Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Updated for fall, 2005

Erikson's 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development

1. Basic trust versus basic mistrust - birth to 18 months
2. Autonomy versus shame and doubt - 18 months to 3 years
3. Initiative versus guilt - 3 to 6 years
4. Industry versus inferiority - 6 to 12 years
5. Identity versus role confusion - adolescence
6. Intimacy versus isolation - young adulthood
7. Generativity versus stagnation - middle adulthood
8. Ego integrity versus dispair - late adulthood

Identity Status in Adolescence

What is misleading about this bar graph?

Self Concept

Self Esteem

Piagetian Moral Development

	Based on his observations of children's application of rules when playing, Piaget determined that morality, too, can be considered a developmental process. For example, Ben, a ten year old studied by Piaget, provided the following critique of a rule made-up by a child playing marbles: "it isn't a rule! It's a wrong rule because it's outside of the rules. A fair rule is one that is in the game". Ben believed in the absolute and intrinsic truth of the rules, characteristic of early moral reasoning. In contrast, Vua, aged thirteen, illustrates an understanding of the reasoning behind the application of rules, characteristic of later moral thinking. When asked to consider the fairness of a made-up rule compared to a traditional rule, Vua replied "It is just as fair because the marbles are far apart"(making the game equally difficult).
	-- Larry Nucci (2004) http://tigger.uic.edu/~lnucci/MoralEd/overview.html

* For children at an early stage of moral development, morality is defined by the rules provided by their parents and society.

* They do not consider the intention or "spirit" of laws. Nor do they distinguish between rules governing social manners and rules governing morality.

* Piaget believed that preschool children often do not consider intention when judging the morality of others' actions. For children in this stage it is the actions that count, not the thinking behind them.

* This "moral realism" may also involve the belief that immoral acts inevitably lead to punishment (immanent justice).

Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

Preconventional Moral Reasoning

stage 1: Punishment-Obedience Orientation

stage 2: Personal Reward Orientation

Conventional Moral Reasoning

stage 3: Good Boy/Nice Girl Orientation

stage 4: Law and Order Orientation

Postconventional Moral Reasoning

stage 5: Social Contract Orientation

stage 6: Universal Ethical Principle Orientation

Postconventional Moral Reasoning

Gilligan's Theory: The Morality of Caring

Peer Influence