Jean Piaget: biography of the father of developmental psychology.

This researcher is one of the main referents in the history of psychology.

Probably no one is surprised by the idea that we are not born with the same mental capacities that we have in adulthood. The ability to understand the world, to take into account that objects and people continue to exist even though we cannot see them, to attribute intention and a mind of our own to others, to capture and interpret information from the environment, to elaborate plans for solutions or to establish hypotheses is something that requires a process of maturational development and learning, with both biology and experience being involved in its emergence.

Many authors have investigated how different skills and mental abilities emerge throughout life, Jean Piaget being one of the most influential and important examples of recent times in the study of cognitive development. It is about this author that we are going to talk in this article, making a brief biography of Jean Piaget..

Brief biography of Jean Piaget

Jean William Fritz Piaget Jackson was born on August 9, 1896 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was the first-born son of Arthur Piaget, professor of medieval literature, and Rebecca Jackson, daughter of the owner of the first crucible steel factory in France.

His childhood was spent in an academic environment, acquiring and learning from his father a critical and analytical mindset as well as a taste for writing and a fascination for living beings.. On the other hand, his relationship with his mother was apparently neither easy nor positive.

Already from childhood Piaget showed signs of a certain precocity, showing a great interest in mechanics, ornithology, mollusks and biology in general. He entered the local Latin Institute. While attending high school at the age of ten, he would write and submit an article on the alpine sparrow to a local natural history magazine, this being his first contribution and publication.This was his first scientific contribution and publication.

After that and during his adolescence, he would awaken in the young man a great interest in zoology and mollusks. He would come into contact with Paul Godel, director of the Museum of Natural History, to whom he would become an assistant for four years, after which he published several articles on malacology. His publications led him to be offered a position at the Museum of Natural History in Geneva, which he was unable to fill due to his young age (he had not yet completed his schooling).which he was unable to fill due to his young age (he had not yet completed his schooling).

Formative years

After finishing his secondary education, Piaget began studying at the University of Neuchâtel, graduating with a degree in Natural Sciences and obtaining his doctorate in 1918 with a thesis on malacology.

After that, he decided to study at the University of Zurichwhere he studied for a semester and began to acquire an interest in psychology through the works of Freud and Jung. He began to work in psychology laboratories in that city and would even publish two publications on the subject.

Connection with child psychology

During that same year 1919 Piaget moved to Paris as a professor of psychology and philosophy at the Sorbonne, meeting and working with many important psychologists such as Binet and Bleuler. and working with many important psychologists such as Binet and Bleuler.. He would also enter to work in a school directed by Binet and Simon as a teacher, in Grange-aux-Belles. There he would begin to notice differences between the response patterns of adults and children, something that would lead him to think about the existence of different processes attributable to certain evolutionary moments.

Shortly afterwards, in 1920, he was part of the group that perfected Stern's intelligence test, detecting consistent errors in children's responses. Together with Theodore Simon, he would begin to explore children's intelligence and reasoning..

During 1921 he published his first article on intelligence, which led to an offer to work as director of the Rousseau Institute in Geneva. With this offer, something that led him to return to his country of origin. From his position, he would go on to produce various works in which he worked on reasoning, thinking or children's language. His academic participation continued to grow, also attending in 1922 the Congress of Psychoanalysis in Berlin (where he would personally meet Freud).

In 1923 he married Valentine Châteney, having three children with her. His paternity would be important not only on a personal level but also on a professional level.It would be the observation and analysis of the growth and development of his children that (together with the influence of several previous authors and the realization of the different studies mentioned above), would lead him to the elaboration of his best known work: the cognitive-evolutionary theory in which he would expose the different stages of development and the constructivist theory.

In 1925 he worked as a professor of philosophy at the University of his hometown, although he was still at the Rousseau Institute. He would also together with his wife, he would observe and analyze the development of his children.. In 1929 he returned to Geneva to work at the University of Geneva as a professor of psychology and history of science. Later he would move to the University of Lausanne. While working at the latter as professor of psychology and sociology, in 1936 he was appointed director of the International Bureau of Education of UNESCO. In 1940 he would begin to study aspects such as perception, working on aspects such as the development of spatial perception.

By 1950 Piaget would carry out the elaboration of genetic epistemology, another of his great contributions, in which he worked on the cognitive structures and the evolutionary and historical changes of the relationship between consciousness-environment. worked on the cognitive structures and the evolutionary and historical changes of the consciousness-environment relationship.. This contribution would lead to the generation of the concept of cognitive schema and his constructivist theory in which he valued the biology-environment relationship in the formation of thought.

Five years later he founded and was appointed director of the International Center for Genetic Epistemology, a position he would hold until his death. Piaget would receive numerous honorary degrees and doctorates throughout his life, as well as several international awards for his scientific contributions.

Death and legacy

Jean Piaget died at the age of 84 on September 16, 1980, in Geneva, after about ten days in hospital. His death is an event of great significance, his legacy and his contribution to psychology being one of the most extensive and relevant of the last century..

His theories on child development have influenced a large number of well-known authors such as Bruner, Bandura, Ausubel or Erikson, and are still valued and taken into account at a theoretical level. The importance of his cognitive-evolutionary theory on the development of cognitive abilities, in which he speaks of the different stages of development, is especially noteworthy. However, this is not the only field in which he worked; he also made several contributions in fields such as sociology, philosophy or even biology.

Bibliographical references:

• Cellenieror, G. (1978) El Pensamiento de Piaget, study and anthology of texts. Ediciones Península, Barcelona.
• Cortés, M.I. and Tlaseca, M. (2004). Monograph Jean Piaget. Universidad Pedagógica Nacional. México, D.F.