ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the development of children’s perceptions, conceptions, and ways of learning about their physical and social worlds. In the study of cognitive development two broad research trends can be seen-Piagetian and non-Piagetian. Piaget started writing in the 1920s and continued to do so until his death in 1980. Piaget describes four stages of cognitive development, called sensory-motor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. People are “objects” who have to be understood in their own right, and moreover, people use symbols, e.g., language, in their interactions with each other. The nature of these symbols can influence the rate with which cognitive development will occur. One stems from Piaget’s work in cognitive development, but especially that concerned with moral judgments. The other is social psychologists studying adults’ social judgments, e.g., the motives one person perceives as underlying another’s behavior.
