Developmental Theories: A Comparison of Bronfenbrenner, Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson, and Kohlberg

Bronfenbrenner: Social/Bio Ecological NO STAGES

The Russian Nesting Doll

Used in the classroom and everyday life

Ignores the roles of cognition and is hard to back up with research

Microsystem:

The people and objects in an individual's immediate environment

Mesosystem:

Connections between microsystems

Exosystem:

Social settings that a person may not experience firsthand but that still influence development

Macrosystem:

Consists of cultural values, laws, customs, and resources

Connected to Piaget

Piaget: Cognitive STAGES

Jaffa Cakes, water beaker, coins

Underestimating children abilities, impact of culture

Sensorimotor:

Birth to 2 years, during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

Preoperational:

2 to 7 years, during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic

Concrete operational:

7 to 11 years, during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

Formal operational:

11+ years, during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Used in the classroom and everyday life

Connected to Bronfenbrenner

Vygotsky: Cognitive NO STAGES

Jessica and her shoe laces

ZOPD: phase of learning during which children can benefit from instruction

Scaffold: support given to a competent person allows the child to grow in independence as a learner

Does not explain which cognitive processes allow students to engage in or how young children appear to figure out so much more

Used in classroom and everyday life

Connected to Piaget and Bronfenbrenner

Erikson: Socio-Emotional STAGES

Stage 1: Trust vs Mistrust (birth to 1 year) influence: parents crucial event: feeding

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame (1-3 years) influence: parents crucial event: toilet training

Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6 years) influence: parents/friends crucial event: independence

Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority (6-12 years) influence: school/teachers crucial event: school

Stage 5: Identity Vs. Identity Confusion (12-18 years) influence: peers crucial event: peer relationships

Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation (18-35 years) influence: spouse crucial event: love relationships

Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation (35-65 years) influence: society/family crucial event: parenting/mentoring

Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair (65+) influence: society/family crucial event: mentoring

If it is still valid, and did not address the role of culture adequately

Kohlberg: Moral

Speeding and the moles and porcupine

Level 1: Preconventional Ethics (4-10 years)

The earliest and least mature of morality

Stage 1: Punishment-Obedience

Moral decisions are based on the chances of getting caught and being punished, drinking soda

Stage 2: Focus on the consequences of an action for themselves

Lunch exchange and getting more

Level 2: Conventional Ethics (10-20 years)

Acceptance of society’s rules regarding what is right and wrong, values loyalty and obeying the law

Stage 3: Interpersonal Harmony

Living to the expectations of others, moles and porcupine work together and help each other

Stage 4: Law and Order

Look to society for guidelines involving right and wrong, you don't speed because 65 mph is the law

Level 3: Post Conventional Ethics (20+years)

Develop their own set of abstract principles to define what actions are right and wrong

Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation

They realize rules are flexible and can be changed if they no longer meet society’s needs

Stage 6: Universal Principles

They answer to an inner conscience and may break rules that violate their own ethical principles, MLK, Rosa Parks

The stages are not so clear cut, he focuses on moral behavior

Used in classroom and everyday