Social and Personality Development in Childhood

Running head: DISCUSSION 7
Discussion 7
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

DISCUSSION 71
The personality development of children is a subject that has been well researched upon,
analyzed and discussed by Jean Piaget. There are four stages of what may be termed as mental
development that children are seen to go through, in the view of Jean Piaget (Ilias & Esa. 2017).
The theories that have been forwarded by Piaget in this context are not only aimed at arriving at
an understanding of the ways by which children are seen to acquire knowledge and information
but also the manner by which intelligence as a concept may be understood (Li, 2017). As such,
the four stages of development as advocated by Jean Piaget are the sensorimotor stage, the pre-
operational stage, the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage. The first stage
is considered to be active when a child falls within the age group of birth to two years, the
second stage becomes active when a child falls within the age group of two to seven years, the
third stage becomes active when a child is in the age group of seven to eleven years and the
fourth stage is activated when a child reaches the age of twelve and remains relevant as he
continues to grow older (Sandow, 2018). According to Piaget, children take an active interest in
and participate quite actively in the entire learning process as a whole. By interacting with their
surroundings, children contribute to new knowledge while building upon existing knowledge at
the same given time. What has fascinated me about this particular subject and the reason why it
caught my interest is the specific way by which Piaget is so clearly able to demarcate the stages
of mental development that children go through, pointing out yet again with clarity the types of
progress or development that children undergo in each stage (Wimmer, 2017).
Response to Ashley Harris
It is interesting what you have to say about gene environment interaction, there Ashley.
Yes I also agree what you have to say, namely, that while genes are responsible for our
biological attributes, such as our physical features, the type of personality that we exhibit be it at