Adaptation processes: assimilation and accommodation

Human beings, like other living beings, have to adapt to their environment if they want to survive.. In fact, the epistemologist, psychologist and biologist Jean Piaget said that one of the most important characteristics that distinguishes living beings is that they are self-regulating systems, that is, they are capable of maintaining their structures by recovering and restoring them when they are altered or damaged. In this way, living beings aim to reach a state of balance, which is achieved through adaptation processes.

Besides, Piaget understood this state of balance not as a state of rest, but as an active and dynamic process. Therefore, it is necessary to continually change the responses given in order to compensate for variations in the environment. Now, how is this balance achieved? Through two opposing adaptation processes, although to a certain extent complementary, they are assimilation and accommodation.

Before delving into these adaptation processes, it is advisable to first understand the term “scheme.” From Piaget’s theory, a schema is an organized behavioral or mental pattern that represents a characteristic way of interacting with the environment. Thus, Every concept or action can be integrated into a scheme, and these together form the reality of the individual..

What does adaptation consist of?

Two things are said to be adapted when they correspond in a certain way. Now, the adaptation process in human beings It can be understood as a reaction of the organism or individual to adjust to the conditions of the environment.

Adaptation, to the extent that it helps the individual to survive and function in different environments, It is closely related to the psychological development of the individual. Furthermore, it supposes a relationship between the person and the external environment, since the person is only adapted to his environment to the extent that he manages to build it based on the conceptions that he himself has of it.

Adaptation processes: assimilation

Assimilation is the process by which previous schemes are imposed on new elements, modifying them in order to integrate them.. In the same way that the physical organism assimilates new matter when feeding and digesting, it is also necessary to assimilate new information into already existing intellectual structures.

This is a process by which Beliefs about the environment are modified to adapt to the environment according to the needs and demands. In this way, new experiences try to adapt to previous forms of knowledge and action. And for this reason, we say that the adaptive interaction between the organism and the environment initially has an assimilative character.

Now, despite the force of resistance that the scheme opposes, If an element is very dissonant it will be impossible to assimilate it. An example of this is when a small child sees a horse for the first time and calls it “big dog.” This shows us how the new information (horse) has been assimilated into an existing concept, “dog”, although sooner or later that assimilation will no longer be valid.

We can find another example of assimilation in the process of learning a second language. When we are starting to learn a new language, it is common for us to try to translate all the information into our native language, since it is easier for us to understand when we rely on a linguistic scheme that is familiar to us.

Adaptation processes: accommodation

Accommodation is the process by which previous schemes are modified depending on external variations.. That is, we alter our constructions about the environment that surrounds us according to the new incoming information. This involves, unlike assimilation, an internal change to achieve a state of adaptive balance.

This process usually occurs when assimilation cannot maintain existing dissonance or is unable to incorporate new information into previous schemas. Therefore, if the individual wants to interact with new experiences, he will have no choice but to adapt to this situation, restructuring his available intellectual structures.

Following the previous example, accommodation is when the individual sees that the “big dog” (horse) begins to distance itself too much from the “dog” category; so he is forced to change previous conceptions of it and create a new category that is “horse” and give it its own scheme.

Piaget

Relationship between adaptation processes

It is important to understand that, although these two adaptation processes (assimilation and accommodation) are opposite, they are also complementary. To achieve the correct adaptation, both processes must be properly balanced and fulfill their function..

Furthermore, there are no pure assimilations or accommodations, but rather it is always a combination of both in different proportions. Thus, assimilation and accommodation are two sides of the same coin.

For Piaget, assimilation and accommodation were not just simple adaptation processes, they were also the driving force of development.. At each evolutionary stage, the subject assimilates all the new information that comes to him, until his cognition no longer tolerates any more inconsistencies. It is then that he has to make the qualitative leap to another stage, making use of accommodation.

And in this way, assimilating and accommodating, the individual develops towards higher stages. And you, did you know this part of Piaget’s theory?

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