Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

- Maria Rita D. Lucas, PhD

MODULE
“The principle goal of education is to create men who
6
are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating
what other generations have done – men who are
creative, inventive and discovers.”
- Jean Piaget

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
 Describe Piaget’s stages in your own words.
 Conduct a simple Piagetian Task interview with children.
 Match learning activities to the learner’s cognitive stage.

Introduction
Jean Piaget’s cognitive theory of development is truly a classic in the field of
educational psychology. This theory fueled other researchers and theories of
development and learning. Its focus is on how individuals construct knowledge.

Activity
Read the situations below. The class may choose each situation before analysis is done.
1. It's Christmas and Uncle Bob is giving “aguinaldo” to the children. Three-year old
Karen did not want to receive the one-hundred-peso bill and instead preferred to
receive four 20-peso bill. Her ten-year-old cousin are telling her it’s better to get
one-hundred-peso bill, but they failed to convince her.
2. Siblings, Tria, 10; Enzo, 8; and Riel, 4 were sorting out their stuffed animals.
They had 7 bears, 3 dogs, 2 cows and 1 dolphin. Mommy, a psychology teacher,
enters and said, “Good thing you are sorting those. Do you have more stuffed
animals or more bears?” Tria and Enzo say “stuffed animals”, Riel says, “Bears”
 3. While eating on her high chair, seven-month old Liza accidentally dropped her
spoon on the floor. She saw mommy pick it up. Lisa again drops her new spoon;
she does this several times more on purpose. Mommy didn’t like it at all, but Liza
appeared to enjoy dropping the spoons the whole time.

Analysis

On Situation 1
On Situation 2
Why do you think did Karen
Why do you think Riel answered
prefer the 20-peso bills? “bears?” What does this say about
how she thought to answer the
question?

On Situation 3

What do you think baby Liza

appeared to enjoy dropping
the spoons?

Abstraction
The children in the situations presented above were of different ages and so also
should appear differences in the way they thought. They were in different stages of
cognitive development. Perhaps no one has influenced the field of cognitive
development more than Jean Piaget. As you read through this module you will come to
understand cognitive development of children and adolescents and also identify ways of
applying this understanding in the teaching learners.
For sixty years, Jean Piaget conducted research on cognitive development. His
research method involved observing a small number of individuals as they responded to
cognitive tasks that he designed. These tasks were later known as Piagetian Tasks.
Piaget called his general theoretical framework “genetic epistemology” because
he was interested in how knowledge developed in human organisms. Piaget was initially
into
biology, and he also had a background in philosophy. Knowledge from both these
disciplines influenced his theories and research of child development. Out of his
researches, Piaget came up with the stages of cognitive development.
Piaget examined the implications of his theory not only to aspects of cognition
but also to intelligence and moral development. His theory has been applied widely to
teaching and curriculum design specially in the preschool and elementary curricula.

Basic Cognitive Concepts

SCHEMA
 Piaget used the term “schema” to refer to the cognitive structures by which
individuals intellectually adapt to and organize their environment.
 It is an individual’s way to understand or create meaning about a thing or
experience.
 It is like the mind has a filling cabinet and each drawer has folders that
contain files of things he has had an experience with. For instance, if a child
sees a dog for the first time, he creates his own schema of what a dog is. It
has four legs and a tail. It barks. It’s furry. The child then “puts this
description of a dog, he “pulls” out the file (his schema of a dog) in his mind,
looks at the animal, and says, “four legs, tail, barks, furry… that is a dog!”

ASSIMILATION
 This is the process of fitting a new experience into an existing or previously
created cognitive structure or schema.
 If the child sees another dog, this time a little smaller one, he would make a
sense of what he is seeing by adding new information (a different-looking
dog) into his schema of a dog.

ACCOMMODATION
 This is the process of creating a new schema.
 If the same child now sees another animal that looks a little bit like a dog,
but somehow different. He might try to fit it into his schema of a dog, and
say, “look mommy, what a funny looking dog. Its bark is funny too!”. Then
the mommy explains, “that is not funny looking dog. That is a goat!”. With
mommy’s further descriptions, the child will now create a new schema, that
of a goat. He now adds a new file in his filling cabinet.
sparking on Google EQUILIBRATION
 Piaget believed that the people have the natural need to understand how the
world works and to find order, structure, and predictability in their life.
 Equilibration is achieving proper balance between assimilation and
accommodation.
 When our experiences did not match our schemata (plural of schema) or
() cognitive structures, we experience cognitive disequilibrium. This means
there is a discrepancy between what I perceived and what is understood. We
then exert effort through assimilation and accommodation to establish
equilibrium once more.

Cognitive development involves a continuous effort to adapt to the environment

in terms of assimilation and accommodation. In this sense, Piaget’s theory is similar in
nature to other constructivist perspective of learning like Bruner and Vygotsky.

Piaget’s Stage of Cognitive Development

Sensori-motor Stage
 Birth to infancy
 When a child who is initially reflexive in grasping, sucking, and reaching
becomes more organized in his movement and activity.
 The term sensori-motor focuses on the prominence of the senses and
muscle movement through which the infants comes to learn about
himself and the world.
 In working with children in the sensori-motor stage, teachers should aim
to provide a rich and stimulating environment with appropriate objects to
play with.
Object Permanence – the ability of the child to know that an object still
exits even when out of sight. This ability is attained in the sensory motor
stage.

a Pre-operational Stage
 From about two to seven years old, roughly corresponding to the
preschool years.
 Intelligence at this stage is intuitive in nature.
 In this stage, the child can now make mental representations and is
able to pretend, the child is now ever closer to the use of symbols.
 This stage is highlighted by the following:

Symbolic Function – the ability to represent the objects and events. A

symbol is a thing that represents something else. A drawing, a written word
or a spoken word comes to be understood as representing a real object like a
real MRT train. Symbolic function gradually develops in the period between 2
to 7 years old. Riel, a two-year old may pretend that she is drinking from an
empty glass.
Though she already pretends the presence of water, the glass remains to be a
glass. At around 4 years of age, however, Nico, may, after pretending to drink
from an empty glass, turn the glass into a rocket ship or a telephone. By the
age of 6 or 7, the child can pretend play with objects that exist only in his
mind. Enzo, who is six, can do a whole ninja turtle routine without any
costume nor props. Tria, who is seven can pretend to host an elaborate
princess ball only in her mind.

Egocentrism – this is the tendency of the child to only see his point of view
and to assume that everyone also has his same point of view. The child
cannot take the perspective of others. You see this in five-year-old boy who
buys a toy truck for his mother's birthday. Or a 3-year-old girl who cannot
understand why her cousins called her daddy “uncle” and not daddy.

Centration – refers to the tendency of the child to only focus on one aspect
of a thing or event and exclude other aspects. Example, when a child is
presented with two identical glasses with the same amount of water, the child
will say they have the same amount of water. However, once water from one
of the glasses is transferred to an obviously taller but narrower glass, the
child might say that there is more water in the taller glass. The child only
focused or centered only one aspect of the new glass, that it is a taller glass.
The child was not able to perceive that the new glass is also narrower. The
child only centered on the height of the glass and excluded the width in
determining the amount of water in the glass.

Irreversibility – pre-operational children still have the inability to reverse

their thinking. They can understand that 2 + 3 is 5 but cannot understand that
5 - 3 is 2.

Animism – this is the tendency of children to attribute human like traits or

characteristics to inanimate objects. When at night, the child is asked, where
the sun is, she will reply, “Mr. Sun is asleep.”

Transductive Reasoning – this refers to the pre-operational child’s type of

reasoning that is neither inductive nor deductive. Reasoning appears to be
from particular-to-particular, example if A causes B, then B causes A. For
example, since her mommy comes home every day around 6:00 o'clock in the
evening, when asked why it is already night, the child will say “because my
mom is already home.” (for more notes on the cognitive development of the
toddler, refer to the unit 2)
Concrete-Operational  This stage characterized by the ability of the child to think logically
Stage but only in terms of concrete objects.
 This covers approximately ages between 8 to 11 years or the
elementary school years.
 This stage is marked by the following:

Decentering – refers to the ability of the child to perceive the different

features of objects and situations. No longer is the child focused or limited to
one aspect or dimension. This allows the child to be more logical when dealing
with concrete objects and situations.

Reversibility – during the stage of concrete operations, the child can now
follow that certain operation can be done in reverse. For example, they can
already comprehend the commutative property of addition, and that
subtraction is the reverse of addition. They can also understand that a ball of
clay shaped into a dinosaur can again be rolled back into a ball of clay.

Conservation – ability to know that certain properties of objects like

number, mass, volume, or area do not change even if there is a change in
appearance. Because of the development of a child’s ability of decentering
and also reversibility, the concrete operational child can now judge rightly that
the amount of water in a taller glass, but narrower container is still the same
as when the water was in the shorter but wider glass. The children progress
to attain conservation abilities gradually being a pre-conserver, a transitional
thinker and then a conserver.

Seriation – refers to the ability to order or arrange things in a series based

on one dimension such as weight, volume, or size.

Formal Operational  Final stage covering ages between 12 to 15 years

Stage  Thinking becomes more logical
 They can now solve abstract problems and can be hypothesize.
 This stage is characterized by the following:

Hypothetical Reasoning – ability to come up with different hypothesis

about the problem and to gather and weigh data into order to make a final
decision or judgement. This can be done in the absence of concrete objects.
The individuals can now deal with “what if” questions.

Analogical Reasoning – ability to perceive the relationship in one instance

and then use that relationship to narrow down possible answers in another
similar situation or problem. The individual in the formal operations stage can
make an analogy. If United Kingdom is to Europe, then Philippines is to .
The individual will reason that since the UK is found in the continent of Europe
then the Philippines is found in what continent? Then Asia is his answer.
Though reflective thought and even in the absence of concrete objects, the
individual can now understand relationships and do analogical reasoning.

Deductive Reasoning – ability to think logically by applying a general rule

to a particular instance or situation. For example, all countries near the north
pole have cold temperatures. Greenland is near the North Pole. Therefore,
Greenland has cold temperature.
From Piaget’s findings and comprehensive theory, we can derive the following principles:
1. Children will provide different explanations of reality at different stages of
cognitive development.
2. Cognitive development is facilitated by providing activities or situations that
engage learners and require adaptation (like assimilation and accommodation).
3. Learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or
mental operations for a child of given age; Avoid asking students to perform
tasks that are beyond their current cognitive capabilities.
4. Use teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges.

Application
This activity focuses on a story involving the interaction of family members.
Choose a story you want to use for this activity. It can be from a story you have read or
a movie or “telenovela” that you watched or plan to watch. Use the matrix below to
relate the characters to Piaget's stages of cognitive development.

TITLE OF STORY/MOVIE:
Write a brief summary of the story:

Character Description Piagetian Connection

FATHER

What is his stage of cognitive Development?

Ex. Cite instances why you say he is in this stage. (What he
thought of, how he thought, his reactions and attitudes)
MOTHER

What is her stage of cognitive Development?

Ex. Cite instances why you say she is in this stage. (What
she thought of, how she thought, her reactions and
attitudes)

CHILD

What is his stage of cognitive Development?

Ex. Cite instances why you say he is in this stage. (What he
thought of, how he thought, his reactions and attitudes)

CHILD

What is her stage of cognitive Development?

Ex. Cite instances why you say she is in this stage. (What
she thought of, how she thought, her reactions and
attitudes)

OTHER CHARACTER

What is his/her stage of cognitive Development?

Ex. Cite instances why you say he/she is in this stage.
(What he/she thought of, how he/she thought, his/her
reactions and attitudes)
Synapse Strengtheners
Virtual Talk show. Four students volunteer (or teacher will be assigned) to act
as Piaget. The students acting as Piaget should master the stages assigned to them to
enable them to answer questions from classmates. (3 groups with 5 members must try)
The student should use the pronoun YOU when they ask the question and the four
students acting as Piaget must use the pronoun I when they answer the questions.

Reflection

From the module on Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development, I realized that…
 Erikson’s Psycho-Social Theory of Development
- Maria Rita D. Lucas, PhD

MODULE
7
“Healthy children will not fear life if their elders
have integrity enough not to fear death.”
- Erik Erikson

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
 Explain the 8 Stages of Life to someone you care about.
 Write a short story of your life using Erikson’s stages as framework.
 Suggest at least 6 ways on how Erikson’s Theory can be useful for you as a future
teacher.

Introduction
Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development is a very relevant, highly regarded
and meaningful theory. Life is a continuous process involving learning and trials which
help us to grow. Erikson’s enlightening theory guides us and helps to tell us why.

Activity
Erik Erikson’s Stage Theory of Development Questionnaire
This contains selected items from Rhona Ochse and Cornelis Plug’s self-report
questionnaire assessing the personality dimensions associated with Erikson’s first 5
stages of psychosexual development. It can serve to make the stages personally
relevant to you. Indicate how often each of these statements applies to you by using
the following scale:
0 = never applies to you
1 = occasionally or seldom applies to you
2 = fairly often applies to you
3 = very often applies to you Read the instructions at the end before putting scores her
 Read the
instructions at
the end
before putting
scores here.
Stage 1: Trust Versus Mistrust (Infancy and Early Childhood) Score
1. I feel pessimistic about the future of humankind.
2. I feel the world's major problems can be solved.
3. I am filled with admiration for humankind.
4. People can be trusted.
5. I feel optimistic about my future.
Total Score Stage 1

Stage 2: Autonomy Versus Shame & Doubt (Infancy & Childhood) Score
6. When people try to persuade me to do something I don't want to,
I refuse.
7. After I have made a decision, I feel I have made a mistake.
8. I am unnecessarily apologetic.
9. I worry that my friends will find fault with me.
10. When I disagree with someone, I tell them.
Total Score Stage 2
Stage 3: Initiative Versus Guilt (Infancy & Childhood) Score
11. I am prepared to take a risk to get what I want.
12. I feel hesitant to try out a new way of doing something.
13. I am confident in carrying out my plans to a successful
conclusion.
14. I feel what happens to me is the result of what I have done.
15. When I have difficulty in getting something right, I give up.
Total Score Stage 3

Stage 4: Industry Versus Inferiority (Infancy & Childhood) Score

16. When people look at something I have done, I feel embarrassed.
17. I get a great deal of pleasure from working.
18. I feel too incompetent to do what I would really like to do in life.
19. I avoid doing something difficult because I feel I would fail.
20. I feel competent.
Total Score Stage 4
 Stage 5: Identity Versus Identity Diffusion (Adolescence) Score
21. I wonder what sort of person I really am.
22. I feel certain about what I should do with my life.
23. My worth is recognized by others.
24. I feel proud to be the sort of person I am.
25. I am unsure as to how people feel about me.
Total Score Stage 5

Stage 6: Intimacy Versus Isolation (Early Adulthood) Score

26. I feel that no one has ever known the real me.
27. I have a feeling of complete togetherness with someone.
28. I feel it is better to remain free than to become committed to
marriage for life.
29. I share my private thoughts with someone.
30. I feel as though I am alone in the world.
Total Score Stage 6

Scoring:
Items on the questionnaire were derived from Erikson’s statements about each stage.
Scores for each subscale range from 0 to 15, with high scores reflecting greater
strength on a particular personality dimension.

The response to item 1 should be reversed (0 = 3, 1 = 2, 2 = 1, 3 = 0) and then added to the numbers
given in response to items 2, 3, 4, and 5 to obtain a trust score.
Responses to items 7, 8, and 9 should be reversed and added to item 6 and 10 to assess autonomy.
Answers to 12 and 15 should be reversed and added two items 11, 13, and 14 to measure initiative.
Answers to 16, 18, and 19 should be reversed and then added to 17 and 20 to calculate industry.
Responses to 21 and 25 must be reversed an added to 22, 23, and 24 to obtain a measure of identity
Answers to 26, 28, and 30 are reversed and added to 27 and 29 to give intimacy.

Analysis
What did you discover about yourself in this questionnaire?

Have these scores in mind as you read about Erikson’s stages and see how the stages
can guide you in self-understanding and in understanding others as well.

Abstract/Generalization
Introduction to the 8 Stages:

1. Erikson’s “psychosocial” term is derived from the two source words - namely psychological (or
the root, ‘psycho’ relating to the mind, brain, personality, etc.) and social (external relationships
and environment), both at the heart of Erikson’s theory. Occasionally you’ll see the term extended
to biopsychosocial, in which “bio” refers to life, as in biological.

2. Erikson’s theory was largely influenced by Sigmund Freud. but Erickson extended the theory
and incorporated cultural and social aspects into Freud’s biological and sexually-oriented theory.

3. It is also interesting to see how his ideas developed over time, perhaps aided by his own journey
through the “psychosocial crisis” stages model that underpinned his work.

4. Like other influential theories, Erikson's model is simple and well designed. The theory is a basis
for broad or complex discussion and analysis of personality and behavior, and also for
understanding and for facilitating personal development - of self and others. It can help the teacher
in becoming more knowledgeable and at the same time understanding of the various
environmental factors on and his students’ personality and behavior.

5. Erikson’s eight stages theory is a tremendously powerful model. It is very accessible and
obviously relevant to modern life, from several different perspectives for understanding and
explaining how personality and behavior develops in people. As such Erikson’s theory is useful for
teaching, parenting, self-awareness, managing and coaching, dealing with conflict, and generally
for understanding self and others.
6. Various terms are used to describe Erikson’s model, for example Erikson’s biopsychosocial or
bio- psycho-social theory (bio refers to biological, which in this context means life); Erikson’s
human development cycle or life cycle, and variations of these. All refer to the same eight stages
psychosocial theory, it being Erikson’s most distinct work and remarkable model.

7. The Epigenetic Principle. As Boeree explains, “this principle says that we develop through a
predetermined unfolding of our personalities in eight stages. Our progress through each stage is
in part determine by our success, or lack of success, in all the previous stages. A little like the
unfolding of a rosebud, each petal opens up at a certain time, in a certain order; which nature,
through its genetics, has determined. If we interfere in the natural order of development by
pulling a petal forward prematurely or out of order, we ruined the development of the entire
flower.” Erikson's theory delved into how personality was formed and relieved that the earlier
stages served as a foundation for the later stages. The theory highlighted the influence of one's
environment, particularly on how early your experiences gradually build upon the next and
resolved into one's personality.

8. Each stage involves a psychosocial crisis of two opposing emotional forces. A helpful term
used by Erickson for these opposing forces is “contrary dispositions”. Each crisis stage relates
to a corresponding life stage and its inherent challenges. Erickson used the words “syntonic” for
the first-listed “positive” disposition in each crisis (ex. Trust) and “dystonic” for the second-listed
“negative” disposition (ex. Mistrust). To signify the opposing or conflicting relationship between
each pair of forces or dispositions, Erikson connected them with the word “versus”.

9. If a stage is managed well, we carry away a certain virtue or psychosocial strength which will
help us through the rest of the stages of our lives. Successfully passing through each crisis involves
achieving a healthy ratio or balance between the two opposing dispositions that represent each
crisis.

10. On the other hand, if you don't do so well, we may develop maladaptation and malignancies,
as well as endanger all our future development. A malignancy is the worse of the two. It involves
too little of the positive and too much of the negative aspect of the task, such as a person who
can’t trust others. A maladaptation is not quite as bad and involves too much of the positive and
too little of the negative, such as a person who trusts too much.
 11. The crisis stages are not sharply defined steps. Elements tend to overlap and mingle from
one stage to the next and to the preceding stages. It is a broad framework an concept, not a
mathematical formula which replicates precisely across all people and situations.

12. Erikson was keen to point out that the transition between stages is “overlapping”. Crisis stages
connect with each other like interlaced fingers, not like a series of neatly stock boxes. People don't
suddenly wake up one morning and be in a new life stage. Changes don't happen regimented
clear- cut steps. Changes are graduated, mixed-together and organic.

13. Erikson also emphasized the significance of “mutuality” and “generativity” in his theory. The
terms are linked. Mutuality reflects the effect of generations on each other, especially among
families, and particularly between parents and children and grandchildren. Everyone potentially
affects everyone else experiences as they pass through the different crisis stages. Generativity,
actually a named disposition within one of the crisis stages (generativity versus stagnation, stage
7
), reflects the significant relationship between adults and the best interests of children - one's
own children, and in a way everyone else's children - the next generation, and all following
generations.

Now you are ready to go over the eight stages. As you read, enjoy filling up the
concept map we made come up found at the beginning of each stage. This will help
you remember the important terms in each stage and how these terms are interrelated.
Use the side margins to write your thoughts about the stage and how they connect to
your own life now and as a future teacher.

The Eight Psychosocial Stages of Development

Too much Too much
Stage 1

Maladaptation Malignancy
Psychosocial Crisis

Virtue
Stage 1
Psychosocial Crisis
 Infancy – first year or year and a half
 Crisis is trust versus mistrust
 The goal is to develop trust without completely eliminating the capacity for
mistrust.
 If the primary caregivers, like the parents can give the baby a sense of
familiarity, consistency, and continuity, then the baby will develop the feeling
that the world is a safer place to be, that people are reliable and loving. If the
parents are unreliable and inadequate, if they reject the infant or harm it, if other
interests cause both parents to turn away from the infant's needs to satisfy their
own instead, then the infant will develop mistrust. He or she will be apprehensive
and suspicious around people.

Maladaptation/Malignancy
 Please understand that this doesn't mean that the parents have to be perfect. In
fact parents who are overly protective of the child, who are there the minute the
first cry comes out, will lead the child into the maladaptive tendency which
Erikson calls sensory maladjustment: Overly trusting, even gullible, this
person cannot believe anyone would mean them harm, and will use all the
defenses at their command to find an explanation or excuse for the person who
did him wrong. Worse, of course, is the child whose balance is tipped way over
on the mistrust side. They will develop the malignant tendency of withdrawal,
characterized by depression, paranoia, and possibly psychosis.

Virtue
 If the proper balance is achieved, the child will develop the virtue of hope, the
strong belief that, even when things are not going well, they will work out well in
the end.
  One of the signs that a child is doing well in the first stage is when the child isn't
overly upset by the need to wait a moment for the satisfaction of his or her
needs. Mom or dad doesn't have to be perfect; I trust them enough to believe
that, if they can't be here immediately, they will be here soon; Things may be
tough now, but they will work out. This is the same ability that, in later life, get
us through disappointments in love, our careers, and many other domains of life.

Stage 2
Too much Too much
Stage 2

Maladaptation Malignancy
Psychosocial Crisis

Virtue

Stage 2
Psychosocial Crisis
 The second stage is early childhood from 18 months to 3 or 4 years old.
 The task is to achieve a degree of autonomy while minimizing shame and doubt.
 If mom and dad, or caregiver permits the child will develop a sense of autonomy
or independence. The parents should not discourage the child, but neither
should they push.
 A balance is required.
 People often advise new parents to be firm but tolerant at this stage, and the
advice is good. This way, the child will develop both self-control and self-esteem.
On the other hand, it is rather easy for the child to develop instead a sense of
shame and doubt. If the parents come down hard on any attempt to explore Ann
be independent, the child will soon give up where the belief that he or she
cannot
 and should not act on his or her own. We should keep in mind that even
something as innocent as laughing at the toddler's efforts can lead the child to
feel deeply ashamed and to doubt his or her abilities.
 There are other ways to lead children to shame and doubt. If you give children
unrestricted freedom and no sense of limits, or if you try to help children do what
they should learn to do for themselves, you will also give them the impression
that they are not good for much. If you aren't patient enough to wait for your
child to tie his or her shoelaces, your child will never learn to tie them, and will
assume that this is too difficult to learn.

Maladaptation/Malignancy
 Nevertheless, a little “shame and doubt” is not only inevitable, but beneficial.
Without it, you will develop the maladaptive tendency Erikson called it
“impulsiveness”, a sort of shameless willfulness that leads you, in later
childhood and even adulthood, to jump into things without proper consideration
of your abilities. Worse, of course, is too much shame and doubt, which leads to
the malignancy Ericson calls “compulsiveness”.
 The compulsive person feels as if their entire being rides on everything they do,
and so everything must be done perfectly. Following all the rules precisely keeps
you from mistakes, and mistake must be avoided at all costs. Many of you know
how it feels to always be ashamed and always doubt yourself. A little more
patience and tolerance with your own children may help them avoid your path.
And give yourself a little slack, too!

Virtue
 If you get the proper, positive balance of autonomy and shamed and doubt, you
will develop the virtue of willpower or determination. One of the most
admirable and frustrating things about two - and - three year old is their
 determination. “Can do” is their motto. If we can preserve that “can do” attitude
(with appropriate modesty to balance it) we are much better off as adults.

Stage 3
Too much Too much
Stage 3

Maladaptation Malignancy
Psychosocial Crisis

Virtue

Psychosocial Crisis
 is the early childhood stage, from three or four to five or six.
 The task is to learn initiative without too much guilt.
 Initiative means a positive response to the world challenges, taking on
responsibilities, learning new skills, feeling purposeful.
 Parents can encourage initiative by encouraging children to try out their ideas.
 We should accept and encourage fantasy and curiosity and imagination.
 This is a time for play, not for formal education.
 The child is now capable, as never before, of imagining a future situation, one
that isn't a reality right now.
 Initiative is the attempt to make that non-reality a reality.
 If children can imagine the future, if they can plan, then they can be responsible
as well, and guilty.
 If my two-year-old flushes my watch down the toilet, I can safely assume that
there were no “evil intentions”. It was just a matter of shiny object going around
an round and down.
  If my 5-year-old does the same thing, well, she should know what is going to
happen to the watch, what's going to happen to the daddy’s temper and what's
going to happen to her. She can be guilty of the act and she can begin to feel
guilty as well. The capacity for moral judgment has arrived.
 Erikson is, of course, a Freudian, and as such, he includes the Oedipal crisis
involves the reluctance a child feels in relinquishing, his or her closeness to the
opposite sex parent.
 A parent has the responsibility, socially, to encourage the child to grow up –
“you're not a baby anymore!” But if this process is done too harshly and too
abruptly, the child learns to feel guilty about his or her feelings.

Maladaptation/Malignancy
 Too much initiative and two little guilt means a maladaptive tendency Erickson
calls ruthlessness. To be ruthless is to be heartless or unfeeling or be “without
mercy”.
 The ruthless person takes the initiative alright.
 They have their plans, whether it is a matter of school or romance or politics or
career.
 It is just that they don't care who they step on to achieve their goals.
 The goals are the only things that matter, and guilty feelings and mercy are only
signs of weakness. The extreme form of ruthlessness is sociopathy.
 Ruthlessness is bad for others, but actually it relatively easy on the ruthless person.
 Harder on the person is the malignancy of too much guilt, which Erikson calls
inhibition.
 The inhibited person will not try things because “nothing ventured, nothing lost
and, particularly, nothing to feel guilty about. They are so afraid to start and take
a lead on a project. They fear that if it fails, they will be blamed.
Virtue
 A good balance leads to the psychosocial strength of purpose. A sense of
purpose is something many people crave for in their lives, yet many do not
realize that they themselves make their purposes, through imagination and
initiative. I think an even better word for this virtue would have been courage,
the capacity for action despite a clear understanding of your limitations and past
failings.

Stage 4
Too much Too much
Stage 4

Maladaptation Malignancy
Psychosocial Crisis

Virtue

Psychosocial Crisis
 Stage four is the school-age stage when the child is from about six to twelve.
 The past is to develop a capacity for industry while avoiding an excessive sense
of inferiority.
 Children must “tame the imagination” and dedicate themselves to education and
to learning the social skills their society requires of them.
 There is a much broader social sphere at work now.
 The parents and other family members are joined by teachers and peers and
other members of the community at large.
 They all contribute. Parents must encourage, teachers must care, peers must
accept.
  Children must learn that there is pleasure not only in conceiving a plan, but in
carrying it out. They must learn the feeling of success, whether it is in school or
on the playground, academic or social.
 A good way to tell the difference between a child in the third stage and one in
the fourth stage is to look at the way they play games.
 Four-year old may love games, but they will have only a vague understanding of
the rules, may change them several times during the course of the game, and be
very unlikely to actually finish the game, unless it is by throwing the pieces at
their opponents.
 A seven-year-old, on the other hand, is dedicated to the rules, considers them
pretty much sacred, and is more likely to get upset if the game is not allowed to
come to its required conclusion.
 If the child is allowed to little success, because of harsh teachers or rejecting
peers, for example, then he or she will develop instead a sense of inferiority or
incompetence. Additional sources of inferiority, Erickson mentions, our racism,
sexism, and other forms of discrimination. If a child believes that success is
related to who you are rather than to how hard you try, then why try?

Maladaptation/Malignancy
 Too much industry leads to the maladaptive tendency called narrow virtuosity.
 We see this in children who are not allowed “to be children”, the ones that
parents or teachers push into one area of competence, without allowing the
development of broader interests.
 These are the kids without a life; child actors, child athletes, child musicians,
child prodigies of all sorts. We all admire their industry, but if we look a little
closer, it is all that stands in the way of an empty life.
 Much more common is the malignancy called inertia.
 This includes all of us who suffer from the “inferiority complexes” Alfred Adler
talked about.
  If at first you don't succeed, don't ever try again! Many of us didn't do well in
mathematics, for example, so we’d die before we took another math class.
Others were humiliated instead in the gym class, so we never try out for a sport
or play a game of basketball. Others never developed social skills -- the most
important skills of all -- and so we never go out in public. We become inert.
Virtue
 A happier thing is to develop the right balance of industry an inferiority -- that is,
mostly industry with just a touch of inferiority to keep us sensibly humble. Then
we have the virtue called competency.

Stage 5
Too much Too much
Stage 5

Maladaptation Malignancy
Psychosocial Crisis

Virtue

Psychosocial Crisis
 Stage five is adolescence, beginning with puberty and ending around 18 to 20
years old.
 The task during adolescence is to achieve ego identity and avoid roll confusion.
 It was adolescence that interested Ericson first and most, and the patterns he
saw here were the basis for his thinking about all the other stages.
 Ego identity means knowing who you are and how you fit into the rest of society.
It requires that you take all you have learned about life and yourself and mold it
into a unified self-image, one that your community finds meaningful.
  There are a number of things that makes things easier: First, we should have a
mainstream adult culture that is worthy of the adolescent’s respect, one with
good adult role models and open lines of communication.
 Further, society should provide clear rites of passage, certain accomplishments
and rituals that help to distinguish the adult from the child. In primitive and
traditional societies, an adolescent boy may be asked to leave the village for a
period of time to live on his own, hunt some symbolic animal, or seek an
inspirational vision. Boys and girls may be required to go through certain test of
endurance, symbolic ceremonies, or educational events. In one way or another,
the distinction between the powerless, but irresponsible, time of childhood and
the powerful and responsible time of adulthood, is made clear.
 Without these things, we are likely to see a role confusion, meaning an
uncertainty about one’s place in society and the world. When an adolescent is
confronted by role confusion, Erickson says, he or she is suffering from an
identity crisis. In fact, a common question adolescent in our society ask is a
straight-forward question of identity: “Who am I?”
 One of Erikson’s suggestions for adolescence in our society is the psychosocial
moratorium. He suggests you take a little “time out”. If you have money, go to
Europe. If you don't, bum around the Philippines. Quit school and get a job. quit
your job and go to school. Take a break, smell the roses, get to know yourself.
We tend to want to get to “success” as fast as possible, and yet few of us have
ever taken the time to figure out what success means to us. A little like the
young Oglala Lakota, perhaps we need to dream a little.

Maladaptation/Malignancy
 There is such a thing as too much “ego identity”, where a person is so involved
in a particular role in a particular society or subculture that there is no room left
for tolerance. Erikson calls this maladaptive tendency fanaticism. A fanatic
believes that his way is the only way. Adolescents are, of course, known for their
 idealism, and for their tendency to see things in “black and white”. These people
will gather others around them and promote their beliefs and life-styles without
regard to others’ rights to disagree.
 The lack of identity is perhaps more difficult still, and Erickson refers to the
malignant tendency here as repudiation. The repudiate is to reject. They reject
their membership in the world of adults and, even more, they reject their need
for an identity. Some adolescents prefer to go to groups that go against the
norms to form their identity: religious cults, militaristic organizations, groups
founded on hatred, groups that have divorced themselves from the painful
demands of mainstream society. They may become involved in destructive
activities -- drugs, or alcohol - or they may withdraw into their own psychotic
fantasies. After all, being “bad” or being “nobody” is better than not knowing
who you are!

Virtue
 If you successfully negotiate this stage, you will have the virtue Erickson called
fidelity.
 Fidelity means loyalty, the ability to live by society's standards despite their
imperfections and incompleteness and inconsistencies. We are not talking about
blind loyalty, and we are not talking about accepting the imperfections. After all,
if you love your community, you will want to see it become the best it can be.
But fidelity means that you have found a place in that community, a place that
will allow you to contribute.
Stage 6
Too much Too much
Stage 6

Maladaptation Malignancy
Psychosocial Crisis

Virtue
Psychosocial Crisis
 If you have made it this far, you are in the stage of young adulthood, which lasts
from about 18 to about 30.
 The ages in the adult stages are much fuzzier than in the childhood stages, and
people may differ dramatically.
 The task is to achieve some degree of intimacy, as opposed to remaining in
isolation.
 Intimacy is the ability to be close to others, as a lover, a friend, and as a
participant in society. Because you have a clear sense of who you are, you no
longer need to fear “losing” yourself, as many adolescents do.
 The “fear of commitment” some people seem to exhibit is an example of
immaturity in this stage. This fear is not always obvious. Many people today are
always putting off the progress of their relationships: I'll get married (or have a
family or get involved in important social issues) as soon as I finish school, as
soon as I have a job, as soon as I have a house, as soon as…. If you have been
engaged for the last ten years, what's holding you back?
 Neither should the young adult need to prove him or herself anymore. A
teenager relationship is often a matter of trying to establish identity through
“couple-hood.” Who am I? I’m her boyfriend. The young adult relationship
should be a matter of two independent egos wanting to create something larger
than themselves. We intuitively recognize this when we frown on a relationship
between a young adult and a teenager:
 We see the potential for manipulation of the younger member of the party by
the older.

Maladaptation/Malignancy
 Erikson calls the maladaptive tendency form promiscuity, referring particularly to
the tendency to become intimate too freely, too easily, and without any depth to
 your intimacy. This can be true of your relationships with friends and neighbours
and your whole community as well as with lovers. The malignancy he calls
exclusion, which refers to the tendency to isolate oneself from love, friendship,
and community, and to develop a certain hatefulness in compensation for one's
loneliness.

Virtue
 If you successfully negotiate this stage, you will instead carry with you for the
rest of your life the virtue of psychosocial strength Erickson calls love. Love, in
the context of his theory, means being able to put aside differences and
antagonisms through mutuality of devotion. It includes not only the love we find
in a good marriage, but the love between friends and the love of one's neighbor,
co-worker, and compatriot as well.

Stage 7
Too much Too much
Stage 7

Maladaptation Malignancy
Psychosocial Crisis

Virtue

Psychosocial Crisis
 The seventh stage is that of middle adulthood.
 It is hard to pin a time to it, but it would include the period during which we are
actively involved in raising children. For most people in our society, this would
put it somewhere between the middle twenties and the late fifties.
  The task here is to cultivate the proper balance of generativity and stagnation.
 Generativity is an extension of love into the future. It is a concerned for the
next generation and all future generations. As such, it is considerably less
“selfish” than the intimacy of the previous stage: Intimacy, the love between
lovers or friends, is a love between equals, and it is necessarily mutual. With
generativity, the individual, like a parent, does not expect to be repaid for the
love he gives to his children, at least not as strongly. Few parents expect a
“return on their investment” from their children; if they do, we don’t think of
them as very good parents!
 Although the majority of people practice generativity by having and raising
children, there are many other ways as well. Erikson considers teaching, writing,
invention, the arts and sciences, social activism, and generally contributing to the
welfare of future generations to be generativity as well – anything, in fact, that
satisfies that old “need to be needed”. Stagnation, on the other hand, is self-
absorption, caring for no-one. The stagnant person stops to be productive
member of society.

Maladaptation/Malignancy
 It is perhaps hard to imagine that we should have any “stagnation” in our lives,
but the maladaptive tendency Erickson calls overextension illustrates the
problem: some people tried to be so generative that they no longer allow time
for themselves, for rest and relaxation. The person who is overextended no
longer contributes well. I'm sure we all know someone who belongs to so many
clubs, or is devoted to so many causes, or tries to take so many classes or hold
so many jobs that they no longer have time for any of them!
 More obvious, of course, is the malignant tendency of rejectivity. Too little
generativity and too much stagnation and you are no longer participating in or
contributing to society. And much of what we call the “meaning of life” is a
matter of how we participate and what we contribute.
  This is the stage of the “midlife crisis”. Sometimes men and women take a look
at their lives and ask that big, bad question “what am I doing all this for?” Notice
the question carefully: because their focus is on themselves, they ask what,
rather than whom, they are doing it for. In their panic up getting older and not
having experienced or accomplished what day imagined they would when they
were younger, they try to recapture their youth. Men are often the most
flambouyant examples: They leave their long-suffering wives, quit their
humdrum jobs, buy some “hip” new clothes, and start hanging around singles’
bars. Of course, they seldom find what they are looking for, because they are
looking for the wrong thing!

Virtue
 But if you are successful at this stage, you will have a capacity for caring that
will serve you through the rest of your life.

Stage 8
Too much Too much
Stage 8

Maladaptation Malignancy
Psychosocial Crisis

Virtue

Psychosocial Crisis
 The last stage, referred to delicately as late adulthood or maturity, or less
delicately as old age, begins sometimes around retirement, after the kids have
done, say somewhere around 60.
 Some older folks will protest and say it only starts when you feel old and so on,
but that’s an effect of our youth-worshipping culture, which has even old people
avoiding any acknowledgement of age. In Erikson’s theory, reaching this stage is
a good stage, and not reaching it suggests that earlier problems retarded your
development!
 The task is to develop ego integrity with a minimal amount of despair. This stage
seems like the most difficult of all. First comes a detachment from society, from
a sense of usefulness, for most people in our culture. Some retire from jobs they
have held for years; others find their duties as parents coming to a close; most
find that their input is no longer requested or required.
 Then there is a sense of biological usefulness, as the body no longer does
everything it used to. Women go through a sometimes-dramatic menopause.
Men often find they can no longer “rise to the occasion”. Then there is the illness
of old age, such as arthritis, diabetes, heart problems, concerns about breast and
ovarian and prostate cancers. There are come fears about things that one was
never afraid of before – the flu, for example, or just falling down. Along with
these illnesses come concerns of death. Friends die. Relatives die. One’s spouse
dies. It is, of course, certain that you, too, will have your turn. Faced with all
this, it might seem like everyone would feel despair.
 In response to this despair, some older people become preoccupied with the
past. After all, that's where things were better. Some becomes preoccupied with
their failures, the bad decisions they made, and regret that (unlike some in the
previous stage) they really don't have the time or energy the reverse them. We
find some older people become depressed, spiteful, paranoid, hypochondriacal,
or developing the patterns of senility with or without physical bases.
 Ego integrity means coming to terms with your life, and thereby coming to terms
with the end of life. If you are able to look back and accept the course of events,
the choices made, your life as you lived it, as being necessary, then you need not
fear death. Although most of you are not yet at this point in life, perhaps you can
 still sympathize by considering your life up to now. We've all made mistakes,
some of them pretty nasty ones; Yet, if you hadn't made these mistakes, you
wouldn't be who you are. If you had been very fortunate, or if you had played it
safe and made very few mistakes, your life would not have been as rich as is.
Maladaptation/Malignancy
 The maladaptive tendency in stage eight is called presumption. This is what
happens when a person “presumes” ego integrity without actually facing the
difficulties of old age.
 The person in old age believes that he alone is right. He does not respect the
ideas and views of the young.
 The malignant tendency is called disdain, by which Erikson means a contempt
of life, one’s own or anyone's. The person becomes very negative and appears to
hate life.

Virtue
 Someone who approaches death without fear has the strength Erikson calls
wisdom. He calls it a gift to children because healthy children will not fear life if
their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.
 He suggests that a person must be somewhat gifted to be truly wise. But I would
like to suggest that you understand “gifted” in as broad as fashion as possible. I
have found that there are people of very modest gifts who have taught me a
great deal, not by their wise words, but by their simple and gentle approach to
life and death, by their “generosity of spirit”.

Application
Write your own life story using the stages of psychosocial development as a
framework. Go through each of the stages that apply to you (most probably, stages 1
to 5 or 6). Ask information from your parents and other significant persons in your life.
Look
at old baby books and photo albums. Also, include the results of your questionnaire in
the activity section. Write a narrative for each stage.
You may choose to have this project in PowerPoint slides or in scrapbook style
printouts. For every psychosocial stage include pictures of yourself and significant
persons in your life. Discuss your own psychosocial development using Erikson’s theory.
Consider the crisis, maladaptations/malignancies and the virtues.

Research Connection
Read a research that is related to Erikson’s theory. Fill out the matrix below.

Problem Research Methodology

Source: (bibliographical entry format)

Findings Conclusions

How are the findings of this research useful to teachers?

Reflection
5-Minute Non-Stop Writing begins….. NOW!

From the module on Erikson’s Stages

pf Psycho-social Theory of
Development, I realized that…
 Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
- Maria Rita D. Lucas. PhD

MODULE
“Right action tends to be defined in terms of general
8 individual rights and standards that have been critically
examined and agreed upon by the whole society.” -
Lawrence Kohlberg

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
 Explain the stages of moral development.
 Analyze a person's level of moral reasoning based on his responses to moral
dilemmas.
 Cite how the theory of moral development can be applied to your work as a
teacher later on.

INTRODUCTION
Individuals, when confronted by situations where they need to make moral
decisions, exercise their own ability to use moral reasoning. Lawrence kohlberg was
interested in studying the development of moral reasoning. He based his theory on the
findings of Piaget in studying cognitive development. Our ability to choose right from
wrong is tied with our ability to understand and reason logically.

ACTIVITY
Read the moral dilemma below.
Ryan, 17, Hawaii has been saving up money to buy a ticket for this concert of
rock band. His parents have discouraged him from going as the concert will surely be
with rowdy crowd. The band is notorious for having out-of-control audience who
somehow managed to get drunk and stoned during the concert. Ryan agreed not to
watch anymore. But a day before the concert, Nic, 15-year-old brother of Ryan, saw
a corner of what
appeared to be a concert ticket showing in the pocket of Ryan’s bag. Nic examined it
and confirmed it was indeed a ticket. Looking at Ryan's bag, Nic also found an extra
shirt and two sticks of marijuana. So he figured Ryan will go to the concert after all.
That night, Ryan told his parents that he was spending tomorrow night at a classmate’s
house for a school requirement. Then later that evening, he told Nic of his plan to go to
the concert. Nik didn't say anything, but he found it difficult to sleep that night, thinking
whether to tell their parents or not.
1. If you were Nik, what would you do?

2. Why would you choose to do that? What were the things you considered in deciding
what to do?

ANALYSIS
Examine the answers you gave. Compare it with the responses provided below in which
of these responses is your answer most similar?
Stage 1 – “Yes I will tell our parents. Because if they found out later that I knew, for sure
they will get angry and most likely punish me.”
“No. I will not tell because Ryan will make my life difficult and also punish me
for telling.”

Stage 2- “Yes. I will tell my parents because they will reward me for it. I will subtly
ask for that new I Pod that I'm wishing to have.”
“No. I will not tell. Ryan will surely grant me a lot of favors for not telling.
He’ll not also squeal on me.”
Stage 3 – “Yes. I will tell so my parents will think I am such an honest boy.”
“No I will not tell. Ryan will think of me as a really cool brother!”

Stage 4 – “Yes I will tell because we should follow the rules that our parents say.”
“No, because it's been our rule to keep each other secrets.”

Stage 5 – “Yes. I will tell because he might be hurt or get in trouble and his welfare is
stopped most priority.”
“No, Because he is big enough to question my parents decision not to let him
go.”

Stage 6 – “Yes, I will tell because lying is always wrong, and I want to be true to what I
believe in.”
“No, because I believe brothers watch out for each other. If he trusted me with
this, I should stay true to him and not say anything.”

In what level of moral development did your response to the dilemma fall?
Reflect about what this indicates about your moral reasoning in this moral dilemma.

As you continue to read this module, you will get to know more about the
different levels of moral reasoning is posed by Kohlberg.

ABSTRACTION/GENERALIZATION
Lawrence Kohlberg built on Piaget’s work and set the groundwork for the present
debate within psychology on moral development. Like Piaget, he believed that children
form ways of thinking through their experiences which include understandings of moral
concepts such as justice, rights, equality, and human welfare. Kolberg followed the
development of moral judgment and extended the aegis covered by Piaget I’m and
found out that the process of attaining moral maturity took longer an accord slower
than Piaget had thought.
If Piaget designed specific tasks (Piagetian task) to learn about the cognitive
development of children, Kohlberg utilized moral dilemmas (Kohlberg dilemmas). The
case you read in the Activity part of this module was written for this module but was
based on how Kohlberg wrote his dilemmas. Like Piaget, he presented these dilemmas
to the individuals in his research and asked for their responses. He did not aim to judge
whether their responses were right or wrong. He was interested in analyzing the moral
reasoning behind the responses.
From his research, Kohlberg identified six stages of moral reasoning grouped into
three major levels. Each level represents a significant change in the social-moral
reasoning or perspective of the person.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

According to Kohlberg, moral development occurs in six stages:
Level Stage Description
Preconventional Level 1 Punishment/Obedience.
Moral reasoning is based on the One is motivated by fear of punishment period she will
consequence/ result of the act, not act in order to avoid punishment.
on the weather the act itself is 2 Mutual benefit. One is motivated to work by the
good or bad. benefit that one may obtain later period you scratch my
back, I'll scratch yours.
Conventional 3 Social approval. One is motivated by what others
Moral reasoning is based on the expect in behavior-good boy, good girl. The person
conventions or “norms” of society. asks because he/she values how he/she will appear to
This may include approval of others. He/she gives important on what people will
others, law, and order. think
or say.
 Post-conventional 4 Law and Order. One is motivated to act in order to
Moral reasoning is based on uphold law and order. The person will follow the law
injuring or consistent principles. It because it is the law.
is not just recognizing the law, but 5 Social Contract. Laws that are wrong can be changed.
the principles behind the law. One will act base on social justice and common good.

6 Universal Principles.
This is associated with the development of One's
conscience. Having a set of standards that drives one to
possess moral responsibility to make societal changes
regardless of consequences to oneself. Example of
persons are Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr.

APPLICATION
Identify the stage of moral development shown in the following.

Joy allows her classmates to Karen decides to return the

copy her homework so that wallet she found in the
they will think she is kind canteen so that people will
and will like her to be their praise her honesty and
friend. think she's such a nice girl.

Ricky does everything to John decides to return

get passing grades because the wallet he found in
his mom will take his play the canteen because he
station away if he gets bad believes it's the right
grades.
thing to do.

Civic action group protests the A jeepney driver looks if

use of pills for family planning,
saying that although the
there's a policeman
government allows this, it is a around before he U-turns
murder because the pills are in a no U-turn spot.
abortifacient (causes abortion).

Jinkee lets Hannah copy Lisa volunteers to tutor

during their Math test children-at-risk children in
because Hannah agreed her community for free so
to let her copy during they will learn to love
school and stay in school.
the sibika test.
 Laika wears her ID Little
Riel behaves so
inside campus because
well to get a star
she likes to follow the
school rules and stamp from her
regulations. teacher.

SYNAPSE STRENGTHENERS
1. Read the moral dilemma discussion guide found in
(http://tigger.uic.edu/~1nucci/MoralEd/pratices/practice31indtex.html). Try out these
guidelines with a moral dilemma.
2. Research on the views of Eliot Turiel (Domain Theory) and Carol Gilligan (Moral
Reasoning and Gender). Relate them with Kohlberg’s Theory.

RESEARCH CONNECTION
Read a research that is related to Kohlberg’s theory. Fill out the matrix below.

Problem Research Methodology

Source: (bibliographical entry format)

Findings Conclusions

How are the findings of this research useful to teachers?

Reflection
5-Minute Non-Stop Writing begins….. NOW!

From the module on Kohlberg’s

Stages of Moral Development, I
realized that…