking was established, which ultimately became Piagetian constructivism as it is understood today, Piaget conducted research to clarify more precisely what intellectual development of children was, Piaget undertook research to clarify more precisely the intellectual development of children, both boys and girls..

At the beginning, the Swiss psychologist collected data in a similar way as in more traditional research, but he did not like this, and for this reason he decided to invent his own method to investigate children. Among them were naturalistic observation, the examination of clinical cases and psychometry..

As he had originally been in contact with psychoanalysis, in his time as a researcher he could not avoid using techniques from this stream of psychology; however, he later became aware of how little empirical the psychoanalytic method is.

On his way to trying to discern how human thought is generated throughout development and becoming more and more concrete about what he understood by genetic psychology, Piaget wrote a book in which he tried to capture each of his discoveries and expose the best way to approach the study of cognitive development in childhood: Language and Thought in Young Children..

The development of thought

Within genetic psychology, and thanks to Piaget, stages of cognitive development have been proposed, which allow us to understand the evolution of cognitive development in young children.which allow us to understand the evolution of children's mental structures.

These stages are the following, which we will approach very quickly and simply by highlighting the mental processes that stand out in each of them.

• Sensorimotor stage (from 0 to 4 years): The notion of space and time is acquired.
• Preoperational stage (2-7 years): Symbolic function of language and thought.
• Operational logic stage (7-11): ability to classify elements into groups.
• Formal logic stage (from age 11): hypothetico-deductive thinking.

How did Piaget understand knowledge?

For Piaget knowledge is not a static state, but an active process. The subject who tries to know a certain matter or aspect of reality changes according to what he is trying to know.. That is to say, there is an interaction between the subject and knowledge.

Empiricism defended an idea contrary to that of Piagetianism. Empiricists held that knowledge is rather a passive state, in which the subject incorporates knowledge from sensible experience, without having the need to intervene around him to acquire this new knowledge.

However, the empiricist vision does not allow us to reliably explain how the genesis of thought and new knowledge occurs in real life. An example of this is science, which is constantly advancing. It does not do so by passively observing the world, but by hypothesizing, reformulating arguments and testing methods, which vary according to the findings that are made.

Bibliographical references:

• Coll, C. and Martí, E. (2001). Learning and development: the genetic-cognitive conception of learning. In C. Coll, J. Palacios and A. Marchesi (Comps.), Desarrollo psicológico y educación. Psychology of school education. 2nd ed. (pp. 67-88). Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
• Piaget, J. (1947) La psychologie de l'intelligence. Paris: A. Colin. (English translation: La psicología de la inteligencia. Barcelona: Crítica, 1983).
• Jáuregui, C.A., Mora, C.A., Carrillo D.M. et al. (2016). Practical manual for children with learning difficulties. Latin America: Editorial médica panamericana.