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Formal operations in adolescence

At the heart of Piaget’s concept of formal operations is what he termed hypothetical-deductive reasoning.

The major types of abilities demonstrated in this reasoning process are:

• isolation of variables: changing one variable while keeping others constant

• combinatorial reasoning: generating possible sets of elements

• proportional reasoning: understanding relationships among variables

Through these formal operations, the adolescent is able to apply the scientific method when solving problems (Arnett 66).

Limitations of Piaget’s theory

Piaget asserted that most people travel through these stages of cognitive development at the same time, but it has been shown time and time again that individuals vary in this cognitive functioning, especially in terms of formal operations. Factors affecting the use of formal operations can include the specific task at hand, educational background, experience, knowledge, and cultural background (Arnett 70-71).

Jean Piaget