Early Life

Jean Piaget was a Developmental Psychologist best known for his Stages of Cognitive Development. He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on August 9, 1896. Piaget's father studied medieval literature and local history. By all accounts, Piaget's mother, while a very kind and intelligent lady, was neurotic and was a difficult person with whom to live. This was said to have influenced Piaget towards an interest in psychology.

As a child, Piaget quickly became interested in natural studies. He published his first paper, a one page account of an encounter with an albino sparrow, at the age of 10. Throughout high school, Piaget became interested in mollusks and published a relatively great amount of work regarding them. His papers were so well known amongst malacologist that many assumed he was an adult. He was even offered a curator position at the Museum of Natural History in Geneva, but had to turn it down to finish high school.

University

Piaget attended the University of Neuchâtel and took his Ph.D. in Science in 1918 at the age of 22. Soon after graduating, he started work at Eugen Bleuler's psychiatric clinic in Zürich where he was first introduced to psychoanalysis and methods for interviewing psychiatric patients. In 1919, Piaget left Zürich for Paris where he taught at the Sorbonne. He spent two years at the Sorbonne teaching philosophy and psychology. While in Paris, Piaget met Théodore Simon, of the pair Simon and Binet, and began working on understanding how children reason. He would interview children using techniques he had learned working in the psychiatric clinic, asking them questions of logic and analyzing not their final answer, but the reasoning they used to come to that answer.

Midlife

In 1921, Piaget moved to Geneva and took a directorship at the Rousseau Institute, a private school. Here he was able to continue his research on many elementary school children. His work at the Rousseau Institute resulted in Piaget's first five books on developmental psychology. While there he met Valentine Châtenay, a student assistant. They married in 1923 and had their first child, a daughter, in 1925. The couple had three children in total with their second daughter having been born in 1927 and their only son in 1931. From their birth, Piaget meticulously studied his children and their development. From the data gathered from his children, he was able to produce three more books.

In 1925, he took a position at his alma mater, the University of Neuchâtel, teaching psychology, philosophy, and sociology. Piaget left Neuchâtel for the University of Geneva in 1929. In the same year, he was also appointed director of the International Bureau of Education. He would continue to serve in that role until 1967. Some time later, Piaget became the chair of the department of Experimental Psychology and the director of the psychology laboratory at the University of Geneva.

Piaget continued to take all sorts of interesting positions. In 1940, he was made the president of the Swiss Society of Psychology. After World War II, he became the president of the Swiss commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. He returned to the Sorbonne in 1952 as a professor. In 1955 he started the International Center for Genetic Epistemology, and in 1956 he started the School of Sciences at the University of Geneva.

Death

Jean Piaget died September 16, 1980, in Geneva, Switzerland, at the age of 84. In his life, he had written over 60 books and countless articles.