1. Three Ages Project
Madison Lewis

2. Participants Pseudonyms: Ages: Methods of interviewing Expectations:
Adam
Robbie
Tori
Ages: 16 12 5
Methods of interviewing
Expectations:
Develop According to
Bronfenbrenner
Piaget
Kohlberg
Marcia
Answer complexity differences

3. Interviews
Adam, Robbie, and Tori

4. Questions
How much did you grow over the past year? What kinds of food did you eat? How much food did you eat? Did this affect your growth?
Is it bad to take things that aren’t yours? Why? Why do you think there are laws against stealing?
Who are your close friends? How long have you known them? What do you like about them? Are you similar or different?
What do you want to be when you grow up? What made you make that decision? What does a person with that job do?
What is the heaviest item that you think you can lift. Compare that to another item of almost the same weight.
Tom is reading a book. He stops reading the book and puts it into drawer A, then leaves the room. While he is gone, Bill comes into the room and moves the book to drawer B. When Tom comes back, where will he look for the book?

5. observations

6. Growth Question Older the participant, more concern with healthy foods
All thought their food helped them grow
Tori: more food = more growth, regardless of how healthy the food is
Robbie’s discussion of caffeine and sleep
Adam’s regimented diet

7. Stealing Question All participants believe stealing is wrong
None have reached highest moral development stage according to Kohlberg
All in 2nd level of morality: conventional morality
“People approach moral problems as members of society”

8. Stealing Question Robbie and Adam Tori Stage 3 of Level 2
“Good boy”morality
Subject is concerned with being perceived by society as a good person who conforms to societal norms
Robbie and Adam
Stage 4 of Level 2
“authority and social-order maintaining” stage
Answers about law, economy, security, and money reflect concern for rest of population and societal views rather than simply their own concern for the way society perceives themselves as indiividuals

9. Friendship Question
Values placed on friendship get more complicated with age
Humor is important to all
Laugh
Jokes
Sense of humor
Tori and Robbie
Closest friends are same gender
Adam
Closest friends are opposite gender

10. Career Question
All participants wanted careers similar to those of their family members
Relates to Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological approach
Microsystem
Adam’s enthusiasm and detail of his response indicateds Marcia’s “identity achievement” stage

11. Lifting Ability Question
Piaget’s idea:
Children should to be able to think more logically as they move from his preoperational period to his period of concrete operations and then to his period of formal operations
Theoretically, Adam should have been able to give the most accurate response to the question about the heaviest item he could lift, while Tori should have given the most unrealistic response
Findings were exactly opposite
Adam got frustrated

12. Theory of Mind Question
Tom is reading a book. He stops reading the book and puts it into drawer A, then leaves the room. While he is gone, Bill comes into the room and moves the book to drawer B. When Tom comes back, where will he look for the book?
All had developed theory of mind
Adam made the question a problem
Did Tom see Bill move the book?
What is the relationship like between Tom and Bill? Are they friends? Would Tom expect Bill to move the book?
Did Bill tell Tom that he moved the book?
Maybe he doesn’t look for the book at all because he stopped reading it.

13. Conclusions

14. Conclusions
Participants have been developing according to the theories of Bronfenbrenner, Kohlberg, and Marcia
Participants did not follow Piaget’s ideas as well
Answers did increase in complexity with age
Most observations are seen as valid
Tori’s responses may be a bit unfair
Unknown whether mom or sister was feeding answers during phone interview