How do we develop?

· Many think that we go though stages.

· Famous stage theories

§ Piaget’s cognitive development (From France came to U of M once spoke for two hours in French no one understood)

§ Kohlberg’s moral development

§ Gilligan’s moral development

§ Erikson’s personality development

· Still controversial

Piaget’s cognitive development

· We go through stages to increase our understanding of the world (perception of the world different as we grow older and go through changes)

· Understanding – “schema”

· Development proceeds form “simple” to “complex”.

· E.g., earliest schema – sucking schema (watching kids suck thumbs and suck other things too)

· Two mechanisms

§ Assimilation

§ Accommodation

· Assimilation – add new information to the existing schema.

· Accommodation – add new information by modifying the existing schema

· Dramatic change – new stage

· We go through 4 stages

§ Sensorimotor

§ Preoperational

§ Concrete operational

§ Formal operational (We are now, not everyone reaches)

Sensorimotor Stage

· Infancy 2 weeks to 2 years

· Understand the world by manipulating objects.

· Sucking, grasping, hitting, throwing

· By doing this, infants develop important concepts.

· E.g., “Object permanence”

Object Permanence

· This world goes beyond what you can immediately perceive.

· Even though objects cannot be seen, they do not simply disappear (Where are animals inside the classroom)

· Expands the world

· Gives them ability to think about something they cannot perceive – mental images.

Preoperational Stage

· Early childhood 2 to 7 years old.

· Use mental image to think

· But, has number of limitations

§ Egocentrism

§ Reversibility

§ Conservation

§ Transductive thinking

Egocentrism

· They can only see the world from their own perspective.

· “The moon is nice.” Hajmai’s daughter

· “He is coming home with me.” Hajmai’s daughter

· “Animism”

§ muppets are real

§ They are talking to me

Reversibility

· Can’t reverse the logical operation

· “Do you have a brother?”

· “Yes.”

· “What’s his name?”

· “Jim.”

· “Does Jim have a brother?”

· “No.”

Conservation

· Cannot conserve.

· The quantity of a matter does not change just because you change its shape (same amount of water in different containers)

Transductive thinking

· Error in cause and effect

· “Frogs cause rain.”

· “Frogs were everywhere when it rained.”

Concrete Operational Stage

· Middle childhood 7 to 11 years old

· Overcome the limitations

· Start to think like an adult

· But, cannot deal with abstract concepts.

§ X+Y+Z = P

Formal Operational Stage

· Adolescence to adulthood

· Become capable of dealing with abstract concepts

Moral development

· Very similar to cognitive development

· Kohlberg

· Used moral dilemma

Preconventional

· Early childhood

· No sense of morality

· Their judgment is based on reward and punishment

· Stage 1 – avoid punishment

· Stage 2 – fair exchange

Conventional Level

· Middle to late childhood

· What others think becomes very important

· Stage 3 – Please others

· Stage 4 – Please authority

§ Important – duty, rule, and social order

Post Conventional Level

· Adolescence to adulthood

· Based their judgment on ethical principle

· Stage 5 – Follow rules with recognition of ethical principle

· Stage 6 – Follow universal ethical principles

Gilligan

· Disagrees

· Kohlberg – justice orientation

· Gilligan – caring orientation

§ What would help or hurt other people

Preconventional

· Morality as Individual Survival\

· What would help me is good, what would hurt me is bad.

Conventional

· Morality as Self-sacrifice

· To be good, need approval of others

· To do so, sacrifice your own needs and meet the needs of others

Postconventional

· Morality as Equality

· Sacrifice should be shared equally

· My needs are as important as yours

· It’s not right for me to get hurt when you are not hurting

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