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Chapter Two
2. Theories of Human Development

Introduction
Human development theories are logical frameworks that use as base to study (or describe,
explain, predict and modify) various aspects of development. The theories help in viewing
development and behavior from different perspectives. The theories of human development can
be categorized under the cognitive, psychodynamic, moral, andbehavioral / learning theories.
1. Cognitive theories: The cognitive theorists depict people as thinking, planning, problem
solving, and decision-making organisms or as mental manipulators of images, symbols, & ideas.
Cognition involves all the mental processes that transform input or information into some
meaningful fashion in that by coding, processing, storing, & appropriately retrieving it.
The Cognitive theoriesthat emphasize conscious thoughts include Piaget’s cognitive
developmental theory, Vygotskey’s sociocultural cognitive theory, and the information-
processing theory. Though there are a number of different cognitive theories of development.
The focus is on the first and the well- known cognitive development theory of JeanPiaget. This
perspective focuses on the mental processes that allow people to know, understand, and think
about the world. It, therefore, emphasizes on how people internally represent and think about the
world.
2. Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic theories are primarily concerned with the personality and
emotional development of individuals. Advocates of the psychodynamic perspective believe that
much of our behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts of which a person
has little awareness or control. According to these groups of theories, the inner forces or drives,
which may stem from one's childhoodtime, continually influence behavior throughout the life
span. The psychodynamic theories involve many theories and the known theories under this
category of theories are Sigmund Freud’s psychosexualdevelopment and Erik Erikson’s
psychosocial development theories.
3. Moral development theories: with the cognitive and personality development ideas, we can
get the ideas or views about changes in knowing, judging and behaving in line with things that
are called “right” or “wrong” in the society that are represented by moral development. The
known theory about moral development is the theory developed by Lawrence Kohlberg. So, the
Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory is the theory that can become the other focus in this unit
4. Behavioral/learning theories: The behavioral theories focus on how an organism acquires
the given responses (how it learns). These theories stress on stimulus-response relationships in
explaining social behavior. Behaviorism is a psychological theory that is primarily concerned
with the stimuli that impinge on an organism’s sense organs and the responses that these stimuli
elicit. Under the learning theories we can get many theories. But, our focus will be on the social-
cognitive theory of Albert Bandura.

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2.1. Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

Cognition refers to the mental processes involved in knowing about the world. Roughly it is a
synonym to thinking. Cognitive development refers to the progression in different kinds of
thinking and understanding or learning about the world. It is the gradual and orderly changes in
mental processes (such as reasoning, thinking, understanding, using language etc) by which these
elements become complex and sophisticated. Though Cognitive development literally is
referring to intellectual development, it is dealing with abilities, such as processing information
that includes thinking, imagination, memorizing, learning, reasoning, decision-making and so
forth. It also includes the changes in language abilities. The development of understanding,
thinking and language usage can also be related to the development of moral reasoning and
socialization.
Human beings do think and understand and learn about the world as early as the infancy period.
Thinking, understanding or learning about the world changes through time following stages.
Children do not think like adults. They are not little adults with more primitive patterns of
thought; they think about the world differently. For infants and babies, cognitive development is
expressed through sensing, perceiving and motor activities. For example, when a baby intently
looks at the points and contrasts of a triangle or inspects her/his father’s face, he/she is
maintaining or manifesting one of his/her few ways of thinking about or knowing about the
world. When another baby sucks on the handle of his/her rattle, this motor activity is his/her way
of knowing or understanding the thing.
The Swiss biologist, philosopher and psychologist named Jean Piaget (1896 - 1989) had been
emphasized this point. Jean Piaget is known as the ever child scientist, who published a
scientific research paper at the age of 10. Piaget studied his children and developed a stage like
theory that characterizes cognitive development.
According to Jean Piaget (1896 - 1989), the development/change of cognition (thinking and
understanding) of human being happens following stages and his theory is the most detailed and
comprehensive theory on cognitive change. Piaget’s approach of the study of cognitive (thinking
and understanding) development/change was called genetic epistemology. Epistemology is the
study of the nature and acquisition of knowledge. Piaget’s approach was genetic in the sense that
it focused on origin (genesis) and development of cognition. Piaget’s theory states that children
actively construct their understanding of the world and they go through four stages of cognitive
development and the change or development of cognition of people is governed by three
general principles in all the four main stages.

The General Principles/Tendencies of Cognitive Development

The three general principles/tendencies of thinking of human being/ that are governing mental
processes are organization, adaptation, and equilibrium. To Piaget, the two main processes
underlie the cognitive construction of the world are organization and adaptation.
1. Cognitive organization refers to mental tendency to arrange information/ experience in to
categories (mental system). It is the process of learning or understanding things by forming
coherent or systematic patterns of thinking. To make sense of our world, we organize our
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experiences. For example, we separate important ideas from less important ones. We connect one
idea to another. E.g. children are understanding/knowing cars and trucks by thinking them as two
related objects. The systematic patterns of thinking formed in the process of cognitive
organization are called by Piaget schemes.
2. Cognitive adaptation refers to developmental changes in thinking by which people adjust
themselves to their environment or the environment to their already formed thought system.
Cognitive adaptation is people’s tendency to adjust mentally to their environment. So, in addition
to organizing our observations and experiences, we adapt our thinking to include new ideas
because additional information furthers understanding. According to Piaget the development of
knowledge is a form of adaptation. He believed that we adapt our environment mentally in two
ways: assimilation and accommodation. This means that adaptation operates through dual
processes (happens in to two ways): assimilation and accommodation.
i) Assimilation: is the process of modifying one’s environment so as to fit one’s already
developed ways of thinking and acting. That is, it is the taking in of information in accordance
with a particular scheme. Assimilation is the attempt to fit new information in to an existing
cognitive structure, i.e. applying old ideas/habits to new objects. Through cognitive assimilation
new experience/information will be interpreted or understood according to the existing schemes
(patterns of thinking). e.g., while children are calling different flying objects/ things as pigeons,
air plane, and butter fly by the only name they know, i.e. birds, they adapt the new environment
in the form of assimilation. .
ii) Accommodation shows the change of some elements of the existing schemes to meet the
requirements of the new experience and information. It is the process of creating new
schemes/modifying old ones to cope with the new information. It refers to the process modifying
oneself so as to fit in to the characteristics of the new environment. Through cognitive
accommodation, there will be modification of the developed schemes to fit the new experience.
e.g., Differentiating butterfly, airplane, pigeons from the global concept, i.e. birds, and calling
them by their own name for a child is adapting the environment in the form of accommodation.
So, while assimilation occurs when individuals incorporate new information into their existing
knowledge, accommodation occurs when individuals adjust his/her experiences to the new
information.
Assimilation and accommodation are working together to produce/enhance cognitive growth -
child’s conceptualization of the worlds and his reaction to it - and leads to equilibration. Piaget
also spoke of equilibrium as the third principle of cognitive development.
3. Equilibrium shows the tendency of developing child to stay in balance intellectually by
fulfilling gaps in knowledge - assimilation - and by restructuring beliefs when they fail to test out
against reality- accommodation. It is a tendency to strive for a state of mental balance between a
person and his changing environment. The stage of balance between assimilation and
accommodation is called equilibrium. Children seek a balance between what they know and
what they are experiencing and this leads them to shift from assimilation to accommodation. But,
inability of children to handle new experiences with their existing structures leads them in a state
of mental disequilibrium.
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These three general principles are inborn/inherited tendencies and they are called functionally
invariant because they operate at all the four stages of cognitive development.

The Stages of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget (1952) proposed that children pass through four increasingly sophisticated cognitive
stages of development.
The four stages of cognitive development put forth by Piaget are:-
1. Sensorimotor Stage: birth to 2 years
2. Preoperational Stage: 2 to 7 years
- Preconceptual stage: 2 to 4 years
- Perceptual/intuitive stage: 4 to 7 years
3. Concrete Operational Stage: 7 to 11 years
4. Formal Operational Stage: 11 onwards.
Each of the stages is age-related and consists of distinct ways of thinking. In the Piagetian view,
the different way of understanding the world makes one stage more advanced than another. So,
it is said that the child’s cognition is qualitatively different at different stages as one stage is
compared with another.
1. Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
This stage of cognitive development occupies the infancy and babyhood periods. Early in this
period, the infant/baby does not distinguish itself from the environment and its behavior is
restricted to the use of reflex patterns. As the baby grows older, new response patterns emerge
and the baby can make intentional movement (4-8 month). In this stage, babies try to construct
an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (such as seeing and hearing)
with physical and motoric actions. So, at the beginning of this stage, newborns have little more
than reflexive patterns and at the end of the stage, 2-year-olds have complex sensorimotor
patterns in that they are beginning to operate with primitive symbols such as language and
circularity of actions .
Thus, the sensorimotor stage is mainly characterized by learning of the infants/babies about their
world using the senses and motor activity or doing. This means that at this stage, children
(infants and babies) investigate their world (acquire knowledge/learn about the world) 1 st through
sensory activities as vision, biting, tasting etc and then by handling/manipulating objects as their
muscles develop.
In this period, simple learning occurs but the child may not think in deep. Piaget described many
specific changes that take place during the sensory motor stage. A notable example can be the
development of the concept of object permanency; when babies see an object and then the object
is hidden, they seem unaware that the object continues to exist. This, however, fails to hold true
with older babies in this stage.
At the close of the period, the stage can be characterized by specific changes; such as, the
development of object permanence between 6 and 18 months of life. Of course, at first “out of
sight is out of mind” – an object exists when it is physically present but later the child develop
idea of object permanence. As baby gets older (18 months), he /she begins to be able to use
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thought and imaginations to solve problems, develops new ways dealing with the environment,
and finally the beginning of foresight, i.e.; the abilities to foresee/evaluate activities and prepare
for the consequence of activities in the future; circularity – repeating specific acts. Example,
thumb sucking; and copying behavior – imitate and play e.g. clapping hands.
Generally, to sum up the usual sequence of development of learning or thinking, in the
sensorimotor stages of learning are: - first to use of senses, then in the second part of the first
year the use of motor activities, then in the second year the coordination of these primary
activities/ abilities. By the end of the sensory motor period, the baby can think about the world in
simple experience and actions.
2. Preoperational stage: 2 to 7 years
This stage occupies the time of early childhood period. The stage is called preoperational
because the child cannot perform what Piaget called mental operations or mental manipulations
of reality. Operational refers to thought process governed by rules. But, this stage is a stage
before mental operations or mental manipulation using rules/ logic. In the Preoperational stage,
children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings. Symbolic thought goes
beyond simple connections of sensory information and physical action. Although preschool
children can symbolically represent the world, according to Piaget, they still lack the ability to
perform operations (internalized mental actions that allow children do mentally what they
previously did physically).
The stage is characterized by the beginning of internalized thought processes/mental activities
that lack rules of operations/logical thoughts. Children of this stage do not acquire rules of
thought/logical operations. However; lack of logic/rule of operation does not stop children from
thinking symbolically through the use of language and doing dramatic play. This means that at
this stage, a child can use one thing (e.g., a word or symbol) to represent other. Example, a piece
of word can symbolize a car or a house. According to Piaget this stage has two sub-stages:
i) The pre conceptual stage: 2 to 4 years. This sub-stage of preoperational stage of cognitive
development is characterized by:
a) Rapid development of language as a system of representation of thought, called symbolic
representation. This is the capacity to form mental symbols for objects & allows children to go
beyond direct sensory experiences. In this sub-stage objects begin to stand for other things.
Example, a toy car may be considered as the real things. The development of representational
thought (the capacity to form mental symbols, which stand for objects not present).
b) The use of classes though inaccurately. The child uses classes inaccurately. This is the ability
to add classes together, to multiply classes, to break down classes in to sub- classes and is
necessary base for conceptual thinking. However, difficulty is observed in the tasks of
classifying things. At this sub-stage, the child is capable of formulating primitive concepts that
are referred as “preconcepts” by Piaget
c) ego-centric sense- children are heard talking to themselves and their toys/dolls in the absence
of others.
ii) The intuitive/perceptual stage: 4 to 7 years. This sub-stage of the preoperational stage of
cognitive development is characterized by:
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a) The performing of some mental operations without awaring the principles on uses in
performing the operations,
b) The appearance of reasoning but that is remaining centered around real objects (appearance)
rather than implications
c) The lack of the concept of conservation, reversibility, decentration and the like mental
operations. Children at this stage are dominated by the way things appear to them and hence
lack of the concept of conservation. A person who is capable of conserving ides can realize that
the number of amount and mass of things remain the same even if their shapes or arrangement
changes.
Generally, the stage preoperational stage of cognitive development has a number of
characteristics/ limitations.

The limitations/characteristics of the intuitive stage of thought are: -

a) Lack of ability to decenter: Children of the stage cannot perform mental operations
concentrating on many things at one time. This is for the reason that they cannot review and
integrate a variety of inputs. Mental addition and subtraction of objects and operation of logical
thought is not yet developed.
b) Lack of ability to reverse: Children of the stage cannot make reversibility. At this period
they are not able to reverse logical operations. They lack the ability to move forth and back or to
return to the point origin, or to do and undo, or to go in one direction and compensate it in other
direction in the train of thought. Example; the child in this stage does not follow sensibly to do
the operations of addition and subtraction as If 4 + 8 = 12, then 12 – 8 = 4 at same time. This
is for the reason that children of this period are not able to reverse in logical operations.
c) Lack of the concept of conservation: Children of the stage cannot understand the concept of
conservation. I.e. they couldn’t realize that change in the form of a substance/arrangement of a
set of objects does not change the amount. Conservation shows the understanding, for instance,
that a given quantity of a substance remains the same despite difference in the appearance.
There are different aspects of conservation; such as conservation of mass, of volume, of weight,
etc.
According to Piaget, the other characteristics of thought in the preoperational stage are: ego-
centrism, animism, realism, artificalism, etc.
d) Ego-centrism refers to inability to perceive reality from the viewpoint of other person.
Children of the preoperational stage have inability to take the point of view/perspective of
another person. It is thought process of viewing oneself as the reference point in dealing with
external world. Children of the period believe that their conception of the world is the only one
possible and that everyone sees things the same way they do. They also see the world as
centered on him and assume that everything has some purpose related to people. Young children
also act as if another person was already aware of what they are thinking. Egocenterism
declines between four and six years of age. However, even older children may be somewhat
egocentric.

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e) Animism is the tendency of preoperational stage children to give psychological attributes to

physical objects and events. They believe that inanimate objects are a live and capable of
intentions, of consciousness, and feelings. This means that children of the stage have the
tendency to consider everything as living and move by wills of their own as well as they attribute
life to in animate object. They have the tendency to think inanimate objects as having human
power like thinking, emotion, etc. Example: the child might think of the wind as alive because it
moves.
f) Realism is the tendency of preoperational stage children to think pictures, concepts, and
symbols as real objects. They also do have tendency to see psychological events like dreams and
thoughts as physical objects. For example, they believe that whatever they dreamt could happen
to them in actual life.
g) Artificialism is the tendency to interpret all phenomena, including natural phenomena, as
made by human beings.
3. Concrete Operational stage (7 to 11 years)
This stage occupies the time of late childhood. The concrete operational stage is characterized
by thought that is logical and reversible. In this stage, children can perform mental operations,
and logical reasoning, and replace intuitive thought as long as reasoning can be applied to
specific or concrete examples. For instance, concrete operational thinkers cannot imagine the
steps necessary to complete an algebraic equation, which is too abstract for thinking at this stage
of development. They can relate their teaching of numeric operations using symbols and concrete
objects. So, the beginning of logical and operational thought process that can be limited to
concrete problems marks the stage.
Children of the concrete operational stage have the ability to think logically but only about
concrete problems and objects such as adding using fingers. In addition to developing logical
thought/reasoning process, at this stage children are developing the ability of reversibility and
overcoming of deficiencies of the preoperational stage children. Thus, many of the preopertional
stage deficiencies are slowly overcome, and children develop the ability to conserve, reverse,
seriate objects in shape, size, or order and classify objects in a group or class. Children become
less ego centrism-they can see things from other people points of view. More than this, children
of the stage have acquired a set of rules for relating symbols and objects and making transitive
inferences. (This is the application of previously learned relationships to infer new relationship).
The ability to make transitive inference is an important kind of reasoning ability that develops
during these stages.
It is at the concrete operational stage that children can understand relationship between events
(the logic of classes and relations) and can coordinate series and part-whole relationship with
concrete things. They also have ability to add, subtract order, deal with numbers, and apply rules
to social situations. For the reason that children of this stage understand the world on concrete or
tangible levels only, their mental operation does not involve abstract thinking. This is the major
limitation of children at this stage.
4. Formal operational stage (11 years to adulthood)

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This stage occupies the time of puberty through adolescence to adulthood ages. The formal
operational stage of cognitive development is characterized by increasing ability of individuals to
employ logical thought process not only on concrete but also abstract things.
In this stage, individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in abstract and more
logical terms. As part of thinking more abstractly, adolescents develop images of ideal
circumstances. They might think about what an ideal parent is like and compare their parents to
this ideal standard. They begin to entertain possibilities for the future and are fascinated with
what they can be.
The adolescents of the period are not limited to concrete objects/events in reasoning but they can
deal with statements/proportions that describe the concrete data. The stage is characterized by the
logic of propositions, the ability to reason from a hypothesis to all its conclusions, however
theoretical. This involves second-order operations or thinking about thoughts or theories rather
than concrete realities. So, one of the major characteristics of this stage is the logical
propositional reasoning of adolescents-the ability to reason from a hypothesis to all its
conclusions, theoretically.
In this stage, adolescents free themselves from the concrete operations related to objects rather
they are capable of reasoning with abstractions and propositions remove from the concrete. They
also develop an experimental spirit. At this stage the thought process of adolescents become
quite abstract, systematic and reasonably well- integrated. Now, they solve problems more
systematically and the bases of actions are not trial and error.
In solving problems, formal operational thinkers are more systematic, developing hypotheses
about why something is happening the way it is, and then testing these hypotheses in a
deductive manner. Thus, individuals of this stage are able to organize information, reason
scientifically, formulate concepts, build hypothesis based on the understanding of causality, and
test their hypothesis.

What are the implications of cognitive development on class room instruction?

The following points describe a general strategy for applying cognitive concepts to instruction.
- Use concrete operational teaching strategies and materials. Example:Use visual aids, such as
charts, graphs, diagrams, and other illustrations and Compare the opportunity /experience
characteristics status with students’ experience
- Give students the opportunities to explore many hypothetical questions.Example: make
students write their view about social issues like economy, environment government etc.., and
debates about them.Ask students to write their personal description of earth.
- Give students opportunities to practice problem solving skills and scientific reasoning.Example:
Set up group discussions about certain problems, Encourage students to explain how they solve
problems, and Make some questions to be open – ended questions that require logical thinking in
giving tests.
- Present a puzzling situation well matched to learners’ development. Puzzling questions
challenge students’ current understanding.
- Elicit student responses and ask justifications.This helps students often counter suggestions,
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probe students responses and this confronts students with additional demonstrations to further
explore phenomena.
- Present related tasks and probe students’ reasoning often counter suggestions.The idea here is
to see that the concepts learner previously transfer to new related concepts. This enables to see if
students can generalize to a new situation and help them in doing so.
- Plan activities that encompass the next higher level of cognition.Instruction can be planned to
provide practice at the upper level of the zone of proximal development for individual children
or for groups of children.
- Co-operative learning activities can be planned with groups of children at different levels who
can helps each other learn. Example:Help the child in his or her zone of proximal development
in which the adult provides hints, and prompts at different levels.

2.2. Freud’s Psychoanalytic (Psychodynamic) Theory

The psychodynamic/psychoanalytic perspective is most closely associated with the work of an
Austrian physician Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939). The Psychoanalytic theories focus on
developmental changes in the self and personality and consider development as a discontinuous
process that follows a series of separate five stages for Freud and at each stage of maturation,
certain drives, needs, or conflicts emerge that influence the way a child relates to the
environment.
Freud's psychoanalytic theory viewed human development in terms of personality and emotional
changes and he suggested that unconscious forces act to determine personality and behavior.
Psychoanalytic theory describes human development as primarily unconscious (beyond
awareness) and heavily colored by emotion. Psychoanalytic theorists emphasize that behavior is
merely a surface characteristic and that a true understanding of development requires analyzing
the symbolic meanings of behavior and the deep inner workings of the mind. Psychoanalytic
theorists also stress that early experiences with parents extensively shape development.
Sigmund Freud has been a physician (medical doctor) specializing in neurology and developed
his ideas about psychoanalytic theory while working with emotionally disturbed patients’ life
histories. Seeking to relieve their nervous symptoms and anxieties, Freud relied heavily on such
methods as hypnosis, free association (a quick spilling out of one’s thoughts which we
commonly call it slip of the tongue), and dream analysis. Analysis of dream, according to Freud,
gives some indication of unconscious motives that patients repress (that is, forced out of their
conscious awareness). By analyzing these motives and events that caused their repression, Freud
concluded that human development is a conflictual process. As biological creatures, we all have
basic sexual and aggressive instincts that must be served, yet society dictates that many of these
drives must be restrained. According to Freud, the ways in which parents manage these sexual
and aggressive urges in the first few years of their child’s life play a major role in shaping their
children’s personalities.
Thus, according to the psychoanalytic theory of Freud, Personality is formed with in ourselves,
arising from basic inborn needs, drives, and characteristics. He argued that people are in constant
conflict between their biological urges (drives) and the need to tame them
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Freud’s psychoanalytic theory involves three sub-theories: theory about structure of

personality, theory about levels of consciousness and theory about psychosexual development
stages.Freud’s ideas about Personality structure, the mind, and stages of psychosexual
development can be briefly explained as follows.

1. Theory of Personality Structure: According to Freud, personality has three structures. The
three personality structures are the id, the ego, and the superego.
The id to Freud consists of instincts, which are an individual’s reservoir of psychic energy. The
id to him is totally unconscious and irrational that has no contact with reality. The id is present at
birth. Its sole function is seeking pleasure, to satisfy inborn biological instincts (such as sex,
aggression, and hunger), and it will try to do so immediately.
The ego: As children experience the demands and constraints of reality, a new part of personality
emerges. This personality structure, to Freud, deals with the demands of reality. The ego is called
the executive branch (i.e., manager) of personality (especially of the id) because it uses reasoning
to make decisions. Since the ego is the conscious and rational component of the personality, its
function is to find socially approved means of gratifying those instincts. Both the id and the ego
have no morality in that they do not take into account whether something is right or wrong,
accepted by society or not.
The superego is the Freudian personality structure that is the moral branch of personality. It
develops between 3 and 6 ages as children internalize (take as their own) the moral values of
their parents. Once the superego emerges, children do not need an adult to tell them that they
have been good or bad. The superego decides whether something is right or wrong, accepted by
the society or not.
The superego is what we often refer to as our “conscience.” With the development of the
Superego, children are aware of their own transgressions and will feel guilty or ashamed of their
unacceptable conduct. So, the superego is truly an internal censor. It insists that the ego finds
socially acceptable outlets for the id’s undesirable impulses.

In Freud’s view, personality has three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. Each of these
parts of personality serves a different function and develops at different time. These three
components are not, of course, physically present in the brain but are forces that Freud assumed
to exist, based on his observations of people’s behavior, and expressed in thoughts and feelings.
These hypothetical constructs (id, ego, and super ego) were designed to create a picture of the
biological (id – a storehouse of unconscious drives), the psychological (ego - executive fore or
mediator) and the social (super ego - conscience) aspects of personality.
Freud believed that the dynamic of personality involved a continual conflict among the id, the
ego, and the superego. When the three forces are out of balance, especially when the instinctive
pleasure or biological drives often came in to conflict with acquired social inhibitions, people
often become anxiety ridden. To relieve the pressure the ego often relies on one or more
defense mechanisms. According to Freud, individuals develop defense mechanisms to control
and handle the anxiety effectively.
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Defense mechanisms are unconscious ways of combating or reacting to anxiety caused by

conflict through the distortion of reality. They serve to protect and improve the self-image while
using them properly. Some of the common psychological defense mechanisms include
compensation, Denial of reality, Displacement of aggression, Sublimation, Sublimation,
Repression, Projection, Regression, Reaction formation, Rationalization, and Intellectualization.
Our use of defense mechanisms does not consider as inappropriate or unhealthy unless we rely
on them to an extreme. Remember that all of us use defense mechanisms to make conflict and
stress easier to manage. It may not be possible to get through life without such defenses. But,
excessive use may create more stress than it alleviates.

2. Levels of consciousness: Freud represented human consciousness or mind or thought process

as it involves three levels of awareness: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. Each of
these levels corresponds to and overlaps with Freud's ideas of the id, ego, and superego. While
conscious level of consciousness is characterized by thoughts, perceptions, explanations of
behavior that we are aware of them , the Preconscious level is the level that is holding place
for easily accessible memories, thoughts, impulses that we could become aware if necessary.
But, the Unconscious level involves thoughts, impulses, and memories, behaviors that we are
not aware about them.
The other concept of psychoanalytic theory of Freud psychoanalytic that becomes our main
focus in this unit is the psychosexual development stages.

3. Psychosexual Development Stages

Psycho-sexual development refers to a shift in body areas that give gratification through
stimulation (touching or rubbing), known as erogenous zones. Freud believed that the result of
early experiences were critically important and causes of emotional problems. With that
underpinning, Freud identified five stages of development. According to Freud, we humans go
through the five stages of psychosexual development. At each stage of development, we
experience pleasure in one part of the body (by which the stage is identified) more than in others.
Freud maintained that our adult personality is determined by the way we resolve conflicts
between these early sources of pleasure - the mouth, the anus, and the genitals - and the demands
of reality. When these conflicts are not resolved, the individual may become fixated at a
particular stage of development. Fixation occurs when the individual remains unsatisfied (or
locked) in an earlier developmental stage because needs are under- or over-gratified.
According to Freud, the development each person passes through five psychosexual stages. The
first three stages - oral, anal, and phallic - involve physical satisfaction. They take place in the
first 6 years of life. The later stages - latency and genital - occur between age 6 years and
adulthood.
1. The oral stage (birth to app. 1years). In this stage, the erogenous zone is the area around the
mouth, through which the baby gets pleasure from eating, sucking, and biting. As the first
Freudian stage of development, it occurs in the first 18 months of life. The stage is named after
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the part of the body that gives pleasure. The infant’s or baby’s pleasure centers around the
mouth. Chewing, sucking, and biting are the chief sources of pleasure. These actions reduce
tension in the infant/baby. If the baby is fixated during this stage, his/her adult personality will be
characterized, for instance, by smoking, chewing, nail biting, and too much talking, back biting
and the like behaviors.
2. The anal stage (app. 1 to 3 years). In this stage, the erogenous zone shifts to the anus as the
child learns control elimination. It reaches its peak once toilet training is successful. It occurs
between 18 months and 3 years of age, in which the child’s greatest pleasure involves the
stimulation of anus or the eliminative functions associated with it. In Freud’s view, the exercise
of anal muscles reduces tension, i.e., gives gratification to the baby. If the baby is fixated due to
too strict and controlling parents for urinating and toileting, adult personality will be too strict,
punctual, clean, and so on.
3. The phallic stage (3 to 6 years). In this stage, the child gets or feels pleasure from the
stimulating to the genital region. The phallic stage occurs between the ages of 3 and 6; its name
comes from the Latin word phallus, which means “penis.” During the phallic stage, pleasure
occurs on the genitals as both boys and girls discover that self-manipulation is enjoyable.
In Freudian view, the phallic stage has a special importance in personality development because
it is during this period that the Oedipus and Electra complexes appear. During this stage, the
young boy must resolve the Oedipus complex and the girls must resolve Electra complex.
Oedipus complex refers to feeling of attraction of male child for his mother & rivalry toward his
father and Electra complex refers to female counter part of the Oedipus complex in which the
little girl feels attraction for her father & rivalry toward her mother. The complexes, according
to Freudian theory, are the young child’s development of an intense desire to replace the same-
sex parent and enjoy the affections of the opposite-sex parent. In more explicit terms, children
love the opposite sex parent.
How are the complexes resolved? Can you guess how? Please think for a moment about it. At
about 5 to 6 years of age, children recognize that their same-sex parent might punish them (e.g.,
the boy fears castration) for their incestuous wishes.
Identification with the same sex parent is the upshot of this resolution. This means that to reduce
this conflict, the child identifies with the same-sex parent, striving to be like him or her. If the
conflict is not resolved, though, the individual may become fixated at the phallic stage. The
motive inhibited during this stage will be released by loving a person who looks like the opposite
sex parent during adolescence and having rivalry feeling with or disliking people of especially
the same sex.
4.The latency stage (6 years to puberty). The Latency stage occurs between approximately 6
years of age and puberty at late childhood period. This stage is a period of relative sexual
calmness. The children are free of erotic feelings & instead expend their efforts on acquiring
cultural and social skills. During this period, the child represses all interest in sexuality and
develops social and intellectual skills. This activity channels much of the energy into emotionally
safe areas and helps the child forget the highly stressful conflicts of the phallic stage. The energy
goes to mastery of skills (e.g., learning to read and write conformity to friendships).
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5. The genital stage (Puberty to Adulthood). The genital stage occurs starting from puberty
onward at adolescence. In this stage hetero-sexual desire awakens. The stage is characterized by
the entry into mature sexuality where in the adolescence is on the way toward a “normal” life.
The genital stage is a time of sexual reawakening (from the phallic stage); the source of sexual
pleasure now becomes someone outside of the family, which is acceptable by society. Freud
believed that unresolved conflicts with parents reemerge during adolescence. When these
conflicts have been resolved, the individual is capable of developing a mature love relationship
(with a person who looks like the opposite sex parent as commonly believed by Freudians) and
functioning independently as an adult.

Implication of Freud’s Theory to Education

 Parents and teachers need to encourage the child develop the ego through understanding
child’s animalistic desires and the desire to become a social creature
 Parents and teachers should not excessively punish the child for expressing desires of the
flesh or they should not allow the child to forget social considerations to satisfy his/her
innate desires only
 Realizing the importance of satisfying desires, parents and teachers should teach the child
how to reasonably satisfy biological and social needs.
Freud’s theory helps to understand how important sexuality is in shaping personality. But some
of its problems according to critics is the notion that people pass through stages in childhood that
determine their adult personalities has little definitive research support. It also gives less
attention to later experiences in shaping personality. Because much of Freud's theory was based
on a limited populationand its application to broad, multicultural populations is questionable.
Because Freud's theory focuses primarily on sexual and biological needs neglecting other equally
important forces such as social and environmental
Next, we can see another theory of psychodynamic theory personality, known as psychosocial
theory.
2.3. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
A native of Germany and first Boston child psychologists named Erick Erikson (1902-1994),
building upon Sigmund Freud’s work, has developed his theory of development that he called
psychosocial development theory. The Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson provided an alternative
psychodynamic view in his theory of psychosocial development, which emphasizes person’s
social interaction with other people. Psychosocial development refers to changes in emotion and
relationships with others so that itinvolves emotional and social aspects of development. While
emotional development refers to changes in feelings, interests and attitudes of people, the social
development shows changes in forming interactions with others.
Erik Erikson, as a follower of Freudrecognizing Freud’s contributions, believed that Freud
misjudged some important dimensions of human development. To Erikson, the primary
motivation for human behavior (or development) was social and reflected a desire to affiliate
with other people. It is primarily concerned with social development. In Erikson's view, society
and culture both challenge and shape us. Psychosocial development encompasses changes in
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our interactions with and understanding of one another as well as in our knowledge and
understanding of ourselves as members of society.
Erikson coined the term “identity crisis” and is best known for his eight-stage theory of
psychosocial developmentacross the entirelifespan. According to Erikson, specific identity crisis
and its developmental resolution define each stage assuming that in each stage people face a
crisis that needs to be resolved in order to develop socially and emotionally. Each stage has a
positive or negative outcome. The outcome of the stage is determined by environment and the
care giving strategies or experiences to which one is exposed. His theory is a stage theory like
the one proposed by Piaget. It suggests that all human beings pass through specific stages of
development. Unlike Freud, who regarded development as relatively complete by adolescence,
Erikson suggested that growth and change continue throughout the life span is highly important-
has received considerable support though it also has its drawbacks for researchers to test
rigorously. For instance, it is difficult to know whether an infant is experiencing trust and /or
distrust and it is difficult to make definitive predictions about a given individual's behavior using
the theory.
Erikson's theory suggests that developmental changes occur throughout our lives in eight distinct
stages. The stages emerge in a fixed pattern and are similar for all people. Erikson argued that
each stage presents a crisis or conflict that the individual must resolve. Although no crisis is
ever fully resolved, making life increasingly complicated, the individual must at least address the
crisis of each stage sufficiently to deal with demands made during the next stage of
development. If the conflict is not satisfactorily resolved, the person will continue to struggle
with it and healthy ego development will be impeded.
In Erikson’s theory, eight stages of development unfold as they go through the life span. Each
stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be
resolved. According to Erikson, this crisis is not a catastrophe but a turning point of increased
vulnerability and enhanced potential. The more successfully an individual resolves the crisis of a
stage, the healthier (the following) development will be.
The eight stages/phases of psychosocial development are as follows.
1. Trust versus mistrust occupies the first year of life (i.e., birth to 1 year).This stage centers
on the crisis of trust or mistrust. A sense of trust requires a feeling of physical comfort and a
minimal amount of fear and apprehension about the future. Trust in infancy sets the stage for a
lifelong expectation that the world will be a good and pleasant place to live. If the baby receives
love and care by the caregiver, for instance, the baby gets satisfied and develops trust of the
future. During this crisis time the infants/babies learn either to trust of the environment (if their
needs are met by the caregivers) or to mistrust it (if their needs are not met). I.e., Babies must
trust others to satisfy their needs. If their needs are not met, they fail to develop feelings of trust
in others and remain forever suspicions and worry.
Trust is the corner stone of the child’s attitude towards life. So, parents must maintain a
nurturing environment (i.e., they must treat children with love instead of being anxious, angry,
impatient & incapable of meeting needs) so that the children develop basic trust in others.
The virtue in this stage is hope.
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2. Autonomy versus shame or doubt (1 to 3 years - toddlers). This stage occurs in babyhood
and toddlerhood. The stage involves the crisis of autonomy or shame and doubt. After gaining
trust in their caregivers, infants begin to discover that their behavior is their own. They start to
assert their sense of independence, or autonomy. They realize their will. If infants are restrained
too much or punished too harshly, they are likely to develop a sense of shame and doubt.
At this stage, toddlers acquire self-confidence if they learn/succeed to regulate their own bodies
and act independently. But, if they fail or are labeled as inadequate by others caring for them,
they experience shame and doubt their abilities to interact effectively with the external would
and fail to develop self-confidence.
One should know that children of this stage develop autonomy through bowel and bladder
control and encouraging children to do what they can do is the key in developing a sense of
autonomy. People with a sense of autonomy have a basic attitude of “ I think I can do it” and “I
have something of value to offer”. The virtue here is will.
3. Initiative versus guilt (3 to 6 years). This stage occurs during the preschool years (3 to 6
years of age). The stage involves crisis of initiativeness or guiltiness. As preschool children
encounter a widening social world, they are challenged more than when they were babies.
Active, purposeful behavior is needed to cope with these challenges. Children are asked to
assume responsibility for their bodies, their behavior, their play materials, and their lovely
materials. Developing a sense of responsibility and getting answers to their curiosity or request
(for new knowledge) increases initiative. Uncomfortable guilt feelings may arise, though, if the
child is irresponsible and is made to feel too anxious. Erikson has a positive outlook on this
stage. He believes that most guilt is quickly compensated for by a sense of accomplishment.
At this stage, preschoolers acquire new physical and mental skills but must also learn to control
their impulses and they can begin to formulate a plan of action and carry it through. Unless a
good balance is struck between skills and impulses, they may become either unruly or too
inhibited. If a good balance is kept and the positive outcome is there, the sense of initiation is
acquired if not a sense of guilt.
If they strike the right balance between feeling of initiative and feelings of guilt, all is well.
However, if initiative overwhelms guilt, children may become too an unruly for their own good,
if guilt over whelms initiative, they may become too inhibited. Children punished for expressing
their own desires & plans, they develop a sense of guilt that leads to fear & lack of assertiveness.
Children with a sense of initiative accept new challenges, are self-starters and have a strong
sense of personal adequacy. So, children must be encouraged to initiate own actions in a socially
acceptable ways. Thus, the virtue her is purpose.
4. Industry versus inferiority (6 to 12 years of age - late childhood). The stage occurs
approximately in the elementary school years. The stage involves the crisis of industriousness or
inferiority. At this stage, children must learn/acquire many skills in the elementary schools: both
academic as reading, mathematics and a variety of social skills as making things, using tools
necessary for adult life. They also begin to compare their physical, intellectual and social skills
and accomplishments with those of their peers. If children successfully acquire these new skills
and their accomplishments are valued by others, they develop/form a sense of productivity and
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have a positive view of their competence or achievements. If they take a justified pride in these,
they acquire high self-esteem. If in contrast, they constantly compare themselves unfavorably &
labeled as second to others they may develop a low self-esteem and a sense of inferiority.If a
child’s cultural, religious, or racial group is considered as inferior, a sense of personal inferiority
may also develop. The danger in the elementary school years is that the child can develop a sense
of inferiority – feeling incompetent and unproductive such as in learning and in socialization.
Erikson believed that teachers have a special responsibility for children’s development of
industry (such as in learning arithmetic and reading, and acceptance by their teachers and peers).
Primary school teachers and parents should firmly coerce children into the adventure of finding
out that one can learn to accomplish things which one would never have thought of by oneself.
Children with a sense of industry enjoy learning about new things and experimenting new ideas
and take criticism well. So, at this stage, the children must learn to feel competent especially in
relation to peers. The virtue here is Wisdom.
5. Identity versus role confusion, (13 to 18 or 20 years of age - adolescence). The stage is
crucial stage in Erikson’s theory. Individual’s experience this stage during the adolescent years.
The term identity refers to finding and getting correct answers for questions of adolescents as
“Who am I? To whom do I belong? and what is my role in the society? ”. Adolescents are raising
such questions seeking to establish a clear self-identity - an understanding of their own unique
traits and what is really of central importance to them. Though these questions are questions of
life at many points, for Erikson, during adolescence, it is crucial that these questions should be
answered effectively. If they are not answered effectively, individuals may drift along uncertain
of where they want to go or what they wish to accomplish.
At this time, individuals are faced with finding out who they are, what they are all about, and
where they are going in life. Adolescents are confronted with many new roles and adult statuses
- vocational, romantic, and moral, for example. Parents need to allow adolescents to explore
many different roles and different paths within a particular role. If the adolescent explores such
roles in healthy manner and arrives at a positive path to follow in life, then a positive identity
will be achieved. If an identity is pushed on the adolescent by parents, if the adolescent does not
adequately explore many roles, and if a positive future path is not defined, then identity
confusion reigns.
Adolescents adopt many different strategies to help them resolve their own personal identity
crises. They tryout many different roles: the good girl/boy, the rebel, the dutiful daughter/son,
the athlete, and join many different social groups. They consider many possible socialselves –
different kinds of persons they may potentially become. Out of these experiences, they gradually
piece together a cognitive framework for understanding themselves – a self-schema. Once
formed, this framework remains fairly constant and serves as a guide for adolescents in many
different contexts. They must investigate various alternatives concerning their vocational
personal future and develop a sense of which they are and where they belong.The adolescents
who develop a solid sense of identity formulate a satisfying plan and gain a sense of security.
The adolescents who do not develop a solid sense of identity may develop role confusion and
sense of aimlessness.
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Generally, adolescents must integrate various roles into constant self- identity. If they fail to do
so, they may experience confusion over which they really are. At this period adolescents must
develop a sense of role identity, especially in selecting a future career (corresponds to entry in to
Freud’s final adult, genital stage). Those with the sense of self-identity are less susceptible to
peer pressure, have a higher level of self-acceptance are optimistic and believe that they are in
control of their destinies, while those with the sense of confusion can be described in an opposite
manner. The virtue here is fidelity.
6. Intimacy versus isolation (20 to 40 years of age - early adulthood). The individuals
experience this stage during the early adulthood years. At this time, individuals face the
developmental task of forming intimate relationships with others such as love or marriage
partner. The individuals must develop the ability to form deep, intimate relationships with others.
Erikson describes intimacy as finding oneself yet losing oneself in another (e.g., with marriage
partner). The intimacy is both sexual intimacy and emotional attachments to others. The
establishment of close interpersonal bonds is the major tasks of this stage. Young adults must
develop the ability to form deep intimate relationships with others. This may specially observed
by formation of adult sexual relationships. If interpersonal bonds are made, the basic feeling of
intimacy with others will result. If they do not, they may develop a sense of isolation, and
become emotionally isolated from society. If the young adult forms healthy friendships and an
intimate relationship with another individual, intimacy will be achieved; if not, isolation will
result. In short, this crisis of adult life centers on the capacity to love and to care deeply and
consistently for others. People who fail to resolve it successfully will lead their life in isolation,
unable to form truly intimate, lasting relationships. The virtue here is love.
7.Generativity versus stagnation (40 to 60 or 65 years,-mature/ middle adulthood). Individual’s
experience this during middle adulthood. A chief concern is to assist the younger generation in
developing and leading useful, lives (such as in professions and economy) – this is what Erikson
means by generativity. Generativity refers to concern about the welfare of the next generation.
The feeling of having done nothing to help the next generation is stagnation. Adult life is
characterized by the crisis of the need for individuals to overcome selfish, self-centers concerns
and to take an active interest in helping & guiding the next generations. For parents, such
activities are focused on their children. Later the tendency toward generativity of parents may
involve serving as mentors, or guide, for members of the young generation, helping them in their
careers and lives. Generativity for people who are not parents may be expressed by providing
help and guidance to young people– students, younger co-workers, nieces, nephews, and so on.
Individuals who successfully resolve this crisis and turn away from total absorption with their
own lives, health, and careers discover new meaning.
People who do not resolve this crisis, in contrast, become absorbed in their own lives and
gradually cut themselves off from an important source of growth and satisfaction.
Therefore, during adulthood individuals must take an active interest in helping and guiding
yonder persons. If they do not, they may become preoccupied with selfish needs and desires. So,
adults develop themselves through guiding their children. The virtue here is care

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8. Integrity versus despair (65 years onwards). This stage is commonly known as late
adulthood or the time of old age. As people reach the last decades of life, it is natural to look
back to their past achievements and ask “Did my life have meaning” “Did my being here really
matter?” During this stage, a person reflects on the past and either piece together a positive
review or concludes that life has not been spent well. Through many different routes (e.g., job,
marriage, and children), the older person may have developed a positive outlook in most or all of
the previous stages of development. If so, the retrospective glance will reveal a picture of a life
well spent, and the person will feel a sense of satisfaction – integrity will be achieved. If the
older adult resolved many of the earlier stages negatively, glances likely will yield doubt or
gloom. In other words, in the closing decades of life, individuals ask whether their live have had
any meaning. If they can answer yes, or are able to answer affirmatively the questions raise as to
their achievements and feel that they reached many of their goals and made positive
contributions to society and others, they attain a sense of integrity. If, instead, they answer no or
find their lives to be lacking on such dimensions, they may experience intense and deep feeling
of despair. Successful resolution of such crisis can have important effects on how individual
come to terms with their own morality – the inevitable fact of death – and on their psychological
and physical health during the final decade of life. The virtue here is wisdom.

Generally, for Erikson and others who view adult development in terms of discrete phases or
stages, the major forces behind changes is a series of crises or transitions we face as we mature
and grow older. The way in which we deal with these turning points then determines the course
and nature of our future lives.
Erikson's view that development continues throughout the lifespan is highly important—has
received considerable support. However, the theory also has its drawbacks. It is vague in some
respects, making it difficult for researchers to test rigorously. For instance, it is difficult to know
whether an infant is experiencing trust and /or distrust and it is difficult to make definitive
predictions about a given individual's behavior using the theory.

Applications of Psychoanalytic Theories in the Classroom

As a classroom teacher, you should always be interested in applying your knowledge and skills
to your classroom situation. Below are some ideas that you may be able to apply.
 When working with young children, give them room for free play and experimentation.
You will notice that this will encourage the development of autonomy or independence.
However, you should supervise and guide the free play and experiments so pupils do not
experience doubt.
 Help children experience a sense of industry and achievement by giving them tasks that
they can complete.
 Avoid comparing children’s work because this may create feelings of inferiority in some
pupils. Instead, you should encourage cooperation among the pupils.

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 Adolescent pupils want responsibilities. Give them as many clearly defined and guided
responsibilities as they can manage.
 Adolescent pupils are more interested in their peer groups than in older adults. This is a
phase that all pupils have to pass through. You can assign well-structured group projects
and cooperative work projects. Students can work together as a group and succeed as a
team.
 You must never humiliate or belittle a pupil, especially in front of his or her peers,
because this will create feelings of inferiority and alienation.
 You must always remember that a positive self-concept is an aid to learning. Therefore,
you must provide opportunities for success. Praise the success.

2.4. Lawrence Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

Moral development refers changes in one’s understanding and skills of adopting standards of
right and wrong or ability to distinguish good and bad (right and wrong). Morality relates to the
goodness or badness and correctness or wrongness of a certain behavior. It is personal,
subjective and is, therefore, lacking an absolute or universal truth. Morality has in general three
dimensions. Knowledge: represents the person’s views, understanding or decision about the
badness or goodness of an idea or an act. For instance, knowing respecting your parent is good,
insulting someone is bad etc.
 Reasoning: Is explaining why a certain behavior is good or bad;and
 Behavior: It represents whether or not a person acts, performs or behaves in a morally
appropriate way.
In everyday life, people should gradually develop their moral judgment/reasoning ability to
distinguish might and wrong. This helps to guide moral behavior (doing the right thing).
The most known theory about moral development is the theory developed by Lawrence
Kohlberg. Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development constitutes an adaptation of a
psychological theory originally conceived of by Jean Piaget. Kohlberg followed the development
of moral judgment far beyond the ages studied earlier by Piaget, who also claimed that logic
and morality develop through constructive stages. Expanding on Piaget's work, Kohlberg
determined that the process of moral development was principally concerned with justice, and
that it continued throughout the individual's lifetime, a notion that spawned dialogue on the
philosophical implications of such research. The theory holds that moral reasoning the basis for
ethical behavior, has three level each with two identifiable developmental stages, each more
adequate at responding to moral dilemmas than its predecessor.
So, L. Kohlberg viewed moral thinking and reasoning as progressing through a series of
distinct stage or stages and he has distinguished a six stage sequence of moral development that
are divided in to 3 major levels. They are:-
Level 1: Preconventional moral reasoning (4 to 10 years)
Stage 1: Obedience and punishment orientation
Stage 2: Instrumental – relativism orientation

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Level 2: Conventional moral reasoning (10 – latechildhood)

Stage 3: Good boy/nice girl orientation
Stage 4: Law and order orientation
Level 3: Post conventional moral reasoning (young adult onwards)
Stage 5: Social contract orientation
Stage 6: Universal ethical principle orientation
For his studies, Kohlberg relied on stories which put children in dilemma, and was interested in
how individuals would justify their actions if placed in similar moral dilemmas. So, Kohelberg
developed his theory by presenting moral dilemmas to individuals of various age levels and
analyzing their response.
Moral dilemmas are hypothetical situations in which not choice is absolutely right. One of the
commonly used examples of moral dilemmas is the story of Heinz. This is a dilemma that
Kohlberg used in his original research.
In Europe, A man’s wife, his name is Heinz, is nearly dying 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 some town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive for the druggist was charging
ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2000 for a
small dose of the drug. The sick women’s husband Heinz, went everyone he knew to borrow the
money, but he could only get together about $1000which is half 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 am going to make money from it,” and the druggist who
invented it will not sell it at a price low enough for the man to buy it or does not let him pay
later. So, Heinz got desperate & broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should
Heinz have done that? Why? Why not?
Analyzing the form of moral reasoning displayed, rather than its conclusion, and Kohlberg
classified the answer as belonging to the proposed three levels and six stages of moral
development. The levels and stages of moral development have been discovered by Kohlberg
depending on the answers and reasons of people for such dilemmas.
1. Level 1. Pre-conventional Moral reasoning ( 4-10 years)
In this level, morality is judged based on the anticipated rewards or punishment and personal
purpose. A good act is one that is rewarded and a bad act is punished. In level 1, children base
ideas about right and wrong on their personal needs and perceptions. I.e. their reasoning is based
on their needs and perceptions that do not reflect the principled conventions.
Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment Orientation
In this stage, children focus on the physical consequences of their actions. The child assumes that
powerful authorities hand down a fixed set of rules which he or she must unquestioningly obey.
To the Heinz’s dilemma, the child typically will say that he was wrong to steal thedrug
becausethe owner will hurt him if he finds out that he stole in the shop. Or can justify saying he
was right because he saved his wife’s life. So, in this stage, children/people distinguish right and
wrong by rewards and punishments involved, respectively. Physical consequences of on action
determine its goodness or badness.
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Stage 2: Individualism and Exchange

At this stage, also called instrumental relativist, children reason that good acts serve one’s own
purpose. They recognize that there is no just one right view that is handed down by the
authorities. Different individuals have different viewpoints. Regarding the story of Heinz,
children might point out that he should steal the drug because he needs to save his wife’s life. So,
in this stage,children /people evaluate action on the basis of their own personal needs & wishes.
i.e. what satisfies one’s own needs is good and what does not satisfy one’s own need is bad.
Level II. Conventional Moral reasoning
At this level,the moral judgment is controlled by the likes and dislikes of others – the
conventions, rules and regulations and the law and order systems maintained within the society.
Stealing or mercy-killing would thus be judged wrong because it is considered to be wrong by
the society at large and by the legal system. During this level, internalization of moral thought is
intermediate. So, in this level, the judgment of right and wrong action is based on other’s
approval, family expectations, traditional values, lows and legality of society and country.
Stage 3: Good Interpersonal Relationships is also called “Good Boy or Nice Girl” orientation
At this stage, children--who are by now usually entering their teens--see morality as more than
simple deals. They believe that people should live up to the expectations of the family and
community and behave in "good" ways.
Good behavior means having good motives and interpersonal feelings such as love, empathy,
trust, and concern for others. To children of the stage,Heinz was right to steal drug because "He
was a good person for wanting to save his wife," and "His intentions were good, that of saving
the life of someone he loves”. They say “I don't think any husband should sit back and watch his
wife die”. If Heinz’s motives were good, the druggist was bad. He was "selfish," "greedy," and
"only interested in himself, not another life.
So, in this stage, individuals evaluate the right and wrong action by the approval/criticism of
immediate peers or close family relations. Good is what pleasures/helps others and approved of
by others.
Stage 4: Maintaining the Social Order
At this stage, children become more broadly concerned with society as a whole. Now the
emphasis is on obeying laws, respecting authority, and performing one's duties so that the social
order is maintained. In response to the Heinz story, children would say they understand that his
motives were good, but they cannot condone the act of stealing. What would happen if we all
started breaking the laws whenever we felt we had a good reason? The result would be chaos;
society couldn't function. Society needs a centralizing framework. So, in this stage , individuals
judge the action based on laws & social order.
Level III. Post conventional Moral reasoning
This is a level whereby individuals begin to think about moral issues beyond conventions, rules,
cultural values and other group based standards or expectations. This is a stage of thinking in
terms of universal human rights, justice and fairness. So, in this level, individuals judge action
saying right or wrong based on universal, abstract principles that take precedence over laws and
conventions and even a person’s own peers and family.
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Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights

In this Stage, respondents basically believe that a good society is best conceived as a social
contract into which people freely enter to work toward the benefit of all. They recognize that
different social groups within a society will have different values, but they believe that all
rational people would agree on two points. First they would all want certain basic rights, such as
liberty and life, to be protected. Second, they would want some democratic procedures for
changing unfair law and for improving society. In response to the Heinz’s dilemma,
therespondents make it clear that they do not generally favor breaking laws-societal, cultural
marital or religious; laws are social contracts that we agree to uphold until we can change them
by democratic means. Nevertheless, the woman has the right to live andis a moral right that must
be protected. Thus, respondent sometimes defend Heinz’s stealing act in strong language: It is
the husband’s duty to save his wife. The life of his wife is in danger transcends every other
standard that one might use to judge the person’s action. So, in this stage, individuals begin in
judging right and wrong as product of a social contracts-set of rules/agreements that originates
from discussion, negotiations, compromise that can be changed. So good (right) is determined by
socially agreed up on standards of individuals rights.
Stage 6: Universal Principles
According people at this moral stage, the principles of justice require treating the claims of all
parties in an impartial manner, respecting the basic dignity, of all people as individuals. The
principles of justice are therefore universal; they apply to all. Thus, for example, we would not
vote for a law that aids some people but hurts others. The principles of justice guide us toward
decisions based on an equal respect for all. So, in this stage, individuals judge action considering
the universal moral principles/ abstract and ethical ones) like justice, human rights, human
dignity and equality. Such individuals prepare to sacrifice his all, including life for upholding
these principles

Application of Moral Theories to Classroom Settings

As the very purpose of the theory, knowledge of moral development will have classroom
implication. It is important for professionals as a teacher to help others as students develop good
moral behaviors so that they can contribute to the healthy development of society. Below are
some suggestions that you can try in your classroom. Thus, it could be applied in the following
ways. The ways of applying the theory of moral development includes:
1. Helping students examine the dilemmas they face currently or will face in the future
Example: In elementary school, discuss about sibling rivalries, teasing, stealing, prejudice,
treatment of new students in the class, behavior towards handicapped classmates etc..,
In high schools, discuss directing, comforting to more popular, protecting a friend who has
broken a rule.
2. Helping students make connections between values and actions.
Example:Follow a discussion of what should be done? With how would you act? And what
problem might arise. Help students see inconsistencies between their values and their own
actions.
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3. Safeguarding the privacy of all participants e.g., intervene if peers pressure is forcing a student
to say more than he wants to say. Don’t reinforce a child telling secrets.
4. Making sure that as much as possible your class reflects concern for moral issues and values.
e.g., Make clear distinctions between rules based on administrative convenience and rules based
on moral issues. Keep standards uniform. Be careful about showing favoritism.
5. Asking students questions about moral issues. These questions can be based on stories from
your local newspaper or on something you might have heard. The moral cases you select can
provide a framework for classroom discussion. This will enable you to gain insight into your
pupils’ level of moral thought.
6. Ensuring that there is active participation by all pupils. Your discussions should be at least one
stage above your pupils’ level of moral reasoning. However, the cases you present to them must
not be too difficult or too simple. By giving your pupils cases that are one stage above their level,
you will help your pupils advance to higher levels of moral reasoning.
7. Giving students rules that apply not only to the school, but also to the world at large. This will
broaden their minds as they will begin to look at issues in a variety of ways. Your major task is
to develop pupils who will reach high levels of moral development so that they will be able to
think and reflect on abstract and universal principles of justice and humanity.

2.5. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

Social cognitive theory is the view of psychologists who emphasize behavior, environment, and
cognition as the key factors in development. American psychologist Albert Bandura (1925 - ) is
the leading architect of social cognitive theory. Bandura emphasizes that cognitive processes
have important links with the environment and behavior. His early research program focused
heavily on observational learning (also called imitation or modeling). To him, learning occurs
through observing what others do.
What is cognitive about observational learning in Bandura’s view?
He proposes that people cognitively represent the behavior of others and then sometimes adopt
this behavior themselves. For example, a young boy might observe his father’s aggressive
outbursts and hostile interchanges with people. That is, when observed with his peers, the young
boy’s style of interaction will be highly aggressive, showing the same characteristics as his
father’s behavior. A girl might adopt the dominant and sarcastic style of her teacher when
observed interacting with her younger brother. Social cognitive theorists stress that people
acquire a wide range of such behaviors, thoughts, and feelings through observing others’
behavior and that these observations form an important part of life-span development.
Bandura’s most recent model of learning and development involves behavior, the
person/cognition, and the environment. An individual’s confidence that he or she can control his
or her success is an example of a person factor, and developing strategies is an example of a
cognitive factor. Behavior, person/cognitive and environmental factors operate interactively.
Behavior can influence person factors and vice versa. The person’s cognitive activities can
influence the environment; the environment can change the person’s cognition, and so on.

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Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory is commonly relied upon today across many industries
and professions. This theory states that while much child learning and child development does
come from direct experience, much also comes from modeling and simple observations of people
around you.
Additionally, Bandura posited that the modeling we do of others isn’t limited to behaviors, but
also includes attitudes and emotional reactions in various situations. Therefore, this theory takes
into account both cognitive and environmental factors in determining how children learn and
learn to behave.
Modeling is a simple enough process. Children note how their parents and other important
figures in their lives behave, and children encode that information. Later on, children might
imitate the behavior that has been modeled. So, if a child sees their parent strike the family dog
for barking, the child might encode that behavior, think it’s okay to hit others when they are mad,
and exhibit a similar behavior in the future.
Bandura built his theory on the foundation of classical and operant conditioning. For example, if
a child exhibits a behavior that they encoded from a model, and that behavior is met with a
reward, the child is more likely to exhibit that behavior in the future. A caregiver that claps and
baby talks to an infant that begins to crawl is reinforcing that behavior with positive rewards.On
the other hand, if a child engages in a behavior that is met with a consequence (e.g., a parent
yelling at them for striking the dog), they will be less likely to continue that behavior because it
was met with a punishment.
Where Bandura broke from strict behaviorist approaches is in his position that the environment
was just one determinant for how we learn and behave. Instead, Bandura posited that our
intrinsic motivations and even our current mental state have much to do with our ability to learn
and how we behave. Bandura’s social learning theory is truly an all-inclusive psychology,
borrowing information or ideas as much from behaviorists as from cognitive theorists.Bandura
sees behavior, internal cognitive structures and the environment as interacting so that each
acts as interlocking determinant of the other. People are to some extent products of their
environment but they also choose and shape their environments. It is not simply a one – way
street.Albert Bandura has suggested that a large part of what a person learns occurs through
imitation, or modeling and observation. i.e. through social learning for it is concerned with
learning that takes place with in a social situation, Bandura has shown that learning that occurs
through modeling need not be based on direct reinforcement of the response. The most important
models could be parents and teachers.It holds that children learn by observing and imitating
models (e.g., their parents and teachers). According to this theory child identification with their
parents is the most important element in the way they learn a language, deal with aggression,
develop a sense of morality, and learn socially expected behavior for their gender for parents
shape their behavior through reinforcement and punishment.
Children take active part in their own learning by choosing the models they want to imitate and
they acts upon the environment (by creating the environment to some extent) as oppose to the
model effect on the environment as is stated by behaviorists.
Social learning theory also recognizes the influence of the cognitive processes. According to the
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social learning theorists, people observe models, learn “chunks” of behavior, and mentally put
the chunks together into complex new behavior patterns.Cognitive factors as the ability to:
 pay attention & mentally organize sensory information affect the way a person will
incorporate observed behavior.
 use mental symbols to stand for a model behavior help children to form standards to
judge their behavior.
Imitation is understood as a four step process that consists of: attention, retention, motor
reproduction and motivational processes.
1. Attention – The 1st step in imitation is paying attention to the model. This depends on the
characteristics & value of behavior of the model and the characteristics of the observer.
2. retention – The 2nd step in imitation is making retained the model’s behavior
This can be possible if the behavior first be mentally organized. Observed behavior & all
the sensory information should be encoded & stored before they should be performed.
3. Motor reproduction – selecting the behavior, organizing it mentally and performing it.
This is influenced by the developmental level of the individual
4. Motivational processes – to produce a behavior some reinforcement must be available.
Reinforcement provides children with information about what might happen in the future
if they perform the behavior. It can also motivate children.
Three processes function as motivation
 Direct reinforcement – anticipating a reward/ stimulus.
 Vicarious reinforcement – seeing others reinforced or punished
 Self-reinforcement – reinforcing oneself for performing a particular act.
Generally, social learning theorists believe that to understand how people acquire such complex
behavior, as helping and sharing, we must appreciate the importance of the interaction among the
environment, cognitive processes, and the behavior itself.

Application of Social - learning theory

 Social learning theory reminds us of the importance of observation and imitation
learning in developing behavior.
 Its distinguishing features , Its focus on social context of learning ,Its recognition that
people actively influence their development , and Its acknowledgement of cognitive
influences on behavior are improvement in traditional learning theory

Unit Summary
Theories areexplanations and predictions concerning phenomena of interest, providing a
framework for understanding the relationships among an organized set of facts or principles. In
this unit we discussed about cognitive development theory of Jean Piaget,psychodynamic
theories which comprises two major theories namely: Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and
Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development, moral development theory of L. Kohlberg and
social cognitive theory of A. Bandura.

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The cognitive theorists which focus on the ways children construct their own understandings of
their environment. According to this theory, development occurs through the interplay between a
child’s emerging mental capabilities and his or her environmental experiences. This perspective
focuses on the processes that allow people to know, understand, and think about the world. It
emphasizes on how people internally represent and think about the world. The psychodynamic
theories are primarily concerned with the personality and emotional development of individuals.
Advocates of the psychodynamic perspective believe that much of behavior is motivated by inner
forces, memories, and conflicts of which a person has little awareness or control. According to
these groups of theories, the inner forces, which may stem from one's childhood, continually
influence behavior throughout the life span. Psychoanalytic theories focus on developmental
changes in the self and personality. Next to this, the moral development theory is discussed
focusing on the ideas of Lawrence Kohlberg. . Finally, we have examined social cognitive
development of childrenas theorized by Albert Bandura.

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