Knowledge of growth and

development at the various stage is very

ADO
UNIT I
BASIC CONCEPTS
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
The pattern of movement or
change that begins at conception and
continues through the lifespan.
Development includes growth
positive and negative.
HUMAN GROWTH AND
DEVELOPMENT
Growth and development are
inseparable but they differ from each
other.
Growth represents the physical
changes of an individual and
development represents the overall
changes, structure and shape of an
individual.
essential for the teacher. The teacher
has to stimulate the growth and
development of a child. He can do it only
if he has proper knowledge of the
growth and development at various
stages.
HUMAN GROWTH VS.
DEVELOPMENT
Human Growth
1. Growth terms represent a purely
physical sense of a person, i.e height,
weight, size and length etc.
2. Growth is quantitative. It starts with
conception but ends at some particular
age.
Development
1. Development implies the overall
change in shape, form, or structure,
along with the function of the organ.
2. Development is both quantitative
and qualitative. It is a continuous
process starting from the Womb and
ending with the tomb.
Maturation - the biological unfolding of
an individual according to plan
contained in the genes.
Learning - the process through which
experience brings about relatively
permanent changes in thoughts, feelings
or behavior.
Environment - refers to the all the
external physical and social conditions
and events that affect us, from crowded
living quarters to stimulating social
interactions.
Aging - the deterioration of organisms
that leads inevitably to death.
PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH AND
DEVELOPMENT
1. Principle of Continuity
- The development follows the
principle of continuity which
means that development is a
continuous process. It starts with
pre-natal and ends with death.
2. Principle of Integration
- Development thus involves a
movement from the whole to parts
and from parts to the whole and
this way it is the integration of the
whole and its parts as well as the
specific and general responses.
3. Principle of Lack of Uniformity in
the Developmental Rate
- Development through the
continuous process, but does not
exhibit steadiness and uniformity
in terms of the rate of
development in various
development of personality or the
developmental periods and stage
of life.
4. Principle of Individual Difference
- Every organism is a distinct
creation in itself. One of the most
important principles of
development is that involves
individual differences. There is no
fixed rate of development. That all
children will learn to walk is
universal, but the time at which
each child takes his/her first step
may vary.
5. Principle of Uniformity Pattern
- Although development does not
proceed at a uniform rate and
shows marked individual
differences concerning the
process and outcome of various
stages of development, it follows a
definite pattern in one or the other
dimension which is uniform and
universal concerning the individual
of a species.
6. Principle of Proceeding from
General to Specific
- While developing to any aspect of
personality. The child first pickup
or exhibit a general response and
learn how to show specific and
goal-directed responses
afterwards.
7. Principle of Interaction between
Heredity and Environment
- The development of a child is a
process that cannot be defined
wholly based on either heredity or
environment. Both have to play an
important role in development.
There are arguments in favor of
both. However, most
psychologists agree that an
interplay of these two factors
leads to development.
- Where heredity decides or set
some limits on development
(mostly physical), environmental
influences complete the
developmental process
(qualitative). Environmental
influences provide space for
multidimensional development
through interaction with family,
peers, society, and so on. Growth
and development is a joint product
of heredity and environment.
8. Principle of Interrelation
- A healthy body tends to develop a
healthy mind and an emotionally
stable, physically strong and
 socially conscious personality.
Inadequate physical or mental
development may, on the other
hand, result in a socially or
emotionally maladjusted
personality.
9. Principle of Cephalocaudal
- Development proceeds in the
direction of the longitudinal axis.
Development from head to foot or
toe. That is why, before it
becomes able to stand, the child
first gains control over his head
and arms and then on his legs.
CEPHALOCAUDAL PATTERN
- During infancy, the greatest
growth always occurs at the top
the head with physical growth in
size, weight and future
differentiation gradually working in
its way down from top to bottom.
10. Principle of Proximodistal
- Development of motor skills to
start at central body parts to
outwards. That is why, in the
beginning, the child is seen to
exercise control over the large
fundamental muscles of the arm
and then hand and only
afterwards over the smaller
muscles of the fingers.
BIOLOGICAL PROCESS - involves
changes in the individual’s physical
nature.
COGNITIVE PROCESS - involves
changes in the individual’s thought,
intelligence, and language.
SOCIO-EMOTIONAL PROCESS -
involves changes in the individual’s
relationships with other people.
11. Principle of Predictability
- Development is predictable, which
means that with the help of the
uniformity of pattern and
sequence of development. We
can go to a great extent, forecast
the general nature and behavior of
a child in one or more aspects or
dimensions at any particular stage
of its growth and development.
We can know the particular age at
which children will learn to walk,
speak and so on.
12. Principle of Spiral versus Linear
Advancement
- The child doesn’t proceed straight
or linear on the path of
development at any stage never
takes place at a constant or
steady pace. After the child had
developed to a certain level, there
is likely to be a period of rest for
consolidation of the
developmental progress achieved
till then. In advancing further,
therefore, the development turn
back and then moves forward
again in a spiral pattern.
13. Principle of Association of
Maturation and Learning
- Biological growth and
development are known as
maturation. Biological changes
involve changes in the brain and
the nervous system, which
provide new abilities to a child.
Development proceeds from
simple to complex. In the
 beginning, a child learns through
concrete objects and gradually
moves to abstract thinking. This
transition happens because of the
maturation.
APPROACHES TO HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
Traditional Approach
 Extensive change from birth to
adolescence, little or no change in
adulthood, and decline in late old
age.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE SPAN
DEVELOPMENT
 Development is lifelong.
 Development is multidimensional.
 Development is plastic.
 Development is contextual.
 Development involves growth,
maintenance and regulation.
STAGES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
1. Development and learning are
dynamic processes that reflect the
complex interplay between a child’s
biological characteristics and the
environment, each shaping the other
as well as future patterns of growth.
2. All domains of child development—
physical development, cognitive
development, social and emotional
development, and linguistic
development (including bilingual or
multilingual development), as well as
approaches to learning—are
important; each domain both
supports and is supported by the
others.
3. Play promotes joyful learning that
fosters self-regulation, language,
cognitive and social competencies as
well as content knowledge across
disciplines. Play is essential for all
children, birth through age 8.
4. Although general progressions of
development and learning can be
identified, variations due to cultural
contexts, experiences, and individual
differences must also be considered.
5. Children are active learners from
birth, constantly taking in and
organizing information to create
meaning through their relationships,
their interactions with their
environment, and their overall
experiences.
6. Children’s motivation to learn is
increased when their learning
environment fosters their sense of
belonging, purpose, and agency.
Curricula and teaching methods build
on each child’s assets by connecting
their experiences in the school or
learning environment to their home
and community settings.
7. Children learn in an integrated
fashion that cuts across academic
disciplines or subject areas. Because
the foundations of subject area
knowledge are established in early
childhood, educators need subject-
area knowledge, an understanding of
the learning progressions within each
subject area, and pedagogical
knowledge about teaching each
subject area’s content effectively.
8. Development and learning advance
when children are challenged to
 achieve at a level just beyond their
current mastery and when they have
many opportunities to reflect on and
practice newly acquired skills.
9. Used responsibly and intentionally,
technology and interactive media can
be valuable tools for supporting
children’s development and learning.
THE PROCESSES AND PERIODS IN
DEVELOPMENT
The pattern of child development is
complex because it is the product of
several processes:
 Biological
 Cognitive
 Socioemotional
Stages
1. Prenatal → Conception to birth →
Physical Development
2. Infancy → Birth at full terms to about
18 months → Locomotion
established; rudimentary language;
social attachment.
3. Early Childhood → About 18
months to about 6 years →
Language well-established, sex
typing; group pay; ends with
readiness for schooling.
4. Late Childhood → About 6 years to
about 13 years → Many cognitive
processes become adult except in
speed of operation; and team play.
5. Adolescence → About 13 years to
20 years → Begins with puberty,
ends at maturity, attainment of
highest level of cognition;
independence from parents; sexual
relationships.
6. Young Adulthood → About 20
years to 45 years → Career and
family development
7. Midlife → About 45 years to about
65 years → Career reaches highest
level: self-assessment, “emptiness”
crisis; retirement.
8. Late Life → About 65 years to death
→ Enjoys family achievements;
dependency; widowhood.
THE LIFE SPAN PERSPECTIVES
Developed by Paul Baltes
1. Development is a lifelong process.
2. Development is multidirectional.
3. Development always involves both
gain and loss.
4. Development is characterized by
lifelong plasticity.
5. Development is shaped by its
historical/cultural context.
6. Development is multiply influenced.
7. Understanding development requires
multiple disciplines.
ISSUES IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
1. ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
 Original Sin → Inherently Good
→ TABULA RASA
 Original Sin → Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679) → Children are
inherently bad, believing that it
was society’s task to control their
selfish and aggressive impulses
and to teach them to behave in
positive ways.
 INHERENTLY GOOD → Jean-
Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
 → Children were innately good,
born with intuitive understanding
of right and wrong, and that they
would develop in positive
directions as long as society did
not interfere with their natural
tendencies.
 TABULA RASA → John Locke
(1632-1704) → Infant is a tabula
rasa or a blank slate waiting to
be written on by his or her own
experiences.
2. NATURE AND NURTURE
 NATURE refers to the behavior
and characteristics manifested
because of the influence of
biological forces
→ heredity
→ biologically-based dispositions
 NURTURE refers to the influences
brought about by the exposure to
the environment
→ Learning experiences
→ Child-rearing methods
→ Social changes
→ Culture
3. ACTIVITY AND PASSIVITY
 ACTIVE creatures who in a real
sense orchestrate their own
development by exploring the
world around them or by shaping
their own environment.
 PASSIVE beings who are largely
products of forces beyond their
control-usually environmental
influences (but possibly strong
biological forces).
4. CONTINUITY AND
DISCONTINUITY
 DISCONTINUITY theorists picture
the course of development as
more like a series of development
as more like a series of stair
steps, each of which elevates the
individual to a new (and
presumably more evidence) level
of functioning.
 CONTINUITY theorists view
human development as a process
that occurs in small steps, without
sudden changes.
 QUALITATIVE CHANGES are
changes in kind and suggest
discontinuity.
 QUANTITATIVE CHANGES are
changes in degree and indicate
continuity
 UNIVERSAL - common to
everyone universal
 CONTEXT SPECIFIC - different to
person to person
STAGES ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Erik Erikson
 born: June 15, 1902, Frankurt,
Hesse, Germany
 Known for his theory on the
Psychological Development of
Human Being
1. Infancy (birth to 2 years )
 We cried, kicked, coughed, sucked,
saw, heard, and tasted.
 Among humans, the period of life
between birth and the acquisition of
language approximately one to two
years later.
 Our development was continuous
creation of complex forms, and our
helpless kind demanded the
meeting of love.

2. Early Childhood (3 to 5 years)
 Children are highly influenced by
the environment and the people
that surround them.
 We skipped, played and ran all day
long.
3. Middle and Late Childhood (6-11
years)
 Children gain greater control over
the movement of their bodies
mastering many gross and fine
motor skills that eluded the younger
child.
 Our thirst was to know and to
understand.
4. Adolescence (13 to 18 years)
 We tried on one face after another,
searching for a face of our own.
 Children gain greater control over
the movement of their bodies,
mastering many gross and fine
motor skills that eluded the younger
child.
5. Early Adulthood (19-29 years)
 Our physical maturation
complete, although our height and
weight may increase slightly. In
early adulthood, our physical
abilities are at their peak, including
muscle strength, reaction time,
sensory abilities, and cardiac
functioning.
 Sex and Love are powerful
passions in our lives.
 Finding our place in adult society
and committing to a more stable life
take longer than we imagine.
6. Middle Adulthood (30-60 years)
 We compare our life with what we
vowed to make it
 Middle age is such a foggy place, a
time when we need to discover
what we are running from and to
and why.
7. Late Adulthood (60 years and
above)
 It constitutes the last stage of
physical change.
 We traced the connection
between the end and the
beginning of life and try to figure
out what this whole show is about
before it is over.
UNIT II
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Sigmund Freud
- A very well-known psychologist
because of his very interesting
theory about unconscious and
also about sexual development
- Freud’s theory remains to be one
of the most influential in
psychology.
is
FREUD’S STAGES OF
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
 Oral Stage (birth to 18 months)
- Erogenous zone – mouth
- The child is focused on oral
pleasures.
- Too much or too little satisfaction
can lead to an Oral Fixation or
Oral Personality.
- Oral Receptive – have a stronger
tendency to smoke, drink alcohol,
overeat.
 - Oral Aggressive – A tendency to - Fifth stage of psychosexual
bite or her nails or use curse development
words or even gossip. - Erogenous Zone – genitals
- Begins at the start of puberty
when sexual urges are once again
 Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years) awakened.
- Erogenous zone – anus - Adolescents focus their sexual
- The child find satisfaction in urges towards the opposite sex
eliminating and retaining feces. peers.
- Anal Retentive – an obsession
with cleanliness, perfection, and
control.
- Anal expulsive – the person may
become messy and disorganized.
 Phallic Stage (ages 3 to 6)
- Erogenous zone – genitals
FREUD’S PERSONALITY
- Children become interested in
COMPONENTS
what make boys and girls
different.  ID
- Oedipus Complex – Boys - The pleasure principle.
develop unconscious sexual - Focuses on immediate
desire for their mother. Boys see gratification or satisfaction of its
their father as a rival for his needs.
mother’s affection. - Nothing else matters to the id
- Electra Complex – Girls develop except the satisfaction of its
unconscious sexual attraction own needs.
towards their father. Girls see their - Instincts
mother as a rival to her father’s
affection.  SUPEREGO
- A fixation at this age could result - Embodies a person’s moral
in sexual deviances and weak or aspect.
confused sexual identity. - This develops from what the
parents, teachers, and other
person who exert influence impart
 Latency Stage (age 6 to puberty) to be good or moral.
- Sexual urges remain repressed. - Likened to conscience because it
- Children’s focus is the acquisition exerts influence on what one
of physical and academic skill. considers right and wrong.
- Boys related more with boys, and - Morality
girls with girls during this stage.
 EGO
- Operates using the reality
 Genital Stage (puberty onwards) principle.
 - It is practical because it knows
that being impulsive or selfish can
results to negative consequences
later.
- The deciding agent of the
personality.
- Reality
THE THREE COMPONENTS AND
PERSONALITY ADJUSTEMENT
 The Unconscious
- Freud believed that most of what
influence us is our unconscious.
- The Oedipus and Electra
Complex, were both buried down
into the unconscious, out of our
awareness due to the extreme
anxiety they caused.
- Id
 The Conscious
- Compromises a very small part of
who we are
- All that we are aware is stored in
our conscious mind.
 The Subconscious
- 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.
- Superego
- Edo-ideal
 Nonconscious
- Represented by the water
- All that we are not aware of, have
not experienced, and that has not
been made part of our
personalities.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY
Jean Piaget
- A Swiss psychologist known for
his work on child development.
- His theory of cognitive
development and epistemological
view that are together called
“genetic epistemology.”
- Placed great importance on the
education of children.
- He became intrigued with the
reasons children gave for their
wrong answers to the questions
that required logical thinking.
- He believed that these incorrect
answers revealed importance
differences between the thinking
of adults and children.
THEORY OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT (1936)
- Explains how a child constructs a
mental model of the world.
- Disagreed with the idea that
intelligence was a fixed trait, and
regarded cognitive development
as a process which occurs due to
biological maturation and
interaction with the environment.
BASIC COGNITIVE CONCEPTS
 Schema
- Refer to the cognitive structures
by which individuals intellectually
 adapt to and organize their
environment.
- The mind has a filing cabinet and
each drawer has folder that
contains files or things he has had
an experience.
 Assimilation
- The process of fitting new
experience into an existing or
previously created cognitive
structure or schema.
 Accommodation
- Changing approaches when an
existing schema doesn’t work in
a particular situation.
 Equilibration
- The driving force that moves all
development forward.
PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
1. Sensori-motor Stage (birth 18-24
months old)
- Differentiate self from objects
- Recognizes self as an agent of
action and begins to act
intentionally.
- Object permanence – the ability
of the child to know that an object
still exist when out of sight.
Attained in the sensory motor
stage.
Piaget divided the sensori-motor stage
into six sub-stage:
a. Simple Reflexes (Birth – 6 weeks)
- Coordination of sensation and
action through reflexive behavior.
- Three primary reflexes: seeking,
following, closing of the hand.
- Over the 6 weeks of life these
reflexes begin to become
voluntary action.
b. First habits and primary circular
reactions phase (6 weeks – 4
months)
- Coordination of sensation and
two types of schemes: Habits
(reflex) and primary circular
reaction.
- Primary reaction – action is
focused on the infant’s body.
- Circular reaction – a repetition of
an action that initially occurred by
chance.
c. Secondary circular reactions
phase (4 months to 8 months)
- Associated primarily with the
development of coordination
between vision and prehension.
- Three new abilities: International
grasping/Secondary circular
reactions/Differentiations between
ends and means.
d. Coordination of reaction stage
secondary circular (8 – 12 months)
- Coordination of vision and
touch: hand-eye coordination of
schemes and intentionality.
- “first proper intelligence”
- Associated primarily with the
development of logic and
coordination between means and
ends.
e. Tertiary circular reactions, novelty
and curiosity (12 – 18 months)
- “young scientist”
- Become intrigued by the many
properties of objects by many
things that can make to object.
- Associated primarily with the
discovery of new means to
meet goals.
f. Internalization of Schemes
(Invention of New Means Through
Mental Combination) (18 – 24
months)
- Ability to use primitive symbols
and forms enduring mental
representations.
- Associated primarily with the
beginnings of insight, or trough
creativity.
2. Pre-Operational Stage (2-7 years)
- Intelligence at this stage is
intuitive in nature.
- The child can now make mental
representations and able to
pretend.
- The child is now even closer to
the use of symbols
Symbolic Function
- The ability to represent objects
and events
- Symbol – a thing that represents
something else
- Drawing – a written word, or a
spoken word comes to be
understood a representing a real
object.
- Develops in the period between 2
to 7 years
- By the age of 6 or 7, the child can
pretend play with objects.
Egocentrism
- The tendency of the child to only
see his point of view.
- 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 one
aspects of a thing or event and
exclude other aspects.
Irreversibility
- The inability to reverse their
thinking
Animism
- The tendency of children to
attribute human like traits or
characteristics to inanimate
objects.
Transductive Reasoning
- Refers to the pre-operations
child’s type of reasoning that is
neither inductive nor deductive.
3. Concrete-Operational Stage (7-11
years)
- The ability of the child to think
logically but not only in terms of
concrete objects.
Decentering
 - Refers to the ability of the child to
perceive the different features
of objects and situations
Reversibility
- The child can now follow that
certain operations can be done
in reverse.
Conservation
- 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.
Seriation
- The ability to order of arrange
things in a series based on one
dimension such as weight,
volume, or size.
4. Formal Operational Stage
(Adolescents to Adulthood)
- Final stage of formal operations.
- Thinking becomes more logical.
- They can not solve abstract
problems and can hypothesize.
Hypothetical Reasoning
- 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 judgement.
- The individuals can now deal with
“what if questions”
Deductive Reasoning
- The ability to think logically by
applying a general rule to a
particular instance situation.
Analogical Reasoning
- The ability to perceive the
relationship in one instance then
use that relationship to narrow
down possible answer in another
similar situation or problem.
- The individual can make an
analogy.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF
INFANTS AND TODDLERS
Learning ang Remembering
- All of us experience infantile
amnesia, the inability to recall
events that happened when we
were very young (Spear, 1979).
Language Development
- Infants clearly have remarkably
acute language learning abilities
even from an early age.
Stages in Producing Language
1. Cooling
2. Babbling
3. One-word utterances
4. Two-word utterances and
telegraphic speech
5. Basic adult sentence structure
Holophrases
 - The infant uses these one-word
utterances to convey intentions,
desires and demands.
- 8 months old of children typically
have vocabularies of 3 to 100
words (Siegler, 1896)
Overextension Error (Linguistic)
- The child overextends the
meaning of words in his/her
existing lexicon to cover things
and ideas for which a new word is
lacking.
Telegraphic Speech
- Gradually between 1.5 and 2.5
years of age, children start
combining single words to
produce two-word utterances.
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE
 Noam Chomsky (1965, 1972)
- Claims that humans have innate
language acquisition device
(LAD).
- a metaphorical organ that is
responsible for language
learning.
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
THEORY
Erik Erikson
- Born on June 15, 1902, in
Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany.
- He was a student of Sigmund
Freud.
- Was greatly influenced by the
latter’s theories of personality
development.
- Gave a great deal of importance
to social environment in a person.
- Personality developed in a
series of stages.
EPIGENETIC PRINCIPLE
- Suggests that people grow in a
sequence that occurs over time
and in the context of a larger
community.
- Life is a continuous process
involving learning and trials which
helps us grow.
CONFLICT DURING EACH STAGE
- people experience a conflict that
serves as a turning point in
development.
- Conflicts are centered on either
developing a psychological quality
or failing to develop that quality.
- A sense of competence
motivates behaviors and actions.
- Each stage is concerned with
becoming competent in an area of
life.
- If the stage is handled well, the
person will feel a sense of
mastery, which is sometimes
referred to as ego strength or ego
quality.
- If the stage is managed poorly,
the person will emerge with a
sense of inadequacy in that
aspect of development.
8 STAGES OF PSYCHO-SOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
1. Trust vs. Mistrust
- Infancy: Birth – 2 years
 - Maladaption: Sensory mal-
adjustment
- Malignancy: Withdrawal
- Virtue: Hope
- The goal is to develop trust
without completely eliminating the
capacity of mistrust.
- If the proper balance is achieved,
the child will develop the virtue of
HOPE.
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
- Early Childhood: 2-4 years
- Maladaption: Impulsiveness
- Malignancy: Compulsiveness
- Virtue: Will power/Determination
- commonly known as the 'terrible
twos’.
- “firm but tolerant”.
3. Initiative vs. Guilt
- Preschool: 4-6 years
- Maladaption: Ruthlessness
- Malignancy: Inhibition
- Virtue: Courage
- beginning to make decisions, and
carry them out, primarily through
play activities.
- Imagination is the key mover.
- A sense of purpose develops.
4. Industry vs. Inferiority
- School Aged: 6-12 years
- Maladaption: Narrow Virtousity
- Malignancy: Inertia
- Virtue: Competency
- begin to work hard academically
and gain competence in various
areas of activity.
- Children begin to develop a
sense of pride.
- Success leads to a sense of
competence.
- Failure results in feelings of
inferiority.
5. Ego Identity vs. Role Confusion
- Adolescence: 12-19 years
- Maladaption: Fanaticism
- Malignancy: Repudiation
- Virtue: Fidelity
- Plays an essential role in
developing a sense of personal
identity.
- Teens need to develop a sense
of self and personal identity.
- Success leads to an ability to stay
true to yourself.
- Failure leads to role confusion
and a weak sense of self.
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation
- Young adulthood
- Maladaption: Promiscuity
- Malignancy: Exclusion
- Virtue: Love
- Success leads to strong
relationships.
- Failure results in loneliness and
isolation.
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation
- Middle Adulthood
- Maladaption: Over Extension
- Malignancy: Rejectivity
- Virtue: Capacity for caring
- Success leads to feelings of
usefulness and accomplishment.
- Failure results in shallow
involvement in the world.
- “ middle crisis”.
8. Ego Integrity vs. Despair
 - Maturity
- Maladaption: Presumption
PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL
- Malignancy: Disdain
- Virtue: Wisdom
- final psychosocial stage occurs
during old age and is focused on
reflecting back on life.
- Older adults need to look back on
life and feel a sense of
fulfillment.
- Success at this stage leads to
feelings of wisdom.
- Failure results in regret,
bitterness, and despair.
MORAL STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT
THEORY
CONVENTIONAL LEVEL
Lawrence Kohlberg
- Born in New York City in 1927.
- Born wealthy, but chose to be a
sailor and began to be interested
in moral reasoning.
- Known for his Theory of Moral
Development
- He believed that people
progressed in the ability to reason
morality through six stages, with
three levels, largely by social
interaction
3 Levels of Moral Stages
1. Preconventional Level
2. Conventional Level
3. Post-Conventional Level
- Moral reasoning is based on the
consequence/result of the act not
on the whether the act itself is
good or bad
a. Stage 1: Punishment/
Obedience
 One is motivated by fear of
punishment.
 He will act in order to avoid
punishment.
b. Stage 2: Mutual Benefit
 One is motivated to act by the
benefit that one may obtain
later.
- Moral reasoning is based on the
conventions or “norms” of society.
This may include approval of
other, law and order.
c. Stage 3: Social Approval
 one is motivated by what other
expect in behavior. The
person acts because he/she
values how he/she will appear
to others. he/she give
importance on what people
will think or say.
d. Stage 4: Law and Order
 One is motivated to act in
order to uphold law and order.
The person follow the
because it is the law.
POST-CONVENTIONAL LEVEL
- Moral reasoning is based on
enduring or consistent principles.
It is not just recognizing the law,
but the principle behind the law.
e. Stage 5: Social Contract
 Law that are wrong can be
changed. One will act based
on social justice and common
good.
f. Stage 6: Universal Principle
 this is associated with the
development of one’s
conscience.
 Having a set of standard that
drives one to possess moral
responsibility to make societal
change regardless of
consequences to oneself.
THE BIOECOLOGICAL MODEL
Urie Bronfenbrenner
- An American psychologist; critical
of previous theories of child
development.
- claimed most earlier studies were
‘unidirectional’
- He recognized there are multiple
aspects of a developing child’s life
that interacts with and affects the
child.
- He proposed the ‘Ecological
Systems Theory’ based on these
dynamic interactions that the
environments have on the
developing child.
THE FIVE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
1. The Microsystem
- The first level of
Bronfenbrenner's theory
- If a child has a strong nurturing
relationship with their parents, this
is said to have a positive effect on
the child.
- The reactions of the child to
individuals can influence how they
treat them in return.
- Relationships are bi-directional,
meaning the child can be
influenced by other people in their
environment.
2. The Mesosystem
- if the child’s parents and teachers
get along and have a good
relationship, this should have
positive effects on the child’s
development.
- Interactions between the child’s
parents and teachers, or between
school peers and siblings.
- where a person's individual
microsystems do not function
independently, but are
interconnected and assert
influence upon one another.
3. The Exosystem
- The parent may come home and
have a short temper with the child
as a result of something which
happened in the workplace,
resulting in a negative effect on
development.
- Examples are the neighborhood,
parent’s workplaces, parent’s
friends and the mass media.
- It incorporates other formal and
informal social structures, which
do not themselves contain the
 child, but indirectly influence them
as they affect one of the
microsystems.

4. The Macrosystem
- This can also include the
socioeconomic status, ethnicity,
geographic location and
ideologies of the culture.
- Focuses on how cultural elements
affect a child's development.

5. The Chronosystem
- Consists of all of the
environmental changes that occur
over the lifetime which influence
development.