By about 12 years, children reach the formal operational stage of their development. According to Piaget, at this stage, children develop forms of thinking characteristic of adults. This new form of thinking is abstract, theoretical, and not influenced by the immediate surroundings and conditions. As a child reaches late adolescence, he or she becomes increasingly independent as he or she does not have to rely on physical objects to construe reality but can reconstruct a picture of the desired objects in his or her mind. The key factors associated with the formal operational stage are the strong tendency of teenagers to theorize, the creation of abstract notions, and their fascination with philosophical constructions.
At the formal operational stage, teenagers develop symbolic thinking, improving their capacity to reason. Children may employ abstract concepts and hypothetical categories at this age (Santrock, 2022). These characteristics enable kids to solve issues by deducing and testing hypotheses. As a result, a teenager develops multiple hypotheses and tests them methodically, altering variables and highlighting the one on which the outcome is dependent.
Moreover, an adolescent in the formal operational stage may envision something new and operate with notions such as love, success, failure, and hatred. A child cannot only generalize but also make plans, prioritize, and reflect on philosophical themes (Santrock, 2022). Piaget believed that learning occurs throughout life but that the fourth stage is the final in the structure of cognitive development. At this stage, teenagers can picture themselves in the future and imagine the perfect life they want to have.
A certain philosophical orientation of youth thinking is also connected with the peculiarities of the emotional world. The complexity of growing up, the inconsistency of the level of claims, and the image of the “I” can lead to emotional tension (Babakr et al., 2019). However, adolescence is characterized by a more pronounced differentiation of emotional reactions, as well as increased self-control compared to the concrete operational stage (Santrock, 2022). For example, my daughter, who is nine, is thrilled with exploring social media and gets easily frustrated when she does not have a chance to do it compared to older kids who exhibit more balanced reactions.
Despite Piaget’s significant contribution to understanding developmental stages in childhood, subsequent studies have shown that the Swiss psychologist generally underestimated the abilities of younger and preschool children. It was revealed that the most important skills and features develop earlier than Piaget indicated (Babakr et al., 2019). Thus, according to Piaget, my daughter, who is at the concrete operational stage, can generalize and make use of abstract notions characteristic of the formal operational stage of development.
To summarize, at the stage of formal operations, a teenager develops the capacity to reason like an adult, theoretically and deductively. This level is distinguished by the use of logical relationships, relative notions, abstract thought, and generalizations. For teenagers, the general becomes more important and more essential than the particulars, they tend to create their theories in different disciplines.
References
Babakr, Z., Mohamedamin, P., & Kakamad, K. (2019). Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory: Critical review. Education Quarterly Reviews, 2(3). Web.
Santrock, J. (2022). Essentials of life-span development (7th ed.). McGraw Hill.