Question

7. How does Piaget use object permanence to explain the emotional distress shown by a 7 or 8month old child?

Answer 1

Jean Piaget has been regarded as the father of object permanence, and he has conducted multiple studies to show how it affects and contributes to cognitive development. Before object permanence develops for the infants' everything is in the NOW, whatever they can see exists, what they cannot, doesn’t exist. They cannot remember or imagine that there can be things which aren’t present or can be seen, but they exist.

Object permanence is vital, as this helps in aiding the infant and as the child develops intellectually and socially to develop trust as well as a sense of security. In later stages of development, it helps in memory, creativity, awareness, decision makings, etc. When a child can create an image of an object or a person in their mind and able to act on the same, they are said to have reached to the level of full object permanence.

During the later sensorimotor substages, between the 4 to 12months stages, the child learn and looks around intentionally within his surroundings and tries to learn or imitate behaviors. In the 4-8months stage a child will reach for half hidden objects and also try putting toys in their mouth. When they see half hidden object or partial objects, they realize that the other half I present. The 8-12month stage is one which marks emotional distress, this is so as in this stage the child looks for objects he has seen and has been hidden under blankets or other familiar places. When someone shows them an object they realize that it is present, even if we hide it under a blanket. However, when they see that it’s hidden under a blanket and we have moved it to a new place, they tend to still look under the blanket. Later they might look in familiar places, however, if the toy isn’t found, they might give up easily and start crying till the toy is recovered. The basic is that they have developed object permanence and as they know things are present, even though they cannot see them, it creates an emotional distress when they cannot recover the same.