1. Psychology: Theory and Method 2 PS4042 Social and Moral Development
Dr. Hara Tsekou

2. Theories of Social Development: The Goal
Theories of social development attempt to account for important aspects of development:
Emotion, personality, attachment, self, peer relationships, morality, and gender
Such theories must:
Explain how children’s development is influenced by the people and individuals around them
Examine the ways that human beings affect each other 2

3. Psychoanalytic Theories
A. View of Children’s Nature
B. Central Developmental Issues
C. Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development
D. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
E. Current Perspectives 3

4. Freud’sTheory
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has had greater impact on Western culture and on thinking about social and personality development than any other psychological theory.

5. Erikson’s Theory
Erik Erikson’s life-span developmental theory, which was a successor to Freud’s theory, has also been influential. 5

6. View of Children’s Nature
In Freud’s theory, behavior is motivated by the need to satisfy basic biological drives.
Psychoanalytic theories also stress the continuity of individual differences, maintaining that early experiences shape subsequent development. 6

7. Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development
Freud was a neurologist who became interested in the origins and treatments of mental illness.
He believed that many of his patients’ emotional problems originated in their early childhood relationships.

8. Basic Features of Freud’s Theory
Freud’s theory is referred to as a theory of psychosexual development because it posits a series of universal developmental stages in which psychic energy becomes focused in different erogenous zones.
Psychic energy: the biologically based, instinctual drives that energize behavior, thoughts, and feelings
Erogenous zones: areas of the body that become erotically sensitive in successive stages of development 8

9. The Developmental Process
Freud’s Personality Structure: Id
The biological drives with which the infant is born
The earliest and most primitive personality structure
Unconscious and operates with the goal of seeking pleasure
Ego
Emerges in the first year
The rational, logical, problem-solving component of personality
Superego
Develops during the ages of 3 to 6
Based on the child’s internalization (or adoption as his or her own) of the parents’ attributes, beliefs, and standards 9

10. Stages of Psychosexual Development
Description
Oral (first year)
The primary source of satisfaction and pleasure is oral activity. During this stage, the mother is established as the strongest love-object.
Anal (1-3 years)
The primary source of pleasure comes from defecation.
Phallic (3-6 years)
Characterized by the localization of pleasure in the genitalia.
Latency (6-12 years)
Characterized by the channeling of sexual energy into socially acceptable activities.
Genital (12+ years)
Sexual maturation is complete and sexual intercourse becomes a major goal.
If fundamental needs are not met during any stage, children may become fixated on these needs, continually attempting to satisfy them. 10

11. Superego Development
For boys, the path to superego development is through the resolution of the Oedipus complex, a psychosocial conflict in which a boy experiences a form of sexual desire for his mother and wants an exclusive relationship with her
Freud argued that the son’s desire for his mother and hostility toward his father is so threatening that the episode is repressed and infantile amnesia results.
The complex is resolved through the boys’ identification with his father.
Freud thought that girls experience a similar but less intense conflict, the Electra complex, involving erotic feelings toward the father. 11

12. Erikson’s Life-Span Development Theory
Development proceeds in stages
Each stage is characterized by a psychosocial challenge or crisis
Stages reflect the motivation of the individual

13. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
Erik Erikson accepted the basic constructs of Freud’s theory, but enlarged the theory to include other factors such as culture and contemporary issues.
Eight age-related stages (five during childhood and adolescence)
Each stage is characterized by a specific crisis that the individual must resolve.
If the dominant issue of a stage is not successfully resolved before the next stage begins, the person will continue to struggle with it. 13

14. Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Human Development
1 - Trust vs. mistrust
2 - Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
3 - Initiative vs. guilt
4 - Industry vs. inferiority
5 - Identity vs. identity confusion
6 - Intimacy vs. isolation
7 - Generativity vs. stagnation
8 - Integrity vs. despair

15. Erikson’s Human Development Stages
1 - Trust vs. Mistrust
0–1 years
2 - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt 1–3 years
3 - Initiative vs. Guilt 3–5 years
Developed through consistent love and support
Independence fostered by support and encouragement
Developed by exploring and accepting challenges

16. Erikson’s Human Development Stages
4 - Industry vs. Inferiority 6 years–puberty
5 - Identity vs. Role Confusion Adolescence
Mastery comes from success and recognition
Exploration of different paths to attain a healthy identity

17. Erikson’s Human Development Stages
6 - Intimacy vs. Isolation Early adult years
7 - Generativity vs. Stagnation Middle Adulthood
8 - Integrity vs. Despair Late Adulthood
Form positive, close relationships with others
Transmitting something positive to the next generation
Life review and retrospective evaluation of one’s past

18. The Developmental Process: Erikson’s Stages
Description
Trust vs. Mistrust(first year)
Developing trust in other people is the crucial issue.
Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt (1–3½ years)
The challenge is to achieve a strong sense of autonomy while adjusting to increased social demands.
Initiative vs. Guilt (4–6 years)
Resolved when child develops high standards and the initiative to meet them without being crushed by worry about not being able to measure up.
Industry vs. Inferiority (6–puberty)
The child must master cognitive and social skills, learn to work industriously, and play well with others.
Identity vs. Role Confusion (adolescence–early adulthood)
Adolescents must resolve the question of who they really are or live in confusion about what roles they should play as adults. 18

19. Current Perspectives
The most significant of Freud’s contributions to developmental psychology were:
His emphasis on the importance of early experience and emotional relationships
His recognition of the role of subjective experience and unconscious mental activity
Erikson’s emphasis on the search for identity in adolescence has had lasting impact. 19

20. Learning Theories A. View of Children’s Nature
B. Central Developmental Issues
C. Watson’s Behaviorism
D. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
E. Social Learning Theory
F. Current Perspectives 20

21. View of Children’s Nature
Learning theorists emphasize the role of external factors in shaping personality and social behavior.
Reinforcement and punishment
More contemporary learning theorists emphasize the importance of cognitive factors and the active role children play in their own development. 21

22. Central Developmental Issues
Emphasize continuity in development, proposing that the same principles operate throughout life and that there are no stages.
Focus on mechanisms of change (i.e., learning principles) and argue that individual differences arise because of different histories of reinforcement and observation.
Relevant for research and children’s welfare in that therapeutic approaches to treat children are based on learning principles.

23. Watson’s Behaviorism John Watson is the founder of behaviorism
Believed that children’s development is determined by their social environment and that learning through conditioning was the primary mechanism of development.
Demonstrated the power of classical conditioning in a famous experiment with “Little Albert” 23

24. Critique
Watson’s exclusive emphasis on conditioning is now regarded as simplistic.
However, his approach to extinguishing fear has been widely used to rid people of phobias.
This approach, known as systematic desensitization, is a form of therapy based on classical conditioning in which initially debilitating responses to a given stimulus are gradually deconditioned. 24

25. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
His discoveries include the importance of attention as a powerful reinforcer, and the difficulty of extinguishing behavior that has been intermittently reinforced (i.e., responded to inconsistently).
Skinner’s work on reinforcement also led to a form of therapy known as behavior modification, in which reinforcement contingencies are changed to encourage more adaptive behavior.
B. F. Skinner conducted research on the nature and function of reinforcement. 25

26. Social Learning Theory
Emphasizes observation and imitation, rather than reinforcement, as the primary mechanisms of development
In a classic series of studies, Albert Bandura and his colleagues found that preschool children can acquire new behaviors through observing others.
Discovered that children’s tendency to reproduce what they learned depended on vicarious reinforcement (i.e., whether the person whose actions they observed was rewarded or punished) 26

27. Bandura’s Research
Preschool children initially watched a short film in which an adult model performed highly aggressive actions on an inflatable Bobo doll (weighted at the bottom so it pops up when knocked down).
One group of children observed the model rewarded with candy and soda for the aggressive behavior.
Another group saw the model punished.
The remaining children saw the model experience no consequences. 27

28. Bandura’s Research Findings:
Observing someone else receive a reward or punishment for the behavior affects the subsequent reproduction of the behavior.
Boys were initially more aggressive than girls, but the girls increased their level of imitation when offered rewards. 28

29. Social Learning Theory
Over time, Bandura placed more emphasis on the cognitive aspects of observational learning.
Unlike most learning theorists, Bandura argued that child-environment influences operate in both directions, a concept referred to as reciprocal determinism. 29

30. Reciprocal Determinism30

31. Social Learning Theory
In recent years, Bandura has emphasized the importance of perceived self-efficacy.
An individual’s beliefs about how effectively he or she can control his or her own behavior, thoughts, and emotions in order to achieve a desired goal 31

32. Current Perspectives
Learning theories are based on principles derived from empirical research.
They, in turn, have generated extensive research and valuable practical applications
The weaknesses of the learning approach are its limited attention to biological factors and (with the exception of Bandura’s theory) to the impact of cognition. 32

33. Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of
moral development
Author of a three-stage theory on how moral reasoning develops
Moral reasoning is the aspect of cognitive development that has to do with the way an individual reasons about moral decisions

34. Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of
moral development
Assessed moral reasoning by posing hypothetical moral dilemmas and examining the reasoning behind people’s answers
Proposed three distinct levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional
Each level is based on the degree to which a person conforms to conventional standards of society
Each level has two stages that represent different degrees of sophistication in moral reasoning. 34

35. Kohlberg’s moral dilemma
In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. the drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $400 for the radium and charged $4,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So, having tried every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.
Should Heinz steal the drug? Why or why not?

36. Levels of moral reasoning
Preconventional—moral reasoning is based on external rewards and punishments
Conventional—laws and rules are upheld simply because they are laws and rules
Postconventional—reasoning based on personal moral standards 36

37. Preconventional moral reasoning
Characterized by the desire to avoid punishment or gain reward
Typically children under the age of 10

38. Stage 1: Punishment & Obedience
A focus on direct consequences
Negative actions will result in punishments
EXAMPLE: Heinz shouldn’t steal the drug because he’d go to jail if he got caught. 38

39. Stage 2: Mutual benefit
Getting what one wants often requires giving something up in return
“Right” is a fair exchange.
Morals guided by what is “fair”
EXAMPLE: Heinz should steal the drug because the durggist is being greedy by charging so much. 39

40. Conventional moral reasoning
Primary concern is to fit in and play the role of a good citizen
People have a strong desire to follow the rules and laws.
Typical of most adults

41. Stage 3: Interpersonal expectations
An attempt to live up to the expectations of important others
Follow rules or do what others would want so that you win their approval
Negative actions will harm those relationships
EXAMPLE: Heinz should try to steal the drug because that’s what a devoted husband would do. 41

42. Stage 4: Law and Order
To maintain social order, people must resist personal pressures and follow the laws of the larger society
Respect the laws & authority
EXAMPLE: Heinz should not steal the drug because that would be against the law and he has duty to uphold the law. 42

43. Postconventional moral reasoning
Characterized by references to universal ethical principles that represent protecting the rights or of all people
Most adults do not reach this level.

44. Stage 5: Legal Principles
Must protect the basic rights of all people by upholding the legal principles of fairness, justice, equality & democracy.
Laws that fail to promote general welfare or that violate ethical principles can be changed, reinterpreted, or abandoned
EXAMPLE: Heinz should steal the drug because his obligation to save his wife’s life must take precedence over his obligation to respect the druggist’s property rights. 44

45. Stage 6: Universal Moral Principles
Self-chosen ethical principles
Profound respect for sanctity of human life, nonviolence, equality & human dignity
Moral principles take precedence over laws that might conflict with them,
Conscientious objectors – refuses to be drafted because they are morally opposed to war.
EXAMPLE: Heinz should steal the drug even if the person was a stranger and not his wife. He must follow his conscience and not let the druggist’s desire for money outweigh the value of a human life.

47. Criticisms of Kohlberg’s theory
Research has not supported Kohlberg’s belief that the development of abstract thinking in adolescence invariably leads people to the formation of idealistic moral principles
Some cross-cultural psychologists argue that Kohlberg’s stories and scoring system reflect a Western emphasis on individual rights, harm, and justice that is not shared in many cultures.
Kohlberg’s early research was conducted entirely with male subjects, yet it became the basis for a theory applied to both males and females.

48. Examples: Erikson’s Human Development Stages
Erika is experiencing some indecision. She has to choose what college to attend, whether to go away from home, what career to choose, and whether to room with someone she knows. According to Erikson’s life-stage development theory, in what stage is Erika?

49. Erikson’s Human Development Stages
Andrea created a picture of an aquarium, which she plans to give to her teacher to hang in the classroom. Andrea was very excited at the idea that her teacher would hang up her picture on the wall, especially because the reason Andrea had made it was to show her teacher she could draw all sorts of fish from memory. In which of Erikson’s stages do children realize that they can obtain the recognition of teachers and parents by producing things?

50. Erikson’s Human Development Stages
Chase’s mom thinks it’s better to let her infant son cry for a while before attending to his needs so that he does not get spoiled. According to Erikson’s theory, if an infant thinks that his needs may or may not be met, s/he will likely develop which trait?

51. Erikson’s Human Development Stages
According to Erikson’s life-span development theory, if a toddler is punished harshly or restrained severely, he or she will likely develop which trait?

52. Erikson’s Human Development Stages
During which of Erikson’s stages is a person expected to focus his or her efforts on transmitting something positive to the next generation?