Developmental Psychology

Achieve Test Prep: Developmental Psychology

Adolescent Morality: Lawrence Kohlberg was at the forefront of moral development research. This research used moral dilemmas to classify levels of moral reasoning among children from ages ten to sixteen. In his experiment, he posed the question “Why shouldn’t you steal from a store?” After posing the question, he scored each response and then developed three levels and six stages of moral reasoning.

Source: www.integratesociopsychology.net

Kohlberg’s theories have been challenged on several occasions. Psychologist Carol Gilligan suggested Kohlberg’s research was gender biased because Kohlberg only used male adolescents in his experiment. According to Gilligan, females give more moral weight to relationships and do not see moral issues in “black and white.” Due to this difference of moral weight, females tend to score low on Kohlberg’s test. Adolescent Psychosocial Development: According to Erik Erikson , an adolescent is in the Identity versus Role Confusion stage of development. Due to this conflict, adolescents experience identity crisis and act out of a “false self” which tends to be in opposition to their true self. Between the ages of twelve and eighteen,

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