The term psychogenetics must be contextualized within the framework of psychology, since it is a theory of knowledge and, more specifically, of learning.
Psychogenetic theory is an explanatory model in which the existing relationships between the mind (the human psyche) and the origin (the genesis) of the evolutionary processes that develop in the individual are established. This theory was developed by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget starting in the 1930s. Its main object of study is human knowledge and its laws and, in a very special way, thought in relation to childhood. Piaget's great achievement consisted in showing that the child has a specific way of thinking and with its own mental schemes or laws. Piaget's research has had a notable influence on the realm of learning in school.
General principles of psychogenetics
The pillar of human knowledge is based on the link between environment and learning.
Intellectual development in children depends on maturation in their development, both from an intellectual point of view and from an emotional point of view.
For there to be an adequate intellectual and affective maturation, the child must reach a certain physiological growth (in his brain connections, his motor skills, his perception and ultimately in all the biological aspects that affect him as an individual).
Human intelligence develops through a process of continuous adaptation. In an initial stage (up to approximately 2 years) the learning of new knowledge is imitative and unconscious and the child adopts attitudes that are pleasant or that make him feel safe.
In the next stage of maturation (from the age of 2) the child begins to move freely, begins to be aware of the world around him and all this with the incorporation of language, a language that is more symbolic than logical (in this level the child presents a clear egocentrism and the world revolves around him and, on the other hand, the child manifests an animistic vision of reality, so things have their own soul).
From the age of 3, the child enters different levels of growth: play as a symbol linked to emotions, subjective thinking, the first logical mental operations, etc.
Psychogenetics and learning
The study of the different stages of the child's mind has been key to develop strategies on learning processes and to design an effective educational methodology.
According to Piaget, educational methods must be based on the parameters of psychogenetics. In this way, a child should learn new knowledge only if he has reached the appropriate maturation to assimilate it correctly.
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