Developmental psychology.pdf

Human Development 73
Formal Operations
In solving the circle-in-a-square problem, the child uses formal operations, which is
the capacity for reasoning apart from concrete situations. It is abstract reasoning,
Piaget's final level of cognitive development. Usually the child age 11 or older begins
to engage in this type of thinking, although at a less sophisticated level than that of
most adults. The child who is well into formal operations will approach the circle-ina-square
problem readily and, rather than drawing new radii immediately, will sit back
and think, trying to generate solutions.
Forming and Testing Hypotheses In the concrete operations stage, the child was
able to classify, enumerate, and place objects and events in time and space, but at the
stage of formal operations she can imagine the possibilities inherent in a problem. The
child can deduce what should occur if a given possibility is true, performing useful
experiments and thinking about the conclusions in a practical way. Probably the most
important feature of formal operations is that reality is seen as just one aspect of what
might be. The adolescent generates hypotheses and tests them to find which one seems
most valid, and she can even leave reality altogether, reasoning entirely in abstract
terms.
Extension of the capacity for formal operations means that the cognitive world
of the adolescent and adult is very different from that of the child, who lives largely
in a here-and-now existence. Adolescents, in particular, begin to imagine other worlds
in a serious way, especially ideal ones; they compare these imagined situations with
their own and often rebel or change their life-styles. As formal operations develop, the
adolescent moves beyond conventional standards of morality toward the construction
of her own moral principles (Elkind, 1967).
Status of Research Investigating formal operations is a prominent activity in
modern cognitive psychology, and it has raised several questions about the thought
processes of human adults. Overall, it suggests that even though all normal adults
everywhere acquire concrete operations, not everyone acquires formal operations. The
outcome, as in all of Piaget's experiments, depends not only on maturation but also on
the task involved and on environmental stimulation. Persons whose mode of living does
not require abstract thinking are less likely to develop formal operations, and even
those who engage in formal operations may commit various errors in reasoning.
One should also be reminded that Piaget does not explain in any significant
detail how cognitive development takes place, even at the level of formal operations.
He has instead argued that it does take place. In this sense, Piaget's approach reflects
close observation, much like that of Darwin, a careful observer who noted relationships
between physical structure and the environment. Piaget has described relationships
between modes of thinking and age. Further understanding of how these processes
occur awaits another day and perhaps another research method.
HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT
With this background in physical, social, and cognitive development, we turn again to
Harold Skeels, who had come to an important realization. The tests administered to
the transferred children before their departure had been administered routinely to all
the children in the orphanage. On this basis a useful research study could be designed.
It would be possible to identify a comparable nontransferred group, and for this purpose
he selected 12 children with an average age of 17 months and an average IQ of
87. They had stayed at the orphanage just over two years, slightly longer than the
transferred group had been with the mentally retarded.