His view of how children's minds work and develop has been enormously influential,

particularly in educational theory. His particular insight was the role of maturation
(simply growing up) in children's increasing capacity to understand their world: they
cannot undertake certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so. His
research has spawned a great deal more, much of which has undermined the detail of his
own, but like many other original investigators, his importance comes from his overall
vision.

He proposed that children's thinking does not develop entirely smoothly: instead, there
are certain points at which it "takes off" and moves into completely new areas and
capabilities. He saw these transitions as taking place at about 18 months, 7 years and 11
or 12 years. This has been taken to mean that before these ages children are not capable
(no matter how bright) of understanding things in certain ways, and has been used as the
basis for scheduling the school curriculum. Whether or not should be the case is a
different matter.

iaget's Key Ideas

Adaptation What it says: adapting to the world through assimilation and
accommodation
Assimilation The process by which a person takes material into their mind from the
environment, which may mean changing the evidence of their senses
to make it fit.
Accommodation The difference made to one's mind or concepts by the process of
assimilation.
Note that assimilation and accommodation go together: you can't have
one without the other.
Classification The ability to group objects together on the basis of common
features.
Class Inclusion The understanding, more advanced than simple classification, that
some classes or sets of objects are also sub-sets of a larger class. (E.g.
there is a class of objects called dogs. There is also a class called
animals. But all dogs are also animals, so the class of animals
includes that of dogs)
Conservation The realisation that objects or sets of objects stay the same even when
they are changed about or made to look different.
Decentration The ability to move away from one system of classification to another
one as appropriate.
Egocentrism The belief that you are the centre of the universe and everything
revolves around you: the corresponding inability to see the world as
someone else does and adapt to it. Not moral "selfishness", just an
 early stage of psychological development.
Operation The process of working something out in your head. Young children
(in the sensorimotor and pre-operational stages) have to act, and try
things out in the real world, to work things out (like count on fingers):
older children and adults can do more in their heads.
Schema (or The representation in the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas, and/or
scheme) actions, which go together.
Stage A period in a child's development in which he or she is capable of
understanding some things but not others

Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage Characterised by

Sensori-motor Differentiates self from objects

(Birth-2 yrs)
Recognises self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: e.g. pulls a
string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise

Achieves object permanence: realises that things continue to exist even when
no longer present to the sense (pace Bishop Berkeley)

Pre-operational Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words
(2-7 years)
Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others

Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks
regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of colour

Concrete operational Can think logically about objects and events

(7-11 years)
Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9)

Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series
along a single dimension such as size.

Formal operational Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses
(11 years and up) systemtically

Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and ideological

problems
1. Infancy: Birth to 18 Months

Ego Development Outcome: Trust vs. Mistrust

Basic strength: Drive and Hope

Erikson also referred to infancy as the Oral Sensory Stage (as anyone might who watches
a baby put everything in her mouth) where the major emphasis is on the mother's positive
and loving care for the child, with a big emphasis on visual contact and touch. If we pass
successfully through this period of life, we will learn to trust that life is basically okay
and have basic confidence in the future. If we fail to experience trust and are constantly
frustrated because our needs are not met, we may end up with a deep-seated feeling of
worthlessness and a mistrust of the world in general.

Incidentally, many studies of suicides and suicide attempts point to the importance of the
early years in developing the basic belief that the world is trustworthy and that every
individual has a right to be here.

Not surprisingly, the most significant relationship is with the maternal parent, or whoever
is our most significant and constant caregiver.

2. Early Childhood: 18 Months to 3 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Autonomy vs. Shame

Basic Strengths: Self-control, Courage, and Will

During this stage we learn to master skills for ourselves. Not only do we learn to walk,
talk and feed ourselves, we are learning finer motor development as well as the much
appreciated toilet training. Here we have the opportunity to build self-esteem and
autonomy as we gain more control over our bodies and acquire new skills, learning right
from wrong. And one of our skills during the "Terrible Two's" is our ability to use the
powerful word "NO!" It may be pain for parents, but it develops important skills of the
will.

It is also during this stage, however, that we can be very vulnerable. If we're shamed in
the process of toilet training or in learning other important skills, we may feel great
shame and doubt of our capabilities and suffer low self-esteem as a result.

The most significant relationships are with parents.

3. Play Age: 3 to 5 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Initiative vs. Guilt

Basic Strength: Purpose

During this period we experience a desire to copy the adults around us and take initiative
in creating play situations. We make up stories with Barbie's and Ken's, toy phones and
miniature cars, playing out roles in a trial universe, experimenting with the blueprint for
what we believe it means to be an adult. We also begin to use that wonderful word for
exploring the world—"WHY?"

While Erikson was influenced by Freud, he downplays biological sexuality in favor of the
psychosocial features of conflict between child and parents. Nevertheless, he said that at
this stage we usually become involved in the classic "Oedipal struggle" and resolve this
struggle through "social role identification." If we're frustrated over natural desires and
goals, we may easily experience guilt.

The most significant relationship is with the basic family.

4. School Age: 6 to 12 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Industry vs. Inferiority

Basic Strengths: Method and Competence

During this stage, often called the Latency, we are capable of learning, creating and
accomplishing numerous new skills and knowledge, thus developing a sense of industry.
This is also a very social stage of development and if we experience unresolved feelings
of inadequacy and inferiority among our peers, we can have serious problems in terms of
competence and self-esteem.

As the world expands a bit, our most significant relationship is with the school and
neighborhood. Parents are no longer the complete authorities they once were, although
they are still important.

5. Adolescence: 12 to 18 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Identity vs. Role Confusion

Basic Strengths: Devotion and Fidelity

Up to this stage, according to Erikson, development mostly depends upon what is done
to us. From here on out, development depends primarily upon what we do. And while
adolescence is a stage at which we are neither a child nor an adult, life is definitely
getting more complex as we attempt to find our own identity, struggle with social
interactions, and grapple with moral issues.

Our task is to discover who we are as individuals separate from our family of origin and
as members of a wider society. Unfortunately for those around us, in this process many of
us go into a period of withdrawing from responsibilities, which Erikson called a
"moratorium." And if we are unsuccessful in navigating this stage, we will experience
role confusion and upheaval.

A significant task for us is to establish a philosophy of life and in this process we tend to
think in terms of ideals, which are conflict free, rather than reality, which is not. The
problem is that we don't have much experience and find it easy to substitute ideals for
experience. However, we can also develop strong devotion to friends and causes.

It is no surprise that our most significant relationships are with peer groups.

6. Young adulthood: 18 to 35

Ego Development Outcome: Intimacy and Solidarity vs. Isolation

Basic Strengths: Affiliation and Love

In the initial stage of being an adult we seek one or more companions and love. As we try
to find mutually satisfying relationships, primarily through marriage and friends, we
generally also begin to start a family, though this age has been pushed back for many
couples who today don't start their families until their late thirties. If negotiating this
stage is successful, we can experience intimacy on a deep level.

If we're not successful, isolation and distance from others may occur. And when we don't
find it easy to create satisfying relationships, our world can begin to shrink as, in defense,
we can feel superior to others.

Our significant relationships are with marital partners and friends.

7. Middle Adulthood: 35 to 55 or 65

Ego Development Outcome: Generativity vs. Self absorption or Stagnation

Basic Strengths: Production and Care

Now work is most crucial. Erikson observed that middle-age is when we tend to be
occupied with creative and meaningful work and with issues surrounding our family.
Also, middle adulthood is when we can expect to "be in charge," the role we've longer
envied.

The significant task is to perpetuate culture and transmit values of the culture through the
family (taming the kids) and working to establish a stable environment. Strength comes
through care of others and production of something that contributes to the betterment of
society, which Erikson calls generativity, so when we're in this stage we often fear
inactivity and meaninglessness.
As our children leave home, or our relationships or goals change, we may be faced with
major life changes—the mid-life crisis—and struggle with finding new meanings and
purposes. If we don't get through this stage successfully, we can become self-absorbed
and stagnate.

Significant relationships are within the workplace, the community and the family.

8. Late Adulthood: 55 or 65 to Death

Ego Development Outcome: Integrity vs. Despair

Basic Strengths: Wisdom

Erikson felt that much of life is preparing for the middle adulthood stage and the last
stage is recovering from it. Perhaps that is because as older adults we can often look back
on our lives with happiness and are content, feeling fulfilled with a deep sense that life
has meaning and we've made a contribution to life, a feeling Erikson calls integrity. Our
strengt h comes from a wisdom that the world is very large and we now have a detached
concern for the whole of life, accepting death as the completion of life.

On the other hand, some adults may reach this stage and despair at their experiences and
perceived failures. They may fear death as they struggle to find a purpose to their lives,
wondering "Was the trip worth it?" Alternatively, they may feel they have all the answers
(not unlike going back to adolescence) and end with a strong dogmatism that only their
view has been correct.

PIAGET

Preoperational Period

The Preoperational stage is the second of four stages of cognitive development. By

observing sequences of play, Piaget was able to demonstrate that towards the end of the
second year, a qualitatively new kind of psychological functioning occurs.

(Pre)Operatory Thought is any procedure for mentally acting on objects. The hallmark
of the preoperational stage is sparse and logically inadequate mental operations. During
this stage, the child learns to use and to represent objects by images, words, and
drawings. The child is able to form stable concepts as well as mental reasoning and
magical beliefs. The child however is still not able to perform operations; tasks that the
child can do mentally rather than physically. Thinking is still egocentric: The child has
difficulty taking the viewpoint of others. Two substages can be formed from
preoperational thought.

• The Symbolic Function Substage

 Occurs between about the ages of 2 and 7. The child is able to formulate designs
of objects that are not present. Other examples of mental abilities are language
and pretend play. Although there is an advancement in progress, there are still
limitations such as egocentrism and animism. Egocentrism occurs when a child
is unable to distinguish between their own perspective and that of another
person's. Children tend to pick their own view of what they see rather than the
actual view shown to others. An example is an experiment performed by Piaget
and Barbel Inhelder. Three views of a mountain are shown and the child is asked
what a traveling doll would see at the various angles; the child picks their own
view compared to the actual view of the doll. Animism is the belief that inanimate
objects are capable of actions and have lifelike qualities. An example is a child
believing that the sidewalk was mad and made them fall down.

• The Intuitive Thought Substage

Occurs between about the ages of 4 and 7. Children tend to become very curious and ask many
questions; begin the use of primitive reasoning. There is an emergence in the interest of
reasoning and wanting to know why things are the way they are. Piaget called it the intuitive
substage because children realize they have a vast amount of knowledge but they are unaware
of how they know it. Centration and conservation are both involved in preoperational
thought. Centration is the act of focusing all attention on one characteristic compared to the
others. Centration is noticed in conservation; the awareness that altering a substance's
appearance does not change its basic properties. Children at this stage are unaware of
conservation. They are unable to grasp the concept that a certain liquid can stay the same
regardless of the container shape. In Piaget's most famous task, a child is represented with two
identical beakers containing the same amount of liquid. The child usually notes that the
beakers have the same amount of liquid. When one of the beakers is poured into a taller and
thinner container, children who are typically younger than 7 or 8 years old say that the two
beakers now contain a different amount of liquid. The child simply focuses on the height and
width of the container compared to the general concept. Piaget believes that if a child fails the
conservation-of-liquid task, it is a sign that they are at the preoperational stage of cognitive
development. The child also fails to show conservation of number, matter, length, volume, and
area as well. Another example is when a child is shown 7 dogs and 3 cats and asked if there are
more dogs than cats. The child would respond positively. However when asked if there are
more dogs than animals, the child would once again respond positively. Such fundamental
errors in logic show the transition between intuitiveness in solving problems and true logical
reasoning acquired in later years when the child grows up.

Piaget considered that children primarily learn through imitation and play throughout
these first two stages, as they build up symbolic images through internalized activity

Studies have been conducted among other countries to find out if Piaget's theory is
universal Psychologist Patricia Greenfield conducted a task similar to Piaget's beaker
experiment in the West African nation of Senegal. Her results stated that only 50 percent
of the 10-13 year olds understood the concept of conservation.Other cultures such as
central Australia and New Guinea had similar results If adults had not gained this
concept, they would be unable to understand the point of view of another person. There
may have been discrepencies in the communication between the experimenter and the
children which may have altered the results. It has also been found that if conservation is
not widely practiced in a particular country, the concept can be taught to the child and
training can improve the child's understanding. Therefore, it is noted that there are
different age differences in reaching the understanding of conservation based on the
degree to which the culture teaches these tasks.

Concrete operational stage

The Concrete operational stage is the third of four stages of cognitive development in
Piaget's theory. This stage, which follows the Preoperational stage, occurs between the
ages of 7 and 12 years and is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. Important
processes during this stage are:

Seriation—the ability to sort objects in an order according to size, shape, or any other
characteristic. For example, if given different-shaded objects they may make a color
gradient.

Transitivity- The ability to recognize logical relationships among elements in a serial

order (for example, If A is taller than B, and B is taller than C, then A must be taller than
C).

Classification—the ability to name and identify sets of objects according to appearance,

size or other characteristic, including the idea that one set of objects can include another.

Decentering—where the child takes into account multiple aspects of a problem to solve
it. For example, the child will no longer perceive an exceptionally wide but short cup to
contain less than a normally-wide, taller cup.

Reversibility—the child understands that numbers or objects can be changed, then

returned to their original state. For this reason, a child will be able to rapidly determine
that if 4+4 equals t, t−4 will equal 4, the original quantity.

Conservation—understanding that quantity, length or number of items is unrelated to the

arrangement or appearance of the object or items.

Elimination of Egocentrism—the ability to view things from another's perspective

(even if they think incorrectly). For instance, show a child a comic in which Jane puts a
doll under a box, leaves the room, and then Melissa moves the doll to a drawer, and Jane
comes back. A child in the concrete operations stage will say that Jane will still think it's
under the box even though the child knows it is in the drawer. Children in this stage can,
however, only solve problems that apply to actual (concrete) objects or events, and not
abstract concepts or hypothetical tasks.

Formal operational stage

The formal operational period is the fourth and final of the periods of cognitive
development in Piaget's theory. This stage, which follows the Concrete Operational stage,
commences at around 13 years of age (puberty) and continues into adulthood. In this
stage, individuals move beyond concrete experiences and begin to think abstractly,
reason logically and draw conclusions from the information available, as well as apply all
these processes to hypothetical situations The abstract quality of the adolescent's thought
at the formal operational level is evident in the adolescent's verbal problem solving
ability. The logical quality of the adolescent's thought is when children are more likely to
solve problems in a trial-and-error fashion. Adolescents begin to think more as a scientist
thinks, devising plans to solve problems and systematically testing solutions. They use
hypothetical-deductive reasoning, which means that they develop hypotheses or best
guesses, and systematically deduce, or conclude, which is the best path to follow in
solving the problem. During this stage the young adult is able to understand such things
as love, "shades of gray", logical proofs and values. During this stage the young adult
begins to entertain possibilities for the future and is fascinated with what they can be.
Adolescents are changing cognitively also by the way that they think about social
matters. Adolescent Egocentrism governs the way that adolescents think about social
matters and is the heightened self-consciousness in them as they are which is reflected in
their sense of personal uniqueness and invincibility. Adolescent egocentrism can be
dissected into two types of social thinking, imaginary audience that involves attention
getting behavior, and personal fable which involves an adolescent's sense of personal
uniqueness and invincibility.

KOHLBERG

Kohlberg's Theory

Traditionally, psychology has avoided studying anything that is loaded with value
judgements. There is a degree of difficulty involved in trying to be unbiased about things
that involve terms like "good" and "bad!" So, one of the most significant aspects of
human life - morality - has had to wait quite a while before anyone in psychology dared
to touch it! But Lawrence Kohlberg wanted to study morality, and did so using a most
interesting (if controversial) technique. Basically, he would ask children and adults to try
to solve moral dilemmas contained in little stories, and to do so outloud so he could
follow their reasoning. It wasn't the specific answers to the dilemmas that interested him,
but rather how the person got to his or her answer.

One of the most famous of these stories concerned a man named Heinz. His wife was
dying of a disease that could be cured if he could get a certain medicine. When he asked
the pharmacist, he was told that he could get the medicine, but only at a very high price -
one that Heinz could not possibly afford. So the next evening, Heinz broke into the
pharmacy and stole the drug to save his wife's life. Was Heinz right or wrong to steal the
drug?

There are simple reasons why Heinz should or should not have stolen the drug, and there
are very sophisticated reasons, and reasons in between. After looking at hundreds of
interviews using this and several other stories, Kohlberg outlined three broad levels and
six more specific stages of moral development.

Level I: Pre-conventional morality. While infants are essentially amoral, very young
children are moral in a rather primitive way, as described by the two preconventional
stages.

Stage 1. We can call this the reward and punishment stage. Good or bad depends on
the physical consequences: Does the action lead to punishment or reward? This stage is
based simply on one's own pain and pleasure, and doesn't take others into account.

Stage 2. This we can call the exchange stage. In this stage, there is increased
recognition that others have their own interests and should be taken into account. Those
interests are still understood in a very concrete fashion, and the child deals with others in
terms of simple exchange or reciprocity: "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine."
Children in this stage are very concerned with what's "fair" (one of their favorite words),
but are not concerned with real justice.

Level II: Conventional morality. By the time children enter elementary school, they
are usually capable of conventional morality, although they may often slip back into
preconventional morality on occasion. But this level is called conventional for a very
good reason: It is also the level that most adults find themselves in most of the time!
Stage 3. This stage is often called the good boy/good girl stage. The child tries to live
up to the expectations of others, and to seek their approval. Now they become interested
motives or intentions, and concepts such as loyalty, trust, and gratitude are understood.
Children in this stage often adhere to a concrete version of the Golden Rule, although it is
limited to the people they actually deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Stage 4. This is called the law-and-order stage. Children now take the point of view
that includes the social system as a whole. The rules of the society are the bases for right
and wrong, and doing one's duty and showing respect for authority are important.

Level III: Post-conventional morality. Some adolescents and adults go a step further
and rise above moralities based on authority to ones based on reason.
Stage 5. The social contract stage means being aware of the degree to which much of
so-called morality is relative to the individual and to the social group they belong to, and
that only a very few fundamental values are universal. The person at this level sees
morality as a matter of entering into a rational contract with one's fellow human beings to
be kind to each other, respect authority, and follow laws to the extent that they respect
and promote those universal values. Social contract morality often involves a utilitarian
approach, where the relative value of an act is determined by "the greatest good for the
greatest number."

Stage 6. This stage is referred to as the stage of universal principles. At this point, the
person makes a personal commitment to universal principles of equal rights and respect,
and social contract takes a clear back-seat: If there is a conflict between a social law or
custom and universal principles, the universal principles take precedence.

Kohlberg's original work was done with boys. When the research began to include girls,
they found the girls to be less morally "developed" than the boys! Psychologist Carol
Gilligan, involved in that research, began to notice that it wasn't so easy to distinguish
"good boy/good girl" from "universal principles", especially in the girls. Since then,
psychologists have readjusted their work to take into account for the fact that girls often
express their morality in terms that emphasize personal caring more than abstract
principles.