Theories of Growth and Development

Question 1

Psychosocial Development: Erik Erikson

Answer 1

Describes the human cycle in 8 stages:

• Infancy (birth to 18 month): trust x mistrust.
• Early childhood (18m to 3y): autonomy x shame and doubt.
• Late childhood (3-6): initiative x guilt.
• School age (6-12): industry x inferiority.
• Adolescence (12-20): identity x role confusion.
• Early adulthood (20-35): intimacy x isolation.
• Middle adulthood (35-65): generativity x stagnation.
• Later adulthood (65-death): integrity x despair.

Question 2

Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget

Answer 2

“Mental mapping”
- Schema: is the framework of thought.
- Schemata: categories that individuals forms in their mind to understand the world.
- Assimilation: ability to incorporate new ideas.
- Accommodation: ability to change schema.
Stages of cognitive development:
- Sensorimotor stage (0-2): reflex activity, does not recognize objects out of visual field.
- Preoperational stage (2-7): thinks past, present, future. Prelogical thinking. Egocentric. Unable to conceptualize.
- Concrete operational (7-11): able to classify, order, sort facts. Develop abstract thinking. Less egocentric, think about what others think.
- Formal operational (11-adult): thinking abstractly and logically.

Question 3

Moral Development: Lawrence Kohlberg

Answer 3

Moral development is sequential and can’t be skipped.
Level One - Preconventional Morality
- Stage 0 (0-2): Egocentric judgment
- Stage 1 (2-4): Punishment-obedience orientation
- Stage 2 (4-7): Instrumental relativist orientation
Level Two - Conventional Morality
- Stage 3 (7-10): Good boy or nice girl orientation
- Stage 4 (10-12): Law and order orientation
Level Three - Postconventional Morality (adolescent)
- Stage 5: Social contract and legalistic orientation
- Stage 6: Universal ethical principles orientation

Question 4

Psychosexual Development: Sigmund Freud

Answer 4

Levels of awareness:
- Unconscious, preconscious, and conscious level.
Agencies of the mind:
- The id, ego, and super ego
Anxiety and defense mechanisms:
- operate on a unconscious level.
Stages of development:
- Oral stage (0-1)
- Anal stage (1-3)
- Phallic stage (3-6) *parent
- Latency stage (6-12) 
- Genital stage (12+)