Piaget's stages of development include which sequence?

Piaget's stages of development include which sequence?

• A. Erikson's Psychosocial Theory
• B. Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development
• C. Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory
• D. Piaget's Stages of Development

Answer: (D)

Piaget's stage theory describes how children's thinking changes in a fixed order as they grow. The sequence starts with sensorimotor thinking (birth to about 2 years), where infants learn through actions and begin to understand object permanence. It then moves to preoperational (roughly 2–7 years), a period of symbolic thought but still egocentric and lacking logical operations. After that comes concrete operational (about 7–11 years), when children gain logical thinking about concrete objects and concepts like conservation. The final stage is formal operational (beginning in adolescence), where abstract and hypothetical reasoning becomes possible. This orderly progression—sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, then formal operational—is unique to Piaget. The other options point to different theories: Erikson’s psychosocial stages, Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, and Bandura’s social cognitive theory. They describe separate frameworks and do not outline the sequence of Piaget’s cognitive stages.

Piaget's stage theory describes how children's thinking changes in a fixed order as they grow. The sequence starts with sensorimotor thinking (birth to about 2 years), where infants learn through actions and begin to understand object permanence. It then moves to preoperational (roughly 2–7 years), a period of symbolic thought but still egocentric and lacking logical operations. After that comes concrete operational (about 7–11 years), when children gain logical thinking about concrete objects and concepts like conservation. The final stage is formal operational (beginning in adolescence), where abstract and hypothetical reasoning becomes possible. This orderly progression—sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, then formal operational—is unique to Piaget.

The other options point to different theories: Erikson’s psychosocial stages, Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, and Bandura’s social cognitive theory. They describe separate frameworks and do not outline the sequence of Piaget’s cognitive stages.