Slide 1

Havighurst

Erikson

Hoffman Kagan

Hay

Selman / Damon

Infants

Age 0-1

Preschool

Early Child-

hood 4-5

Early

Elementary

Middle

Childhood

Late

Elementary

Late

Childhood

Middle School

Early

Adolescence

High School

Late

Adolescence

Toddlers

Age 2-3

Emotions

of shame

and guilt

Natural

non- selective

prosocial

tendency

Prosocial

behavior becomes more

selective

and

declines

Global Empathy

discomfort at

another's distress

Self-Regulatory

Empathy

feelings of concern that

limit aggression

Beginning of moral responsibility; the Dawn of Conscience

Authoritarian

Conscience:

voice of parent taken

in as a moral guide via

love & discipline

Rational

Conscience:

through cooperation

with peers and an

understanding of rules

Complete Set

of Moral

Principles

Can’t distinguish their

perspective from that of others; know self in

terms of unrelated surface characteristics

Know people have different viewpoints but can take only one at a time and favor their own; understand self in terms of comparisons

Better understanding of different viewpoints and know they can have more than one plus mixed feelings; self the same

Step outside situation and see as complex; have third-party view of self, others, and relationships; know self in terms of effects on others

Understand self in terms of personal philosophy & plan for the future

information

no information

Moral feeling of guilt presumably extant with uncontrolled aggression

Perspective Taking the cognitive component

of empathy combines

with affective compo-

nent that is present

at birth; guilt and

self-scorn related to

irresponsibility and over-indulgence are presumably experienced

Moral emotion of

Anxiety related to

inconsistency

between beliefs and

actions presumably

emerges sometime

after late childhood

or during adolescence

no information

Need to become Trusting, open, and Hopeful or will be fearful throughout life

Need to become

Independent, and Willful or be self-doubting

Need to take Initiative and Imagine or may be cruel and critical throughout life

Move from a need

for initiative to need for Industry, Skill,

and competence

Need to be Competent or do things well or they will feel inferior and be unable to work well with others

Need to form an

Identity or consolidate

roles, identifications, and characteristics or will be insecure, compulsive, or

even deviant; tend to be

clannish and preoccupied

with how they are

perceived by peers.

no information

Affective Development

Here I’ve included more detail about the same theorists and have added some of what Selman and Damon contributed. We have moved out of a phase during which theories of cognitive development were dominant, and into a phase during which theories of cognitive moral development and theories of affective moral development are being given more or less equal attention, and during which the whole moral person is being reconstructed, to borrow a phrase from Marvin Berkowitz. Havighurst increased our understanding of the early emergence of conscience. Erikson helped us see that social and moral development are intimately tied-to and limited-by the achievement of affective developmental milestones. Kagan and Hoffman carried us beyond what Havighurst knew about the emergence of conscience, and explained that natural affective-empathy serves as a foundation from which moral emotions lead to the internalization of moral standards and carry the child into a mature form of empathy that includes perspective taking, the intellectual counterpart to affective empathy or feeling another’s distress. Hay, Kagan, and Hoffman helped us understand that early forms of moral functioning emerge much earlier than previously thought. Hay in particular explained the movement from nonselective prosocial behavior to much more selective prosocial behavior beginning at age six or seven. The instructional implications here are (a) to protect the child from possible harm from being too nonselectivly prosocial, and (b) to begin teaching at about age seven a sense of social responsibility to care about and help people in need that we don’t know personally. Finally, Selman and Damon have added much to our understanding of children’s perceptions of self and the emergence of the ability to take the perspective of others. The many pieces of the puzzle we now have make it difficult to put them together, but it is important that we do so since a failure to do so means windows of opportunity will be missed. I have made a first attempt at this puzzle construction in my core curriculum.