Transcript Erickson and Kohlberg

 Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is
one of the best-known theories of personality in
psychology.
 Much like Sigmund Freud, Erikson believed that
personality develops in a series of stages.
 Unlike Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages,
Erikson’s theory describes the impact of social
experience across the whole lifespan.
 One of the main elements of Erikson’s psychosocial stage
theory is the development of ego identity.
 Ego identity is the conscious sense of self that we develop
through social interaction.
 According to Erikson, our ego identity is constantly
changing due to new experience and information we
acquire in our daily interactions with others.
 In addition to ego identity, Erikson also believed that a
sense of competence also motivates behaviors and actions.
 Each stage in Erikson’s theory is concerned with
becoming competent in an area of life.
 If the stage is handled well, the person will feel a sense
of mastery, which he sometimes referred to as ego
strength or ego quality
 If the stage is managed poorly, the person will emerge
with a sense of inadequacy.
stage
Basic Conflict
Important Events
Stage-1
infancy
(birth to 18
months)
Trust vs.
mistrust
Feeding
Outcome
Children
develop a
sense of trust
when
caregivers
provide
reliabilty, care,
and affection.
A lack of this
will lead to
mistrust.
Stage-2
Early
Childhood
(2 to 3 years)
Autonomy vs.
Shame and
Doubt
Children need
to develop a
sense of
personal
Toilet Training control over
physical skills
and a sense of
independence.
Success leads
to feelings of
autonomy,
failure results
in feelings of
shame and
doubt.
Stage-3
Preschool
(3 to 5 years)
Initiative vs. Exploration
Guilt
Children need
to begin
asserting
control and
power over the
environment.
Success in this
stage leads to a
sense of
purpose.
Children who
try to exert too
much power
experience
disapproval,
resulting in a
sense of guilt.
Stage-4
School Age
Industry vs.
(6 to 11 years) Inferiority
School
Children need
to cope with
new social and
academic
demands.
Success leads
to a sense of
competence,
while failure
results in
feelings of
inferiority.
Stage-5
Identity
Social
Adolescence
Relationships
(12 to 18 years) vs.
Role
Confusion
Teens needs to
develop a sense of
self and personal
identity. Success
leads to an ability
to stay true to
yourself, while
failure leads to role
confusion and a
weak sense of self.
Young adults
need to form
intimate,
young
intimacy
vs.
loving
relationshi
Adulthood
isolation
relationships
ps
(19 to 40
with other
years
people. Success
leads to strong
relationships,
while failure
results in
loneliness and
isolation.
Stage-6
Adults need to create
or nurture things that
will outlast them,
often by having
Generativity Work and
Middle
vs. Stagnation Parenthood children or creating a
Adulthoo
positive change that
d (40 to
benefits other
65 years)
people. Success leads
to feelings of
usefulness and
accomplishment,
while failure results in
shallow involvement
in the world.
Stage7
Stage-8
Maturity
(65 to death)
Ego Integrity
vs. Despair
Reflection on
Life
Older adults
need to look
back on life
and feel a
sense of
fulfillment.
Success at this
stage leads to
feelings of
wisdom, while
failure results
in regret,
bitterness,
and despair.
 Author of a three-stage theory on how moral reasoning
develops
 Moral reasoning is the aspect of cognitive development that has
to do with the way an individual reasons about moral decisions
 Assessed moral reasoning by posing hypothetical moral
dilemmas and examining the reasoning behind people’s
answers
 Proposed three distinct levels of moral reasoning:
 Pre-Conventional
 Conventional
 Post-Conventional
 Each level is based on the degree to which a person conforms
to conventional standards of society
 Each level has two stages that represent different degrees of
sophistication in moral reasoning.
 In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer.
There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It
was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had
recently discovered. the drug was expensive to make, but the
druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make.
He paid $400 for the radium and charged $4,000 for a small dose
of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone
he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he
could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it cost.
He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell
it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I
discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So,
having tried every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and
considers breaking into the man's store to steal the drug for his
wife.
 Should Heinz steal the drug? Why or why not?
 Preconventional—moral reasoning is
based on external rewards and
punishments
 Conventional—laws and rules are
upheld simply because they are laws
and rules
 Postconventional—reasoning based on
personal moral standards
 Characterized by the desire to avoid
punishment or gain reward
 Typically children under the age of
10
 Primary concern is to fit in and play
the role of a good citizen
 People have a strong desire to follow
the rules and laws.
 Typical of most adults
 Characterized by references to
universal ethical principles that
represent protecting the rights or of
all people
 Most adults do not reach this level.
Stages 1 & 2
 A focus on direct consequences
 Negative actions will result in
punishments
 EXAMPLE: Heinz shouldn’t steal
the drug because he’d go to jail if
he got caught.
 Getting what one wants often requires
giving something up in return
 “Right” is a fair exchange.
 Morals guided by what is “fair”
 EXAMPLE: Heinz should steal the
drug because the durggist is being
greedy by charging so much.
Stages 3 & 4
 An attempt to live up to the expectations of important
others
 Follow rules or do what others would want so that you
win their approval
 Negative actions will harm those relationships
 EXAMPLE: Heinz should try to steal
the drug because that’s what a devoted
husband would do.
 To maintain social order, people must
resist personal pressures and follow
the laws of the larger society
 Respect the laws & authority
 EXAMPLE: Heinz should not steal
the drug because that would be
against the law and he has duty to
uphold the law.
Stages 5 & 6
 Must protect the basic rights of all people by
upholding the legal principles of fairness, justice,
equality & democracy.
 Laws that fail to promote general welfare or that
violate ethical principles can be changed,
reinterpreted, or abandoned
 EXAMPLE: Heinz should steal the
drug because his obligation to save his
wife’s life must take precedence over
his obligation to respect the druggist’s
property rights.
 Self-chosen ethical principles
 Profound respect for sanctity of human life,
nonviolence, equality & human dignity
 Moral principles take precedence over laws that might
conflict with them,
 Conscientious objectors – refuses to be drafted
because they are morally opposed to war.
 EXAMPLE: Heinz should steal the drug
even if the person was a stranger and not
his wife. He must follow his conscience
and not let the druggist’s desire for
money outweigh the value of a human life.
 Research has not supported Kohlberg’s belief
that the development of abstract thinking in
adolescence invariably leads people to the formation
of idealistic moral principles
 Some cross-cultural psychologists argue that
Kohlberg’s stories and scoring system reflect a
Western emphasis on individual rights, harm,
and justice that is not shared in many cultures.
 Kohlberg’s early research was conducted
entirely with male subjects, yet it became the
basis for a theory applied to both males and females.