2- Developmental psych

Developmental

-Key theme 1: External influences on children's behaviour 

-Key theme 2: Moral development

Assumptions:

• Behaviour development is a consequence of age and/or experience
• Development of behaviour is an interaction of the influences of nature and nurture

+= Useful applications is child care and education, Often looks at the interaction between nature and nurture- more holistic

-= Most studies use child ps raising ethical issues, Deterministic as assumes we are formed by our early childhood experiences and so removes free will.

Kohlberg (1968)

-Background:

• Different ideas about how morality develops; behaviourists (C&SL), psychodynamic (super-ego), Cog (ridig world views- modifiable rules)
• Stage theory= structural approach to moral development. Invariant stages.
• Moral dilema= hypothetical issue or problem that the P has to produce an answer to, there is no right or wrong answer.
• Cross-sectional design= allows the comparison of diff groups of ps at one point in time- quick collection of data

-Aim:

• To investigate the development in moral reasoning throughout adolescence and early adulthood.
• To investigate the extent to which any developmental changes are shown in a variety of cultural context. 

-Design and Sample:

• Longitudinal study over a period of 12 years
• 75 American boys aged 10-16
• They were interviewed at 3-5 year intervals
• Cross section of diff age groups from Mexico, Taiwan, Canada, Uk and Turkey (snapshot)
• Data collected by interviews

-The stages:

• Pre-conventional level

-1= orientation towards punishment and deference to power
-2= orientation towards self-interest

• Conventional level

-3= good-boy-good girl orientation
-4= orientation towards authority

• Post-conventional level

-5= social contract orientation
-6= orientation towards conscience and ethical principles

• Each p seen as being in a stage when 50% of their responses to dilemmas fell neatly into that stage
• Not all children reached stage 6- Kohlberg suggested that stages 5&6 may be alternative stages showing mature and moral reasoning.
• E.g of the kinds of questions: ''is it better to save the life of one important person than a lot of unimportant people?''

-Results:

• Stage theory:
• All showed movement foward in the sequence and it does not skip steps. Vhildren may move through the stages at varying speeds and may be found half in half out of a particular stage
• Individuals may stop at any given stage and any age but if he continues to move he must move in accordance with these steps
• Cross-cultural findings:
• Reasoning may be context-based, but would still show the same level of reasoning
• stage 5 is more common in American adolescents but shown in enough cultures to demonstrate it wasn't simply an American phenomenon.
• Development in other cultures may be slower but still follows the same order (slower in Mexico and Taiwan)
• No diffs in religion. Social class seems to impact the speed of development

-Conclusions:

• Moral development occurs in the same sequence i.e. there is an invarient development seq in an individuals moral development across all cultures. Each stage comes one at a time, and an individual may stop at any given stage and at any age.
• The 6-stage theory is not significantly…