Lifespan Dev

4.2 Discussion. Moral Development and Diverse Perspectives from Curiosity Conversation

Getting Started

Psychologists have studied moral development for decades. There are various perspectives from which to view moral development. Freud proposed that moral development evolves as selfishness is replaced by social values, a mostly internal process. B. F. Skinner also suggested that society’s values become internalized, but he believed this occurred through socialization, not repression of the self. Jean Piaget emphasized socio-emotional development as children focus on modeling their authority figures and how they address moral concerns. Eliot Turiel’s research into the social domain view of social cognition suggests that children learn to differentiate moral rules from conventional rules. Inspired by the work of Piaget and John Dewey, Lawrence Kohlberg conducted research on how male children respond to moral dilemmas. From this research, he developed a stage theory of moral development. Carol Gilligan, a protégé of Kohlberg’s, focused on the moral development of girls. She developed a different perspective of moral development, emphasizing the caring aspect of females.

These are just a few of the major theorists in moral development. Psychologists have not explored the areas of spiritual or religious development as thoroughly as moral development. Carl Jung believed humans have a purpose in life outside of material goals. One subfield of psychology is transpersonal psychology, which studies the transcendent experiences of humans.

Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:

· Discriminate moral and spiritual development from self and others.

Resources

· Article: Individual Moral Development and Moral Progress

· Article: Nature Meets Nurture in Religious and Spiritual Development - through OCLS

· Article: Religion and Human Development in Adulthood

· Article: Transformation in Faith and Morals

· Video: Religion, Revolution, and Ecstasy of Self-Transcendence

· eBook:  Human Development and Faith: Life-Cycle Stages of Body, Mind, and Soul (Optional)

Background Information

In addition to discussing moral development in people, you will also provide insight into the moral and spiritual development of people who have different backgrounds from you to learn a wider perspective of this area of human development. One of the major criticisms of moral and spiritual development is the lack of diversity in research participants. This is one reason you will include comparisons between two diverse people: you and someone very much not like you based on the interview introduced to you in Workshop Two: Curiosity Conversation: Moral Development and Diverse Perspectives.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. Review the following articles:

a. Individual Moral Development and Moral Progress

b. Nature Meets Nurture in Religious and Spiritual Development

c. Religion and Human Development in Adulthood: Well-Being, Prosocial Behavior, and Religious and Spiritual Development

d. Transformation in Faith and Morals

3. Watch the video,  Religion, Evolution, and the Ecstasy of Self-Transcendence  (18:12 min). You can also read the  Religion, Revolution, and the Ecstasy of Self-Transcendence: Transcript .

4. Optionally, read the eBook,  Human Development and Faith: Life-Cycle Stages of Body, Mind, and Soul .

5. Navigate to the discussion topic and respond to the following prompts, based on your interview with someone who is different from you (first introduced in 2.6: Curiosity Conversation/Interview: Moral Development and Diverse Perspectives).

a. Discuss how morality and spirituality develop in people like you and in people very much not like you.

b. Which stages of moral and spiritual development seem to appear in both yourself and the interviewee? Which do not?

c. Why do you think the stages are different (what could account for the differences)?

6. You will need to conduct independent research.

7. Use APA formatting for citations.

8. Your postings should also:

a. Be well developed by providing clear answers with evidence of critical thinking.

b. Add greater depth to the discussion by introducing new ideas.

c. Provide clarification to classmates' questions and provide insight into the discussion.

4.5 Assignment. Understanding the Life Span. Reflection Paper Draft

Getting Started

The purpose of this reflection paper assignment is to learn more about lifespan development—including your own—by connecting design thinking with human development.

You can think about your capstone project to connect design thinking with human development. While you are not required to submit ideas for the capstone project yet, this assignment provides a great opportunity to think about ideas for your capstone project.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Connect design thinking with human development, well-being and flourishing.

· Gain experiential understanding of the human life span.

Resources

· eBook:  Human Development and Faith: Life-Cycle Stages of Body, Mind, and Soul (Optional)

Background Information

The purpose of this activity is to help you gain experiential understanding of the life span. Focus on your psychosocial, cognitive, and affective development progress. Use your understanding of a developmental theorist, as well as a particular stage of development, to help focus your paper. Include details about your Odyssey Plan, especially career development, along with ideas about a capstone project that you might pursue and why. Your instructor will review the draft and supply you with comments and suggestions to use in submitting your final paper in Workshop Six.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. Optionally, read the eBook,  Human Development and Faith: Life-Cycle Stages of Body, Mind, and Soul .

3. In a Word document, write about the following in your draft:

a. What theorist did you focus on and why?

b. Which domains did you focus on and why?

c. What questions did you reflect on related to development and why?

d. Which tests and trials that many face during the particular developmental stage did you notice or observe?

e. Describe how flourishing can be enhanced during the stage of the life span you reflected on.

f. Discuss the research on positive psychology and where it fits in with your observations.

g. Provide any additional details that are relevant to career development and capstone project ideas.

4. Your paper should be a minimum of four pages long and use APA formatting for all components.

5. When you’ve completed your assignment, save a copy for yourself and submit a copy to your instructor using the Assignment submission page by the end of the workshop.

4.4 Assignment. Letter of Gratitude

Getting Started

This focus of this assignment is gratitude. There are many people in your life that have had a significant impact on your growth and development; parents, siblings, mentors, teachers and friends for whom you can be grateful. In the book, Science of Virtue, Gratitude is defined as the “sense of thankfulness and joy in response to receiving a gift, whether the gift be a tangible benefit from a specific other or a moment of peaceful bliss evoked by natural beauty.”

As you read about and reflect on your life in this course, you will undoubtedly think about the people who have impacted you. For this assignment, you will write a short letter of gratitude and deliver it to someone that has given you a “gift” and changed you in the process. It could be the gift of time, of kindness, of favor, by mentoring you, being an example, believing in you, giving you a tangible gift of money or other possession, or just extending unconditional love.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Evaluate the impact others have had on your life and development.

· Express gratitude to at least one other individual in a relevant manner.

Resources

· Website: Gratitude Letter, Greater Good in Action: https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/gratitude_letter

Background Information

The most potent expression of gratitude is in a face-to-face exchange, but you can also choose to use a virtual delivery system such as Facetime or Google hangouts. You don’t want to send an email or mail a letter or leave a voice mail. You want to be able to say what you want and have that person be able to immediately respond. While this might sound a little inconvenient, it is well worth the effort. People respond in powerful ways to gratitude: both the giver and receiver. You get to be the giver in this situation.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. Go to the Greater Good in Action website here,  How to Write a Gratitude Letter . Review the Gratitude Letter section on How to Do It. You can explore other parts of this website, but you only need to read about Hot to Do It (the Gratitude Letter) for this assignment.

3. Use the following as guidelines as you write a draft of your letter:

a. Who the person is.

b. What is your relationship with them (how you know them, for how long and to the extent that you’ve kept in touch since you first met)

c. What was your life like before they gave you the “gift?”

d. Explain what their “gift to you was. Be specific.

e. How did their “gift change/shape/influence you then and how does it still affect you today?

f. In what way can you pass this “gift” on to others?

4. Write at least a 250 to 300 word letter of gratitude. You will need to schedule a time to meet with this individual before the end of workshop 5 and then personally deliver the message of gratitude and report on it in the Workshop Five.

5. Schedule a time to meet with this individual over the next week so you have time to meet with them, read the letter to them face-to-face and write a report on your experience by the end of workshop 5

6. When you’ve completed your assignment, save a copy for yourself and submit a copy to your instructor using the Assignment submission page by the end of the workshop.

4.3 Discussion. Normal Development Assumptions of Adulthood

  Getting Started

You have likely heard of the nature versus nurture debate. For a long time, psychologists and people in other fields framed conversations about environment and genetics as if they were separate and had no overlap. We now know this is inaccurate; there is a great deal of overlap between nature and nurture. Thus, in recent decades, the conversation (and research) has shifted to learning how these areas influence each other. How does the nurture and nature conversation relate to spiritual and moral development? As you will learn, even though one might presuppose that spirituality, religiosity, and morality are largely internal processes developed through one’s exploration into these realms, there are researchers who focus on the biological process of these areas, which can be quite fascinating. In your exploration of moral, spiritual, and human development, where do you encounter genes as major factors (if you do), and where does nurture become a primary component? Should these two aspects be separated at all?

Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:

· Apply spiritual and moral development to adulthood.

Resources

· Article: Nature Meets Nurture in Religious and Spiritual Development - through OCLS

· Article: Religion and Human Development in Adulthood

· Article: Transformation in Faith and Morals

· Article: Black Mothers’ Ethnotheories of Moral Development

· eBook:  Human Development and Faith: Life-Cycle Stages of Body, Mind, and Soul (Optional)

Background Information

For this discussion, you will continue your examination of moral and spiritual development, emphasizing these processes in adulthood. You will also apply the family life cycle theory to these aspects of human development. Finally, you will note how the research on moral and spiritual development applies to your own experiences in these realms.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. Review the following:

a. Black Mothers’ Ethnotheories of Moral Development: A Client-Centered Approach

b. Nature Meets Nurture in Religious and Spiritual Development

c. Religion and Human Development in Adulthood: Well-Being, Prosocial Behavior, and Religious and Spiritual Development

d. Transformation in Faith and Morals

3. Optionally, read the eBook,  Human Development and Faith: Life-Cycle Stages of Body, Mind, and Soul . 

4. Navigate to the discussion topic and respond to the following prompts:

a. How is adulthood impacted by moral and spiritual development?

b. How does the family life cycle apply to adulthood and spiritual and moral development?

c. What are the major influencing factors in both moral and spiritual development in adults?

d. How do spiritual and moral development apply to your own experiences?

5. Your initial post should be between 400 and 500 words.

6. Your initial post is due by the end of the fourth day of the workshop.

7. Your postings should also:

a. Be well developed by providing clear answers with evidence of critical thinking.

b. Add greater depth to the discussion by introducing new ideas.

c. Provide clarification to classmates' questions and provide insight into the discussion.

4.2 Discussion. Moral Development and Diverse Perspectives from Curiosity Conversation

Getting Started

Psychologists have studied moral development for decades. There are various perspectives from which to view moral development. Freud proposed that moral development evolves as selfishness is replaced by social values, a mostly internal process. B. F. Skinner also suggested that society’s values become internalized, but he believed this occurred through socialization, not repression of the self. Jean Piaget emphasized socio-emotional development as children focus on modeling their authority figures and how they address moral concerns. Eliot Turiel’s research into the social domain view of social cognition suggests that children learn to differentiate moral rules from conventional rules. Inspired by the work of Piaget and John Dewey, Lawrence Kohlberg conducted research on how male children respond to moral dilemmas. From this research, he developed a stage theory of moral development. Carol Gilligan, a protégé of Kohlberg’s, focused on the moral development of girls. She developed a different perspective of moral development, emphasizing the caring aspect of females.

These are just a few of the major theorists in moral development. Psychologists have not explored the areas of spiritual or religious development as thoroughly as moral development. Carl Jung believed humans have a purpose in life outside of material goals. One subfield of psychology is transpersonal psychology, which studies the transcendent experiences of humans.

Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:

· Discriminate moral and spiritual development from self and others.

Resources

· Article: Individual Moral Development and Moral Progress

· Article: Nature Meets Nurture in Religious and Spiritual Development - through OCLS

· Article: Religion and Human Development in Adulthood

· Article: Transformation in Faith and Morals

· Video: Religion, Revolution, and Ecstasy of Self-Transcendence

· eBook:  Human Development and Faith: Life-Cycle Stages of Body, Mind, and Soul (Optional)

Background Information

In addition to discussing moral development in people, you will also provide insight into the moral and spiritual development of people who have different backgrounds from you to learn a wider perspective of this area of human development. One of the major criticisms of moral and spiritual development is the lack of diversity in research participants. This is one reason you will include comparisons between two diverse people: you and someone very much not like you based on the interview introduced to you in Workshop Two: Curiosity Conversation: Moral Development and Diverse Perspectives.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. Review the following articles:

a. Individual Moral Development and Moral Progress

b. Nature Meets Nurture in Religious and Spiritual Development

c. Religion and Human Development in Adulthood: Well-Being, Prosocial Behavior, and Religious and Spiritual Development

d. Transformation in Faith and Morals

3. Watch the video,  Religion, Evolution, and the Ecstasy of Self-Transcendence  (18:12 min). You can also read the  Religion, Revolution, and the Ecstasy of Self-Transcendence: Transcript .

4. Optionally, read the eBook,  Human Development and Faith: Life-Cycle Stages of Body, Mind, and Soul .

5. Navigate to the discussion topic and respond to the following prompts, based on your interview with someone who is different from you (first introduced in 2.6: Curiosity Conversation/Interview: Moral Development and Diverse Perspectives).

a. Discuss how morality and spirituality develop in people like you and in people very much not like you.

b. Which stages of moral and spiritual development seem to appear in both yourself and the interviewee? Which do not?

c. Why do you think the stages are different (what could account for the differences)?

6. You will need to conduct independent research.

7. Use APA formatting for citations.

8. Your postings should also:

a. Be well developed by providing clear answers with evidence of critical thinking.

b. Add greater depth to the discussion by introducing new ideas.

c. Provide clarification to classmates' questions and provide insight into the discussion.