Ivan was playing under the kitchen table when he stood up suddenly and bumped his head. He pointed at the table and sternly said, "Mean table!" Ivan is demonstrating Piaget's concept of " _____."
A) egocentrism
B) operational thinking
C) centration
D) animism

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Animism is the attribution of lifelike qualities to inanimate objects. Ivan is personifying the table by calling it "mean." This is typical of the preoperational stage of cognitive development in which children have not yet developed a concrete understanding of object permanence and may attribute human-like qualities to non-living things. Egocentrism refers to the tendency for young children to see things only from their own perspective, operational thinking involves logical, organized thinking, and centration is the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation while ignoring others. None of these concepts fully capture Ivan's behavior.

Ivan Was Playing Under the Kitchen Table When He Stood