week4

9/24/2019 Week 4 - Instructor Guidance: PSY104: Child and Adolescent Development (PTG1939B)

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/53006/pages/week-4-instructor-guidance?module_item_id=2680408 1/4

Week Four Instructor Guidance

Welcome to Week Four of Child and Adolescent Development   

This week we will cover the final developmental domain for this class. We really started to look at psychosocial development in the first week when we discussed infant attachment. Now you will see how that correlates with Erik Erikson’s first stage of development: trust vs mistrust. Babies who do not live in a trusting environment will not form strong attachments. We will also look at the very real problem of bullying among children and adolescents. I will be interested to read your thought in that discussion. And we are nearing the home stretch with your Community Child Development Center proposal. Your projects should be taking shape. I can’t wait to see them!

Psychosocial Development

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Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is considered an identity psychology because it posits that our evolving identities are formed by the experiences we have with others throughout the lifespan. His theory postulates a number of dilemmas or crises that all humans face as they go through life, and the resolution of the dilemma in one stage affects how well people are equipped to face the next developmental crisis.

9/24/2019 Week 4 - Instructor Guidance: PSY104: Child and Adolescent Development (PTG1939B)

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/53006/pages/week-4-instructor-guidance?module_item_id=2680408 2/4

So, for example, the first crisis faced by infants in Erikson’s theory is called “Trust vs. Mistrust,” and it relates to how they experience safety in the world. If infants are born into a family situation where their needs are met on a consistent basis, then they will develop a sense of safety. They will “trust” that the world is a safe place and that people will care for them.

Infants are not born with the ability to step back and analyze. The family situation they are born into becomes their perception of what is “normal.” These are not conscious or logical choices. Children do not develop the ability for even basic logical thinking until they are around seven or eight years old, as we learned when we studied Piaget’s theory. They are perceptions that develop based on the child’s experience with his or her world.

It is important to note that Erikson’s crises are not either/or. They are a continuum. No parents or caregivers are perfect, so no child will experience perfect attention to his or her needs.

Rather, it is the preponderance of the infant’s experience that matters. Children whose caregivers love them and take care of their needs emerge from this stage with the perspective that the world is a generally safe place to be and that their needs are important and will be met. Erikson called this a sense of hope. Children whose caregivers neglect or abuse them, emerge with the perspective that the world is not a safe place and that they cannot trust others.

This unconscious "life view” goes with the child into the next crisis which Erikson calls “Autonomy vs Shame & Doubt.” In this stage children begin to develop a sense of self control. They need to feel empowered to take risks and assert themselves, which is made much more difficult when they have an underlying world view that they cannot trust the world. And it goes on from there.

Moral Development

Kohlberg’s basic premise was that human beings go through stages in their moral development that are tied to their cognitive development. The stages progress from very simplistic thinking about right and wrong to very complex and differentiated thinking including moral relativism. He was less interested in the choices that people make than he was in their reasons for making those choices. The reasons behind the actions are crucial to understanding individuals’ levels of moral reasoning.

In his research, Kohlberg used moral dilemmas to evaluate the moral development of his subjects. He would present people with a dilemma (the classic is Heinz Steals the Drug) and then ask them to judge whether or not the character in the story did the right thing. More importantly he would ask them to explain or defend their choices. He developed a value free matrix that would classify the level or stage of moral reasoning that the response represented (Crain, 1992).

The moral dilemma of Heinz Steals the Drug is as follows:

In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2,000, 10 times what the drug actually cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he know to borrow the money, but he could get together only about half of what the drug cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying ans asked him to sell the drug cheaper or let him pay later. The druggist said

9/24/2019 Week 4 - Instructor Guidance: PSY104: Child and Adolescent Development (PTG1939B)

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/53006/pages/week-4-instructor-guidance?module_item_id=2680408 3/4

“No.” The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that? Why or why not? (Dworezky& Davis, 1989, p. 236).

The philosophical assumptions that underlie Kohlberg’s theory can be summarized as follows:

The development of moral reasoning is tied to cognitive development and is a sequential, stage process. People progress through set stages at different rates but do not skip stages. Many people do not progress to the highest levels. Higher levels of moral develop represent progressively abstract thinking and valuing of principles. Individuals advance to higher stages of moral reasoning when they are exposed to moral reasoning slightly higher than their own. Moral reasoning does not necessarily correlate to “moral” behavior. In the learning experiment described above, students who administered the highest level of electric shock but explained their behavior using level six arguments about universal principles were judged at level six. Moral development is linked to the individuation of the person. Concern about people over principle represents less well developed reasoning.

Readings –

Mossler, R. (2nd ed.). (2014). Child and Adolescent Development. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.

Chapter 11: The Developing Personality; Emotions and Temperament Chapter 12: The Self and Moral Development Section 14.1: The Development of Gender Section 14.5: The Psychological Effects of Puberty Section 15.5: Bullying

Discussions— Our topic for discussion this week is Bullying. You will be using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory to address the topic of motivations for and influences on bullying. Make sure your post addresses the following:

Using each of the five systems in Bronfenbrenner’s theory, describe how a child’s environment (including family, school, and community) might pre-dispose him or her to bully. For example, within a person’s microsystem are the parents. How might parents be an influencing factor on whether or not a child is prone to bullying? Find and report (with proper citation) one current statistic on the factors influencing school bullying behaviors. Does this statistic seem to follow the same trend supported by Bronfenbrenner’s theory? If not, explain how it challenges the theory. Finally, provide one unique solution to reduce or completely end bullying.

9/24/2019 Week 4 - Instructor Guidance: PSY104: Child and Adolescent Development (PTG1939B)

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/53006/pages/week-4-instructor-guidance?module_item_id=2680408 4/4

Reading Review--Don’t forget to go to the reading review and complete the 25 questions from the reading this week.

Written Assignment—You will continue to build your Community Child Development Center this week by focusing on activities that support psychosocial development. It is important that you connect your choices to psychosocial development theory and that they be age appropriate.

References

Crain, W. (1992). Theories of development: Concepts and applications. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

Dworezky, J. & Davis, N. (1989). Human development: A lifespan approach. Los Angeles: West Publishing Co.