Child and Adolescent Learners and

Learning Principles 

UNIT 2

DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES

MODULE 4 Psychosexual Development Theory

Intended Learning Outcomes

- Explain the different psychosexual stages of human development as to Freud

- Understand how structures of personality affects the behavior of individual
- Understand how fixation affect to the behavior of children.

Discussion

Psychosexual Theory of Development (Sigmund Freud)

He can be considered the most well-known psychologist because of his very interesting theory
about the unconscious and also about sexual development.
According to Freud, a person goes through the sequence of these five stages and along the way
there are needs to be met. He identified specific erogenous zones for each development. These are
specific “pleasure areas” that become focal points for the particular stage If needs are not met along the
area, fixation occurs. As an adult the person will now manifest behaviors related to erogenous zones.

1. Oral Stage (Birth to 18 months).

The erogenous zone is the mouth. Too much or little satisfaction can lead to an Oral
Fixation or Oral Personality. This type of personality may be oral receptive, that is, have a
stronger tendency to smoke, drink, alcohol, overeat or oral aggressive that is tendency to bite
nails, or curse words or even gossip.

2. Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years).

The child’s focus of pleasure in this stage is the anus. The child finds satisfaction in
eliminating and retaining feces. The child needs to work on toilet training. In terms of
personality, fixation during this stage results in being anal retentive an obsession with
cleanliness, perfection and control; or anal expulsive where the person may become messy
and disorganized.

3. Phallic Stage (Ages 3- 6 Years).

The pleasure is the genitals. Freud’s studies led him to believe that during this stage
boys develop unconscious sexual desire for their mother. Boys then see their father as rival
for her mother’s affection. This feeling called Oedipus Complex. In Greek Mythology,
Oedipus unintentionally killed his father and marries his mother Jocasta. There is also a same
experience for the girls. This called Electra Complex. Due to strong competition on their
father, boys eventually identify with them rather than fight them. A fixation at this stage
could result in sexual deviances and weak or confused sexual identity according to
Psychoanalysis.

4. Latency (Age 6 to Puberty).

 At this stage, sexual urges remain repressed. The children’s focus is the acquisition of
physical and academic skills. Boys usually relate more the same sex.

5. Genital Stage (puberty onwards).

It start of puberty when sexual urges are once again awaken. Adolescent focus their
sexual urges towards the opposite sex peers, with the pleasure centered on genitals.

Freud’s Structure of Personality

1. Id- Pleasure Principle
2. Ego- Reality Principle
3. Superego- Morality Principle

Freud said that well- adjusted person is one who has the strong ego who can help satisfy the
needs of the id without going against the superego while maintaining the person’s sense of what is
logical, practical and real.

Unconscious- Freud said that most what we go through in our lives, emotions, beliefs,
feelings and impulses deep within are not available to us at conscious level. He believed that most
of what influence us is our unconscious.

Conscious- All that we are aware of is stored in our conscious mind. Our conscious mind
only comprises a very small part of who we are.

Subconscious or preconscious- This is the part of us that we can reach if prompted, but
is not in our active conscious. It’s right below the surface but still hidden somewhat unless we
search for it like some childhood memories or the name of your best childhood friend.

Nonconscious- All that we are not aware of, have not experience and that has not been
made part of our personalities
MODULE 5 Cognitive Development Theory

Intended Learning Outcomes

- Identify the different basic cognitive schemas

- Understand how cognition develops in human being
- Explain the different cognitive developmental stages

Discussion

Jean Piaget

He believed that the child plays an active role in the growth of intelligence and learns by doing.
He regarded the child as a philosopher who perceives the world only as he has experienced it.The theory
of cognitive development focuses on mental processes such as perceiving, remembering, believing, and
reasoning.

Basic Cognitive Concepts

Schema
 It is the cognitive structures by which individuals intellectually adapt to and organize their
environment.
 It is in an individual’s way to understand or create meaning about a thing or experience.
Assimilation
 This is the process of fitting a new experience into an existing or previously created cognitive
structure or schema.

Accommodation
 This is the process of creating a new schema.

Equilibration
 Piaget believed that people have the natural need to understand how the world works and to
find order, structure, and predictability in our life.
 Equilibration is achieving proper balance between assimilation and accommodation.

When our experiences do not match our schema or cognitive structures, we experience cognitive
disequilibrium. This means there is a discrepancy between what is perceived and what is understood.

Cognitive development involves a continuous effort to adapt to the environment in terms of

assimilation and accommodation.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage 1- Sensori-motor Stage: 0-2

 During this stage senses, reflexes, and motor abilities develop rapidly.
  This is the stage when a child who is initially reflexive in grasping, sucking, and reaching
becomes more organized in his movement and activity.

 The term sensor-motor focus on the prominence of the senses and muscle movement through
which the infant comes to learn about himself and the world.
 Object permanence is the ability of the child to know that an object still exists even when
out of sight. This ability is attained in the sensory motor stage.

Stage 2- Pre-Operational Stage: 2-7

 The child in the preoperational stage is not yet able to think logically.
 With the acquisition of language, the child is able to represent the world through mental
images and symbols, but in this stage, these symbols depend on his own perception and his
intuition.
 The preoperational child is completely egocentric. Although he is beginning to take greater
interest in objects and people around him, he sees them from only one point of view: his own.
 This stage may be the age of curiosity; preschoolers are always questioning and investigating
new things. Since they know the world only from their limited experience, they make up
explanations when they don’t have one.

Symbolic Function- this is the ability to represent objects and events. A symbol is a thing that
represents something else.

Egocentrism refers to the tendency of the child to only see his point of view and to assume that
everyone also has his same point of view. The child cannot take the perspective of others.

Centration refers to the tendency of the child to only focus on the aspect of a thing or event and
exclude other aspects.

Irreversibility, pre-operational children still have the inability to reverse their thinking.

Animism, tendency of children to attribute human like traits or characteristics to inanimate

objects.

Transductive reasoning refers to the pre-operational child’s type of reasoning that is either
inductive or deductive. Reasoning appears to be from particular to particular.

Stage 3- Concrete Operational Stage: 8-11

The stage of concrete operations begins when the child is able to perform mental
operations.

Decentering this is the ability of the child to perceive different features of objects and situations.
No longer is the child focused or limited to one aspect or dimension. This allows the child to be
more logical when dealing with concrete objects and situations.

Reversibility, during the stage of concrete operations, the child can now follow that certain
operations can be done in reverse.

Conservation, refers to the ability to know that certain properties of objects like number, mass,
volume, or area do not change even if there is a change in appearance. Because of the
 development of the child’s ability of decentering and also reversibility, the concrete operational
child can now judge right.

Seriation refers to the ability to order or arrange things in a series based on one dimension such
as weight, volume or size.

Stage 4- Formal Operational Stage: 12-15

Thinking becomes more logical. The child in the concrete operational stage deals with the
present, the here and now; the child who can use formal operational thought can think about the
future, the abstract, the hypothetical.

Hypothetical reasoning this is the ability to come up with different hypothesis about a problem
and to gather and weigh data in order to make a final decision or judgment. This can be done in
the absence of concrete objects. The individuals can now deal with “what if” questions.

Analogical reasoning, refers to the ability to perceive the relationship in one instance and then
use the relationship to narrow down possible answers in another similar situation or problem. The
individual in the formal operations stage can make an analogy.

Deductive reasoning it is the ability to think logically by applying a general rule to a particular
instance or situation.

From Piaget’s findings and comprehensive theory, we can derive the following
principles:
1. Children will provide different explanations of reality at different stages of cognitive
development.
2. Cognitive development is facilitated by providing activities or situations that engage learners
and require adaptation.
3. Learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or mental
operations for a child of given age, avoid asking students to perform tasks that are beyond
their current cognitive capabilities.
4. Use teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges.
MODULE 6 Psychosocial Development Theory

Intended Learning Outcomes

- Explain the different psychosocial stages of human development as to Erickson

- Understand the contrary factor of each social development when not met
- Describe the opposing dispositions in psychosocial development

Discussion

Psychosocial Theory of Development (Erik Erickson)

Erikson’s theory delved into how personality was formed and believed that earlier stages served
as a foundation for the later stages. The theory highlighted the influence of one’s environment,
particularly on how earlier experiences gradually build upon the next and result into one’s personality.

Each stage involves psychosocial crisis of two opposing emotional forces. A helpful term used by
Erikson for these opposing forces is “contrary dispositions”. Each crisis stage relates to a corresponding
life stage and its inherent challenges. To signify the opposing or conflicting relationship between each
pair of forces or dispositions, Erikson connected them with the word “versus”.

If a stage is managed well, we carry away a certain virtue or psychosocial strength which will
help us through the rest of the stages of our lives. Successfully passing through each crisis involves
achieving a healthy ratio or balance between the two opposing dispositions that represent each crisis.

On the other hand, if we don’t do so well, we may develop maladaptation and malignancies.

Malignancy is the worse of the two. It involves too little of the positive and too much of the
negative aspect of the task, such as a person who can’t trust others.

Maladaptation is not quite as bad and involves too much of the positive and too little of the
negative, such as person who trusts too much.
 Erikson also emphasized the significance of mutuality and generativity in his theory. The terms
are linked.

Mutuality reflects the effect of generations on each other, especially among families, and
particularly between parents and children and grandchildren. Everyone potentially affects everyone else’s
experiences as they pass through the different crisis stages.

Generativity reflects the significant relationship between adults and the best interests of children
– one’s own children, and in a way everyone else’s children – the next generation.

Eight Stages of Development

Stages and Psychosocia Significant Psychosocial Psychosocial Maladaptive Malignant
Age l Crisis Relations Modalities virtues Tendency Tendency
Stage one: first Trust vs. Mother To get, to give in Hope and faith Sensory Withdrawal
year or year and mistrust return maladjustment
a half of life
Stage two: 18 Autonomy Parents To hold on, to Willpower and Impulsiveness Compulsiven
months to 3 or 4 vs. shame let go determination ess
yrs. old and doubt
Stage three: Initiative vs. Family To go after, to Purpose and Ruthlessness Inhibition
from 3 or 4 to 5 guilt play courage
or 6 yrs. old
Stage four: Industry vs Neighborhoo To complete, to Competence Narrow Virtuosity Inertia
from 6 to 12 inferiority d and school make things
together
Stage five: Ego identity Peer groups, To be oneself, to Fidelity and Fanaticism Repudiation
beginning with vs. role role models share oneself loyalty
puberty and confusion
ending around
18 or 20 yrs.
Old
Stage six: from Intimacy vs. Partners, To lose and fins Love Promiscuity Exclusion
18 to about 30 isolation friends oneself in
yrs. Old another
Stage seven: Generativity Household, To make be, to Care Overextension Rejectivity
between the vs. self- workmates take care of
middle 20’s and absorption
late 50’s
Stage eight: Integrity vs Mankind or To be, through Wisdom Presumption Disdain
around 60 yrs. despair “my kind” have been, to
Old face not being
 MODULE 7 Moral Development Theory

Intended Learning Outcomes

- Explain the different moral development stages as to Kohlberg

- Understand how moral concept of individuals being develop
- Differentiate the moral developmental level

Discussion

Moral Development Theory (Lawrence Kohlberg)

He believed that children form ways of thinking through their experiences which include
understandings of moral concepts such as justice, rights, equality, and human welfare.

Kohlberg followed the development of moral judgment and extended the ages covered by Piaget,
and found out that the process of attaining moral maturity took longer and occurred slower than Piaget
had thought.

He utilized moral dilemmas (Kohlberg dilemmas). He was interested in analyzing the moral
reasoning behind the responses.

From his research, Kohlberg identified six stages of moral reasoning grouped into three major
levels. Each level represents a significant change in the social-moral reasoning or perspective of this
person.

Kohlberg Theory of Moral Development

Level Stage Description

PRE-CONVENTIONAL
Moral reasoning is based on the
consequences/result of the act,
not on whether the act itself is
good or bad.
1 Punishment/Obedience.
One is motivated by fear of punishment. He will act in order
to avoid punishment.
Whatever leads to punishment is wrong.
2 Mutual Benefit.

CONVENTIONAL
Moral reasoning is based on the
conventions or norms of society.
This may include approval of
others, law and order.
POST-CONVENTIONAL
Moral reasoning is based on
enduring or consistent principles.
It is not just recognizing the law,
but the principles behind the law.
One is motivated to act by the benefit the one may obtain
later. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
The right way to behave is the way that is rewarded.
3 Social Approval.
One is motivated by what other expects in behavior – good
boy, good girl. The person acts because he/she values how
he/she appears to others. He/she gives importance on what
people will think or say.
Behaving in ways that conform to good behavior.
4 Law and Order.
One is motivated to act in order to uphold law and order. The
person will follow the law because it is the law.
Importance of doing one’s duty.
5 Social Contract.
Laws that are wrong can be changed. One will act according
to social justice and the common good.
Difference between moral and legal right. Recognition that
rules should sometimes be broken.
6 Universal Principles.
This is associated with the development of one’s conscience.
Having a set of standards that drives one to possess moral
responsibility to make societal changes regardless of
consequences to oneself. Example is Mother Theresa.
MODULE 8 Socio- Cultural Theory

Intended Learning Outcomes

- Differentiate the concepts of Piaget and Vygotsky toward soci0- cultural development
- Identify hoe social interactions, cultural factors and language contribute in developing the socio-
cultural aspect of individual

Discussion

Lev Vygotsky
Was born in Russia in 1896. His work began when he was studying learning and development to
improve his own teaching.

The key theme of Vygotsky’s theory is that social interaction plays a very important role to
cognitive development.

He believed that individual development could not be understood without looking into the social
and cultural context within which development happens. Scaffolding is Vygotsky’s term for the
appropriate assistance given by the teacher to assist the learner accomplishes a task.

Piaget Vygotsky
More individual in focus. More social in focus.
Believed that there are universal changes of Did not propose stages but emphasized on
cognitive development. cultural factors in cognitive development.
Did not give much emphasis on language. Stressed the role of language in cognitive
development.

Social Interaction
Social environment or the community takes on a major role in one’s
development.Vygotsky emphasized that the effective learning happens through participation in
social activities, making the social contexts of learning crucial.
Parents, teachers and other adults in the learners’ environment all contribute to the
process.

Cultural Factors
Piaget believed that as the child develops and matures, he goes through universal stages
of cognitive development that allows him to move from simple to explorations with senses and
muscles to complex reasoning.

Language
Language opens the door for learners to acquire knowledge that others already have.
- Learners can use language to know and understand the world and solve problems.
 - It helps the learner regulate and reflect on his own thinking.
- For Vygotsky, “talking-to-oneself” will lead to private speech. Private speech is a form of
self-talk that guides the child’s thinking and action.
- Children learn best through hands-on activities that when listening passively.

Zone of Proximal Development

When a child attempts to perform a skill alone, she may not be immediately proficient at
it. So, alone she may perform at a certain level of competency. We refer to this as the zone of
actual development. However with the guidance of a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO),
competent adult or a more advanced peer, the child can perform a higher level of competency.

The difference between what the child can accomplish alone and what she can
accomplish with the guidance of another is referred also to zone of proximal development.

The zone represents a learning opportunity where a knowledgeable adult such as a

teacher or a more advanced peer can assist the child’s development.

The support or assistance that lets the child accomplish a task he cannot accomplish
independently is called scaffolding.

The instructor should scaffold in such a way that the gap is bridged between the learner’s
current skill levels and the desired skills. As learners become more proficient, able to complete
task on their own that they could not initially do without assistance, the guidance can be
withdrawn. This is called scaffold and fade-away technique.
MODULE 9 Ecological Theory

Intended Learning Outcomes

- Explain the different environmental systems as to Brofenbrenner

- Understand how the academic environment contributes in the development of every students
- Understand the Value Theory

Discussion

Bronfenbrenners Ecological Theory

Bronfenbrenner’s model also known as the Bioecological Systems theory presents child
development within the context of relationship systems that compromise the child’s development. It
describes multipart layers of environment that has an effect on the development of the child.

The term “bioecological” points out that a child’s own biological make-up impacts as a key factor
in one’s development.

The Role of Schools and Teachers

Bronfenbrenner concluded that “the instability and unpredictability of family life is the most
destructive force to a child’s development”. Researchers tell us that absence or lack of children’s constant
mutual interaction with important adults has negative effects on their development. Schools and teachers’
crucial role is not to replace the lack in the home if such exists, but to work so that the school becomes an
environment that welcomes and nurtures families.

Bronfenbrenner also stressed that society should value work done on behalf of children at all
levels, and consequently value parents, teachers, extended family, mentors, work supervisors, legislators.

The Five Environmental Systems

The ecological systems theory holds that we encounter different environments throughout our
lifespan that may influence our behavior in varying degrees. These systems include the micro system, the
mesosystem, the exosystem, the macro system, and the chronosystem.

1. The Microsystem
The microsystem's setting is the direct environment we have in our lives. Your family, friends,
classmates, teachers, neighbors and other people who have a direct contact with you are included in your
micro system. The micro system is the setting in which we have direct social interactions with these
social agents. The theory states that we are not mere recipients of the experiences we have when
socializing with these people in the micro system environment, but we are contributing to the construction
of such environment.

2. The Mesosystem
The mesosytem involves the relationships between the microsystems in one's life. This means
that your family experience may be related to your school experience. For example, if a child is neglected
by his parents, he may have a low chance of developing positive attitude towards his teachers. Also, this
child may feel awkward in the presence of peers and may resort to withdrawal from a group of
classmates.

3. The Exosystem
The exosystem is the setting in which there is a link between the context where in the person does
not have any active role, and the context where in is actively participating. Suppose a child is more
attached to his father than his mother. If the father goes abroad to work for several months, there may be a
conflict between the mother and the child's social relationship, or on the other hand, this event may result
to a tighter bond between the mother and the child.

4. The Macrosystem
The macrosystem setting is the actual culture of an individual. The cultural contexts involve the
socioeconomic status of the person and/or his family, his ethnicity or race and living in a still developing
or a third world country. For example, being born to a poor family makes a person work harder every day.

5. The Chronosystem
The chronosystem includes the transitions and shifts in one's lifespan. This may also involve the
socio-historical contexts that may influence a person. One classic example of this is how divorce, as a
major life transition, may affect not only the couple's relationship but also their children's behavior.
According to a majority of research, children are negatively affected on the first year after the divorce.
The next years after it would reveal that the interaction within the family becomes more stable and
agreeable.

Value of the Theory

This theory has influenced many psychologists in terms of the manner of analyzing the person
and the effects of different environmental systems that he encounters. The ecological systems theory has
since become an important theory that became a foundation of other theorists' work.

References/Additional Resources/Readings

http://phlconnect.ched.gov.ph/home

Corpuz, B. B., Lucas, M. R. D., Borabo. G., G., L., Lucido, P., I.(2010).

Child and Adolescent Development: Looking at Learners at Different Life Stages. Quezon City,
Philippines. Lorimar Publishing Inc.

Damon, W. & Lerner, R. M. (2008). Child and adolescent development an advance course. Hoboken,
New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Gines, A. C. et al. (1998). Developmental psychology: a textbook for college students in psychology and
teacher education. Manila, Philippines: Rex Book Store, Inc.