DEEP DIVE INTO DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to everybody. Today, we're'll be looking at growth
and lifespan development. We'll be looking at revisiting developmental theories
like PJA, the stages, ericson psychosocial stages. We're going to
throw in the moral component in Kolberg's levels as well
as Vagotsky's social cultural theory and have these work in therapy.
So we also look at neo pas and theories. But

(00:25):
I can even say it well, so let's look at PJA.
Remember the four stages of sensorimoter is birth to two
years old. This is where learning happens through sensation and movement, develops,
object permanence, where otens exist when unseen, So it's developing
towards the end. Begin Gold goal directed behavior and symbolic
play Attachment theory can also be seen right around this
age group. So it's an interesting group. If you compare

(00:49):
it to Ericson, it combines almost two stages because sensory
mooter is birth to two and Ericson you have trust
versus mistrust birth to one, autonomy versus shame, and doubt
into three. So a little bit of an overlap between
those two. We'll move on over to stage two. Which
is pre operational stage two to seven. Language use explodes,

(01:11):
logic is limited, It shows egocentrism, difficulty seeing others perspectives.
This is where you can see if something happened, some
kind of traumatic event, emotional abuse and neglect. During this
stage we can see a lot of this, right, Narcissism
you can surmise could be developed around here. Struggle with
conservation and reversibility, engage in magical thinking and animism. Stage three.

(01:34):
The brain is working quite differently here. You can see
concrete operational stage seven to eleven. And if you think
about the books, look at the books that you're getting
for a six year old comparedor an eleven year old,
and what happens to a twelve or thirteen year old.
Right at that point you start up taking quite a
bit the intensity of the book, of the complexity. And
now you're starting to go into books more like Jane

(01:56):
Austen around fourteen fifteen because of the complex city of
the writing. But even at twelve, you can shoot up
into Sherlock Holmes's world. Going back again concrete operational seven
to eleven, you'll see think logically about concrete events, understand conservation, classification,
and beginning to learn cause and effect, starting to understand

(02:16):
the reasons behind why certain things happen, at least they
think they do. They still struggle though, with abstract ideas,
and this is where formal operational stage, the final one
twelve plus I think as a winter formal to think
of kind of a teenager. They think abstractly and hypothetically.
They engage in deductive reasoning and consider future consequences and
moral dilemmas, and we approach that later. Of course, there's

(02:40):
some criticism to pha's models that underestimates children abilities in
certain contexts intends to ignore cultural variation. Of course, today's
generation with the amount of exposure they after the Internet
and knowledge, these stages could be slightly different and assessments
though use tasks appropriate to cognitive stage. A seven year
old won't solve that algebra, but they can group blocks

(03:01):
by shape and size. This is what the differences are
in their thinking compattern pattern. Also, you can see there's
double developmental challenges erics and psychosocial stages. Like we mentioned before,
there's eight of them, and the first one is trust
versus mistrust, which is birth to one. Reliable caregiving builds
security Here again attachment theory. Number two is a timomy
versus shame and doubt. Independence grows through choice and boundaries

(03:24):
one through three. Right. We see a lot of mobile
activity here, so they have more choice, especially when they're walking.
Now you have to create boundaries. They can explore their
world in a different capacity. Number three is initiative versus guilt.
It's assertiveness, goal setting, imagination. This is between the ages
of three to six. Industry versus inferiority is similar to

(03:45):
pha It's six to twelve real similar age range mastery
through school and social tests. PHA was concrete operational seven
to eleven, and Eric's and identity versus rold confusion starts
around middle school twelve to eighteen. Here's self definition and
value alignment. At eight eighteen to forty we have intimacy

(04:06):
versus isolation, deep relationships and vulnerability. PHA cuts it off
more on the cognitive development stage here in intimacy versus isolation,
deep relations and vulnerability are a big thing. Number seven
is generativity versus stagnation. Is this for forty to sixty
five year olds legacy contribution mentoring others. And number eight

(04:28):
is antigrity integrity versus despair. Life review and acceptance of
what happened in your life. So there are a lot
of concerns reflecting unresolved earlier stages. And perfectionistic adult for instance,
could carry shame from failed autonomy early on in one
to three age, a struggling team if you wrestling that
with depression, but with who they are. This also you

(04:49):
can start thinking about identity diffusion and borderline personality disorder.
This is going to be interesting as well as personality
disorders in general, so it could be issues happening and
ages six twelve to eighteen. There's a lot of different
variables here. We head over to Coldberg stages of moral development.
He examined how people justify right and wrong, focus on reasoning,

(05:12):
not behavior. He used more dilemmas like the famous Heinz dilemma.
Or the individual doesn't have enough money for medication for
his wife and it might cost or her life. He
asked the pharmacist. The pharmacist rejects him, says no, you
can't have it even it can't put it in a
layaway or anything of that sort. So the man comes
back and steals it. And at pre conventional level typical

(05:35):
and young children they look at it as an obedience
and punishment the way they look at morality. It's what's
wrong if I get punished, So unless they get punished,
they don't think it's wrong. Self interest, what's in it
for me is another stage. Then you go into conventional level.
There's two stages there, or two levels adolescents. In most
adults here number three is interpersonal accord be nice, so

(05:55):
others approved. So one in two is the pre conventional
obedience and punishment. Self interest is inconventional and this will
be nice, so others approve. And the other one is
authority in order or bay rules to maintain order. And
lastly is the post conventional level. This is the minority
of adults that have a social contract. Rules exist for
fairness but can be changed. And then number six is

(06:17):
universal ethical principles. Right, it's based on internal moral reasoning,
which of course leads to the argument of relativity. Krahlberg's
framework has also not immune to criticism as a criticism
towards bias towards Western ideals, individualistic notions and morality and color,
collectivistic cultures, values such as group harmony and duty and

(06:41):
relationship obligations, especially in the family might be considered markers
of moral maturity. Think about it this way. When you're
exploring somebody's ethical decision making, especially how they view themselves
internally or other people of what they're doing done wrong,
this is going to be thinking important if the was
of adolescence things of that nature. Vygotsky's social cultural theory,

(07:02):
he emphasized culture, language, and social interaction as the engines
of development. Zone of proximal development is the key concept
in his theory, the gap between when a learner can
do alone and what they can do with help. Scaff
folding supportive structure broughted by a more skilled other, a teacher,
so forth. Private speech. Children talk to themselves to guide behavior,
internalizes later into thought and practice. Therapy can be used

(07:25):
as a form of scaffolding, providing support within the client's
zone of proximal development. Clients may not immediately leak to insight,
but with appropriate supporting language to that to the development level,
meaning growth happens. The neo PHA theories advanced by researchers
such as Case and Fisher give a little twist a
pha PHA stages by incorporating elements of information processing, working

(07:49):
memory capacity, and domain specific knowledge, we're anywhere on the
computer type of a perception here. It also assists, though,
in explaining why children may show advanced reasoning and areas
of expertise even if their overall abstract reasoning is not developed.
Development isn't just stage based occurring to the neophas. It
also depends on cognitive load, task complexity, and emotional regulation.

(08:12):
It emphasizes that children may show advanced reasoning and areas
of expertise, even if not across all domains. There are
cultural individual variations as well. Stage theories often imply universal sequences. However,
research shows development and shape by culture, experience, and education.
Western models privileged autonomy, logic and verbal expression. Non Western

(08:34):
and may emphasize interdependent social maturity or social development. Children
expose of trauma, neglect to chronic stress may show delays, regressions,
or adaptive changes. Clinical applications, developmental assessment tools tools normed
and diverse populations considered developmental stage, not just chronological stage
age AJUST interpretation for clinic. For clients with atypical trajectories

(08:59):
like neurodivergence, trauma exposed intervention planning, you can use PHA
to Taylor learning based strategies, while Eric sent to explore identity,
trust or generativity, Coldberg to assess moral reasoning, and by
Gootsky to pay skilled building within reach and not beyond it.
So development theories again are tools. They're not templates that

(09:19):
help us understand that just how people grow, but how
to meet them where they are. If you want to
start a little bit more of an understanding of a
typical development, PHA delays may suggest learning disabilities, Ericsonian stagnation
may appear in midlife too, Depression, Coldberg based moral rigidity
may emerge in OCD or autism, and Bygotsky, gaps in

(09:40):
private speech may suggest language or executive function concerns. Next time,
we'll be talking about attachment theory across the lifespan, so'll
be covering Bowlby and Ainsworth. I'm sure you're familiar with them,
so we're getting into that direction next time