Developmental psychology initially focused on childhood development through Jean Piaget's four stages of human cognitive development, the last stage of which is known as the formal operational stage.

What is postformal thought example?

Examples of Postformal Thought

The means of getting happiness or satisfaction are relative―varies from person to person―but what we want to derive from them is absolute – the feeling. A person may have learned about diet and exercise in school or college.

What is Piaget's postformal thought?

Such thinking has led some developmentalists to formulate a stage beyond Piaget's formal operations stage, which is called postformal thought. Postformal thought involves increased practicality, flexibility, and dialectics — that is, the adult is able to mentally accommodate conflicting or differing ideas.