Postformal thinking: a stage that not everyone reaches

Physical development culminates, as we well know, in adulthood. Now, what happens with cognitive development? Is there a defined biological ceiling or does this potential have no limits? To answer this question it is always interesting to turn to Jean Piaget. According to this reference, Postformal thinking is the last stage of human cognitive development and the most sophisticated; one that not everyone reaches.

It is possible that this last nuance attracts more than one attention. Why don’t we all complete our progress in that intellectual area? The truth is Achieving this ability in the management of moral, emotional, logical, deductive and even philosophical concepts is not easy.. Sometimes, not even the academic environment and our education promote the ability to achieve this singular goal.

It should be noted, however, that This theory is only a proposal and, as of today, lacks a scientific basis.. However, it is still of great interest to delve deeper into it and even ask ourselves if it would not be worth developing some cognitive and emotional areas a little more. We analyze it below.

What is postformal thinking?

For Piaget, knowledge of reality begins with discovery and the way in which the child, adolescent or adult organizes, gives meaning and constructs that information. This process, according to the father of genetic epistemology, develops gradually through four stages:

Sensorimotor stage. Preoperational stage. The stage of concrete operations. Stage of formal operations.

Each of these periods are basically defined by using increasingly more complex cognitive operations. Now, Piaget pointed out that over the age of 15-20, this progress tends to stabilize or slow down. It is from here where interindividual differences between some people and others can be evident.

We can define it as that cognitive process by which we try to align our thinking to solve the daily dilemmas and challenges that appear in adult life. Thus, something that is often stated about postformal thinking is that It usually develops every time we adequately confront some problemsuch as loss of employment, loss of a family member, etc.

Dimensions that define postformal thinking

From Harvard University, they explain to us in a study that postformal thinking is acquired as we establish new academic, social, emotional, philosophical, etc. resources. It is that type of knowledge that we acquire when we get to know ourselves better and also the world that surrounds us.

Postformal thinking is characterized by the ability to deal with inconsistencies, contradictions, and compromises. Life is complex and uncertain, and some people are better at grappling with its inherent uncertainty. Thus, Postformal thinking is both a personality style and a mode of thinking (Papalia and Martorell, 2017).

On the other hand, it should be noted that all of us can develop it. This fifth stage of Piaget’s cognitive thinking requires us to focus on a series of very specific dimensions. We analyze them.

Self-knowledge

Know ourselves to process more openly what surrounds us, without fear, without insecurities, in a curious way… Few things are more decisive than establishing the capacity for self-reflection, the correct management of our emotions, added to that connection with our own being to know what we want and what we need.

Ability to relativize

Knowing how to apply flexible thinking in which not understanding the world in a dichotomous way is the basis of postformal thinking. That is, the person who uses this approach It is not limited to processing reality in absolute terms of good or bad, black or white... There are always intermediate aspects that you have to know how to attend to and process.

Cognitive flexibility

This ability of postformal thinking arises from the recognition that each person’s perspective is only one possible among others. This style of thinking involves a restructuring of knowledge and experiences and the generation of problem-solving alternativesas an adaptive response to the changes that occur in a certain situation and context (Krzemien, et al., 2020).

Integration

Another characteristic of postformal thinking is the integration of emotions with rational analysis. This ability is useful in responding to life situations in which the appearance of stereotypes and prejudices is a threat (Krzemien, et al., 2020).

Dialectical thinking

Postformal thinking is dialectical, that is, It entails the integration of beliefs, knowledge and experiences with the contradictions and inconsistencies of daily life. This way of thinking involves relativism coupled with the ability to integrate and synthesize information with respect to multiple perspectives, ideas or experiences (Krzemien, et al., 2020).

They accept the contradiction and draw their own conclusions

Something that they explain to us in the aforementioned study from Harvard University is that postformal thinking is in turn made up of 4 stages (systematic, meta-systematic, paradigmatic and cross-paradigmatic). This means that it is very common that when we reach adulthood we reach, at least, the first stages.

In those first achievements in the assumption of postformal operations is accepting the contradiction. In fact, few things define our reality as much as those constant ambiguities and eternal contradiction. Accepting this reality and striving to reach our own conclusions is essential.

Postformal thinking goes beyond problem-solving skills

Often, one way to define intelligence is to understand it as the ability to solve problems creatively in order to adapt to any circumstance. Now, postformal thinking goes further because it allows us something more. Not only could we emerge as competent people to face many of the challenges.

Postformal reasoning takes a critical view of things and always tries to understand why problems appear.. That is to say, despite solving them, it reflects on everything that causes suffering, worry, crises, uncertainties… Thus, in many cases this type of cognitive approach is related to what philosophy itself gives us.

Finally, let us remember, philosophy encourages us to constantly ask ourselves questions to reflect on our existential conflicts. It is good to have a practical and formal intelligence that allows us to resolve any unforeseen situation. However, having the ability to think more broadly, lucidly and transcendently about ourselves and the world is what brings us closer, without a doubt, to authentic wisdom.