Jean Piaget

Today, humans have a basic understanding of how children's minds think and work, but this area of psychology wasn't well researched until Jean Piaget started studying it in 1920. I first heard of Piaget while researching child psychologists in my College and Career Planning class at school. Of all the child psychologists, I chose Piaget because he discovered that children are naturally programmed to perceive actions and reactions differently than adults, and he came up with the four-stages of mental development. As a high school student, I am exploring my interest in how our minds work and hope one day I will be a successful psychologist just like Jean Piaget.

Psychologists study the behaviors of people and groups. Schools and healthcare teams hire psychologists, but with a license, psychologists can start their own practice. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the median salary of psychologists is $72,580. Psychology is a rapidly growing field of study. In fact, in the next decade, job opportunities in this area are expected to increase 19%. Most Psychology job positions require a doctoral degree, but there are some that only require a master's degree. As well as school education, to become a successful psychologist you need training and experience. Most students getting their doctoral degree complete a one year internship program. Clinical, counseling, and research are some of the branches of psychology, and they often work along with people who have similar jobs, such as psychiatrists and social workers.

As a child, Piaget was always interested in the way things work, and he was always an active scholar who documented his findings. According to the Jean Piaget Society, Piaget started off his successful career while enrolled at Neuchatel Latin High School, where he wrote a short notice on an albino sparrow at age 11. In 1920, he started revising children's intelligence tests at Binet's Laboratory, and he realized that on frequently missed questions, children all had similar reasoning to how they answered. This influenced him to start studying in a new field: child psychology. In 1936, he came up with the Stages of Cognitive Development, Sensori-Motor (ages 0-2), pre-operational (ages 2-7), concrete operational (ages 7-11) and formal operation (ages 11+). Piaget died September 16, 1980, but his ideas and inventions are still used today.

Throughout his life, Piaget had many accomplishments and contributions to child psychology. He was always an active scholar; Piaget had work published at age eleven, and had his doctor's degree at age 22. He developed his own cognitive theory, focusing on the four stages of mental development, schemas, and adaptation processes. He received the Erasmus Prize in 1972, and the Balzan Prize for Social Sciences in 1979.

Becoming a Psychologist takes a lot of work and training. In high school, I plan to take the right classes, such as Psychology and higher level Science classes. Taking these classes will not only give me knowledge and experience on Psychology before college, but they will also help me decide what area of study and major would be a good fit for me. After high school, I would like to go to University of California, Santa Cruz, and major in psychology or pre-med and get my doctoral degree in psychology. During this time, most students complete their one year internship. After school, I could start my own practice, or work with a healthcare team.