Born on August 9, 1896, Jean Piaget was an intelligent Swiss psychologist and genetic epidemiologist. Starting his interests in zoology, Piaget went to college pursuing zoology and philosophy which led him to psychology.
Piaget was one of the first to believe that children were not the same as adults and thought differently. This belief led to the emergence of developmental psychology. In the present, Piaget is well known for his investigations in cognitive development. His theory was that children had stages they passed through where their intelligence and thought processes grew.
“These four stages were the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. These stages explain when certain skills develop and when children start to develop different thought processes.” (Cherry)
Because of Piaget’s theories and ideas, psychology is where it’s at today. Cognitive development is a huge part of psychology and exists now because of him. His theories are still widely studied today and explain many questions that couldn’t be answered in the past.