Maturity according to Jean Piaget

Along with growth and learning, maturation is one of the three processes that play an essential part in a someone’s development. It does not necessarily happen along with aging or physical growth.

Several authors attempted to explain this maturation process through many diverse and different theories.

Piaget, for example, observed and described the behavior of children at different ages. His theory, being very broad, explains many concepts, such as language or moral development, from birth to adolescence.

But, what do we exactly mean when referring to the term maturation or maturity?                    It can be defined as “the development of the self”. For Piaget, it is kind of the same thing as intelligence, and the ways in which we construct it and use it in order to answer in an appropriate manner to the environment – a.k.a. genetic epistemology.

Piaget proposed that all human beings are born with very basic mental structures, and so we must pass through a series of biological stages, building on one upon the other, in order to reach this maturation. He attempted to explain this in his theory of cognitive development, about the nature and development of human intelligence.

For him, maturation reports the interaction between genetics and socio-environmental influences. The child takes the information he has learned from the different experiences and uses it to build fragments or schemas of thought that will determine how he sees the world and how he interprets future interactions or experiences.

Also, maturation is no longer seen as being limited to childhood. Instead, we are always evolving in this sense (although Piaget only focused his studies on children).

For Piaget, simply growing up already played a crucial role in children’s capacity to understand the world, stating that children cannot assume certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough.

While in this process of growing up, children go through a series of stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational.

These four stages are universal, and change along with maturation, as they are biologically based. As in every process, there are always individual differences. From the sensorimotor to the preoperational stages, the kid evolves from building a schema of a certain object until they are able to think about something symbolically. Next stage is a turning point in the child’s development, in which the beginning of logical thought is marked. Finally, the formal operational stage, life-lasting period, in which we develop the ability to think abstractly.

Basically, Jean Piaget recognized that children play an important part in their own development and maturation process, and this is why some children are not capable of certain thought practices, because they haven’t yet reached a high enough level of maturity.

Personally, I think Piaget was right when stating that both genetic and environmental factors, when interacting, build on what is a child’s maturation – this is why we all evolve in different manners and not always at the same time or level; another reason for saying that we are always in this process of becoming mature.

Furthermore, I also think he was one of the most important authors when coming to the formation of one’s personality related to maturation, and this is why we should take him into account when studying this topic.

Works cited

Piaget, J. (1970). Genetic Epistemology. New York: Norton.

Piaget, J. (1977). Gruber, H.E.; Voneche, J.J. eds. The essential Piaget. New York: Basic Books.

Piaget, J. (1983). Piaget’s theory. In P. Mussen (ed). Handbook of Child Psychology. 4th edition. Vol. 1. New York: Wiley.