Theories of

Development
{
Lifespan Development
  The pattern of continuity and change in
human capabilities that occurs
throughout life, involving both growth
and decline
 These changes occur on 3 different
levels:
 Physical
 Cognitive
 Socioemotional

development
Erik Erickson

{PSYCHOSOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
 Erikson maintained that personality develops in a predetermined
order through eight stages of psychosocial development, from
infancy to adulthood.
 During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis
which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality
development.
 For Erikson (1958, 1963), these crises are of a psychosocial nature
because they involve psychological needs of the individual (i.e.,
psycho) conflicting with the needs of society (i.e., social).
 According to the theory, successful completion of each stage results
in a healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues. Basic
virtues are characteristic strengths which the ego can use to
resolve subsequent crises.
 Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a reduced
ability to complete further stages and therefore a more unhealthy

Erik Erikson
personality and sense of self. These stages, however, can be
resolved successfully at a later time.

Psychosocial Stages of
Dev.
 Eric Erickson
Psychosocial Development Stages

 Trust vs mistrust (birth – 1 year)

 Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt (1 -3 years)
 Initiative vs Guilt (3 – 6 years)
 Industry vs Inferiority (6 -11 years)
 Identity vs Role Confusion (Adolescence)
 Intimacy vs Isolation (early adulthood)
 Generativity vs Stagnation (middle adulthood)
 Ego Integrity vs Despair (late adulthood)
 Erik Erikson
Psychosocial Stages of Development

 TRUST VS MISTRUST
(Birth- 1 yr)
 From warm, responsive
care, infants gain a
sense of trust, or
confidence that the
world is good
 Mistrust occurs when
infants have to wait
too long for comfort
and are handled
harshly
Psychosocial Stages of Development
Autonomy vs Shame & Doubt

 1 - 3 years old
 Using new mental &
motor skill, children
want to choose and
decide for themselves
 Autonomy is fostered
when parents permits
reasonable free
choice and do not
force or shame the
child
Psychosocial Stages of Development
Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6 yrs)

 Through make- believe play, children explore

the kind of person they can become
 Initiative is a sense of ambition responsibility)
develops when parents their child’s new sense of
purpose
 When parents demand too much self control,
guilt develops
Psychosocial Stages of Development
Industry vs. Inferiority (6-11yrs)

 At school, children
develop the capacity
to work and cooperate
with others
 Inferiority develops
when negative
experiences at home,
school or with peers
lead to feelings of
incompetence
(inferiority complex,
superiority complex)
Psychosocial Stages of Development
Identity vs. Role Confusion Adolescence

 The adolescent tries to

answer the question,
“who am I?” and “what
is my place in society?”
 By exploring values,
the young person forms
a personal identity
 The negative outcome
is confusion about
future adult roles
(identity crisis)
Psychosocial Stages of Development
Intimacy vs. Isolation early adulthood

 Young adults work

on establishing
intimate ties to
others
 Because of earlier
disappointments,
some individuals
form close
relationships &
remain Isolated
Psychosocial Stages of Development
Generativity vs. Stagnation Middle Adult

 Middle- aged adults

contribute to the next
generation through child
rearing, caring for other
people, or productive work
 The person who fails in
these ways feels the
absence of meaningful
accomplishment and feels
stagnant
Psychosocial Stages of Development
Ego Integrity vs. Despair Late adulthood

 Elders reflect on the kind of person they have

been
 Integrity results from feeling that life was worth
living as it happened
 Those who are dissatisfied with their lives fear
death
Jean Piaget
{COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
 Piaget's (1936) theory of cognitive development explains how a
child constructs a mental model of the world.
 He disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a fixed trait, and
regarded cognitive development as a process which occurs due to
biological maturation and interaction with the environment
 Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study
of cognitive development.
 His contributions include a stage theory of child cognitive
development, detailed observational studies of cognition in
children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal
different cognitive abilities.
 What Piaget wanted to do was not to measure how well children
could count, spell or solve problems as a way of grading their
Intelligence.
 What he was more interested in was the way in which fundamental

Jean Piaget
concepts like the very idea of number, time,
quantity, causality, justice and so on emerged.

Cognitive
Development
Jean Piaget
Cognitive Development
 A child’s mental growth has the
ability to adopt to new situations
(via Assimilation &
Accommodation)
 Assimilation is the process of
including a new event into one’s
existing inner view of the world
 Accommodation is the process of
changing one’s inner view &
behavior when new information
requires change
 Mental growth takes place in 4
stages & a child reacts
differently at each stage…
 Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
 During this period, Piaget
infants develop an
understanding of the
world through trial and
error using their senses
and actions (i.e., motor
movements)
 The child develops
basic ideas of cause &
effect & object
permanence
 Infants “think” by
acting on the world
with their eyes, ears,
hands and mouth
Preoperational (2- 7 years)
Piaget
 The child begins to
represent the world
Symbolically
 During this period, children
are thinking at a symbolic
level but are not yet using
cognitive operations.
 The child's thinking during
this stage is pre (before)
operations.
 This means the child cannot
use logic or transform,
combine or separate ideas
 Development of language
and make believe play
takes place
 Concrete Operational (7- 11 years)
 This stage lasts is characterized by the Piaget
development of organized and rationale
thinking.
 Piaget (1954a) considered the concrete
stage a major turning point in the child's
cognitive development, because it marks
the beginning of logical or operational
thought.
 The child is now mature enough to use
logical thought or operations (i.e. rules)
but can only apply logic to physical
objects (hence concrete operational).
 Children gain the abilities of
conservation (number, area, volume,
orientation), reversibility, seriation,
transitivity and class inclusion However,
although children can solve problems in
a logical fashion, they are typically not
able to think abstractly or hypothetically.
 However, thinking is not yet abstract
Formal Operational (12-
Adulthood) Piaget
 As adolescents enter this stage,
they gain the ability to think in an
abstract manner by manipulate
ideas in their head, without any
dependence on concrete
manipulation
 He/she can do mathematical
calculations, think creatively, use
abstract reasoning, and imagine the
outcome of particular actions.
 The capacity of abstract thought
 Systematic thinking is enabled
{
Hypothetico
deductive reasoning
This is the ability to think
{
Abstract Thought
 Concrete operations are
scientifically through carried out on things
generating predictions, or whereas formal operations
hypotheses, about the are carried out on ideas.
world to answer  The individual can think
questions. about hypothetical and
abstract concepts they
 The individual will
have yet to experience.
approach problems in a  Abstract thought is
systematic and organized
important for planning
manner, rather than regarding the future.
through trial-and-error.

Formal Operational (12- Adulthood)

THOUGHT Piaget
Lawrence
Kohlberg
{MORAL DEVELOPMENT
  Moral Stages of Development
 In 1958, Kohlberg began his study of
moral thinking by creating stories and
asking children, adolescents and adults
questions about the stories

Lawrence Kholberg
  For example;
 A man, Heinz, whose wife is dying of cancer, knows
about a drug that might save her life. He approaches
the pharmacist who has the drug, but the pharmacist
refuses to give him the drug without being paid a
very high price. Heinz is unable to scrape together
the money and eventually decides to steal the drug
 Should Heinz have stolen the drug?
 Why?
 Based on the response given, he developed 3
levels of morality (each with 2 stages)

Lawrence Kholberg
moral stages of development
Lawrence Kholberg
moral stages of development

PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL
 Stage 1: Heteronomous Morality

 Stage 2: Individualism, Purpose, and Exchange

CONVENTIONAL LEVEL
 Stage 3: Mutual interpersonal expectations,

relationships, and interpersonal conformity

 Stage 4: social system morality

POSTCONVENTIONAL LEVEL
 Stage 5: social contract/ utility & individual rights

 Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles

  Preconventional level

 Is based primarily on punishments and

rewards from the external world

Lawrence Kholberg
moral stages of development
  Conventional level

 The individual abides by standards such

as those learned from parents or
society’s laws

Lawrence Kholberg
moral stages of development
  Postconventional level

 The individual recognizes alternative

moral courses, explores the options, and
then develops an increasingly personal
moral code

Lawrence Kholberg
moral stages of development
Lawrence Kholberg
moral stages of development