Developmental Stage You Covered a Number Theories Essay

Developmental Stage

You covered a number theories child development term, theories understand developmental process birth adolescence. Piaget, Erikson, Vygotsky, Kohlberg, attachment theory, nature vs. nurture, influence SES, cultural implications major theories concepts.

Developmental stage: Adolescence -- ages 13 to 18

Adolescence is often characterized as a 'liminal' period in Western society: a stage that is neither childhood nor adulthood. During this period of time, most adolescents experience puberty or sexual maturation. They also begin to establish social identities outside of their family roles. Their peer relationships may become temporarily more important than their family relationships. Many adolescents self-identify as part of particular 'tribes' or 'cliques.' They may also question common familial and cultural norms in an attempt to eke out an identity for themselves.

Although they may achieve sexual maturity, in our cultural context adolescents are not considered to be fully mature. While some adolescents do marry and have children within this age frame, it is no longer considered common. Additionally, the adolescent brain is not fully mature in terms of its risk-taking assessment and judgment capabilities: although adolescents may have adult sexual desires their bodies and brains are not fully analogous to that of adults.

According to Kohlberg's theory of moral development at this stage, "most youth have reached the mid-level of moral reasoning called the Conventional Level. At this level, morality is determined by social norms; i.e., morality is determined by the rules and social conventions that are explicitly or implicitly agreed upon by a group of people" (Oswalt 2013). In other words, adolescents can tell right from wrong based upon societal dictates: unlike a small child who may impulsively take candy from a store or push a friend to get his turn in line, adolescents know that such actions are wrong. Even if they violate such moral norms, they do so in a manner to 'hide' from adults and from others their transgressions because they have an internal sense of morality.

The Conventional Level stage of morality is subdivided into the stages: the first is "the morality of interpersonal cooperation….moral decisions are made by anticipating how a moral decision would be judged by other influential group members" (Oswalt 2013). In other words, peer and family moral decisions are paramount. During the next sub-stage of conventional moral maturity is "the social-order-maintaining orientation. At this stage, morality is determined by what is best for the majority of people," reflecting…