Piaget’s theory of child development; Formal operational is the fourth stage of Piaget’s theory of child development. The stage begins at the age of 12 and lasts into adulthood (Ghazi & Ullah p. 10). During the formal operational stage, children begin to think abstrusely and hypothetically. In other words, adolescents in the fourth stage have the ability to picture hypothetical situations contrasted with reality mentally. They produce a variety of conclusions regarding a situation say, life without palms without dependence on concrete manipulation (Ghazi & Ullah p. 10). This stage is characterized by the ability to formulate hypotheses and test them systematically to arrive at an answer to a problem. In other words, adolescents in the formal operational stage reason hypothetically.

Piaget defines hypothetical reasoning as thinking that involves what-if situations that have no relationship with reality (Kubota & Levine p. 109). According to Piaget’s theory of child development, hypothetical reasoning, or counterfactual thinking emerges during the formal operational stage (McLeod p. 4). It is through hypothetical reasoning that adults provide evidence against various hypotheses formed by testing their logical consequences (Kubota & Levine p. 109). For instance, when the adult in the video is asked to figure out life without palms, he develops a mental picture of how the world would change. In a nutshell, hypothetical reasoning is a problem-solving approach that explores different alternatives to arrive at the best solution to a problem. Read more

Preadolescents or preteen is a stage of human development that precedes adolescents. The preadolescents do not have the ability to picture hypothetical situations contrasted with reality mentally (Jenningh, 0.01-1.45). On the other hand, adolescents have the ability to think abstrusely and hypothetically through different situations and then arrive at solutions to a problem. In other words, adolescents can think hypothetically, unlike preadolescents, who do not.