Development

1 Infancy and Childhood
2 Adolescence
3 Adulthood
4 Aging
5 Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
6 Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

6 Freud's Psychosexual Stages

Development

1. Throughout life, we experience change in our behavior, feelings, attitudes, thoughts, values, and so forth. Many of these are highly individual, a dramatic response to unusual life events or a simple unfolding of our unique characteristics. Nonetheless, there are regular and predictable physical, mental and social changes that most people undergo in some way.
2. Part of our life is determined by our biological heritage (nature) while part is due to environment (nurture). The interplay of these follows certain patterns that have been studied by developmental psychologists.
3. We will divide human life into four stages from birth to old age and examine one or more of the major changes in each stage.
4. Three psychologists have become legendary in the field of development. We will consider Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development in connection with infants and children. Finally, we will look at Erikson’s theories of identity and Kohlberg’s theories on moral development.
1. Infancy and Childhood (0-12 years)
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1. Piaget’s Stages
• Piaget (1896-1980) described four stages of cognitive development based on extensive observation of his own and other children. Each stage represents a distinct cognitive style--in this sense intellectual development is not a uniform gradual process but a series of jumps.
• Piaget believed that the stages are biologically based and universal. All children pass through each one at roughly the same ages, though some children are faster and some slower.
• Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
• At this stage children learn about the world by sensation and movement, they touch, shake, taste and throw everything to learn what it is.
• During this stage, children develop:
• object permanence: the knowledge that objects continue to exist and have their properties even when out of sight
• schemas: mental representations of the world
• Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
• At this stage children are pre-logical but are involved in the development of symbolic thought, the use of words, pictures and other representations of the world. Their cognitive processes are characterized by:
• centration: centering or focussing on one aspect of a situation and may disregard other relevant aspects
• no conservation: an inability to recognize that the amount of a substance is constant regardless of the shape of its container; the lack of conservation also reflects irreversibility and centration:
• A child sees two identical glasses that contain the same amount of juice and declares them to be the same. Daddy pours the juice from one into a tall thin glass. The child declares that one to hold more: The child cannot picture reversing the process to pour the juice in the taller glass back into the other and focuses on the height of the glass while ignoring its narrower width.
• egocentrism: children at this stage see the world only from their own perspective (this refers to cognitive ability not to selfishness in general)
• irreversibility: an inability to reverse the steps of a process or logical sequence
• Concrete Operational Stage (7-11)
• At this stage, children begin to use logic with respect to concrete (tangible, not abstract) objects and real events. They are:
• less egocentric
• aware of conservation
• able to reverse processes
• Formal Operational Stage (teens and beyond)
• At this stage, children become systematic and logical even about abstractions or hypothetical situations.
• Formal operational abilities develop gradually over a long period of time. Even as adults we tend to have more formal operational thought in areas where we have greater knowledge and experience and less in others.
2. Challenges to Piaget
• Research has largely confirmed Piaget's notion that children progress through a set of cognitively distinct stages, though it appears that Piaget underestimated the child's early abilities.
• Renée Baillargeon (pronounced by-yuh-zyon) studied object permanence in infants. Piaget did not find object permanence until about 9 months, but Baillargeon observed that infants as young as three and a half months looked longer at the "impossible carrot event."
• A short carrot passes behind a screen and is too short to show up as it passes behind a window, no big deal. The tall carrot should be visible when it passes behind the window. If it is not there, the 3½ month infant is surprised.
3. Parenting Styles
• Baumrind has described three basic parenting styles: authoritarian, authoritative and permissive. Other psychologists have differentiated between two permissive styles.
• These four diverge along two dimensions:
• Control of their children’s behavior
• Responsiveness to their children’s feelings and needs

	Low Control	High Control
Low Responsiveness	Permissive-indifferent	Authoritarian
High Responsiveness	Permissive-indulgent	Authoritative

• Authoritarian parents set strict rules that are to be obeyed without question. The child is not consulted or considered in setting or implementing the rules
• Children raised with this style are likely to be fearful, irritable, moody, unhappy, unspontaneous and withdrawn.
• Permissive parents do not set or enforce clear and consistent rules.
• Children are more upbeat but also aggressive, immature, and impulsive
• Authoritative parents set and enforce clear and consistent rules, but do so in consideration of the child's needs. The rules are based on reasons that are discussed with the child. Exceptions might be made, again with good reason. They are also warm and supportive.
• Children are cheerful, energetic, friendly, and socially competent. They also get the best grades of any of the three groups.
2. Adolescence (12-18 years or so)
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1. From Parents to Peers
• Adolescents are between childhood and adulthood.
• This is the period during which people reach physical and sexual maturity, but during which most people do not yet have adult responsibilities or the emotional resources of adulthood.
• The influence of parents remains strong, but is increasingly replaced by input from peers and other adults (teachers, coaches, etc).
• Stereotypically, there is substantial strife between adolescents and their parents, but if the pre-adolescent relationship was good, the parent-child relationship usually continues to be healthy during this period.
• Peer pressure is not necessarily bad, again assuming that parents set good examples before adolescence.
• Most teenagers select friends who are like themselves, including having the same values, goals, morals, and so forth.
2. Identity Formation
• Adolescence is a period critical to the formation of identity and self-concept (see Erikson's Stages below).
• Adolescents begin to have the cognitive skills to view themselves in more abstract and idealized ways.
• Fixed or given characteristics, such as gender, race, ethnic background, or socioeconomic standing, are usually internalized by this time.
• Less fixed attributes, such as academic skills and interests, athletic ability, social skills, and personal style, are explored.
• Adolescents are often exposed to a greater variety of people and social situations.
• The adolescent needs to begin to establish an identity independent of parental identity and expectations (though not necessarily in contrast to these).
3. Adulthood (19-65 years)
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1. Marriage and Family
• The increased responsibilities and time commitments of adulthood tend to reduce the large number of friends that many people have during adolescence.
• Friendship can remain critically important.
• Romantic involvement (often wide-ranging, sporadic or non-existent during adolescence) typically narrows to potential mates, culminating in marriage (or something like it).
• Research confirms what we generally know: people tend to marry someone like themselves.
• After pairing-up, socializing tends to involve other couples.
• The most dramatic developmental event in adulthood is often becoming a parent.
• There is a fundamental change of identity that comes with the shift in commitment from your own well-being to the well-being of the next generation.
• Although, child rearing can be delightful and deeply satisfying, research has shown that marital satisfaction declines after children arrive.
• Nearly one-third of children are being raised by a single parent.
• Contrary to Dan Quayle's pronouncements, such children seem to do as well as children in two parent homes.
2. Work and Career
• Adulthood is the time during which most people carry on their life's work.
• In contemporary America, many people, especially women need to work both outside the home (to earn a living) and at home (raising the kids, etc).
• Although such double demands are stereotypically stressful, multiple roles can provide diverse opportunities for satisfaction.
• Research has shown that difficulty finding well-paying or interesting work or struggles with child care can be unpleasantly stressful (for men or women).
4. Aging (65 and more years)
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1. Cognitive Changes
• Schaie followed thousands of adults over several decades and found that cognitive abilities increase up to about age 40 and are stable until about 60.
• After 60, some adults showed declines in logic, math, memory and spatial tasks.
• The decline was typically caused by lack of practice and could be minimized by mental exercise.
• Active, well-educated people showed the smallest declines.
2. Changes in Activity
• Stereotypically, older adults become less active, but this is not necessarily the case.
• In contrast, the activity theory of aging proposes that an active, stimulating life leads to greatest satisfaction.
• Older adults may continue to engage in the same pursuits they followed while younger, or develop new ones.
• As they age, people tend to be similar to how they were at younger ages (a crabby old guy was probably a crabby twenty year old).
• Social contact may decrease for older people, but at least one close friendship promotes the highest levels of psychological health.
5. Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
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• Erik Erikson (1902-1994) was a psychoanalyst who described development as a series of eight psychosocial stages.
• At each stage there is a central conflict that the individual can resolve positively or negatively.
• The nature of the resolution depends largely on relationships with others, though the individual's own choices also play a part.

6. Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
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1. Preconventional Level: Moral reasoning is guided by external consequences with no internalization of values or rules.
1. Punishment and Obedience
• It is right to obey the rules simply to avoid punishment because others have power over you and can punish you. Eg, Heinz shouldn't steal the drug because he'd go to jail if caught.
2. Mutual Benefit
• What is right is an even or fair exchange in which both parties benefit. Moral reasoning is guided by a sense of fair play. Eg, Heinz should steal the drug because the druggist is being greedy.
2. Conventional Level: Moral reasoning is guided by conformity to expectations, rules, and social roles that are learned and internalized.
3. Interpersonal Expectations
• It is right to be a good person by conforming to social expectations, such as showing concern for others and following rules set by others so as to win their approval. Eg, Heinz should steal the drug because that's what a devoted husband would do.
4. Law and Order
• It is right to help maintain social order by doing one's duty, obeying laws simply because they are laws, and showing respect for authorities just because they are authorities. Eg, Heinz should not steal the drug because that would be against the law.
3. Postconventional Level: Moral reasoning is guided by internalized legal and moral principles that protect the rights of all members of society.
5. Legal Principles
• It is right to help to protect the basic rights of all members of society by upholding the principles of laws that promote the values of fairness, justice, equality, and democracy. Eg, Heinz should steal the drug because his obligation to save his wife's life is bigger than his obligation to respect the druggist's property rights.
6. Universal Moral Principles
• It is right to follow self-chosen ethical principles that underscore one's profound respect for ideals such as the sanctity of human life, nonviolence, equality, and human dignity. When these moral principles are in conflict with democratically determined laws, the person's self-chosen moral principles take precedence (such as for a conscientious objector). Eg, Heinz should steal the drug, even if it were for a stranger and not for his wife, because his conscience tells him to value life over money.
7. Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development
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• Freud held that our personality starts to develop very early. Starting at birth and running through puberty, we pass through a progression of psychosexual stages which correspond to different parts of the body from which the id is seeking pleasure:
• oral stage (0-1): feeding, biting, chewing
• anal stage (1-4): toilet training with a concern for cleanliness and control
• phallic stage (4-6): pleasure from the genitals, this is where the Oedipal conflict arises and must be resolved
• latency period (7-puberty): decrease in sexuality, increase in same-sex friendships
• genital stage (puberty): combination of sexual desire and affection for others develops the capacity for adult love
• Freud speculated that there are conflicts and troubles to be resolved at each stage.
• Too much or too little gratification at a given stage can result in a fixation.
• Those who receive too much gratification during the oral stage become too dependent on others.
• Those with too much gratification during the anal stage become compulsively neat.
• A failure to resolve the conflict resulted in adult difficulties.
• Eg, during the phallic stage, children develop sexual interest in the opposite sex parent (according to Freud) and want to harm or kill the same sex parent. This is the famous Oedipal conflict.
• The fear of punishment for these desires is a primary source of our conscience.

Anthony G Benoit  abenoit@trcc.commnet.edu
(860) 885-2386

Revised