• Identify and explain the three major issues addressed by developmental psychology.

• Outline the developmental theories of Piaget, Kolberg, and Erickson.

• List the significant developmental events that occur from birth through adolescence.

• Discuss the biological and environmental factors that affect the development of a child.

• Identify the major physical, cognitive and social changes that occur in middle and late adulthood.

• Define personality and explain the different ways it has been studied.

• Evaluate the psychoanalytic, trait, humanistic and social-cognitive perspectives of personality.

• Contrast how subjective and projective tests are used to assess personality.

• Compare and contrast the different theories of intelligence.

• Identify the major principles of good test construction.

• Discuss the impact of genetic and environmental influences on intelligence.

4.1: Studying Child Development

4.1.1 Study - Dimensions of Development

The framework for the study of lifespan development includes the following concepts:

• Development is lifelong - it never stops.

  • we change and develop constantly from birth to death

• Development depends on history and context.

• Development is multidimensional and multidirectional.

  • multidimensional: involves more than one aspect of you (body and mind)

  • multidirectional: the change does not occur in one direction all your life

• Development is pliable.

  • can be changed - not everyone develops in the same way at the same time due to a variety of genetic and environmental factors

The 4 main dimensions of lifespan development studied by developmental psychologists are:

• physical

  • deals with the physical body; includes muscle development/coordination as well as sexual development

• cognitive

  • involves the mind, primarily the development of how a person thinks

• psychosocial

  • relationships and how we think, feel, and behave in them

• moral

  • the development of our sense of how our choices affect others

Key issues in developmental psychology include:

• nature vs. nurture

  • source of debate going back to early Greeks (Plato for nature, Aristotle for nurture)

  • early philosophers who supported nurture were called Nurturists and said that at birth, the mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate)

  • naturists argued for genetically predetermined signals of maturation and for the existence of critical periods shortly after birth

    • ex. naturists would argue that Tiger Woods’ ability to play golf are due to his genetics, while nurturists would say it is due to his close observation of others, his father’s early teaching, encouragement from others, practice, and hard work

• continuity vs. stages

  • is development a gradual process or does it occur in a sequence of separate stages?

  • continuity theorists see it as continuous and focus on quantitative change

  • organismic theorists argue that development occurs in a series of distinct stages and focus on qualitative changes, saying each stage builds on a previous stage

    • continuity theorists would be more interested in changes in the frequency of a response, while organismic theorists would be interested in the changes in the type of response

• stability vs. change

  • whether personal characteristics present during infancy continue throughout the whole lifespan (do most people show constancy of personality throughout life?)

  • psychologists who emphasize stability believe that personality traits measured during early childhood are predictors of adult personality

  • psychologists who support change theory argue that personality may change due to other modifying events such as school, family, or culture

  • psychologists aim to determine which characteristics are most likely to remain stable and which will change

Gender development plays a role in each of the dimensions of development, especially the physical and psychosocial ones. Both biological factors (genetics, hormones, neurology) and sociocultural factors (parenting styles, socioeconomic status, education) play a part in gender differences.

• Sex is the genetic aspect of being male or female, while gender is a social construct.

• Gender schema theory says that children/adolescents use gender as an organizing theme to classify and interpret their perceptions about themselves and the world.

There are various psychological perspectives on gender development.

• biological approach

  • genetic, hormonal, and neurological functions

  • most behavioral differences can be traced to biological differences

• psychoanalytic approach

  • resolution of unconscious conflicts

  • gender identity occurs when the child identifies with the same-sex parent

• cognitive approach

  • self-categorization

  • upon learning your biological sex, you sort out info about behavior by gender and act accordingly

• behavioral approach

  • modeling, reinforcement, and teaching

  • gender typing is a result of interpretation, evaluation, and internalization of socially transmitted standards that are reinforced by society

More on early physical development:

• the prenatal stage ends at the moment of birth

  • begins with a zygote (fertilized egg containing the genes of the mother and father)

  • divides multiple times to become a ball of cells called a blastula with an inner and outer layer of cells (outer layer attaches to the mother’s uterine wall, inner cells begin forming bodily organs and structures)

4.1.2 Study - Developmental Research

One problem with developmental research is how to study changes over time. To answer many questions, an experiment would have a lifelong span. Some methods used by developmental researchers include:

• cross-sectional design: subjects from different age groups are studied at the same point in time

  • cohort effect occurs when a difference between groups reflects a peculiarity in one of the age groups (cohorts) rather than a general developmental difference

• cohort comparison: similar to cross-sectional in that the subjects are studied at one point in their development, but they are not studied at the same time (will only follow one age group, thus the cohort effect does not apply)

• longitudinal design: one group of subjects is repeatedly studied over a long period of time; can control better than cross-sectional designs but are very expensive and time-consuming and can be affected by subject attrition (loss of participants over time)

• sequential design: combines cross-sectional and longitudinal studies: subjects from different age groups are studied repeatedly over a period of months and years (limited unless it is repeated cross-culturally)

4.1 MYERS’ REQUIRED READING (Modules 45-54)

Module 45

• 45-1

  • Developmental psychologists study physical, mental, and social changes throughout the life span.

  • They focus on 3 genetic issues: nature/nurture (interaction between genetics and the environment), continuity/stages (which aspects are gradual and continuous and which change abruptly), and stability/change (traits enduring/changing as we age).

• 45-2

  • The life cycle begins at conception, when one sperm cell unites with an egg to form a zygote.

  • The zygote’s inner cells become the embryo, and in the next 6 weeks, body organs begin to form and function.

  • By 9 weeks, the fetus is recognizably human.

  • Teratogens are potentially harmful agents (such as viruses or drugs) that can pass through the placental screen and harm the developing embryo or fetus, as happens with fetal alcohol syndrome.

• 45-3

  • Babies are born with sensory equipment and reflexes that facilitate their survival and their social interactions with adults. For example, they quickly learn to discriminate their mother’s smell and prefer the sound of human voices.

  • Researchers use techniques that test habituation, such as the visual-preference procedure, to explore infants’ abilities.

• 46-1

  • The brain’s nerve cells are sculpted by heredity and experience. Their interconnections multiply rapidly after birth, a process that continues until puberty, when a pruning process begins shutting down unused connections.

  • Complex motor skills (sitting, standing, walking) develop in a predictable sequence, though the timing of that sequence is a function of individual maturation and culture.

• 46-2

  • We have few or no conscious memories of events occurring before about age 4, in part because major brain areas have not yet matured.

    • From ages 3 to 6, the most rapid growth was in the frontal lobes, which enable rational planning.

    • During those years, your brain required vast amounts of energy; this energy-intensive process caused rapid progress in your ability to control your attention and behavior.

    • The brain’s association areas (linked with memory, thinking and language) were the last cortical areas to develop, causing mental abilities to surge.

    • Fiber pathways supporting agility, language, and self-control proliferated into puberty. Under the influence of adrenal hormones, tens of billions of synapses formed/organized while a pruning process shut down unused connections.

    • Genes guide motor development, with 90% of babies walking at 15 months.

  • Despite the lack of conscious recall, our brains were still processing and storing information. This is evident in those who spoke different languages as young children and are able to relearn their sounds more easily as adults.

    • The brain areas underlying memory, such as the hippocampus and frontal lobes, continue to mature during and after adolescence.

    • Persistence of traces of forgotten childhood languages demonstrate the two-track mind: what the conscious mind does not know and cannot express in words, the nervous system and unconscious mind somehow remember.

• 47-1

  • In his theory of cognitive development, Jean Piaget proposed that children actively construct and modify their understanding of the world through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. They form schemas that help them organize their experiences.

    • Piaget’s core idea was that our intellectual progression reflects an unending struggle to make sense of our experiences.

    • Piaget proposed the concepts of assimilation and accommodation to explain how we use and adjust our schemas. Assimilation is when we interpret situations in terms of our current schemas; accommodation is when we adjust our schemas to include information provided by new experiences.

  • Progressing from the simplicity of the sensorimotor stage of the first two years, in which they develop object permanence, children move to more complex thinking.

  • In the preoperational stage, (age 2 to 6/7) they develop a theory of mind, but they are egocentric and unable to perform simple logical operations.

  • By age 7, they enter the concrete operational stage and are able to comprehend the principle of conservation.

  • By age 12, children enter the formal operational stage and can reason systematically.

  • Research supports the sequence Piaget proposed, but it also shows that young children are more capable, and their development is more continuous, than he believed.

  • Lev Vygotsky’s studies of child development focused on the ways a child’s mind grows by interacting with the social environment. In his view, parents and caretakers provide what we now call temporary scaffolds enabling children to step to higher levels of learning.

    • For Vygotsky, children were like little apprentices, learning from their social environments. For Piaget, however, they were like little scientists, learning from their physical environments.

• 47-2

  • Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a disorder marked by social deficiencies and repetitive behaviors.

  • Genetic influences, abnormal brain development, and the prenatal environment (especially when altered by infection, drugs, or hormones) contribute to ASD.

    • Contrary to a fraudulent 1998 study, childhood vaccinations do not cause ASD.

    • ASD affects around 3 boys for every 1 girl. Some believe this is because boys are often “systemizers”, while girls are often “empathizers” - girls tend to be better at reading facial expressions in the first place, and one of the symptoms of ASD is difficulty interpreting facial expressions.

    • No one “autism gene” contributes to the disorder - many genes (over 400 identified so far) may contribute, as well as random genetic mutations.

    • Some studies have revealed underconnectivity in those with ASD - fewer-than-normal fiber tracts connecting the front of the brain to the back. This makes it harder to mentally connect visual and emotional information, for example.

  • An impaired theory of mind makes it difficult for those with ASD to understand others’ point of view.

  • People with ASD experience different severities of the disorder. Some function at a high level, while others struggle to use language.

    • Those with Asperger syndrome generally function at a high level, having normal intelligence (often accompanied by exceptional skill or talent in a particular area), but deficient social skills and a tendency to become distracted by irrelevant stimuli.

• 48-1

  • At about 8 months, as soon as object permanence develops, children separated from their caregivers display stranger anxiety.

  • Infants form attachments not simply because parents gratify biological needs but, more important, because they are comfortable, familiar, and responsive.

  • Ducks and other animals have a more rigid attachment process, called imprinting, that occurs during a critical period.

• 48-2

  • Attachment has been studied in strange situation experiments, which show that some children are securely attached and others are insecurely attached.

  • Sensitive, responsive parents tend to have securely attached children.

  • Adult relationships seem to reflect the attachment styles of early childhood, lending support to Erik Erikson’s idea that basic trust is formed in infancy by our experiences with our responsive caregivers.

  • Yet it’s become clear that temperament - our characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity - also plays a huge role in how our attachment patterns form.

• 48-3

  • Children are very resilient, but those who are moved repeatedly, severely neglected by their parents, or otherwise prevented from forming attachments by an early age may be at risk for attachment problems.

  • Extreme trauma in childhood may alter the brain, affecting our stress responses or leaving epigenetic marks.

• 48-4

  • Self-concept, an understanding and evaluation of who we are, emerges gradually.

  • By 15 to 18 months, children recognize themselves in a mirror.

  • By school age, they can describe many of their own traits, and by ages 8 to 10 their self-image is stable.

• 48-5

  • The four main parenting styles are authoritarian (coercive), permissive (unrestraining), negligent (uninvolved), and authoritative (confrontive).

• 48-6

  • Authoritarian parenting is associated with lower self-esteem, less social skill, and a brain that overreacts to mistakes.

  • Permissive parenting is associated with greater aggression and immaturity.

  • Negligent parenting is associated with poor academic and social outcomes.

  • Authoritative parenting is associated with greater self-esteem, self-reliance, self-regulation, and social competence.

• 49-1

  • Gender refers to the socially and culturally constructed expectations about what it means to be a boy, girl, man, or woman.

  • Sex refers to our biological status as male or female, defined by our chromosomes and anatomy.

• 49-2

  • We are more alike than different, thanks to our similar genetic makeup - we see, learn, and remember similarly, with comparable creativity, intelligence, and emotions. Males and females do differ in height, age of onset of puberty, life expectancy, and vulnerability to certain disorders.

  • Men admit to aggression more than women do, and they are more likely to be physically aggressive. Women’s aggression is more likely to be relational.

  • Women focus more on social connectedness; they are more interdependent, and they “tend and befriend”.

• 49-3

  • Differences in male-female perception, compensation, and family responsibility both influence and reflect workplace gender bias.

  • In most societies, men have more social power, and their leadership style tends to be directive, whereas women’s tends to be more democratic.

  • In their everyday behaviors and interactions, men to act more assertive and opinionated; women tend to act more supportive and apologetic.

• 49-4

  • Gender roles, the behaviors a culture expects from its men and women, vary across place and time.

  • Social learning theory proposes that we learn gender identity - our personal sense of being male, female, or some combination of the two - as we learn other things: through reinforcement, punishment, and observation.

  • Critics argue that cognition also plays a role, as gender typing varies between children. We seem to conform in ways that feel comfortable to us, whether that means taking on a male role, female role, or blend of the two (androgyny).

  • Transgender people’s gender identity differs from the behaviors or traits considered typical for their biological sex. Their sexual orientation may be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual.

• 50-1

  • As a child’s brain develops, neural connections grow more numerous and complex. Experiences then trigger a pruning process, in which unused connections weaken and heavily used ones strengthen.

  • Early childhood is an important period for shaping the brain, but thanks to plasticity, the brain modifies itself throughout our lives in response to our learning.

• 50-2

  • Family environment and parental expectations can affect children’s motivation and future success. Personality, however, is mostly not attributable to the effects of nurture.

  • As children attempt to fit in with their peers, they tend to adopt their culture - habits, accents, and slang, for example.

  • By choosing their children’s neighborhoods and schools, parents exert some influence over peer group culture.

• 51-1

  • Adolescence is the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to social independence.

  • For boys, early maturation has mixed effects; for girls, early maturation can be a challenge.

  • The brain’s frontal lobes mature and myelin growth increases during adolescence and the early twenties, enabling improved judgment, impulse control, and long-term planning.

• 51-2

  • Piaget theorized that adolescents develop a capacity for formal operations and that this is the development is the foundation for moral judgment.

  • Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a stage theory of moral reasoning, from a preconventional morality of self-interest to a conventional morality concerned with upholding laws and social rules, to (in some people) a postconventional morality of universal ethical principles.

  • Other researchers believe that morality lies in moral intuition and moral action as well as thinking.

    • For example, laboratory games reveal that the desire to punish wrongdoing is mostly driven by emotional reactions (such as moral outrage leading to the pleasure of revenge) rather than reason.

  • Some critics argue that Kohlberg’s postconventional level represents morality from the perspective of individualist cultures.

• 52-1

  • Erikson theorized that each life stage has its own psychosocial task, and that a chief task of adolescence is solidifying one’s sense of self - one’s identity. This often means “trying on” a number of different roles.

    • Infancy - trust vs. mistrust

    • Toddlerhood - autonomy vs. shame and doubt

    • Preschool - initiative vs. guilt

    • Elementary - competence vs. inferiority

    • Adolescence - identity vs. role confusion

    • Young adulthood - intimacy vs isolation

    • Middle adulthood - generativity vs. stagnation

    • Late adulthood - integrity vs. despair

  • Social identity is the part of self-concept that comes from a person’s group memberships.

  • Erikson believed that adolescent identity formation is followed in young adulthood by a developing capacity for intimacy.

• 52-2

  • During adolescence, parental influence diminishes and peer influence increases.

  • Most adolescents adopt their peers’ ways of dressing, acting, and communicating.

  • Parents have more influence in religion, politics, and college and career choices.

• 52-3

  • Due to earlier sexual maturity and later independence, the transition from adolescence to adulthood is taking longer than it did in the past.

  • Emerging adulthood is the period from age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many young people are not yet fully independent. This stage is mostly found in today’s Western cultures.

• 53-1

  • About 7 weeks after conception, a gene on the Y chromosome triggers the production of testosterone in males, promoting male sex organ development.

  • During the 4th and 5th prenatal months, sex hormones bathe the fetal brain. Different patterns develop as a result of the male’s greater testosterone and the female’s ovarian hormones. Prenatal exposure of females to unusually high levels of male hormones can dispose them to more male-typical activity interests later on.

  • Another flood of hormones occurs in puberty, triggering a growth spurt, the development of primary and secondary sex characteristics, and the landmark events of spermarche and menarche.

  • Intersex individuals are born with intermediate or unusual combinations of male and female chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy.

• 53-2

  • Safer sex practices help prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

  • Condoms, while offering limited protection against skin-to-skin STIs, are especially effective in preventing transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

  • Knowing one’s STI status and sharing it with one’s sexual partner is key to prevention.

• 53-3

  • Sexual behaviors/attitudes vary from culture to culture and era to era.

  • Factors contributing to teen pregnancy include minimal communication about birth control with their parents/partners/peers, impulsivity, alcohol use, and mass media.

  • High intelligence, religious engagement, father presence, and participation in service learning programs have been predictors of teen sexual restraint.

• 53-4

  • Sexual orientation is an enduring sexual attraction, usually toward members of one’s own sex (homosexual) or the other sex (heterosexual). Variations include attraction between both sexes (bisexual).

  • Today’s psychologists view sexual orientation as neither willfully chosen nor willfully changeable.

  • There is no evidence that environment determines sexual orientation.

  • Evidence for biological influences includes the presence of same-sex attraction in many animal species, straight-gay differences in body/brain characteristics, higher rates of homosexuality in certain families and identical twins, the effect of exposure to certain hormones during critical periods of prenatal development, and the fraternal birth-order effect.

• 54-1

  • Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities, and cardiac output begin to decline in the mid-twenties and continue to decline throughout adulthood.

  • Women’s period of fertility ends with menopause around age 50. Men experience a more gradual decline in fertility and sexual response.

  • In late adulthood, the immune system weakens, increasing susceptibility to life-threatening illnesses.

  • Chromosome tips (telomeres) wear down, reducing the chances of normal genetic replication.

  • But for some, longevity-supporting genes, low stress, and good health habits enable better health in later life.

• 54-2

  • As the years pass, recall begins to decline, especially for meaningless information, but recognition memory remains strong.

  • Developmental researchers study age-related changes (such as memory) with cross-sectional studies (comparing people of different ages) and longitudinal studies (retesting the same people over a period of years).

  • “Terminal decline” describes the cognitive decline in the final few years of life.

• 54-3

  • Neurocognitive disorders (NCDs), formerly called dementia in older adults, are marked by cognitive deficits.

  • Alzheimer’s disease causes the deterioration of memory, then reasoning. After 5 to 20 years, the person becomes emotionally flat, disoriented, disinhibited, incontinent, and finally mentally vacant.

• 54-4

  • Adults do not progress through an orderly sequence of age-related social stages. Chance events can determine life choices.

  • Evidence does not indicate that adults experience a “midlife crisis” or that distress peaks in midlife.

  • The social clock is a culture’s preferred timing for social events, such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.

  • Adulthood’s dominant themes are love and work, which Erikson called intimacy and generativity.

• 54-5

  • Our self-confidence and sense of identity tends to strengthen across the life span.

  • Surveys show that life satisfaction is unrelated to age. Positive emotions increase after midlife and negative ones decrease.

  • As we age, we experience fewer extremes of emotion and mood.

• 54-6

  • People do not grieve in predictable stages, as we once supposed.

  • Strong expressions of emotion may not purge grief, and bereavement therapy is not significantly more effective than grieving without such aid.

  • Erikson viewed the late-adulthood psychosocial task as developing a sense of integrity (versus despair).

4.2.1 study - survey of perspectives/theories of child development

Theories of Attachment

• attachment is the term psychologists use to describe an active and intense emotional bond that a person feels towards others in his or her life

• generally in either the nature or nurture camp

• John Bowlby proposed that newborn infants are innately equipped with behaviors that promote survival - verbal or nonverbal behaviors and motor abilities that elicit nurturing responses from the caregiver

• Lorenz’s studies of imprinting showed how newly hatched ducklings attach to and follow the first moving object they see in their critical period of development

• Ainsworth proposed that there are styles of attachment between infants and their mothers and this attachment style may affect later relationships (securely attached, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent)

More on Piaget

• During the sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years), children lack object permanence (the ability to understand that an object still exists even when you can’t see it)

  • In this stage, babies show the reflexes of rooting, sucking, and grasping

• By the preoperational stage (2-6 years), children have developed object permanence, and they are able to create mental representations of objects and people. However, they aren’t able to conceive of another person’s point of view (egocentrism)

• In the concrete operational stage (6-12 years) children are able to use logic and reason and understand the concept of conservation (properties, such as volume and number, stay the same even if the shape or form changes)

• In the formal operational stage (12+ years), children are able to use logical abilities developed earlier and apply them to abstract concepts

Stages of Dealing with Death

• denial

• anger

• bargaining

• depression

• acceptance

Theories Encompassing Various Dimensions of Development

• Freud’s psychosexual theory (stage theory) - behavior controlled by unconscious urges, innate factors modified by experience

• Erikson’s psychosocial theory (stage theory) - personality is influenced by society and develops through a series of crises, interaction of innate factors and experiences

• Pavlov/Watson/Skinner’s behaviorism/traditional learning theory - people are responders; the environment controls behavior

• Bandura’s social cognitive theory - children learn in a social context by observing and imitating models; person is an active contributor to learning

• Maslow’s self-actualization theory - people have the ability to take charge of their lives and foster their own development

• Piaget’s cognitive development - qualitative changes in thought occur between infancy and adolescence, person is active initiator of development

• Maturational theory - development proceeds according to a biological plan

• Bowlby and Ainsworth’s attachment theory - human beings have the adaptive mechanisms to survive; critical periods are stressed; importance of biological and evolutionary bases for learning

• Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory - development occurs through interaction between a developing person and 5 surrounding, interlocking systems of influences, from microsystem to chronosystem

• Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory - child’s sociocultural context has an important impact on environment

Psychological Perspectives → Child Development

• Biological: underlying genetic/biological factors

  • Maturation theorists view development as the unfolding of a biological plan

• Evolutionary: development in terms of the characteristics/behaviors that ensure the survival of a species

  • Attachment theorists examine the influence of an infant’s attachment to a caregiver

• Psychodynamic: Freudian psychosexual theories + Erikson’s psychosocial theory

  • During childhood, children develop erogenous zones (areas of the body that are sensitive to pleasurable stimulation) and these zones shift from one area of the body to another as the child matures, sometimes becoming fixated or stuck as a result of interactions with their parents

  • Never been supported by research, not widely accepted in scientific community

  • Introduced the notion of the unconscious mind, personality structure + impact of early childhood experiences on later development

  • Set the stage for Erikson’s more widely accepted theory of psychosocial development

  • ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY

    • expanded on Freudian view of stage development

    • explained how social/cultural influences affect human development from birth though 8 stages of life

    • within each stage, conflict/tension exists which the person must solve

    • adult behavior reflects how each crisis was solved in each stage

    • STAGES

      • infancy (0-1 years) - trust vs. mistrust

      • toddlerhood (1-2 years) - autonomy vs. shame/doubt

      • preschooler (3-5 years) - initiative vs. guilt

      • elementary (6-12 years) - competence vs. inferiority

      • adolescence (12-20 years) - identity vs. role confusion

      • young adult (20s-40s) - intimacy vs. isolation

      • middle adult (40s-60s) - generation vs. stagnation

      • late adult (60-onward) - integrity vs. despair

• Cognitive: how our worldview develops over time

  • Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

    • stage theory

    • 3 major concepts: schemas, assimilation, accommodation

      • schemas - basic units of intellect; templates for organizing our interactions within the environment; change over time

      • assimilation - we take in info that fits an existing schema

      • accommodation - we change our schemas when new info is learned

    • 4 stages of cognitive development

      • sensorimotor (0-2 years) - using senses to experience the world

      • preoperational (2-6 years) - using words but lacking logical reasoning

      • concrete operational (7-11 years) - understanding/thinking logically about concrete things

      • formal operational (12+ years) - abstract reasoning

  • David Elkind’s work is partially based on Piaget’s theory

    • child development progresses in stages according to age

    • pressuring children to grow up too quickly may short-change their development

    • creates frustration and negatively impact social/emotional/intellectual development

  • Kohlberg’s stages of moral development

    • stages of moral development are universal + determined by cognitive development

    • preconventional level

      • stage 1: punishment orientation (right/wrong determined by what is punished)

      • stage 2: naive reward orientation (right/wrong determined by what is rewarded)

    • conventional level

      • stage 3: good boy/girl orientation (right/wrong determined by close others’ approval/disapproval)

      • stage 4: authority orientation (right/wrong determined by societal laws or norms, which should be obeyed rigidly)

    • postconventional level

      • stage 5: social contract orientation (right/wrong determined by society’s rules, which are viewed as fallible rather than absolute)

      • stage 6: individual principles and conscience orientation (right/wrong determined by abstract ethical principles emphasizing justice and equity)

    • required that Kohlberg examine the nature/progression of subjects’ moral reasoning by presenting them with hypothetical scenarios

  • Carol Gilligan criticized Kohlberg’s research because it was limited to males

    • found that most people look at more than justice (a major focus of Kohlberg’s work) when they analyze moral conflicts

    • caring relationships/connections also important

    • gender differences in moral reasoning

      • people have at least 2 modes of moral reasoning

      • care/justice modes used by both sexes

• Behavioral: role of the environment in shaping a child’s development, mainly through reinforcement/punishment

• Sociocultural: direct observation and imitation of others as major influences

• Contextual: cognitive processes + the social environments in which they occur (ex. direct instruction by adults/expert peers)

  • Vygotsky could be considered contextual or sociocultural

4.2.2 explore - parenting styles

Diana Baumrind developed a theory of parenting styles - 4 categories based on combining levels of responsiveness and demandingness.

• responsiveness: responding to a child with warmth and affection + understanding their needs as an individual

• demandingness: setting high standards + constantly enforcing rules

• both high: authoritative

• high responsiveness, low demandingness: permissive

• low responsiveness, high demandingness: authoritarian

• both low: negligent

MYERS’ REQUIRED READING (Modules 55-59)

• 55-1

  • Personality is an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

  • Psychoanalytic (and later psychodynamic) theory and humanistic theory have become part of Western culture. They laid the foundation for later theories, such as trait and social-cognitive theories of personality.

• 55-2

  • Psychodynamic theories view personality from the perspective that behavior is a lively (dynamic) interaction between the conscious and unconscious mind. The theories trace their origin to Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis.

  • In treating patients whose disorders had no clear physical explanation, Freud concluded that these problems reflected unacceptable thoughts and feelings, hidden away in the unconscious mind. To explore this hidden part of a patient’s mind, Freud used free association and dream analysis.

  • Freud believed that personality results from conflict arising from the interaction among the mind’s 3 systems: the id (pleasure-seeking impulses), ego (reality-oriented executive), and superego (conscience/internalized set of ideals).

• 55-3

  • Freud believed children pass through 5 psychosexual stages - oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

  • According to this view, unresolved conflicts at any stage can leave a person’s pleasure-seeking impulses fixated (stalled) at that stage.

  • For Freud, anxiety was the product of tensions between the demands of the id and superego. The ego copes by using unconscious defense mechanisms, such as repression, which he viewed as the basic mechanism underlying and enabling all the others.

• 55-4

  • Freud’s early followers, the neo-Freudians

• 55-5

• 55-6