Integrity versus despair is associated with old age. An older person with the

trait of integrity can face approaching death with a certain amount of acceptance.

There is relative peace of mind because the individual is convinced that his or her

life was spent well, that it had meaning. An older person in a state of despair has a

sense of desperation as life draws to its inevitable end. There is very little peace of

mind because the individual is thinking that he or she needs a second chance, an

opportunity to get life right.

Although the individual has very little control over the first few stages of life,

with adolescence and adulthood there is greater self-consciousness. There is a

growth in the ability to reflect and think. Consequently, the individual bears some

responsibility for the self-fashioning of the later stages.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development: From Magical Thinking to Logical Thinking

The section on Erikson’s theory concluded with a comment on the ability to

reflect and think. Jean Piaget (1896–1980), often recognized as the foremost child

psychologist of the twentieth century, made the growth of the child’s ability to

think his particular domain of investigation.

Piaget, working primarily at Geneva University in Switzerland, began his

Investigations into the workings of the child’s mind because of an interest in

epistemology. Epistemology, a branch of philosophy, is the study of knowing.

Piaget wanted to discover how we come to know what we know. Or, more

accurately, he wanted to discover how we come to think we know what we

think we know.

The method that Piaget used to study the child’s mind is called the phenomenological

method. The phenomenological method is characterized by asking

a child a series of carefully worded questions that direct the child’s attention to

particular details of the child’s immediate world. The child’s responses reveal the

way in which the he or she thinks about the world. Piaget’s investigations suggest

that there are four stages of cognitive development, the development of the

way in which the child thinks. Informally, cognitive development may be thought

of as the “growth of the mind.”

According to Piaget, there are four stages of cognitive development: (1) the

sensorimotor stage, (2) the preoperational stage, (3) the concrete operations stage,

and (4) the formal operations stage.

The sensorimotor stage is associated with infancy (birth to two years old).

During this stage the infant has consciousness, but not self-consciousness. He or

she is, of course, aware of the environment. There are reflexes. A stimulus induces

a patterned, predictable motor response. This provides a clue to the term sensorimotor

and why Piaget chose it. The infant senses the world and, without reflection

or analysis, acts in response to his or her impressions.

In the older infant there is even a certain amount of intentional behavior. But

the infant does not know that he or she exists in the same way that an older child

or an adult knows that he or she exists. There is no way to establish these assertions

beyond doubt, because a verbal interview with an infant is impossible. However,

an infant acts as if self-consciousness is absent. For example, one-year-old

James is shown his reflection in a mirror. He is curious, of course, and reaches out

to touch the reflection. But he does not seem to know that he is seeing himself.

There appears to be no sense of recognition. A postage stamp is lightly stuck to

his forehead. He touches it in the mirror, but doesn’t peel it off of his forehead.

Tested again, when he is a little over two years old, James immediately recognizes

that the stamp is on his own forehead, and, using the mirror, peels it off. He has

developed self-consciousness, a characteristic not of infancy, but of the next stage.

The preoperational stage is associated with toddlerhood and the preschool

age (two to seven years old). The term preoperational is used to suggest that during

this stage the child has not yet grasped the concept of cause and effect. Instead, the

child tends to think in magical terms. Magical thinking is characterized by an

absence of the recognition of the importance of the laws of nature. Four-year-old

Daniel sees no problem when a magician instructs a carpet to fly.

Two additional characteristics of the preoperational stage are anthropomorphic

thinking and egocentrism. Anthropomorphic thinking is characterized

by a tendency to explain natural events in terms of human behavior. Consequently,

leaves turn various colors in the fall because Jack Frost paints them. The

huffing and puffing of an invisible giant is the cause of a windy day.

Egocentrism is a tendency to perceive oneself as existing at the center of the

universe. Everything revolves around the self. Consequently, five-year-old

Danielle, when riding in a car at night with her parents, asks, “Why is the Moon

following us?” Two days later Danielle falls and scrapes her knee. She believes that

her mother can feel the pain. Six-year-old Edward thinks that people in a foreign

country on the other side of the world are upside down. He reasons that if the

world is round, and we’re right side up, then they have to be upside down. If an

adult tells Edward that the people are right side up, he will be confused.

The concrete operations stage is associated with middle childhood (seven

to twelve years old). The child at this stage can think in terms of cause and effect.

However, most of the thinking is “concrete,” meaning that cognitive processes at

this stage deal well with what can be seen or otherwise experienced, not with

abstractions. For example, eight-year-old Jack can easily understand that 3 + 7 =

10 because, if necessary, this can be demonstrated with physical objects such as

pennies or chips. On the other hand, Jack can’t grasp that x + 8 = 11 in problem

1, and that x + 8 = 24 in problem 2. If Jack is told that x is a variable, and that it

can have more than one numerical value in different problems, he will have a hard

time appreciating this fact. In brief, Jack can understand arithmetic, but he can’t

understand algebra.

During the stage of concrete operations, children are usually interested in how

clocks work, how measurements are made, and why this causes that to happen.

They often like to assemble things. A game such as Monopoly, with its play

money, property deeds, and tokens, is attractive.

The formal operations stage is associated with adolescence and adulthood.

(Adolescence begins at twelve or thirteen years old). The formal operations

stage is characterized by the ability to think in abstract terms. The

adolescent and adult can understand algebra. Subjects such as philosophy, with its

various viewpoints on life, become accessible. Not only thinking, but thinking

about thinking is possible. This is called metathought. It is what we are doing

in this section of the book.

Formal operational thought makes it possible to use both inductive and

deductive logic. The adult can reflect, analyze, and rethink

ideas and viewpoints. This kind of thought opens up avenues of mental flexibility

not available to children.

Piaget’s theory presents a blueprint for cognitive development that captures the

spectrum of thinking from its primitive beginning to its most sophisticated level.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development: From a Power

Orientation to Living by Principles

Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist associated with Harvard University,

has drawn from Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and applied it to

moral development. Moral development is the development of the individual’s

sense of right and wrong. A high level of moral development is built on a foundation

of cognitive development. But, of course, more is involved.

Prior to Kohlberg’s actual research with subjects, theories of moral development

were based largely on speculation. The philosophers Plato and Immanuel

Kant believed that the moral sense is inborn, that it is a given of the human mind.

On the other hand, the philosophers Aristotle and John Locke assumed that moral

development requires learning and experience. Kohlberg’s approach tends to

favor the learning hypothesis. Human beings acquire a moral sense by learning to

think clearly, by the example of role models, and by social reinforcement.

According to Kohlberg, there are three principal levels of moral development:

(1) the premoral level, (2) the conventional level, and (3) the principled

level. (There are six stages associated with the three levels, two stages to

each level. The differences between the stages are subtle, and they will not be

specified.)

The premoral level is associated with early childhood (from about two to

seven years old). The theme of this level is power orientation, meaning that to

a child thinking at this level, “might makes right.” The parents are seen as “right”

because they are bigger and stronger than the child. Five-year-old Kenneth is considering whether or not he should steal a one-dollar bill from his mother’s purse.

His hesitation, if there is any, is based on the fear of being caught, not on guilt. He

is amoral, meaning that he has no actual moral sense, no internal feeling that he

is wrong to do something that is forbidden.

The conventional level is associated with late childhood and adolescence

(seven to eighteen years old). Also, many, probably most, adults continue to operate

at the conventional level, never progressing to the principled level. The theme

of the conventional level is “law and order.” Right is right because human beings

have codes of conduct and written laws. Fifteen-year-old Sally identifies with her

family. The family has a certain religion, certain attitudes, and well-defined

notions of what is and is not socially acceptable behavior. Sally doesn’t question

the family’s values. She doesn’t examine or challenge them. She is operating at the

conventional level. Thirty-four-year-old Kelvin pays his taxes, has earned an honorable

discharge from the army, and thinks of himself as a “good citizen.” Kelvin,

like Sally, is operating at the conventional level.

The principled level is associated with a relatively small percentage of adults.

These are people who think for themselves about what is right and wrong. They

are not chaotic in their thought processes. They are logical and clear sighted. In

certain cases, they may decide that a law or a group of laws are unjust, and they

may rebel. The founding fathers of the United States, men such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, fall in this last category. Saints, great leaders, and

prophets also fall in the principled category.