Adolescent development
Aditya Roy
DS502WeekFourCharacterandMoralDevelopment.pptxWeek Four: Character and Moral Development
I Am What I Believe
Theoretical Foundations
Piaget’s Early Formal Operational Period
Roughly 11-15 years
Prior to this stage, the individual uses mental operations that are applied to objects and events
In formal operations, there is a move to take the results of concrete operational thought and apply them to develop hypotheses about self and the world
Ways to describe this advance include “operations on operations”, “thinking about thinking”, or “becoming a theorist”
Truth is absolute and the scientific method is used to discover truth
Strong egocentrism: “I am right and you are wrong”
Theoretical Foundations
Piaget’s Later Formal Operational Period
Roughly after age 15
An examination of that which can’t be proved using the scientific method
Truth is socially constructed
Decline in egocentrism: “We see things from different perspectives”
Theoretical Foundations
Adaptation: The need to develop a coherent, integrated world view brings a new challenge. What to do with more diverse ways of thinking and more experiences outside of one’s family?
Assimilation: Fitting new experiences into one’s current cognitive organization
Accommodation: Changing one’s current cognitive structure to better fit new experiences
If assimilation and accommodation are in balance the individual is in equilibrium (slow steady growth). If experience does not fit the individual’s belief system, it can lead to “crisis: (Erikson)
James Fowler
Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning
Faith consists of the beliefs, values, and meanings, and a relatedness to a larger frame of reference
Can be transcendent in the religious sense
Can be transcendent in the spiritual sense
Can be one’s ultimate concern
Primal Faith
Infancy to age 2
Secure attachment to one’s caregiver: A Secure Base (Bowlby)
Basic trust (Erikson)
The world is safe
Intuitive-Projective Faith
Ages 3-6
Self-control and willpower: Autonomy (Erikson)
Connection with stories of good and evil: Fairy tales and religious stories
Experiencing oneself as part of something bigger
Narrative thinking, not just conceptual thinking
Mythic-Literal Faith
Ages 7-12
Seeing oneself in the narratives. The use of symbols is concrete and literal
Children create God in their own image
Moral fairness: Good is rewarded and badness is punished
Synthetic-Conventional Faith
Adolescence and Beyond
There is a meaning beyond just the story
There is a need to develop a coherent larger narrative (synthetic)
One’s faith is solidifying but not challenged (conventional)
Fowler says this is often the final stage for many
Assimilation predominates
Individuative-Reflective Faith
Later adolescence-Early adulthood
The development of a personal (individuative) faith
Often a process of rejecting one’s religious upbringing
One’s faith is challenged by self, others, or life-experience (reflective)
Accommodation predominates
Conjunctive Faith
Interest in the beliefs and practices of others (conjunctive)
Faith empathy: Appreciate the beliefs of others even if not one’s personal beliefs. To see life as others might see it
Universalizing Faith
Grounded in universal principles of justice, fairness, honesty, compassion, etc. regardless of the circumstances
Conclusions
The testing of faith: One’s beliefs must make sense with one’s experience, When they do not, one must reinterpret experience of change one’s beliefs
Faith is not just abut belief, it is about action
Ultimately, adolescents must develop a personal belief system that they claim as their own
Discussion
Is it OK for teachers and other professional working with teens to discuss their own religious or spiritual beliefs?
Should religion be discussed in school?
How would you handle a student who is handing out religious literature to others students and trying to convert them in the cafeteria?
Kohlberg’s Model of Moral Reasoning
Parallels Piaget’s model
In pre-conventional stage, rules exist because they are part of the natural world
In conventional stage, rules are obeyed because the child gets praise
In post-conventional stage, morality is based on broad principles of social justice, rather than for their own sake
Transactions that expose one to different ways of thinking and acting promote moral development
The Connection Between Moral Character and Moral Conduct
Moral character alone is not enough to assure moral conduct
For teens, their moral actions depend on whether they are being watched, whether they think they can get away with it, how big of a deal the punishment is, and the cognitive rationales for their action
Eventually the external frame of reference gives way t an internal frame of decision-making that guides behavior. This internal voice is what we call conscience
Character Development
A set of value expectations that apply to all school members about how to act toward each other
Prosocial behavior is the ability to act kindly toward others
Often set down in a set of core principles. Must be taught, be taught regularly, and be consistently applied
Discussion
Does your school website contain any statement about character development
Should schools be in the business of teaching values? If so, what values?
Mutual accountability: Should there be an honor code for cheating?
How would you respond if you caught a student cheating?
