© San Mateo Municipal College All Rights Reserved

V BF

MODULE03

INTROPSY
INTRODUCTION TO
PSYCHOLOGY

to your third module!

This module is a combination of

synchronous& asynchronous learning
and will last for two weeks.

ALONDRA ARA A. MENA,

RPm
Instructor

October 4, 2021
Date Initiated
October 12, 2021
San Mateo Municipal College Date of Completion
Gen. Luna St. Guitnang Bayan I, San Mateo, Rizal
Tel. No. (02) 997-9070
www.smmc.edu.ph

San Mateo Municipal College Introduction

Bachelor of Science in Psychology
No to Psychology
part of this module may be
reproduced, distributed, A.
Ms. Alondra Ara or Mena, RPm
transmitted in
any form or by any means without the
prior permission of the instructor.
© San Mateo Municipal College All Rights Reserved

GENERAL
PSYCHOLOGY
MODULE 03: THEORIES OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

San Mateo Municipal College Introduction to Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 © San Mateo Municipal College All Rights Reserved

INPUT INFORMATION:

MODULE 3: THEORIES OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Several major theories provide key frameworks for personality development.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

According to Piaget, children progress through four distinct

cognitive stages.

Piaget believed that children actively try to make sense out of

their environment rather than passively soaking up
information about the world.

Piaget observed his own three children in developing his

theory.

As a child advances to a new stage, his thinking is

qualitatively different from that of the previous stage. In other words, each new stage represents a
fundamental shift in how the child thinks and understands the world.

Piaget saw this progression of cognitive development as a continuous, gradual process. As a

child develops and matures, she does not simply acquire more information. Rather, she develops
new understandings of the world in each progressive stage, building on the understandings
acquired in the previous stage.

SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
- Extends from birth until about two years of age.
- During this stage, the infant acquires knowledge about the world through actions
that allow him to directly experience and manipulate objects.
- He also expands his knowledge about motor actions, like reaching, grasping,
pushing, pulling, and pouring. In the process, the infant gains a basic
understanding of the effects that his own actions can produce, such as pushing
a button to turn on the television or knocking over a pile of blocks to make them
crash and tumble.
- At the beginning of this stage, the motto seems to be, “Out of sight, out of
mind”. An object exists only if she can directly sense it.
Example:
A four-month-old infant knocks a ball underneath the couch, and it rolls out of sight, she will not look for it.
Piaget interpreted this response to mean that, to the infant, the ball no longer exists.
- However, by the end of the sensorimotor stage, the child acquires a new cognitive understanding, called
object permanence.
OBJECT PERMANENCE- the understanding that an object continues to exist even if it can’t be seen.

San Mateo Municipal College Introduction to Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 © San Mateo Municipal College All Rights Reserved

Now, the infant will actively search for a ball that she has watched roll out of sight.
Infants gradually acquire an understanding of object permanence as they gain experience with objects, as
their memory abilities improve, and as they develop mental representations of the world, which Piaget called
as SCHEMAS.

THE PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGE

- Last from age 2 to 7 years.
- In Piaget’s theory the word “operational” refers to
logical, mental activities. Thus, preoperational
stage is a prelogical stage.
- The hallmark of preoperational thought is the child’s
capacity to engage in symbolic thought.
SYMBOLIC THOUGHT- refers to the ability to use
words, images, and symbols to represent the world.
- EGOCENTRISIM- by this, Piaget did not mean
selfishness or conceit. Rather, the egocentric child
lacks the ability to consider events from another
person’s point of view.
Example: The child may think that his mother would like a new toy car for her birthday because that’s what
he wants.
Egocentric thought is also operating when the child silently nods his head in answer to Grandpa’s
question on the telephone.
- the preoperational child’s thought is also characterized by irreversibility and centration.
IRREVERSIBILITY- the child cannot mentally reverse a sequence of events or logical operations back to
the starting point.
Example: They don’t understand that adding “3 plus 1” and adding 1 plus 3” refer to the same logical
operation.
CENTRATION- refers to the tendency to focus, or center, on only one aspect of a situation, usually a
perceptual aspect. In doing so, the child ignores other relevant aspects of the situation.
- CONSERVATION- the classic demonstration illustrates the preoperational child’s inability to understand
conservation. It is the principle that holds that equal physical quantities, remain equal even if the appearance
of one is changed, as long as nothing is added or subtracted. Because of centration, the child cannot
simultaneously consider the height and the width of the liquid in the container. Instead, the child focuses on
only one aspect of the situation, the height of the liquid.
- IRREVERSIBILITY- because of the irreversibility, the child cannot cognitively reverse the series of events,
mentally returning the poured liquid back to its original container. Thus, she fails to understand that the two
amounts of liquid are still the same.

CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE

- At around age 7, The child becomes capable of true logical thought. The child is much less egocentric in his
thinking, can reverse mental operations, and can focus simultaneously on two aspects of a problem. In
short, he understands the principles of conservation.
EXAMPLE:

San Mateo Municipal College Introduction to Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 © San Mateo Municipal College All Rights Reserved

When presented with two rows of coins, each row, being equally spaced, the concrete operational child now
understands that the number of coins in each row remains the same even when the spacing between the coins in
one row is increased.

As the name of this stage implies, the child’s thinking and use of logic tend to be limited to concrete reality—to
tangible objects and events. The child in the concrete operational stage often has difficulty thinking logically about
hypothetical situations or abstract ideas.
Example:
An eight-year-old will explain the concept of friendship in very tangible terms, such as saying “Friendship is when
someone plays with me.

FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE

At the beginning of the adolescence, the child enters the formal operational stage.
In terms of problem solving, the formal operational adolescent is much more systematic and logical than the
concrete operational child.
- Formal operational thought reflects the ability to think logically even when dealing with abstract concepts or
hypothetical situations.
- In contrast to concrete operational child, the formal operational adolescent explains friendship by emphasizing
more global and abstract characteristics, such as mutual trust, empathy, loyalty, consistency, and shared beliefs.

FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL THEORY

According to Freud, people progress through five psychosexual stages of development. The foundations of adult
personality are established during the first five years of life, as the child progresses through the oral, anal, and phallic
psychosexual stages.
- Each psychosexual stage represents a different focus of the Id’s sexual energies. Freud contended that “sexual life
does not begin only at puberty, but starts with clear manifestations after birth.” This statement is often
misinterpreted. Freud was not saying that an infant experiences sexual urges in the same way as an adult. Instead,
Freud believed that the infant or young child expresses primitive sexual urges by seeking sensual pleasure from
different body areas.
1. ORAL PHASE-approximately the first 18 months of life.
Erogenous zones: Mouth, lips, and tongue.
Oral Fixation: Excessive aggression, needs for oral satisfaction, smoking, drinking, constantly put
hands to the mouth.
ORAL CHARACTER TYPES:
Oral Receptive/Dependent- Gullible, passive, and need lots of attention, affection, and
attachment. (3As)
Oral Aggressive- Argumentative and exploitative

2. ANAL PHASE-child reach of above 18 months.

Erogenous zone: Anal region
Anal Fixation: excessively orderly, stubborn, or generous, depending on how their toilet training
progress.
ANAL CHARACTER TYPES:
Anal Retentive: Stubborn, stingy, compulsively clean (OCPD)
Anal Expulsive: Disorder, messy, destructive or cruel.

San Mateo Municipal College Introduction to Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
© San Mateo Municipal College All Rights Reserved

3. PHALLIC PHASE-occurs when child is approximately 3-6 years old.

Erogenous zone: Genitals

Later at this stage, Child goes through the Oedipus Complex—named for the Greek mythological character who
unknowingly marries his mother. Freud argued that young boys have children at this stage develop a sexual
attraction for their opposite sex parent.
Castration Anxiety- Boys develop castration anxiety, the fear that their father will discover their thoughts and will
cut-off the son’s penis. So strong is the boy’s fear of castration that he is forced to repress his sexual desire for his
mother. To Freud, this was a way of resolving the oedipal conflict. The boy replaces the sexual longing for the mother
with a more acceptable affection and develops a strong identification with the mother.

Boys:
OEDIPUS COMPLEX------> CASTRATION ANXIETY-----→ IDENTIFICATION----→ SUPEREGO

Penis Envy-The desire for girls, upon seeing genitals, to have a penis. It is coupled with inferiority and jealousy
because of its absence.
Girls:
PENIS ENVY----→ OEDIPUS COMPLEX ----→ SELF-DEFEATING DESIRES -----→ IDENTIFICATION --→
WEAK SUPEREGO

OEDIPUS COMPLEX
The resolution of the Oedipus complex serves a number of important functions. By identifying with the same-sex
parent, boys begin to take on masculine characteristics; girls take on feminine characteristics. This is the age at
which the children adopt the values and standards of their parents.

Freud objected the term ELEKTRA COMPLEX, (he insisted that it should be called Female Oedipus Complex).
Freud believed that no such parallel exists and the difference in anatomy determine different course in male and
female sexual development after phallic stage. (see table 2.1, pg. 49 on your theories of personality book)

The female Oedipus complex, Freud suggested, can never be totally resolved, a situation he believed led to poorly
developed superegos in women. Freud wrote that an adult woman’s love for a man is always tinged with a
penis envy, for which she can partially compensate for having a male child. The girl comes to identify with
the mother and repress her love for her father, but Freud was not specific about how this occurs.

1. LATENCY PERIOD- approximately 4 or 5 years old

Sexual desires abate during these years, only to return strongly when the child reaches puberty. Boys
and girls seem fairly uninterested in each other. A look in any playground will verify that boys play with
other boys and girls with play with other girls.
2. GENITAL PHASE- final phase of psychosexual development. Once the child reaches the Genital phase
and reaches puberty, the erogenous focus on genitals will return.
3. MATURITY- The genital period begins at puberty and continues throughout the individual’s lifetime. It
is a stage attained by everyone who reaches physical maturity. Freud conceptualized this stage after a
person has passed through the earlier developmental periods in ideal manner.

San Mateo Municipal College Introduction to Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
© San Mateo Municipal College All Rights Reserved

ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY

SUMMARY OF ERIKSON’S EIGHT STAGES OF THE LIFE CYCLE

STAGE PSYCHOSOCIAL CRISIS BASIC STRENGTH CORE PATHOLOGY

8- Old Age Integrity vs. Despair Wisdom Disdain

7- Adulthood Generativity vs. Stagnation Care Rejectivity

6- Young Adulthood Intimacy vs. Isolation Love Exclusivity

5- Adolescence Identity vs. Identity Fidelity Role repudiation

Confusion
4- School Age Industry vs. Inferiority Competence Inertia

3-Play Age Initiative vs. Guilt Purpose Inhibition

2-Early Childhood Autonomy vs. Shame and Will Compulsion

Doubt
1-Infancy Basic Trust vs. Basic Hope Withdrawal
Mistrust

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MORAL REASONING

An important aspect of cognitive development during adolescence is a change in moral reasoning. —how an individual
thinks about moral decisions.

A woman was near death from a rare form of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought
might save her, recently discovered by a druggist in the same town. The drug was expensive to make-
about $400 for a small dose. But the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make-
$4000 for a small dose.
The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he only could
get together about $2000. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper
or let him pay the rest later. But the druggist refused saying, “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going
to make money from it.” So, Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into the man’s store to steal
the drug for his wife.

In Kohlberg’s theory, whether you think Heinz should or should not steal the drug is not the critical issue. Instead,
it is the reasoning you use to justify your answer.

Kohlberg proposed three distinct levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and
postconventional. Each level is based on the degree to which a person conforms to conventional standards of
society. Furthermore, each level has two stages that represent different degrees of sophistication in moral
reasoning.

Kohlberg and his colleagues found that the responses of children under the age of ten reflect preconventional
moral reasoning based on self-interest—avoiding punishment and maximizing personal gain.
Beginning in the late childhood and continuing through adolescence and adulthood, responses typically reflect
conventional moral reasoning, which emphasizes social rules and obligations. Thus, the progression from
preconventional to conventional moral reasoning is closely associated with age-related cognitive abilities.

***LEARNING ACTIVITY/IES WILL BE GIVEN AFTER THE DISCUSSION OF THIS MODULE***

San Mateo Municipal College Introduction to Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm