Differences and similarities between the evolutionary theory of Piaget and Vygotsky

Main differences between Piaget and Vygotsky's theories

- Piaget It gives more attention to the child's interaction with the physical environment, while Vygotsky highlights the importance of social interaction.

- Vygotsky gives greater importance to the social and cultural context.

- For Piaget, intelligence has biological roots (trend of living beings in adaptation to the environment; biological does not mean predetermined), while for Vygotsky these roots are social.

- The development to which Piaget refers is a natural, spontaneous development (from the person-medium interaction), while Vygotsky refers to a development that is not possible without adult's help.

- Piaget understands development as an internal and individual process. Vygotsky understands it as a social (interpersonal) process.

- For Piaget the cognitive advance goes from individual to social and by Vygotsky from the social to the individual.

- For Piaget, social interaction favors cognitive development. For Vygotsky, development takes shape through social interaction.

- In Vygotsky's theory the role of the adult or tutor is more relevant.

- Piaget presents a universal stadium theory, while Vygotsky's theory is not a stadium theory.

- Piaget presents a more linear and unidirectional development vision, while Vygotsky subscribes a more discontinuous and multidirectional development vision.

- According to Piaget learning is subordinate to development, while for Vygotsky learning is the engine of development, understanding that between learning and development there is a bidirectional and reciprocal influence relationship.

- Piaget presents a vision of cognitive development as a process of global and general changes. (Piaget presents a homogeneous vision of cognitive development - the progress that occurs at a given time affects the way of reasoning in any field of knowledge

- Vygotsky understands that, despite the fact that general changes occur, specific development progress is given in different areas of knowledge. His vision of cognition is not so homogeneous. Vygotsky's vision is more nuanced in this regard).

- Piaget places the end of cognitive development in adolescence. Vygotsky understands development as a process that does not have such a defined goal or concrete temporal limits.

- They grant a specific weight and a different role to language.

- Vygotsky, unlike Piaget, gives the signs (numerical system, oral language, written language ...) a crucial role in cognitive development.

Main similarities between Piaget and Vygotsky's theories

- Study the psychological development process.

- They focus on cognitive aspects (related to knowledge) of development.

- Both authors give great importance to interaction with the environment. (Piaget gives more attention to interaction with the physical environment, while Vygotsky focuses on interaction with the social environment.)

- They use applicable research methods in natural contexts (house, school ...).

- Both make a constructivist knowledge approach (clarification: in the sense that they understand that knowledge is not a copy of reality, but a construction of the individual. There is talk of constructivism social in the case of Vygotsky).

- They share an active vision of the developing human being.

- They are non -innatist authors (there are no innate knowledge) or pose a genetic determinism.

- They address relationships between development and learning.

Some usual misunderstandings about the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky

- Piaget and Vygotsky propose stadium theories. Phase, period, stage, stage ... are not synonymous terms although it may seem. Only some theories of evolutionary psychology propose stages (Piaget is the most remarkable case). Vygotsky, for example does not believe in the existence of development stages. Nor are systemic and ecological perspectives talk about stadiums. Stadium is a term with strong theoretical connotations. Karmiloff-Smith, for example, speaks of "phases", which is different, because it is another theoretical approach, another way of understanding development. "Stadium" and "phase", are terms that suppose different theoretical commitments, different ways of understanding development. We will say that they are explanatory concepts. In evolutionary psychology, what we do are always references to age intervals when the changes are described. We talk about stages or periods in a more descriptive sense, which does not entail theoretical commitment on the conceptualization of development. (I know that this can now overwhelm, but we'll see it ...).

- No. Vygotsky's theory focuses more on the adult person. Actually reflected a lot about child development and education issues.

- The stadiums proposed by Piaget are very specific in terms of age limit. In the Piaget theory The stadium sequence is raised as fixed and universal, but chronology (age) can vary quite a lot from one child to another.

- Both draw the Organic evolution of psychological processes. We cannot say that they explain organic evolution, but the psychological. They recognize the importance of organic factors, but they do not focus on them.

- Piaget gives great importance to maturation. Organic maturation is a factor to consider, but not the only one or the most relevant to him.

- Piaget and Vygotsky give special importance to genetic factors. Relative importance yes, but not especially. Piaget and Vygotsky admit the incidence of genetic factors (like everyone in evolutionary psychology, once extreme environmentalism is overcome behaviorism of Watson), but not in a deterministic sense.

- Piaget and Vygotsky adopt a genetic perspective in psychology. This means that they consider that the best way to study human psyche is not to study only the final state (adult?), But to study the origins, the processes of formation and transformation of the psyche, that is, the genesis of psyche (hence the expressions genetic perspective, genetic psychology - Aplicable Piaget and Vygotsky - or the denomination of genetic theory that receives the theory of Piaget). Adopting a genetic perspective is that, studying the genesis, formation and evolution of psychological processes, it is not to give special importance to the genetic factor.

- The influence of biology in the Piaget theory is seen what the biological adaptation model applies (Every living organism tends to adapt to the environment, to maintain a balance with it, so it has the possibility of self -regulating) to intelligence (intelligence is adaptation and is based on the general mechanisms of biological adaptation -assimilation and accommodation-). The influence of biology on Piaget's theory passes by, not for an emphasis on genetic factors, which I repeat, does not do.

- Piaget gives little importance to external factors. In Piaget's theory the interaction with the environment is key. Development is the result of subject-medium interaction. What is true is that it emphasizes interaction with the physical environment.

- The main similarity between Piaget and Vygotsky is that They consider that the social environment has great importance in the development of any person. Yes, but with nuance. For Piaget, social interactions contribute to cognitive development. Cognitive development follows an unalterable and universal course (guided by internal assimilation, accommodation and balance mechanisms) and social experience is one more factor to explain evolutionary changes (not the most important, nor the most elaborate and integrated in the proposal Piagetian development). For Vygotsky, development takes shape in social interactions, it does not exist outside social experience and culture, it is a social and cultural process in essence.

- Piaget is within cognitive psychology. Piaget is within the "Cognitivist Psychology". The Cognitive Psychology It is the psychology of information processing, a very different theoretical approach that we will also see in the subject.

- The theory of Piaget is within the genetic cognitive and Vygotsky's in social cognitive. Vygotsky's theory is also genetic, which means that it addresses the origin and formation of cognition, knowledge.

- Yeah, In a broad sense yes, to a social constructivism. It is Piaget who most clearly defines his theory as "constructivist" and who poses constructivism as an alternative way to innatism and environmentalism.

- No. Piaget's approach is very different from behaviorism (environmentalism). The Vygotsky's theory also moved away from behaviorism.

- Vygotsky understands that language qualitatively influences the nature of thought. Piaget considers that language is a process subordinated to cognition. Language helps thought to be faster, flexible and away from here and now, but it does not transform it.

- No. Language plays a very important role in its explanation for development. We cannot talk about language and development as two different things and establish an order between them.

- No. Learning is subordinate to development, it depends on it. This should be nuanced a lot. In fact he says that the development process is independent of learning processes. When Piaget considers the relationships between development and learning, it understands development as an endogenous process (internal changes) of construction of operative structures (in a roughly operative structures are the organization of representational schemes, understood as patterns of mental action or internal about reality) and learning as an exogenous process (knowledge acquisition). Understand that development is a process that is not influenced by learning. Knowledge acquisition does not modify the internal course of cognitive development. Development, but it is prerequality for learning. The evolutionary level (remember that it is not the same as the maturation level -organic evolution -) of the person determines what he can learn or that he cannot learn. This is Piaget's approach. Another thing is that, Piaget's constructivist vision about knowledge or intelligence, has been elaborated by other authors (for example Coll in our country) to account for the learning of specific content. This elaboration is what is known as constructivist vision of learning. The vision of learning as an exogenous process is transformed into a vision of learning as a process that follows the principles and mechanisms that Piaget had proposed for intelligence (construction of schemes, structures, assimilation, accommodation, adaptation, balance ...).

- For Piaget The protagonist of development is the child and for Vygotsky it is the person who interacts with the child. It is true that Piaget understands development as a fundamentally individual process, based on internal mechanisms (without forgetting that it occurs thanks to interaction with the environment) and that Vygotsky understands development as a social process, but that does not mean that Vygotsky does not Grant the child's prominence. The person under developing as an active organism, actively involved in the interiorization process, not as an organism simply reactive to the environment or social influences.

- According to Piaget, the individual accommodates the new knowledge.

- It is common to incorrectly use the term "accommodate" in reference to Piaget's theory. It is incorrect to say that new knowledge is accommodated. These assimilate. The accommodation of the experience of the previous cognitive schemes, the cognitive structure already existing in the subject.

- Vygotsky is associated with constructivism. The behavioral theory is from Piaget. Both give great importance to language.In Vygotsky's theory, first language and then development. Piaget considers learning as another factor of development. Piaget considers that the development and learning They are very related.

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