How Assimilation in Psychology Helps You

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHow It WorksComparisonExamplesUses

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

How It Works

Comparison

Examples

Uses

There are many benefits of adapting to the world around you, such as through assimilation, which includesbuilding increased resilience.Keep reading to learn more about how assimilation works and examples of this process.

How Assimilation Works

In early childhood, children are constantly assimilating new information and experiences into their existing knowledge about the world. However, this process does not end there. As people encounter new things and interpret these experiences throughout life, they make both small and large adjustments to their existing ideas of the world around them.

Assimilation plays an important role in how we learn about the world around us, both in childhood and in our adult life.

Assimilation vs. Accommodation

Piaget believed that there are two basic ways that we can adapt to new experiences and information: assimilation and accommodation.

AssimilationNew information is added to existing knowledgeSchemas remain the sameFits into current interpretation of realityAccommodationNew information changes or replaces existing knowledgeNew schemas may developTransforms current interpretation of reality

AssimilationNew information is added to existing knowledgeSchemas remain the sameFits into current interpretation of reality

New information is added to existing knowledge

Schemas remain the same

Fits into current interpretation of reality

AccommodationNew information changes or replaces existing knowledgeNew schemas may developTransforms current interpretation of reality

New information changes or replaces existing knowledge

New schemas may develop

Transforms current interpretation of reality

Assimilation is the easiest adaptation method because it does not require a lot of adjustment. Through this process, we add new information to our existing knowledge base, sometimes reinterpreting new experiences so they will fit in with existing information.

For example, imagine your neighbors have a child you have always known to be sweet, polite, and kind. One day, you glance out your window and see the child throwing a snowball at your car. It seems out of character and rather rude.

How do you interpret this new information? If you use the process of assimilation, you might dismiss the child’s behavior, believing that it’s something they witnessed a classmate doing and they do not mean to be impolite.

You’re not revising your opinion of the child during assimilation; you are simply adding new information to your existing knowledge. The child is still kind, but now you know they also have a mischievous side to their personality.

Assimilation and accommodation work in tandem as part of the learning process.Some information is incorporated intoour existing schemasthrough the process of assimilation, while other information leads to the development of new schemas or total transformations of existing ideas through the process of accommodation.

Equilibration

Piaget also believed that as children learn, they strike a balance between the use of assimilation and accommodation. This process, known as equilibration, allows children to find a balance between applying their existing knowledge and adapting their behavior to new information.

According to Piaget, the learning process involves the following:

Assimilation and accommodation are complementary learning processes that play a role at each stage of cognitive development. During thesensorimotor stage, for example, some information is assimilated, while some experiences must be accommodated. It is through these processes that infants, children, and adolescents gain new knowledge and progress through the stages of development.

Examples of Assimilation

Piaget did not believe that children just passively take in information. He argued that they actively try to make sense of the world, constantly forming new ideas and experimenting with those ideas. Examples of assimilation include:

Another common example would behow children learnabout different types of animals. A child might begin with a schema for a dog, which in the child’s mind, is a small, four-legged animal.

When the child encounters a horse, they might assimilate this information and immediately call the animal a dog. The process of accommodation then allows the child to adapt the existing schema to incorporate the knowledge that some four-legged animals are horses.

As the child encounters new information in the world, it can be assimilated or accommodated into this existing schema.

In each of these examples, the individual is adding information to their existing schema. Remember, if new experiences cause the person to alter or completely change their existing beliefs, then it is known as accommodation.

Reasons for Assimilation

Assimilation can be viewed as amental shortcutthat lets us process and categorize massive amounts of information at one time. It plays a significant role in allowing humans to adapt to and learn about their environment—especially during childhood when we’re constantly learning new things.

Of course, assimilation can have its drawbacks. There are times when new information doesn’t fit neatly into an existing category or schema in our minds. This may lead toerrors in judgment.

An example would be a child calling a skunk a “kitty.” However, when the child is taught that this animal is, in fact, a skunk, the animal will be removed from their existing cat schema and enter a new mental category.

Key Takeaways

Understanding assimilation also helps us understand how we learn and process information. It also makes it easier to see how judgment errors can sometimes be made based on existing schemas.

5 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Di Paolo EA, Barandiaran XE, Beaton M, Buhrmann T.Learning to perceive in the sensorimotor approach: Piaget’s theory of equilibration interpreted dynamically.Front Hum Neurosci. 2014;8:551. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00551Ensor JE, Park SE, Attwood SJ, Kaminski AM, Johnson JE.Can community-based adaptation increase resilience?Climate Develop. 2018;10(2):134-151. doi:10.1080/17565529.2016.1223595Lather R.A review of cognitive development: The theory of Jean Piaget.Innov Res Thoughts. 2017;3(11):99-1027.Haratsis JM, Creed PA, Hood M.Measuring assimilative and accommodative resources in young adults: Development and initial validation of suitable scales.Personal Indiv Diff. 2015;81:61-66. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.011Bormanaki HB, Khoshhal Y.The role of equilibration in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and its implication for receptive skills: A theoretical study.J Lang Teach Res.2017;8(5):996. doi:10.17507/jltr.0805.22

5 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Di Paolo EA, Barandiaran XE, Beaton M, Buhrmann T.Learning to perceive in the sensorimotor approach: Piaget’s theory of equilibration interpreted dynamically.Front Hum Neurosci. 2014;8:551. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00551Ensor JE, Park SE, Attwood SJ, Kaminski AM, Johnson JE.Can community-based adaptation increase resilience?Climate Develop. 2018;10(2):134-151. doi:10.1080/17565529.2016.1223595Lather R.A review of cognitive development: The theory of Jean Piaget.Innov Res Thoughts. 2017;3(11):99-1027.Haratsis JM, Creed PA, Hood M.Measuring assimilative and accommodative resources in young adults: Development and initial validation of suitable scales.Personal Indiv Diff. 2015;81:61-66. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.011Bormanaki HB, Khoshhal Y.The role of equilibration in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and its implication for receptive skills: A theoretical study.J Lang Teach Res.2017;8(5):996. doi:10.17507/jltr.0805.22

Di Paolo EA, Barandiaran XE, Beaton M, Buhrmann T.Learning to perceive in the sensorimotor approach: Piaget’s theory of equilibration interpreted dynamically.Front Hum Neurosci. 2014;8:551. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00551Ensor JE, Park SE, Attwood SJ, Kaminski AM, Johnson JE.Can community-based adaptation increase resilience?Climate Develop. 2018;10(2):134-151. doi:10.1080/17565529.2016.1223595Lather R.A review of cognitive development: The theory of Jean Piaget.Innov Res Thoughts. 2017;3(11):99-1027.Haratsis JM, Creed PA, Hood M.Measuring assimilative and accommodative resources in young adults: Development and initial validation of suitable scales.Personal Indiv Diff. 2015;81:61-66. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.011Bormanaki HB, Khoshhal Y.The role of equilibration in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and its implication for receptive skills: A theoretical study.J Lang Teach Res.2017;8(5):996. doi:10.17507/jltr.0805.22

Ensor JE, Park SE, Attwood SJ, Kaminski AM, Johnson JE.Can community-based adaptation increase resilience?Climate Develop. 2018;10(2):134-151. doi:10.1080/17565529.2016.1223595

Lather R.A review of cognitive development: The theory of Jean Piaget.Innov Res Thoughts. 2017;3(11):99-1027.

Haratsis JM, Creed PA, Hood M.Measuring assimilative and accommodative resources in young adults: Development and initial validation of suitable scales.Personal Indiv Diff. 2015;81:61-66. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.011

Bormanaki HB, Khoshhal Y.The role of equilibration in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and its implication for receptive skills: A theoretical study.J Lang Teach Res.2017;8(5):996. doi:10.17507/jltr.0805.22

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How Assimilation Works#

Assimilation vs. Accommodation#

Equilibration#

Examples of Assimilation#

Reasons for Assimilation#

Key Takeaways#