Definition of Assimilation for Jean Piaget

Hello friends!

A concept that I see being asked for in Public Contests of Psychology and in tests and works during college is about the concept of assimilation for Piaget. In this text, we are going to talk about assimilation, so that there is no doubt. And we will, at the end, see an example of a contest question.

For Piaget, assimilation is a term that refers to a part of the adaptation process of the human being. Through assimilation, people are able to capture and obtain new information and incorporate them into existing ideas within their psyche.

In this sense, assimilation is always subjective, as each subject will incorporate this new information (objectively given) in a way that will be unique and individual and that, in one way or another, will tend to agree with previously existing beliefs. .

In Piagetian theory, we can note two basic ways in which subjects can adapt to new experiences and, especially, to new information. Assimilation is the simplest form because it does not require a great deal of adjustment or change. Through assimilation, each person can find and assimilate new information to knowledge already acquired, in some cases reviewing past knowledge and memory, modifying it and, in other cases, just introjecting new information.

An example of assimilation

Imagine you meet a person and fall in love with them. Throughout the beginning of the relationship, this person seems totally special and different to her, behaving politely, solicitously, affectionately, always showing patience and tranquility.

One day, however, you are astonished: this person – so calm and patient – ​​becomes extremely irritated with the waiter who is serving the table.

This irritation is new information for your conception of this person. How are you going to assimilate this behavior so different from the others that she has been emitting?

Well, one way or another you’re going to have to assimilate the new information, either justifying the irritation as a bad day or introducing new ideas about who the person is. She may continue to be a calm and patient person, however, she may come to be seen as having temper tantrums or changing attitudes.

In both cases, you will have assimilated the new information. In one way, you adapt the new information to previous knowledge and in another you justify it, but in both cases the new information is assimilated.

The other basic way of adapting to new information, for Piaget, is called accommodation. In this case, there is a big difference. The new information is not only assimilated, it radically transforms the knowledge already acquired.

If we continue using the example of the calm person who unexpectedly gets irritated with the waiter, in accommodation the whole idea about the person will be changed. She will no longer be seen as a calm, peaceful and patient person, but as an angry person.

Thus, in assimilation, new information is incorporated but does not change previous information, while in accommodation, old ideas are changed or replaced by new information.

Conclusion

The processes of assimilation and accommodation are very important for understanding Piaget’s theory of learning. In order to facilitate understanding, we can understand that we are always assimilating new ideas, new thoughts, new information, however, in Piagetian theory, assimilation does not replace old ideas, it only adds news to cognition.

And in accommodation, we have to think that the new information establishes a new structure, completely changing the previous information or replacing it.

An example of an evaluation question in a Public Contest:

For Jean Piaget, the process of assimilation (VUNESP, 2005):

(A) is an automatic and biologically determined mechanism, in which the individual is relatively passive.

(B) involves the elimination of the individual’s previous schemas resulting from the acquisition of new information.

(C) is equivalent to the adaptation process, because this necessarily implies reviewing concepts in the face of new situations.

(D) is directly related to the language process and, consequently, to socialization.

(E) corresponds to an integration of new information to previous structures of the individual.

Correct answer – E

For assimilation is really the integration of new information. In order not to confuse accommodation with assimilation, it’s easy: just remember that if the new information modifies the previous structure, we have accommodation. If it is not modification and represents only the addition of new information to the previous schema, we speak of assimilation.

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