Formal operations (11/12 to adult)
This stage is characterized by acquisition of the ability to think abstractly and draw conclusions from the information available. Children who reach this stage are capable of thinking logically and abstractly therefore is able to understand such things as love, “shades of gray”, and values. 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.
How Does Cognitive Change Take Place?
According to Piaget, development is driven by the process of equilibration.
Equilibration encompasses:
1. Assimilation is the process of taking in new information and transforming them so that it fi ts within the existing schemes or thought patterns. This process can be subjective as one tends to modify experience or information somewhat to fi t it in with the preexisting beliefs.
2. Accommodation is the process of altering one’s existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this process. People adapt their schemes to include incoming information.
Piaget suggested that equilibration takes place in three phases.
1. State of equilibrium—Children are satisfi ed with their mode of thought.
2. Awareness of the shortcomings in their existing thinking therefore dissatisfaction (i.e., state of disequilibration and experience of cognitive confl ict).
3. Adoption of a more sophisticated mode of thought that eliminates the shortcomings of the old one (i.e., more stable equilibrium).
Examples of environmental, interactional, and genetic traits are as follows:
THEORIES FROM THE CONTEXTUALISTIC WORLDVIEW PERSPECTIVE
Lev Vygotsky’s social contextualism
Both the mechanistic and organismic worldviews view the process of development as universal. However, the contextualists do not believe that there are universal laws
of development; rather, they argue that the forces that contribute to development are specifi c to historical time and social place.
Lev Vygotsky’s (1896–1934) cultural-historical theory of human development is a good example of a theory rooted in a contextualist worldview. His theory asserts three main themes:
1. Social interaction plays a fundamental role in the process of cognitive development. While Jean Piaget believed that development precedes learning, Vygotsky posited that social learning precedes development. To Vygotsky, culture is a uniquely human phenomenon, allowing history to replace biology as the defi ning element in the lives of humans. “Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: fi rst, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; fi rst, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological).” (Vygotsky, 1978).
2. The more knowledgeable other: Anyone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a particular task, process, or concept.
3. The zone of proximal development: This is the distance between a student’s ability to perform a task under guidance or peer collaboration, and his or her ability to independently solve the problem.
Vygotsky focused on the connections between people and the sociocultural context in which they act and interact in shared experiences (Crawford, 1996). He said that language was the defi ning characteristic of humans as a species that sets them apart from other species. Humans use language to mediate their social environment.
Initially children use it to communicate their needs. Later on Vygotsky believed that the internalization of these tools led to higher thinking skills.
Language allows for a shared communication, which in turn allows for collective effort or labor. This effort, in turn, sets the foundation for the progressive evolution of culture across generations. Language and culture have an infl uence in the ways people establish, maintain, and transmit social institutions and relationships across generations.
Vygotsky investigated the role of culture and interpersonal communication in the development of the child. He believed that higher mental functions developed through social interactions. Through these interactions the child came to learn the habits of mind of her/his culture, which affected the construction of her/his knowledge. “Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: ...fi rst between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological)”
(Vygotsky, 1978, p. 57).This key premise of Vygotskian psychology is often referred to as cultural mediation. The specifi c knowledge gained by children through these interactions also represented the shared knowledge of a culture. This process is known as internalization (Santrock, J, 2004).
Psychology of play: Vygotsky viewed play or child’s game as a psychologi- cal phenomenon. He considered it to have a big role in a child’s development.
Through play the child develops abstract meaning separate from the objects in the world, which is a critical feature in the development of higher mental functions (Paul Tough, 2009). As the child gets older, his or her reliance on pivots such as sticks, dolls, and other toys diminish. He or she has internalized these pivots as imagination and abstract concepts through which he or she can understand the world (Vygotsky, 1978).
Another aspect of play that Vygotsky referred to was development of social rules that develop, for example, when children play house and adopt the roles of different family members. As well as social rules the child acquires what we now refer to as self-regulation.
Thinking and speaking: Perhaps Vygotsky’s most important contribution concerns the interrelationship of language development and thought; the explicit and profound connection between speech (both silent inner speech and oral lan- guage), and the development of mental concepts and cognitive awareness (Wikipe- dia). Vygotsky described inner speech as being qualitatively different than normal (external) speech. Vygotsky believed that younger children only really able to “think out loud,” it was via a gradual process of internalization that inner speech developed from external speech. Hence, thought itself develops socially.
Language starts as a socio-cultural process. Initially language is a tool external to the child and used in a kind of self-talk or “thinking out loud.” and for social interaction. This self-talk then tapers to negligible levels when the child is alone or with deaf children and is used more as a tool for self-directed and self-regulating behavior. Then, because speaking has been appropriated and internalized, self-talk is no longer present around the time the child starts school. Self-talk “develops along a rising not a declining, curve; it goes through an evolution, not an involution. In the end, it becomes inner speech” (Vygotsky, 1978; p. 57). Inner speech develops through its differentiation from social speech. Speaking has thus, developed along two lines, the line of social communication and the line of inner speech (Santrock, J, 2004).
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning
Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development were created while he wrote his doctoral dissertation at the university of Chicago in 1958, outlining what are now known as the stages of moral development, how children develop the sense of right, wrong and justice. He theorized that (similar to Piaget’s theory) human beings progress consecutively from one stage to the next in an invariant sequence––they
do not skip any stage or go back to any previous one. These are stages of thought processing, implying qualitatively different modes of thinking and problem solving at each stage.
This theory holds that moral reasoning, which is the basis for ethical behavior, has six identifi able developmental constructive stages of moral reasoning grouped into three levels––pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional; each stage more advanced in responding to moral dilemmas than the previous stage.
The process of moral development was principally concerned with justice and its development continues throughout the lifespan.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development Level One:
Pre-conventional Morality
Stage 1: Punishment-Obedience Orientation
—Individual obeys rules in order to avoid punishment.
Stage 2: Instrumental Relativist Orientation
—Individual conforms to society’s rules in order to receive rewards.
Level Two:
Conventional Morality
Stage 3: Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation—
Individual behaves morally in order to gain approval from other people.
Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation—Conformity to authority to avoid censure and guilt.
Level Three:
Post-Conventional Morality
Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation—Individual is concerned with individual rights and democratically decided.
Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principle Orientation—
Individual is entirely guided by his or her own conscience.
Ecological Systems Theory of Urie Bronfenbrenner
Ecological systems theory, also called “development in context” or “human ecology”
theory, specifi es four types of nested environmental systems, with bidirectional infl uences within and between the systems. The theory was developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner, generally regarded as one of the world’s leading scholars in the fi eld of developmental psychology.
Bronfenbrenner’s structure of environment: There are four systems and each system contains roles, norms, and rules that can powerfully shape development.
1. Microsystem: This is the layer closest to the child and contains the structures with which the child has direct contact. The microsystem encompasses the relationships and interactions a child has with her immediate surroundings (individual’s biology, family, school, peer group, neighborhood, and
childcare environments: Berk, 2000) It is in the microsystem that the most direct interactions with social agents take place. The individual is not a passive recipient of experiences in these settings, but someone who helps to construct the settings. This relationship is bidirectional––both away from the child and toward the child.
2. Mesosystem: This layer provides the connection between the structures of the child’s microsystem (Berk, 2000). A system comprised of connections between immediate environments (i.e., a child’s home and school) 3. Exosystem: Involves links between a social setting in which the individual
does not have an active role and the individual’s immediate context. The structures in this layer impact the child’s development by interacting with some structure in her microsystem (Berk, 2000). Parent workplace schedules affect the child though he does not have a direct active role in it.
4. Macrosystem: This layer may be considered the outermost layer in the child’s environment. While not being a specifi c framework, this layer is comprised of cultural values, customs, and laws (Berk, 2000). The effects of larger principles defi ned by the macrosystem have a cascading infl uence throughout the interactions of all other layers. The larger cultural context (Eastern vs. Western culture, national vs. international)
5. Chronosystem: The patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances. This system encompasses the dimension of time as it relates to a child’s environments.
Elements within this system can be either external, such as the timing of a parent’s death, or internal, such as the physiological changes that occur with the aging of a child. As children get older, they may react differently to environmental changes and may be more able to determine more how that change will infl uence them. It covers the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the course of life (Urie Bronfenbrenner, 1979).
Levinson’s Life Structure Theory
Yale psychologist Daniel Levinson (1986) developed a comprehensive theory of adult development. Daniel J. Levinson was one of the founders of the fi eld of positive adult development. Through a series of intensive interviews with men (1978) and women (1987), Levinson proposed a theory based on a series of stages that adults go through as they develop. Daniel Levinson worked out his theories of adult development in two landmark studies, Seasons of a Man’s Life and Seasons of a Woman’s Life.
At the center of his theory is the life structure. An individual’s life structure is the underlying pattern of an individual’s life at any particular time which is shaped by the social and physical environment. Life structures primarily involve family and work, although other variables such as religion, race, and economic status are often important. Levinson talked about four “seasonal cycles”. They include pre- adulthood, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. Each of the periods are themselves divided between entry or initial stages and culminating or more-or-less stable stages. The divisions between the life eras are marked by signifi cant transitionary periods that can last for some years. Life during these transitions (Age 30 transition, mid-life transition [early 40s], Age 50 Transition, etc.) can be either rocky or smooth, noisy or quiet, but the quality and signifi cance of one’s life commitments often change between the beginning and end of such periods.
Levinson (1978) originally studied forty adult males between 35 and 45 years of age. Early adulthood is entered when men begin careers and families. After an evaluation of themselves at about age 30, men settle down and work toward career advancement. Then another transition occurs at about age 40, as men realize some of their ambitions will not be met. During middle adulthood, men deal with their particular individuality and work toward cultivating their skills and assets. Finally, the transition to late adulthood is a time to refl ect upon successes and failures and enjoy the rest of life.