Jean Piaget
Pioneer of developmental psychology
Most quoted
"The child who defines a lie as 'a naughty word' knows perfectly well that lying consists of not speaking the truth. He is not, therefore, mistaking one thing for another; he is simply identifying them one with another by what seems to us a quaint extension of the word lie."
— from The Moral Judgment of the Child, 1932
"The more the schemata are differentiated, the smaller the gap between the new and the familiar becomes, so that novelty, instead of constituting an annoyance avoided by the subject, becomes a problem and invites searching."
— from The Origins of Intelligence in Children, 1936
"Knowledge is not a copy of reality. To know an object, to know an event, is not simply to look at it and record it in a mental image or even to make a perceptual copy of it. To know an object is to act on it."
— from Speech at UNESCO, 'Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child', 1964
All quotes by Jean Piaget (326)
The child's moral development progresses from heteronomy (rules imposed by others) to autonomy (self-governed rules).
The function of education is to help children discover the world for themselves.
The child's development is not a continuous process, but occurs in distinct stages.
The child's understanding of the world is shaped by his actions and experiences.
Knowledge is not a state, but a process.
The child's errors are not simply mistakes, but indicators of his current stage of thinking.
The child is a little scientist, constantly experimenting and constructing his own theories about the world.
The development of intelligence is a continuous process of adaptation to the environment.
The child's language reflects his level of cognitive development.
The goal of education is to develop the child's autonomy and critical thinking skills.
The child's play is not just fun, but a crucial part of his learning and development.
The child's understanding of numbers and quantities develops gradually through concrete experiences.
The child's social interactions play a vital role in his cognitive and moral development.
The child's concept of time and space is constructed through his actions and experiences in the world.
The child's ability to conserve quantity, number, and volume develops during the concrete operational stage.
The child's ability to think abstractly develops during the formal operational stage.
The child's moral judgments are based on his understanding of rules and intentions.
The child's learning is most effective when it is active and self-directed.
The child's ability to classify and categorize objects develops gradually.
The child's understanding of the world is constantly being reorganized and refined.
Contemporaries of Jean Piaget
Other Psychologys born within 50 years of Jean Piaget (1896–1980).