Joan Erikson's Stages Of Psychosocial Development

Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist, identified six developmental stages of human moral reasoning. The first stage that he recognized was the Punishment-Obedience Orientation, where the person’s concern is for avoiding punishment through obedience. The second stage was the Instrumental Relativist Orientation, where the person’s concern is to work in their self interest, and better their position. The third stage of moral development was the Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation, where the person’s concern lies with their reputation. Next was the Law And Order Orientation, where the person was less concerned with their own immediate well being to the maintenance of a larger society. The fifth stage was the Social Contract

Kohlberg piggybacked off the groundwork laid by Piaget, with his concepts on cognitive development in adolescents. Kohlberg postulated that a newly formed moral stance will guide new behaviors if these actions lead to strife, therefore another stage of morality will be adopted (Bergman, 2002). His stages of moral development followed this pattern: At the preconventional level the child has awareness on what behavior is acceptable or not, and can conform to these standards out of a necessity to avoid punishment; At the conventional level the person understands what the norms of society are and no longer complies with them out of a sense of fear of reprisal,

Kohlberg was not interested in the actual ethical decision the children were making, he was interested in the thought process being followed and reasoning developed. Kohlberg studied and built on Piaget’s theory of stages of cognition starting with egocentric preoperational thought. As intellectual maturation advances children shift from primarily pre-conventional to conventional, from worrying only considering their own view to including the views of their peers.

Lawrence Kohlberg who was a psychologist the framework in establishing six different stages of moral development that occur at three different levels. Each level contains two separate stages. Level I and stage one is considered more associated with younger children prior to reaching adolescence with a focus is on self (Klein, 2016, p. 27). At stage II level one, an individual still to act out of self-interest but starts to realize that punishment is delved out based on the severity of the misconduct or infraction that is taking place (Klein, 2016, p. 28). The concern here

Kohlberg agreed with Piaget's theory on children's moral development but wanted to further his ideas. After multiple theories and experiments, he was able to created three stages of moral development that every child can relate to. The first stage is called Pre-conventional Morality, which is determining how would children react to punishments. Since birth, children are taught right decisions receives rewards and wrongs decisions create punishments. All children are taught this at young ages but does these ideas of teaching actually teach the children? The second stage is known as Conventional Morality, which is children who know right from wrong, but are finally realising society rules and determining their own perspective of the world. These perspectives sometimes can be made by family issues, issues that are being seen from 1st perspective, or many issues that the child can deal with themselves. Last but not least stage 3, Post-Conventional Morality, which is kinda abstract thinking. Thinking about the issue, then creating a solution or answer to the issue. No matter the law or punishment, knowing that doing this certain choice would increase your chances of dying or ending up in jail, but still striving for that goal or idea because it’s the right thing to too. As stated in the article, “People can only pass through these levels in order listed. Each new stage replaces the reasoning typical of

In 1950, Lawrence Kohlberg graduated from the University of Chicago planning to go into clinical psychology. However after reading some of the articles that Jean Piaget published on morality in children and adolescents, Kohlberg begins researching morality and its many stages. Over the next 30 years he researches morality and publishes two volumes critical to his work, leaving his legacy in psychology.

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on developmental psychologist Jean Piaget's theory of moral reasoning by creating the six stages of moral development. The six stages are divided into three categories: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Though the theory has several important criticisms, including its focus on individualistic cultures and the discrepancy between what people say they'd do in a situation vs their actual course of action, the theory provides an interesting breakdown of motivation and the way it factors into moral decision-making.

Kohlberg (1963, 1981, 1984; Colby & Kohlberg, 1987) expanded Piaget’s work, developing a most influential cognitive developmental theory of moral development. Kohlberg proposed the progression through the invariant, universal sequence of three moral levels each composed of two distinct stages. According to Kohlberg, no stage can be skipped, neither will there be a regression to an earlier stage.

B. While Piaget’s view was well-supported, I think Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development lacks evidence. The reasoning behind his views are anecdotal, and even ambiguous. I can agree with the first three stages of moral development, but I find the last three controversial. Kohlberg thought that very few people reached stage 5 or 6. From my experience, however, I think most people are in or near stage 5 of Kohlberg’s theory (though this could be because I grew up in a Western, liberal, and developed environment). This stage explains that while people understand that laws work for the greater good, it may conflict with the interest of an individual. I think most people understand that laws keep our society safe and orderly, but that they can also be broken when laws are questionable or for the sake of an individual. Is a

Working through the 1950’s and 60’s using longitudinal and cross sectional studies he proposed 6 stages of development (see Appendix 1) identified through the responses of children presented with moral dilemmas. Piaget, his former tutor, proposed only 2 stages of moral development these

The moral and social developments of children in their first years of life are critical. Children go through many stages that influence their lives such as family, school, friends and technologic or the media. During infancy, children learn from the people around them to recognize the good and bad in this way begin to form their idea of morality. Researchers like as Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg carefully studied moral reasoning of children and girls. Both agree that moral development progresses slowly and is an orderly process that takes time. Piaget all its research center in the perception of children as Kohlberg came to adulthood. According to the psychologist, in her book Ramona Rubio Developmental Psychology (1992) states that for Piaget and Kohlberg’s moral development is not understood as a process of internalization of norms, otherwise acquisition of autonomous principles of justice.” Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg studied moral and reasoning carefully. These are some of the Main principles de la theory of moral development, from Piaget and Kohlberg

Kohlberg’s theory of moral development involves changes with age in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding the principles and values what people should do. Moral development has both an intrapersonal dimension (a person’s basic values and sense of self) and an interpersonal dimension (what people should do in their interactions with other people). Psychologists studying moral reasoning and thinking have based much of their work on Kohlberg’s studies. Carol Gilligan (1982) faults Kohlberg for greatly underplaying the care perspective in moral development, which views people in terms of their connectedness with others and focuses on interpersonal communication, relationships, and concern for others.

The theory of moral development, advanced by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg is one of the most well-known persuasive theories in the field of cognitive science and stems from the work of Jean Piaget, which hypothesizes on the direct correlation that exists between moral and cognitive development. Kohlberg speaks of the appearance and understanding of what is right and wrong from childhood to adulthood and explains by this transition through the identification of various levels of morality known as pre-conventional, conventional and post conventional. People will make decisions based on the understanding of the possible outcome and through reasoning of morals. (Target Concept)

Lawrence Kohlberg was a psychologist known mostly for his research of moral psychology and development. He became popular in the late 1950's when he published his theory of moral development. Moral development represent an important role in our social interactions. Understanding why and how individuals make decisions regarding moral dilemmas can be very useful in many situations. Kohlberg’s theory focuses on the thinking process that occurs when one decides whether a behaviour is right or wrong. He believed that social relationships and culture were central to understanding children's moral development, and he believed moral development occurred in six stages. Erik Erikson is another psychologist who proposed a psychosocial theory of human development. Unlike Kohlberg, Erikson's theory stretches the entire lifecycle and making the developmental process an ongoing lifelong process. According to Erikson's theory, people must make it through eight sequential developmental stages, during which they either develop the mandatory skills needed to become successful, happy members of society, or they will fail to successfully pass the stage and remain at that current developmental stage. Both psychologist focused on specific characteristics of human development, but their theories helped me realize the various dimensions of adolescent development which include: physical, cognitive, emotional, social, moral, and sexual development.

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development stems from the original theory by Jean Piaget, however; he developed the theory further throughout