What do you understand about Piaget’s formal operational stage of cognitive development?

Piaget believed that there were four main stages of cognitive development namely, the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. The formal operational stage of cognitive development begins at 12 years and goes on till adulthood. During this stage, children start thinking about the consequences of their actions, start developing problem solving skills, and start developing deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning skills. During this stage, teens start thinking about issues that require abstract and theoretical reasoning such as moral, social, ethical, political, and philosophical issues. Read Full Lesson: Piaget's Formal Operational Stage