The name of genetic psychology is possibly unknown to many, and it probably makes many people think about the genetics of behavior, even though, as Piaget formulated it, this field of psychological study has little to do with heredity.

Genetic psychology focuses on finding out and describing the genesis of human thinking throughout the development of the individual. Let’s look at this concept further below.

Genetic psychology: what is it?

Genetic psychology is a psychological field that investigates the processes of thinking, its formation and its characteristics. It tries to see how mental functions develop already from childhood, and seeks explanations that give them meaning. This psychological field was developed thanks to the contributions of Jean Piaget , a very important Swiss psychologist during the 20th century, especially with regard to constructivism.

Piaget, from his constructivist perspective, postulated that all thought processes and individual characteristics of the mind are aspects that are formed throughout life. The factors that would influence the development of a concrete style of thinking and associated knowledge and intelligence would be, basically, any external influence that one receives during one’s life.

It is possible that the name of genetic psychology may mislead people into thinking that it has something to do with the study of genes and DNA in general; however, it can be said that this field of study has little to do with biological inheritance. This psychology is genetic in that deals with the genesis of mental processes , that is, when, how and why the thoughts of human beings are formed.

Jean Piaget as a reference

As we have already seen, the most representative figure within the concept of genetic psychology is in the person of Jean Piaget, who is considered, especially in developmental psychology, one of the most influential psychologists of all time, along with Freud and Skinner.

After obtaining a doctorate in biology, Piaget began to study psychology in depth, under the tutelage of Carl Jung and Eugen Bleuler. Later, he began working as a teacher in a school in France, where he had first-hand contact with the way children develop cognitively, which led him to begin his study of developmental psychology.

Once there, he was interested in understanding how thought processes were formed from early childhood, as well as being interested in seeing what changes were taking place depending on the stage the child was in and how this could have repercussions, in the very long term, on his adolescence and adulthood.

Although his first studies were something that went quite unnoticed, it was from the 1960s onwards that he began to acquire greater prominence within the behavioural sciences and, in particular, in developmental psychology.

Piaget wanted to know how knowledge was formed and, more specifically, how to move from strictly childish knowledge, in which simplistic explanations abound and are not far removed from the “here and now”, to a more complex one, such as adult knowledge, in which abstract thinking has a place.

This psychologist was not a constructivist from the beginning . When he started his research, he was exposed to multiple influences. Jung and Breuler, under whom he was tutored, were closer to psychoanalysis and eugenic theories, while the general tendency in research was empiricist and rationalist, sometimes closer to behaviorism. However, Piaget knew how to extract what was for him the best from each branch, adopting an interactionist type of position.

Behavioral psychology, by the hand of Burrhus Frederic Skinner, was the current most defended by those who tried, from a scientific perspective, to describe human behavior. The most radical behaviorism defended that the personality and the mental capacities depended in a very relevant way on the external stimuli to which the person was exposed.

Although Piaget defended this idea partially, he also considered aspects of rationalism . The rationalists considered that the source of knowledge is based on our own reason, which is something more internal than what the empiricists defended and which is what makes us interpret the world in a very variable way.

Thus, Piaget opted for a vision in which he combined both the importance of the external aspects of the person and his own reason and ability to discern between what needs to be learned, as well as how he learns that stimulus.

Piaget understood that it is the environment that is the main cause of one’s intellectual development, however, it is also important how a person interacts with that same environment that leads to the development of certain new knowledge.

Development of genetic psychology

Once his interactionist vision of thought was established, which ultimately turned into Piagetian constructivism as it is understood today, Piaget carried out research to clarify more precisely what the intellectual development of children was .

At first, the Swiss psychologist collected data in a similar way to more traditional research, but he did not like this at all, so he chose to invent his own method of investigating children. These included naturalistic observation, examination of clinical cases and psychometry .

As he had originally been in contact with psychoanalysis, in his time as a researcher he could not avoid using techniques typical of this current of psychology; however, he later became aware of how little empirical the psychoanalytic method is.

On his way trying to discern how human thought is generated throughout development and increasingly specifying what he understood by genetic psychology, Piaget wrote a book in which he tried to capture each of his discoveries and expose the best way to approach the study of cognitive development in childhood: Language and thought in young children .

The development of thought

Within genetic psychology, and with the help of Piaget, some stages of cognitive development have been proposed , which allow us to understand the evolution of the mental structures of children.

These stages are the ones that follow, which we are going to address very quickly and simply by highlighting the mental processes that stand out in each of them.

  • Sensorimotor stage (from 0 to 4 years): The notion of space and time is acquired.
  • Pre-operational stage (2-7 years): Symbolic function of language and thought
  • Operational logic stage (7-11): ability to classify elements into groups.
  • Formal logic stage (from the age of 11): hypothetical-deductive thinking.

How did Piaget understand knowledge?

For Piaget, knowledge is not a static state, but an active process. The subject that tries to know a certain matter or aspect of reality changes according to what he is trying to know . That is, there is an interaction between the subject and the knowledge.

Empiricism defended an idea contrary to Piagetianism. Empiricists held that knowledge is rather a passive state, in which the subject incorporates knowledge from sensitive experience, without having the need to intervene around him to acquire this new knowledge.

However, the empiricist vision does not allow us to explain in a reliable way how the genesis of thought and new knowledge occurs in real life. An example of this is science, which is constantly advancing. It does not do so by passively observing the world, but by hypothesizing, reformulating arguments and testing methods, which vary according to the findings made.

Bibliographic references:

  • Coll, C. and Martí, E. (2001). Learning and development: the genetic-cognitive conception of learning. In C. Coll, J. Palacios and A. Marchesi (Comps.), Desarrollo psicológico y educación. Psychology of school education. 2nd ed. (pp. 67-88). Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
  • Piaget, J. (1947) La psychologie de l’intelligence. Paris: A. Colin. (English translation: The Psychology of Intelligence, Barcelona: Crítica, 1983).
  • Jáuregui, C.A., Mora, C.A., Carrillo D.M. et al. Practical manual for children with learning difficulties. Latin America: Editorial médica panamericana.