Piaget's Four Stages Of Cognitive Analysis

Piaget’s fourth stage of cognitive development is the formal operations stage. This stage goes from adolescence to adulthood; approximately from eleven years of age onward. Through this stage, the “ability to develop hypotheses and deduce new concepts” (“Child Psychology,” n.d.) flourish. Many concepts and ideas are developed through this stage because this is the longest stage during the average person’s lifetime. A couple different concepts learned are idealism, flights of fantasy, advanced understanding of language/advanced language facility, and advanced pragmatism. Idealism is when one is able to imagine a perfect world although it is known that there is no such place. Flights of fantasy is when someone creates in their head a master plan about life and love and the thought of being all powerful or all knowing. An example of this is when a boy may think they are all powerful up until the moment that they fail. Advanced understand

In other words being able to use behavior or conversation to change others way of thinking to your own way of thinking. An example of the concrete operational stage is also the hammer and feather versus glass analogy; however this analogy’s results shift at this stage. Throughout the previous stage, the concrete operations stage, this analogy concludes with the child answering with common sense despite the scenario given. On the other hand, during the concrete operational stage the average person may respond to this analogy differently. When someone is told that if a glass is hit with a hammer it will break, the person will agree that if someone hits a glass it will break. If the person is then told that if a feather hits a glass it will break, they will say that if someone hits a glass with a feather it will break. Typically, during this stage, someone will take the statement and answer according to the scenario given even if it goes against common sense and what is realistic (Smith,