• Kohlberg (Moral development) • Piaget (Cognitive- structural theory)

1. Theories of
Development
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory &
Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
C. SETTLEY 2016

2. Piaget's Stage Theory of
Development-
Pg 75 in Human Development
• The Sensorimotor Period (birth to 2 years)
• During this time, Piaget said that a child's cognitive
system is limited to motor reflexes at birth, but the child
builds on these reflexes to develop more sophisicated
procedures. They learn to generalize their activities to a
wider range of situations and coordinate them into
increasingly lengthy chains of behaviour.

3. Important stages during this period:
•Reflex stage (0-1 month).
•Symbolic representation through mental
combinations (18-24 months). When
children think out solutions to problems.
•Object permanence. understanding that
objects continue to exist even when they
cannot be observed (seen, heard, touched,
smelled or sensed in any way).

4. Important stages during this period:

5. Important stages during this period:
•Symbolic function (2-4 years). When
children have the ability to imitate things
mentally. Role playing.

6. • Pre-Operational Thought (2 to 6 or 7 years)
• At this age, according to Piaget, children acquire
representational skills in the areas mental imagery, and
especially language. They are very self-oriented, and
have an egocentric view; that is, preoperational children
can use these representational skills only to view the
world from their own perspective.
• Pre conceptual thought.
• Intuitive thought- (Liquid, number, volume, mass etc)
Conservation.
• VIDEO

7. •Egocentrism
•Julie: "I love my dolly, her name is Tina"
•Carol: "I'm going to colour the sun yellow"
•Julie: "She has long, curly hair like my auntie"
•Carol: "Maybe I'll colour the trees yellow, too"
•Julie: "I wonder what Tina's eyes are made of?"
•Carol: "I lost my orange crayon"
•Julie: " I know her eyes are made”

8. • Concrete Operations (6/7 to 11/12)
• As opposed to Preoperational children, children in the
concrete operations stage are able to take another's
point of view and take into account more than one
perspective simultaneously.
• They can also represent transformations as well as static
situations. Although they can understand concrete
problems, Piaget would argue that they cannot yet
perform on abstract problems, and that they do not
consider all of the logically possible outcomes.
• Logic
• Reversibility (6+2=8, 2+6=8, 4+4=8)

9. • Formal Operations (11/12 to adult)
• Children who attain the formal operation stage
are capable of thinking logically and abstractly.
They can also reason theoretically. Piaget
considered this the ultimate stage of
development, and stated that although the
children would still have to revise their
knowledge base, their way of thinking was as
powerful as it would get.
• Reasoning, scientific thinking, etc

10. Theory of Moral Development

11. Theory of Moral Development

12. Theory of Moral Development
• Kohlberg theorized that there were 6 stages of moral development,
separated into 3 levels: pre-conventional, conventional, and post-
conventional. Age ranges are considerably more vague in
Kohlberg’s theory, as children vary quite significantly in their rate of
moral development.
• At the pre-conventional level, children are only interested in
securing their own benefit. This is their idea of morality. They begin
by avoiding punishment, and quickly learn that by pleasing others
they can secure positive benefits as well. No other ethical concepts
are available to children this young. The parallel with Piaget’s
sensorimotor phase is obvious – for a child whose conceptual
framework does not extend beyond their own senses and
movements, the moral concepts of right and wrong would be difficult
to develop

13. Theory of Moral Development
• The conventional level is the one in which children learn about
rules and authority. They learn that there are certain “conventions”
that govern how they should and should not behave, and learn to
obey them. At this stage, no distinction is drawn between moral
principles and legal principles. What is right is what is handed down
by authority, and disobeying the rules is always by definition “bad.”
This level is split into two stages: in the first, children are interested
in pleasing others and securing the favor of others. In the second,
they extend that principle to cover the whole of their society,
believing that morality is what keeps the social order intact.
Kohlberg believed that many people stay in this stage for their whole
lives, deriving moral principles from social or religious authority
figures and never thinking about morality for themselves

14. Theory of Moral Development
• At the post-conventional level, children have
learned that there is a difference between what
is right and wrong from a moral perspective, and
what is right and wrong according to the rules.
Although they often overlap, there are still times
when breaking a rule is the right thing to do.
Post-conventional moral principles are either
utilitarian principles of mutual benefit (closely
related to the “social order” stage, but universal
and non-authoritarian in nature)

15. References
• http://people.uwec.edu/piercech/fas/fas...htm. Retrieved
08/01/2015.
• http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-mothers-be-held-
criminally-responsible-for-their-children-having-fetal-
alcohol-syndrome. Retrieved 08/01/2015.
• http://sahlgrenska.gu.se/english/news_and_events/news
/News_Detail/different-methods-can-reduce-hospital-
fear-in-children.cid1053604
• http://psychology.about.com/od/hindex/g/def_habituation
.htm