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Summary Formal Operational Stage - Piaget notes
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Formal Operations (12+)The stage of formal operations is the final stage in Piaget’s theory.
Why is it called the formal operational period?
The major task of this period, according to Piaget, is to develop a new more powerful
set of cognitive skills called Formal Operations.
What does the term “formal” mean?
‘Formal’ refers to:
The ability to follow the forms of an argument without reference to its particular
content.
, What are the characteristics of the formal operational stage?
Abstract Reasoning
Piaget claimed that logical adult thinking and reasoning emerge.
Adolescents and adults in the formal operational stage can think in an
abstract way about things that are not real or tangible, as well as the
concrete way found in the previous stage of cognitive development.
Example?
In transitivity problems, for example, if “If A is taller than B and B is taller
than C, then A is taller than C”, is a form of argument whose conclusion is
logically true regardless of what A,B and C refer to.
Hypothetical Thinking
Formal Operational thinkers can think about what could be as well as what
actually is.
What does that mean?
The formal operational thinkers can deal:
o With possibilities – not just the actualities
o With alternatives – to existing (concrete) reality
o Inconsistencies and contradictions in other people’s behaviour –
especially that of Parents.
They can ask questions about themselves, which would have become
impossible earlier, such as ‘what or who can I become?”
Such a skill is obviously essential for the teenager to think about the future
systematically, such as about jobs they might have or the roles they might fill
as an adult.
How is this different from the previous stages?
The pre-school child:
Plays “dress up” by putting on real clothes.
The teenager
Thinks about options and possibilities, imagining themselves in different role,
going to college or not going to college, marrying or not marrying, having
children or not.
They can imagine future consequences of actions they might take now, so
that some kind of long-term planning becomes possible.
What is this evidence of?
This ability to imagine and discuss what have never been encountered before
is evidence of the continued decentration that occurs beyond concrete
operations.
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