Jean Piaget described four stages of cognitive development: the sensorimotor, the preoperational, the concrete operations and the formal operations. Each of these periods is characterized by the use of progressively more complex cognitive operations.
Although this author stated that cognition reaches its final stage in adolescence, Other theorists consider that postformal thought also exists a fifth stage of cognitive development that is characterized by the ability to relativize, assume contradiction and synthesize opposite elements.
For Jean Piaget, pioneer of evolutionary psychology and author of the most popular theory on cognitive development, it reaches its culmination when concrete thinking is abandoned and formal thinking is consolidated, that is, the ability to think abstractly.
This implies that upon reaching this stage, which generally occurs between the ages of 11 and 15, one not only works with concrete, tangible and reality-based elements, but also with hypotheses and possibilities. In addition, skills are developed that allow the adoption of perspectives other than one’s own.
Formal thinking has a hypothetico-deductive character, which overcomes the empiricism characteristic of the stage of concrete operations; In this way, reality comes to be understood as a subset of the possible, unlike in the previous period, in which the possible is seen as an extension of the real.
Piaget and his collaborator Bärbel Inhelder stated that formal thinking is based on verbal statements (propositional thinking), rather than on concrete objects. Since the flexibility of language is much greater than that of matter, this type of thinking greatly increases cognitive and communicative possibilities.
Later, different authors questioned and qualified the concept original of formal thought. Thus, today it is believed that not all people reach this stage, that this can happen at any age and only in the tasks in which we specialize, and that there may be another type of even more advanced reasoning: postformal thinking.
Characteristics of postformal thinking
Representatives of different theoretical orientations, especially dialectical psychology and life cycle psychology, have proposed the existence of postformal or dialectical thinking, which is conceptualized as a stage subsequent to that of formal operations.
Unlike formal, postformal thinking would allow integrating the subjective, the emotional and the symbolic with the logical, analytical and objective components of the previous period. As a consequence, cognitive operations would become more complex, which would function in a less literal and rigid way than in the case of formal thinking.
Three basic characteristics of postformal thought have been described: the relativism of knowledge, the acceptance of contradiction and the synthesis between discordant elements.
1. Relativism
Formal thinking tends to be dichotomous; Thus, for example, people are usually categorized as “good” or “bad”, and statements are understood as absolute truths or as lies, with no intermediate points.
However, interaction with other people, the adoption of multiple roles and the acquisition of new information promote awareness that There are multiple truths that depend on the point of view greatly influenced by personal history, and the context from which they are observed.
Thus, this tendency means that not as much attention is paid to what is supposed to be “the truth”, and the attention is focused on the type of narratives that are adopted to explain it.
Once relativistic thinking appears, contradiction begins to be accepted as a natural aspect of life. Apparently incompatible phenomena can coexist, both in the perception of reality and in living beings and objects.
Thus, any person can be “good” and “bad” simultaneously, continuing with the previous example. The complex nature of reality is accepted, and the idea that there are different ontological realities that overlap is internalized.
Various authors defend that the acceptance of contradiction is the most characteristic feature of adult thought, and that usually develops during middle age However, interindividual variability is high, so it can also happen sooner or later.
3. Synthesis or dialectic
Since they assume relativism and contradiction as natural aspects of human experience, people who use postformal thinking can integrate (or synthesize) contradictory mental contents, both cognitively and emotionally.
During this stage there is a continuous dialectic in thought, so that all ideas are compared and synthesized with their opposites and with other different experiences. This allows for a higher and more flexible reasoning capacity than that which characterizes formal thinking.
Developmental stage or thinking style?
Although those who defend the concept of postformal thinking usually define it as a stage of cognitive development that, as its name indicates, appears after the stage of formal operations, for the moment scientific research has not confirmed this hypothesis
Although it is true that the defining characteristics of postformal thinking manifest more frequently with increasing age, not all normally developing people reach this cognitive period. In fact, not even everyone manages to advance from the stage of concrete operations to that of formal ones.
Furthermore, scientific evidence shows that some people who have not reached the formal period show relativistic thinking. It has been hypothesized, therefore, that postformal thinking is a style of reasoning consisting of a set of metacognitive skills that can be acquired after maturation and not necessarily a stage of development.
