Final Flashcards
(34 cards)
Erikson’s fourth stage
Building on the initiative they learned in the last stage, children during the ages 6 to 12 now learn to be competent and productive. Children now attempt to master the skills that their culture deems important so that they can become productive members of their culture. In our culture, among other things, this means doing well in school.Industry versus Inferiority stage (ages 6 to 12) - Children attempt to attain competence in meeting the challenges presented by parents, peers, school, and the other complexities of the modern world. If they fail to attain competence, they feel inferior.
Kohlberg’s stages of moral reasoning
Standards are external (what is moral and immoral depends on what some external authority says) and the child is trying to avoid punishment and reap rewards.
Level I: Preconventional morality
Standards are external (what is moral and immoral depends on what some external authority says) and the child is trying to avoid punishment and reap rewards. This is similar to pre operational thought in that it is egocentric. The child sees things from her/his perspective.
Level II: Conventional morality
External standards are internalized somewhat (a key point, however, is realizing that the standards are still external). Children want to be considered good so they engage in behaviors that are considered good and don’t engage in behaviors that are considered bad. This parallels concrete operational thought in that it relates to current, observable practices (it’s not abstract or hypothetical).
Level III: Postconventional Moral Reasoning.
Similar to Formal Operational thought because it uses abstractions, going beyond what is concretely observed in a particular society.
Stage 1: Punishment and obedience orientation
the child wants to avoid punishment so he/she obeys the rules. According to the child, immoral behavior is behavior that leads to punishment. Moral behavior is behavior that doesn’t lead to punishment.
Stage 2: reward orientation
obey the rules so you can get rewarded for doing so. Be nice to others so they will be nice to you. As in stage 1, moral behavior is whatever behavior brings a reward. Similarly, immoral behavior is any behavior that doesn’t lead to a reward.
Stage 3: “Good Girl” or “Good Boy” orientation
Proper behavior is what pleases others. For example, the child doesn’t steal because the parent will consider the child bad if he/she steals.
Stage 4: Law and order orientation
Proper behavior is behaving like a proper citizen. Therefore, the law is followed even when no police are around.
Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation.
Obey laws because they benefit society
Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles.
he person determines what is right or wrong based on their internal standards of right and wrong. This clearly differs from Level I and Level II thinking, where right and wrong is decided by an external authority. A person in this stage can resist the thinking of an immoral society. For example, if a person lives in Nazi Germany, and is told that killing Jews is moral, they will disagree with their society and decide that killing jews is immoral. This is different from Levels I and II where a person decides what is moral and immoral based on what an external source (their society) says.
Criticism of Kohlberg
Gilligan says Kohlberg defined morality in terms of justice not compassion. Gilligan believes men view morality in terms of justice, but women view it in terms of compassion. This causes women to score low on Kohlberg’s test (when tested women are less likely than men to be placed in stage 6). Gilligan believes morality should be viewed in terms of both justice and compassion.
The depth hypothesis
The idea that almost all mental activity takes place unconsciously.
The conscious mind is only a small part of our mind, the unconscious is much larger
See figure 13.1 on page 504 (which contains an illustration of the depth hypothesis and the structural hypothesis) and notice that most of the mind in the figure is unconscious.
Conscious
The psychological phenomena that the person is attending to at that moment
Unconscious
the psychological materials (memories, desires, fears, etc.) that the person isn’t attending to at that moment.
Structural hypothesis
The mind is divided into the Id, Ego, and Superego. These three forces are continually interacting with one another, often in conflict.
(again, see figure 13.1 for an illustration of the structural hypothesis)
primitive biological drives (hunger, sex, aggression, etc.). The id operates on the pleasure principle. That means that it is only interested in obtaining pleasure and avoiding pain. It isn’t interested in logic, reality or morality.
Id
Ego
the part of the mind that is logical and can plan. It operates on the reality principle. It can take reality in to consideration and plan how to get what the id requires.
Superego
the internalized moral standards of the society (the parents in particular). The superego isn’t interested in pleasure, logic, or reality. It is only interested in doing the morally correct thing.
Anxiety
a signal to the ego that there is danger. It can be reality anxiety (for example, a person rushes at you with a knife) or due to an id impulse that will cause the person to be punished by the superego (in the form of guilt) or by reality.
Defense Mechanisms
The ego can deal with anxiety through defense mechanism. These are means of denying or distorting sources of anxiety.
Denial
deny an external threat. (For example, being told you will die of cancer. But you don’t acknowledge that fact)
repression
unacceptable id impulses are repressed. They are unacceptable because expressing them would bring punishment from the superego (in the form of guilt) or from reality. Whereas in denial you deny an external threat, in repression you deny an internal threat.
projection
unacceptable id impulses are attributed to others (one example is a paranoid person attributing his unacceptable impulses of aggression to others)