Developmental stages, Piagetian stages in particular: A critical review

•Do developmental stages exist? We think so.•Developmental stages are useful heuristics to chart developmental change.•We argue for a strong, not a weak, conception of development.•We also argue for a non-received view of Piaget's theory.•The received view of Piaget sees him as a psychologist more than an epistemologist.

Developmental stages in general and Piaget's stages in particular have given rise to considerable controversy. Much of this controversy revolves around the responses that have been given to the following five central questions: (1) Do developmental stages exist? (2) If they exist, where are they? (3) What features define a developmental sequence as a sequence of developmental stages? (4) What psychological processes underlie developmental change? (5) Should we abandon the concept of developmental stages? The main goal of this paper is to present a critical review of such responses, while arguing for a strong conception of development and a “non-received” view of Piaget's theory. After an introduction section, we elaborate on each of the five questions. Finally, we present several reasons why this paper often appeals to Piaget's theory, and why his theory has been greatly misunderstood.