development: theories of personality and moral development

Question 1

5 theories of personality development:

Answer 1

• Freud’s psychosexual theory
• Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
• Loevinger’s Ego Development Theory
• Maslow’s Humanistic Theory
• Ethological Theories of Konrad Lorenz, John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, and Harry Harlow

Question 2

Sigmund Freud

Answer 2

An Austrian psychiatrist who is considered to be the father of psychoanalysis. He stated that personality develops through the interaction of innate drives and also maintained that environment and past experiences play a key role in an individual’s current behaviors. Freud theorized that psyche was made up of the id (operates on the pleasure principle), ego (operates on the reality principle), and superego (operates on the morality principle).

Question 3

psychosexual theory

Answer 3

Freud’s theory of personality development. Freud proposed that people need to resolve psychological conflicts resulting from the psychic energy focused within different parts of the body as one matures. Freud proposed a model of five stages of development—oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital—and theorized that failure to resolve the psychological conflicts encountered in each stage can result in fixation.

Question 4

8 common defense mechanisms:

Answer 4

repression
regression
displacement
projection
rationalization
compensation
denial
reaction formation

Question 5

Erikson’s 8 stages of development:

Answer 5

trust/mistrust, autonomy/shame, initiative/guilt, industry/inferiority, identity/role-confusion, intimacy/isolation, generativity/stagnation, integrity/despair

Question 6

10 stages of ego development theory:

Answer 6

presocial, symbiotic, impulsive, self-protective, conformist, self-awareness/self-conscious, conscientious, individualistic, autonomous, integrated

Question 7

fixation

Answer 7

An inability to resolve an important conflict, due to either an overgratification or an undergratification of a need in any stage, that leaves an individual centered on a stage and unable to progress to the next.

Question 8

theory of Psychosocial development

Answer 8

Personality theory, developed by Erik Erikson, concerned with the impact of an individual’s social experiences on ego development. Erikson believed that the ego develops through a series of psychosocial crises, which are encountered throughout the lifespan. These crises are outlined in Erikson’s eight stages of development

Question 9

Erik Erikson

Answer 9

Developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his psychosocial theory of human development.

Question 10

Marcia’s four identity statuses:

Answer 10

achievement,
moratorium,
foreclosure,
diffusion

Question 11

Jane Loevinger

Answer 11

A developmental psychologist who proposed 10 stages of ego development, which stressed the internalization of social norms and the maturing conscience in personality development.

Question 12

two primary theories of aging:

Answer 12

disengagement and activity

Question 13

Abraham Maslow

Answer 13

A humanistic theorist known for the development of the hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy of needs proposes that higher-order needs (e.g., for achievement and self-actualization) cannot be attained until lowerorder needs (e.g., for food, shelter, and safety) are met. Maslow also coined the term self-actualization, which refers to recognizing and moving toward one’s full potential

Question 14

hierarchy of needs

Answer 14

Proposes that higher-order needs (e.g., achievement, self-actualization) cannot be attained until lower-order needs (e.g., food, shelter, safety) are met. Developed by Abraham Maslow (1947).

Question 15

Five Factor Model of Personality

Answer 15

An evidence-based model of personality that breaks down the construct of personality into five factors: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN). This model is often referred to as the “Big Five.” The NEO Personality Inventory–3 (NEO PI-3) is commonly used to measure these factors in clients, and clinicians can use the results to help formulate useful interventions to help clients improve the quality of their lives.

Question 16

NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-3)

Answer 16

Commonly used to measure the “Big Five” (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) in clients. Clinicians can use the results to help formulate useful interventions to help clients improve the quality of their lives.

Question 17

Ethological Theories

Answer 17

Developmental theories that emphasize the role of instinct and innate capacities in human development. Well-known ethological theorists include Konrad Lorenz (carried out a set of experiments concerning gosling imprinting and critical periods); John Bowlby (described infants’ innate ability to bond with their caregiver); Mary Ainsworth (described four patterns of infant attachment: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized); and Harry Harlow (studied attachment patterns of infant rhesus monkeys and found that, when frightened, the infants preferred contact with a terrycloth surrogate mother to a wire mother that provided food).

Question 18

sensitive period

Answer 18

period of development in which certain developmental tasks are easily developed and learned

Question 19

Konrad Lorenz

Answer 19

Carried out a famous set of experiments on imprinting, the process by which a duck or gosling attaches to the first moving object it encounters shortly after hatching.

Question 20

John Bowlby

Answer 20

Described infants’ innate ability to bond with their caregiver.

Question 21

Mary Ainsworth

Answer 21

Described four patterns of infant attachment: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized.

Question 22

Harry Harlow

Answer 22

Described classic experiments with infant rhesus monkeys that were placed into cages with wire surrogate mothers, one with a bottle to provide food (oral gratification and sustenance) and another with a terrycloth covering (comfort and warmth). The infant monkeys would move to the wire monkey for food but preferred contact comfort with the terrycloth monkey, spending the vast majority of time with and running to the terrycloth monkey when frightened.

Question 23

stranger anxiety

Answer 23

A phenomenon that occurs in infants around six months of age. Theorists purport that infants’ fear of strangers is due to enhanced visual acuity, onset of object permanence, and increasing cognitive awareness.

Question 24

Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development:

Answer 24

• obedience/punishment
• instrumental hedonism
• good boy/girl
• law and order -social/moral contract
• universal ethical principles

Question 25

Piaget’s theory of moral development:

Answer 25

premoral
moral realism
moral relativism

Question 26

separation anxiety

Answer 26

Occurs developmentally in most infants, ages 12 to 24 months, and involves extreme distress when they are separated from a primary caregiver.

Question 27

Identity

Answer 27

An understanding of oneself as a separate, distinct individual. Erikson (1950) described identity development as occurring during adolescence when individuals must recognize and integrate a sense of personal uniqueness and future direction. Those who fail to do so experience confusion and question their purpose and direction. Marcia (1980) expanded Erikson’s conceptualization of identity, proposing four types of identity: identity achievement, identity moratorium, identity foreclosure, and identity diffusion

Question 28

prosocial behavior

Answer 28

Demonstrating a concern for the welfare of others and acting in a way that benefits others. Prosocial behaviors initially occur in early childhood but are not consistently demonstrated until later childhood

Question 29

sociodramatic play

Answer 29

Maintains that play is an imitation of adult tasks, facilitating mature social interactions between children. Parten (1933) described social play categories: nonsocial activity, parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play.

Question 30

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Answer 30

A Swiss-born psychiatrist known for her work on grief. She proposed that individuals facing loss (e.g., death, loss of a loved one, unexpected life transition) will experience grief. The Kübler-Ross model outlines the stages of grief: shock and denial, anger, bargaining and guilt, hopelessness, and acceptance.

Question 31

Moral Development

Answer 31

The emergent process of distinguishing right from wrong and acting in accordance with those distinctions. Prominent theories of moral development are Kohlberg’s cognitive approach, Gilligan’s feminist approach, Piaget’s cognitive approach, and Freud’s psychoanalytic approach

Question 32

Lawrence Kohlberg

Answer 32

Proposed a stage theory of moral development that suggests developmental improvements in cognitive functioning lead to increases in moral development. His theory outlines three levels of development (i.e., preconventional, conventional, and postconventional), and each level has two stages. While Kohlberg’s theory of moral development is the most influential, it has been criticized for being too male-centered.

Question 33

Carol Gilligan

Answer 33

An American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist best known for her work with and against Lawrence Kohlberg on ethical community and ethical relationships, and certain subject–object problems in ethics.