Kohlberg's Moral Development Theory

Piaget’s theory of development consists of four phases. The sensorimotor, the pre-operational stage, the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage (Piaget, 1952). In the Sensorimotor stage which is the age of zero to two years, the infant’s knowledge of their environment developed through their senses, experiences and physical movements. Physical development increases the chances of the infant to develop new intellectual abilities. In the Pre-operational stage which is the age between two to seven years, understanding and reasoning is expressed by the use of symbols and language and imagination is developed, but reasoning is illogical and egocentrism prevails. The child develops object permanence (Woolfolk, A., 2004). In the Concrete operational stage which is from age seven to eleven years, intelligence is denoted by through logical manipulation of concrete objects and here

Piaget thinks that his theory of cognitive development is clear and that it’s the only perspective that should viewed as correct. He explains how children go through the four stages based on advancement and background and their development occurs in stages. He also believes that children’s physical and social environment is important in children’s cognitive development. He believes that children are active learners who gain knowledge from their surroundings. Children learn through taking in there surrounding and modifications, and multiple cognitive development occurs through collaboration. Piaget’s thinks that children and adolescent’s cognitive development explains the changes in logical thinking.

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are known to be the leading theorists in developmental psychology. Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories have a big impact on psychological and educational development. In the field of developmental science it’s been proposed that the abilities of children and the occurring change is very significant ( Shaffer & Kipp, 2002). Both theorists have focused on child development where Piaget’s takes a constructivist approach, Vygotsky’s approach to development is

The difference between Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s works was that Piaget studied children from 5 to 13 years of age to create overlapping phases, whereas Kohlberg’s stages attempts to account for development in moral judgement up through professional moral philosophers (Rest, 1979). Kohlberg replaced the word “phase” used by Piaget with “ stages” and said that over the course of moral development the individual should go through the six stages in consecutive order, without stage skipping or stage reversal (Colby et al., 1983) .

On the Contrary, Erickson (…………….) believed that there were eight stages of human development, he emphasised his development in terms of social and emotional development with each stage associated with social conflict or crisis while Vogotsky (………………) explain the theory of human development using the sociocultural theory. Vygotsky argued that children build their knowledge through social and cultural experiences. One of major criticism of Piaget theory of cognitive development is the use of strict stage time scale for each stage of development. Many researchers in their own opinion agreed that many children abilities overlap. (………………………………….). Consequently, Piaget rigid age-related stages thereby make Piaget’s hypothesis inaccurate. Furthermore, in a study conducted by (Kuhn et al., 1977) suggested that only 30-35% of high school student could achieve Piaget’s (formal operations stage of cognitive development. This implies that Piaget’s idea of one cap fit all was inaccurate, therefore he was criticised for not considering and focusing on individual’s child, because children are individual they achieve intellectual ability at different stages in life. (Gardner…………………. supported this argument) and some may never achieve that cognitive development in the cases of children with learning

Thomas (2005) describe some of the weaknesses of Piaget’s theory, which include the fact that he often underestimated the ability of a child’s intellect. Furthermore, most of his research subjects were from a middle-class background, so therefore he failed to take into consideration children from other backgrounds. Finally, his theory only focuses on children who follow normal development and he does not account for children experiencing adolescence or who are impaired (pp.

Jean Piaget used observations of his own children to develop the four stages that we know he created today. Piaget developed a stage theory of intellectual development that included four distinct stages: the sensorimotor stage, from birth to age 2; the preoperational stage, from age 2 to about age 7; the concrete operational stage, from age 7 to 11; and the formal operational stage, which begins in adolescence and spans into adulthood. He believed that there were four necessary ingredients for cognitive development which included: “maturation of the nervous system, experiences gained through interaction with physical world, social environment, and child’s active participation in adapting to environment & constructing knowledge from experience.” (Sullivan, 2014, Slide 3)

Until Piaget most people just assumed children were less intelligent versions of adults, but through his research Piaget showed that think very differently from adults. Understanding these differences was Piaget’s end goal. To fully understand Piaget’s model one must understand that Piaget interpreted children’s actions as their language, their way of understanding and explaining the world around them. Piaget thought that children actively construct their reality using the environment around them, in other words they learn by doing. Another thing to keep in mind is that Piaget’s model is marked by qualitative differences rather in developmental behavior. This contrasts with most researchers who were behaviorists at the time, who thought that operationalizing behavior was the only way to measure and understand behavior. Thus, the stages of Piaget’s model have about some leniency in the age at which a child will enter each stage. This is especially true in the case of children who experience developmental delays, such as extreme stress, development of a mental disorder, trauma, or a number of other stressors which inhibit the normal development of a child. Piaget’s model is also unique to other psychological theory at the time because his model is only for children, where most people at the time were concerned with adult learning and

Piaget proposed a stage theory of cognitive development. Kohlberg posited a model of moral development or moral reasoning based on many of Piaget's

Lev Vygotsky's, cultural-historical theory of cognitive development is focused on the role of culture in the development of higher mental functions, such as speech and reasoning in children. His theory is sometimes referred to as having a sociocultural perspective, which means the theory emphasizes the importance of society and culture for promoting cognitive development. He emphasized the role of social interactions and culture in development. And he believed that adults in a society foster children's cognitive development in an intentional and systematic manner by engaging them in challenging and meaningful activities.

Moral Development Theory. This theory proposed that moral reasoning of human beings is associated with the stages of development in solving moral issues that an individual encounters (Bjorklund & Blasi, 2010).

As for Piaget, interaction with peers is more effective than those with people carrying higher skills and capabilities. The reason is that peers’ ability is almost equivalent with each other. So that it is not stressful for people to express different views. Consequently, cognitive development is promoted by interaction with peers through cognitive conflicts. On the contrary, cognitive development is motivated by interaction with people such as teachers and parents in Vygotsky’s theory (Vygotsky,1978). He claimed that individuals are likely to gain more cognitive functions with appropriate assistance and

Jean Piaget, known for his interest in the Epistemology in children is seen as the pioneer of Developmental Psychology. Piaget 's Cognitive development theory led to a great deal of research work in the field of educational philosophy . But in the discipline of Psychology, every theory has been faced with a counter theory or an alternative. So is the case with Piaget 's theory. Lev Vygotsky, a soviet psychologist came up with the socio-cultural theory, which is another strong theory emphasizing child development and is seen as a major counter theory to Piaget 's work (Saul McLeod, 2004). Theories of these two cognitive psychologists have been compared and contrasted on different levels. This essay will look into the differences and similarities between their theories.

Developmental psychology relates to the changes in behaviour and abilities that transpire over time as development advances. (Harwood & Miller, 2008). Infancy and childhood is a time of rapid development of social, sensory and cognitive abilities. Infants acquire perceptual and motor skills which allow them to comprehend the world they live in. Cognitive development is “the growth of cognitive abilities and capacities from birth to old age” (Colman, 2008). In this essay I will address Piagetian Theory, the cognitive performance of children from age seven to eleven, (the concrete operational period), and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development revolutionized the study of children’s cognitive development and it has undergone some revisions over the years. It also provides a set of basic principles to guide our understanding of cognitive development that are found in most recent theories.