Understanding Developmental Psychology: Piaget & Kohlberg's Theories

1. Good Morning! Please take a seat and direct your attention to the board.

2. Developmental Psychology • The psychology specialty that studies how organisms change over time as the result of biological and environmental influences.

3. Overview • Piaget • Continuity vs. discontinuity • Piaget’s stages of cognitive development • Kohlberg • Six stages of moral reasoning

4. Jean Piaget • Pioneer in developmental psychology. • For nearly 50 years studied the cognitive behavior of children.

5. Piaget’s Discontinuity Stage Model Formal Operational Stage Concrete Operational Stage Preoperational Stage Sensorimotor Stage

6. Sensorimotor • Birth – 2 years • Child relies heavily on innate motor responses to stimuli. • Object Permanence • Wynn’s number study. (Argument)

7. Preoperational • 2 years – 6 or 7 years • Well-developed mental representation and the use of language. • Two major concepts children begin to understand. • Sense of self • Theory of Mind

8. Preoperational • Two “flaws” with the development. • Egocentrism – “World revolves around me” • Animistic Thinking – “Bad table!”

9. Concrete Operational • 6 years – 12 years • Child thinks logically but is unable to understand abstract thought. • Irreversibility • Sally’s box of raisins.

10. Formal Operational • 12 years - adult • Think logically about abstract thoughts. • If this, then that.

11. Reflection • Human cognition unfolds basically in the sequence he proposed. • While specific ages are less accurate. • Research shows that cognition development is more a continuous line than Piaget’s Stages.

12. Lawrence Kohlberg • Looked to describe the development of moral reasoning, by using Piaget’s view of cognitive development.

13. Moral Development • Kohlberg created a series of moral dilemmas and administered them to children, teens, and adults. With his findings he created the moral ladder. Preconventional Six stages broken into three levels Conventional Postconventional

14. Preconventional • Stage 1 • Reward and punishment. • No concern for others. • Stage 2 • Seek personal gain by appealing to another person’s self interest. “You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.”

15. Conventional • Stage 3 • Seek social approval and keeping everyone happy. • Based on personal relationships rather than principle. • Stage 4 • Emphasis on laws, rules, policies, etc… • Maintaining social order is paramount.

16. Postconventional • Stage 5 • (Social contract stage) rules and laws are flexible and can be changed by social consensus. • Emphasis on fairness, rather than blind obedience. • Stage 6 • Universal principles of conscience that he or she would apply to all people in all situations. • Abstract principles that often refer to dignity and worth of a person.

17. Activity

18. Closing Thoughts • You can see that Kohlberg’s stages parallel Piaget’s theory. • Early stages are mostly based on self interest (Egocentrism) • While later stages focus on other peoples expectations. • Unfortunately not all people move on to the later stages. Kohlberg found that many adults never even reach stage 4. • At home look up Carol Gillagan, she strongly disagreed with Kohlberg.