PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

PREPAREDAND PRESENTED
BY
ASARE, RICHARD OPOKU
COLLEGE OF NURSING, NTOTROSO
AHAFO REGION, GHANA
asareor@gmail.com ©2022
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PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION
•The term personality is frequently used to
refer to certain qualities possessed by some
people which influence or impress others.
•This notion of personality is incomplete and
superficial.
•In psychology, the term personality has a
wider meaning.
asareor@yahoo.com ©2022 2

•It refers to the sum total of a person’s
psychological and physical
characteristics which make him a
unique person.
•The term embraces the individual’s
behavioural tendencies, his intellectual
qualities and his emotional disposition.

•Thus, personality is the reflection of
the physical, emotional, cognitive,
and sociocultural characteristics
that uniquely combine to contribute
to each person’s individuality.
asareor@gmail.com ©2022 4

•Personality is the total quality of
an individual behaviour as it is
shown in the habits, thinking,
attitudes, interests, the manner
of acting and the personal
philosophy of life.

•It is the totality of one’s being.
•It includes physical, mental,
emotional and temperamental
makeup and how it shows itself
in behaviour.

•The development of personality is a
dynamic process, involving an
interplay of innate biological forces,
interpersonal experiences, and
cultural expectations beginning at
conception and continuing into
maturity.

•If one understands and accepts the
dynamic nature of personality
development, he or she will
communicate the expectation that
people can change and grow in a
positive direction.

SOME DEFINITIONS OF PERSONALITY
a)“Personality consists of the distinctive
patterns of behaviour including
thoughts and emotions that characterize
each individual’s adaptation to the
situations of his or her life”.
(Walter Mischel—1976)

b.“Personality is the sum of activities
that can be discovered by actual
observations over a long enough
period of time to give reliable
information”.
(Watson)

c. Personality refers to deeply ingrained
patterns of behaviour, which include
the way one relates to, perceives and
thinks about the environment and one
self.
(American Psychiatric Association—
1987)

PERSONALITY THEORIES

Theory of Humours (Body Fluids)
•This is one of the earliest theories of personality and it
has the idea that personality depended on the balance
of fluids in the body.
•There were four basic body fluids:
a) Sanguine (Blood),
b) Phlegmatic (Phlegm),
c) Melancholic (Black bile), and
d) Choleric (Yellow bile).

The Sanguine (Blood) Personality
Characteristics
• Cheerful
• Energetic
• Personable
• Talkative
• Out-going
• Enthusiasm
• Friendly
• Compassionate
• Care-free
• Optimistic
• Happy
• Hopeful
• Accommodating
• Light-hearted

However, they may have the following
weaknesses:
•Weak-willed
•Unstable
•Undisciplined
•Egocentric
•Loud
•Exaggerates
•Fearful
•Restless; and
•Undependable

The Phlegmatic (Phlegm) Personality
Characteristics
• Calm
• Placid (not easily irritated)
• Easy-going
• Dependent
• Efficient
• Conservative
• Practical
• Leader
• Diplomat
• Humorous
• Slow
• Indifferent
• Cold

weaknesses:
• Stingy
• Fearful
• Indecisive
• Spectator
• Self-protective
• Selfish
• Unmotivated

The Melancholic (Black bile) Personality
Characteristics
• Gloomy
• Moody
• Sad
• Self-centered
• Negative
• Pessimistic
• Theoretical
• Impractical
• Unsociable
• Critical
• Revengeful
• Rigid
• Depressed
• Dejected
• Deplorable
• Self-involved

strengths:
•Gifted
•Analytical
•Sensitive
•Perfectionist
•Aesthetic
•Idealistic
•Loyal
• Self-sacrificing

The Choleric (Yellow bile) Personality
Characteristics
• Hot-tempered
• Cruel
• Sarcastic
• Domineering
• Inconsiderate
• Proud
• Intolerant – ‘choleric’
• Self-sufficient
• Unemotional
• Hasty
• Crafty
• Irritable
• Passionate
• Strong
• Active
• Imaginative

Somatotypes (Bodily Shapes)
•These theories of personality were
based on bodily shape or physical
structure.
•Key figures of these theories were
Kretschmer (1925) and Sheldon (1954).

•According to Kretschmer, specific mental
illnesses tended to be associated with
specific body shapes. He classified the
body shapes as:
a) Asthenic (Leptosomatic) type;
b) Pyknic type; and
c) Athletic type

•Sheldon (1954), on the other hand,
grouped the somatotype into three as:
1) Ectomorphs:
—Weak somatic structure as well as
undeveloped viscera—thin, long, fragile
(like leptosomatic type)
—Pessimistic, unsociable, reserved,
brainy, artistic and introvert

2)Mesomorphs:
―Balanced development of viscera and
strong somatic structure—muscular (like
athletic type)
―Craving for muscular activity, self-
assertive, loves risk and adventure,
energetic, assertive and bold tempered

3)Endomorphs:
—Person having highly developed
viscera, but weak somatic structure—
fat, soft, round (like pyknic type).
—Easy-going, sociable, affectionate and
fond of eating.

Table 3.1: Kretschmer’s Classification of Personality
Body Type Characteristics Social Relations Mental Illness
ASTHENIC
(lean and thin)
Long limbs; Slender-
long neck; Narrow
chest; Adam’s apple;
Frail; Thin
Shy; Introvert;
Reclusive; Self-
centered; Introspect
Schizophrenia
PYKNIC
(having fat bodies)
Short limbs; Round
head; Short, fat neck;
Large trunk; Plumpy;
Rounded
Outgoing; Frank;
Cheerful; Sociable;
Jolly; Easy going; Good
natures; Extravert;
Mood changes
Manic-depressive
psychosis
ATHLETIC
(balanced body)
Broad shoulders;
Narrow hips; Strong
bones; Muscular
Shy; Reclusive; Self-
centered; Energetic;
Optimistic; Adjustable
Rare

Table 3.2: Sheldon’s Classification of Personality
Body Type Characteristics Social Relations
ECTOMORPH
Frail
Thin
Introspective
Restrained character
MESOMORPH
Robust
Muscular
Hearty
Insensitive
ENDOMORPH
Plump
Rounded
Jolly
Easy-going

Figure 3.1 Sheldon’s Three Basic Somatotypes

Eysenck’s Theory of Personality
•Eysenck proposed a theory of
personality based on biological
factors, arguing that individuals
inherit a type of nervous system that
affects their ability to learn and adapt
to the environment.

•Eysenck declared that behaviour
could be represented by two
dimensions:
a) Introversion / Extroversion (E);
b) Neuroticism / Stability (N).
•Eysenck called these second-order
personality traits.

Eysenck’s Theory of Personality – Cont’d
•The typical introvert is a quiet, retiring
sort of person, introspective, fond of
books rather than people; he is reserved
and distant except to intimate friends.
•He tends to plan ahead, ‘looks before he
leaps’ and distrusts the impulse of the
moment.

•He does not like excitement, takes
matters of everyday life with proper
seriousness, and likes a well-
ordered mode of life.
•He keeps his feelings under close
control, seldom behaves in an
aggressive manner, and does not
lose his temper easily.

•He is reliable, somewhat pessimistic
and places great importance on
ethical standards.
•The typical extrovert is sociable, likes
parties, has many friends, needs to
have people to talk to, and does not
like reading or studying by himself.

•He craves excitement, takes
chances, often sticks his
neck out, acts on the spur of
the moment and is generally
an impulsive individual.

•He likes practical jokes, always has a ready
answer, and generally likes change; he is
carefree, easy-going, optimistic and likes
to ‘laugh and be merry’.
•He prefers to keep moving and doing
things, tends to be aggressive and lose his
temper quickly; altogether his feelings are
not kept under tight control and he’s not
always a reliable person.

•Neuroticism/Stability:
•A person’s level of neuroticism is
determined by the reactivity of their
sympathetic nervous system.
•A stable person’s nervous system will
generally be less reactive to stressful
situations, remaining calm and level
headed.

•Someone high in neuroticism on the other
hand will be much more unstable, and
prone to overreacting to stimuli and may be
quick to worry, anger or fear.
•They are overly emotional and find it
difficult to calm down once upset. Neurotic
individuals have an Autonomic Nervous
System that responds quickly to stress.

•Psychoticism/Normality:
•Eysenck (1966) later added a third
trait/dimension - Psychoticism – e.g.,
lacking in empathy, cruel, a loner,
aggressive and troublesome.
•This has been related to high levels of
testosterone.

•The higher the testosterone, the higher
the level of psychoticism, with low levels
related to more normal balanced
behavior.
•He was especially interested in the
characteristics of people whom he
considered to have achieved their
potential as individuals.

•According to Eysenck, the two dimensions of
neuroticism (stable vs. unstable) and
introversion-extroversion combine to form a
variety of personality characteristics.

Figure 3.2a Eysenck’s Model of Personality Traits

Figure 3.2b Eysenck’s Model of Personality Traits

Narrow-Band Theories of Personality
•The narrow-band theories of personality
are theories which do not attempt to
provide overall accounts of human
functioning, but rather are concerned with
just one or two distinctive features about
people, and how they differ from one
another. asareor@yahoo.com ©2022 43

•They leave other aspects of
personality open, and concentrate
on just one particular area of
individual difference.

Table 3.3: Characteristics of Type A and Type B Personalities
Type A Personality Type B Personality
Type A persons are hard-driving and competitive Type B persons are quite the
opposite. They are easy going, non-
competitive, placid and unflappable
They live under constant pressure, largely of their
own making. They seek recognition and
advancement and take on multiple activities with
deadlines to meet. Much of the time they may
function well as alert, competent, efficient people
who get things done. When put under stressful
conditions they cannot control, however, they are
likely to become hostile, impatient, anxious and
disorganized
They bear stress easily. They are
likely to live longer than Type A
persons
Given a task/work to do, Type As’ tend to perform
any task near their maximum capacity no matter
what the situation calls for. They work hard at
arithmetic problems whether or not a deadline is
imposed
Type Bs’ work harder when given a
deadline

Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
•Sigmund Freud developed a
topographical model of the
mind, whereby he described the
features of the mind’s structure
and function.

•Freud used the analogy of an
iceberg to describe the levels of
the mind. He divided the
structure of the mind into three:

•Conscious:
•Consists of whatever one is
aware of at a particular point in
time.
•It is that part of the mind that is
in contact with the outside world.

•The consciousness level consists
of those thoughts that are the
focus of our attention now, and
this is seen as the tip of the
iceberg.

•Preconscious/subconscious:
•Contains material just beneath the
surface of awareness that can easily
be retrieved, e.g., your middle name,
what you had for supper last night, or
an argument with your friend
yesterday, etc.

•Thus, the preconscious consists
of all which can be retrieved
from memory.

•Unconscious:
•Contains thoughts, memories, and desires
that are well below the surface of
conscious awareness but that nonetheless
exert great influence on behaviour, e.g.,
forgotten trauma or experiences of
childhood, hidden feelings of hostility
toward a parent, and repressed sexual
desires. asareor@yahoo.com ©2022 52

•Thus, the unconscious mind acts as a
repository, a ‘big pot’ of primitive
wishes and impulse kept at bay and
mediated by the preconscious area.
•Like an iceberg, the most important
part of the mind is the part you
cannot see.

•Freud saw personality as having three
basic components of the structure of the
mind:
a)The Id,
b)The Ego, and
c)The Superego
•(the three components normally referred to as the
psychic apparatus/tripartite personality).

The Id (Pleasure Principle)
•This structure, the only one present at
birth, contains all of our basic instincts,
such as our need for food, drink, dry
clothes, and nurturance.
•It seeks instant gratification for all of its
demands.

•It is illogical, unrealistic, selfish and
demanding.
•It therefore strives only to secure
pleasure; hence pleasure principle
– the idea that every impulse
should be satisfied immediately.

•Freud assumed the id operated at an
unconscious level according to the
pleasure principle (gratification from
satisfying basic instincts).
•The id comprises two kinds of biological
instincts (or drives) which Freud called
Eros and Thanatos (McLeod, 2018).

•Eros, or life instinct, helps the
individual to survive; it directs
life-sustaining activities such as
respiration, eating, and sex.
The energy created by the life
instincts is known as libido.

•Thanatos, or death instinct, is
viewed as a set of destructive forces
present in all human beings.
When this energy is directed
outward onto others, it is expressed
as aggression and violence.

The Ego (Reality Principle)
•This is the central part of our
personality, the (usually) rational
part that does all the planning and
keeps us in touch with reality.
•It develops from birth.

•For instance, as the young child grows
older, the imperious demanding of the
young child gives way to a realization that
some things are simply not possible, or not
going to happen, and that it is necessary to
make some adjustments in order to
achieve any of its desires.

•At this point an offshoot of the id
develops which is in touch with the
realistic demands of the outside
world, and tries to pacify the id by
compromising with reality.
•This part of the mind becomes the
ego.

•The ego, therefore, operates according to
the reality principle, trying to balance the
demands of the unconscious mind with
what is practical.
•The stronger the ego becomes the more
realistic, and usually the more successful,
a person is likely to be.

•Thus, as the ego develops from the id
during infancy, its goal is to satisfy the
demands of the id in a safe a socially
acceptable way.
•In contrast to the id, the ego follows the
reality principle as it operates in both the
conscious and unconscious mind (McLeod,
2018).

•Lemma (2004) sums the explanation on ego up by
indicating that:
•The ego is executive of personality. All decision
making processes of the personality are done by
the ego.
•It makes decision.
•It controls action.
•It allows thinking and problem solving approach
when the personality faces problems.

The Superego (Morality Principle)
•This is the final personality structure to develop,
represents the rights and wrongs of society as
handed down by a person’s parents, teachers, and
other important figures.
•It becomes a part of personality when children learn
right from wrong and continues to develop as people
begin to incorporate into their own standards the
broad moral principles of the society in which they
live.

•Superego, therefore, is that part of
personality that represents the morality of
society as presented by parents, teachers,
and others.
•The superego actually has two
components:

•The Conscience – prevents us from doing
morally bad things; while
•The Ego-ideal – motivates us to do what is
morally proper.
•The superego helps us to control impulses
coming from the id, making our behaviour
less selfish and more virtuous.

•For example, the superego can make a
person feel guilty if rules are not followed.
•When there is a conflict between the goals
of the id and superego, the ego must act as
a referee and mediate this conflict.
•The ego can deploy various defense
mechanisms to prevent it from becoming
overwhelmed by anxiety.

•Danso, a seven year old boy spot a pack of
golden tree chocolate in the supermarket. He
wanted to possess the chocolate. His biological
id pushed him to get the chocolate as soon as
possible. The superego tells him that stealing is
forbidden. His ego tells him that it is wise and
appropriate to ask his father to buy him the
chocolate.

Topographical Model of the Structure of the
Mind

Psychosexual Stages of Personality
Development
•Psychosexual stages are developmental
periods with a characteristic sexual focus
that leave their mark on adult personality.
•Freud used the term sexual in a general
way to refer to many urges for physical
pleasure.

•He theorized that each psychosexual stage has
its own unique developmental challenges.
•The way these challenges are handled
supposedly shapes personality.
• The notion of fixation plays an important role
in this process.
•Fixation involves a failure to move forward
from one stage to another as expected.

•Essentially, the child’s development
stalls for a while.
•Fixation can be caused by excessive
gratification of needs at a particular
stage or by excessive frustration of those
needs.
•Either way, fixations left over from
childhood affect adult personality.

Five Stages of the Psychosexual Stages of
Personality Development
Oral Stage (0, 1 to 1 ½ years)
•This stage encompasses the first year(s) of life.
•The baby’s mouth is the focal point of pleasure
and erotic stimulation.
•During this period, children suck, mouth, chew,
and bite anything that will fit into their mouths.

•If infants were either overly indulge,
perhaps by being fed every time they cried,
or frustrated in their search for oral
gratification, they might become fixated at
this stage.
•Weaning from the breast or from the bottle,
being too early or too late, is the task at this
stage which can lead to fixation.

•Fixation at this oral stage could form
the basis for obsessive eating,
drinking, smoking later in life,
talkative, argumentative, sarcastic,
very gullible (‘swallowing’ anything),
and constantly chewing on pencils,
fingernails, etc.

•For instance, if the child gets gratification
from chewing and/or biting, he is fixated
by being verbally aggressive and “bitingly”
sarcastic.
•In the same vein, if he enjoys sucking
and/or swallowing, he becomes very
trusting, believing any story in adult life.

Anal Stage (1 ½ , 2 to 3 years)
•The anus is the pleasure centre, where
children derive considerable erotic
stimulation from retention and expulsion
of faeces.
•The crucial event at this time is toilet
(potty) training, which represents society’s
first systematic effort to regulate the
child’s biological urges.

•If toilet training is particularly
demanding, the result may be
fixation.
•For instance, if the parents were too
strict during toilet training, an anal-
retentive personality developed into
adulthood.

•Here the adult is overly clean, neat and
orderly, seeks to hold on to its possessions,
becomes a miser, hoarding, or perhaps an
obsessional collector, vindictive, and/or
unforgiving.
•On the other hand, if parents were too
lenient, an anal-expulsive personality
develops into adulthood.

•The personality is careless, becoming
overly generous and giving in adult
life.
•He may defecate any how instead of
using the lavatory – an act associated
with some students as having “a free-
range.”

Phallic Stage (3, 4 to 5 years)
•The glans of the penis and the clitoris are
the pleasure centres in this stage.
•The major function of this stage is the
healthy development of sexual interest,
which is achieved through masturbation
and unconscious sexual desire for the
parent of the opposite sex.

•As children focus their attention on their
genitals, the differences between male and
female anatomy become more salient.
•At this time the male begins to develop
sexual interests in his mother, starts to see
his father as arrival, and harbours a wish to
kill his father, a myth in Greek known as
Oedipal conflict or Oedipus complex.

•Because the boy is smaller and
less powerful than the father, the
young child develop an
unconscious castration threat
anxiety – worried that his father
would deal with competiting by
these drastic means.

•Since the boy child cannot tolerate such
an anxiety state, he resolves it by
identifying with the aggressor (father) so
that his father would be less likely to be
hostile to him by stressing how similar
he is to the father and tries to become
masculine by learning the gender role
behaviours pertaining to males, and like
his father as possible.

•But the little girl develops a special
attachment to her father because she had
been born without a penis and had
developed Penis Envy, wishing to bear
children for her father, a situation known
as Electra conflict or Electra complex.
•The girl, however, blames her mother for
castrating her.

•Because the mother is bigger and
more powerful and a threat to her, the
younger girl resolves the unconscious
anxiety and aggression resulting from
this conflict by identifying with the
mother and emphasizing her feminity
by adopting her mother’s attitudes
and values.

•The girl, therefore, learns the sex-role
behaviours associated with her
gender.
•Fixation of the adult personality at
this period is marked by over-
dependence, uncontrollable sexual
desire (nymphomania), etc.

Latency Stage (5, 6 to 12years)
•During this period, sexual desires
become dormant and libido becomes
diffused throughout the body which
last until puberty.
•Boys refuse to kiss or hug their
mothers and treat female age-mates
with disdain. asareor@yahoo.com ©2022 91

•However, because society is more tolerant
of the daughters’ attraction to their
fathers, the Electra complex is less resolved
and girls’ sexual feelings may be less
repressed during this stage.
•Important event during this period is that
the child expands its social contact beyond
the immediate family.

Genital Stage (12 years and above)
•This stage starts from puberty and
travels to adulthood till death.
•At this period, a surge of sexual
hormones occurs in both genders
which bring about an unconscious
recurrence of the phallic stage.

•Sexual energy is normally channeled
toward peers of the opposite sex rather
than toward oneself as in the phallic stage.
•Intimate sexual relationships are
established at this phase until death.
•It is also a period where one seeks career
by working to contribute his or her quota
to society.

Figure 3.4 Psychosexual Stages

Figure 3.4b Fixation at the Psychosexual Stages

Figure 3.5 Fixation at the Psychosexual Stages

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of
Personality Development
Trust versus Mistrust (Infancy) (Birth to 1 ½
yrs)
•This is experienced in the first year of life.
•A sense of trust requires a feeling of
physical comfort and a minimal amount of
fear and apprehension about the future.

•If infants’ basic needs, such as food,
clothes, etc., are met by responsive,
sensitive parents or caregivers, it leads to
sound attachments.
•Infants therefore develop an optimistic,
trusting attitude toward the world by
having a life-long expectation that the
world will be good and pleasant place to
live (hence, trust).

•However, if infants’ basic
needs are taken care of
poorly, a more distrusting,
insecure personality may
result – mistrust.

Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt (Toddlerhood)
(1 ½ to 3 yrs)
•This occurs in late infancy and toddlerhood when
parents begin toilet training and other efforts to
regulate their children.
•After children have gain trust in their
parents/caregivers, they begin to discover that their
behaviour is their own by taking some personal
responsibility for feeding, dressing, and bathing.

•If all goes on well, children
acquire a sense of self-sufficiency
and start to assert their sense of
independence or autonomy.
•They realize their will.

•But if parents/caregivers are never
satisfied with children’s efforts and
restrained them too much or
punished too harshly resulting in
constant parents-children conflict,
children may develop a sense of
personal shame and self-doubt.

Initiative versus Guilt (Early childhood) (3
to 5 yrs)
•This occurs during the preschool years,
where children widen their social world
and are faced with challenges to function
socially within their families.
•Active, purposeful behaviour is needed to
cope with these challenges.

•When children are asked to assume
responsibility for their behaviour, their
bodies, their toys and their pets, they
develop a sense of responsibility and thus
increase their initiative.
•However, if children begin to think only of
their own needs and desires, family
members may begin to instill feelings of
guilt, and self-esteem may suffer.

•Besides, if children are irresponsible
and are made to feel too anxious,
uncomfortable guilt feelings may
arise.
•But if they learn to get along well with
siblings and parents, a sense of self
confidence should begin to grow.

Industry versus Inferiority (Middle and late
childhood) (6 to 12 yrs/Puberty)
•This occurs approximately in the elementary
school years.
•Children’s initiative brings them in contact with
a wealth of new experiences, where they are
faced with the challenge of learning to function
socially that is extended beyond the family to
the broader realm of the neighborhood and
school. asareor@yahoo.com ©2022 107

•In fact, as they move into middle and
late childhood, they direct their
energy toward mastering knowledge
and intellectual skills.
•This increases their competencies in
academic skills and social interactions,
hence developing a sense of industry.

•In contrast, difficulties in this stage
lead to feelings of failure, inadequacy
and unproductiveness.
•Here, the danger in the elementary
school years is the development of a
sense of inferiority.

Identity versus Identity Confusion
(Adolescence) (12 to 20 yrs)
•This is experienced during the adolescent
years.
•At this time, individual are faced with
finding out who they are, what they are
all about, and where they are going in life.

•Adolescents are therefore faced with
major decisions to make about their
identity – a term known as identity
crisis.
•They are therefore confronted with
many new roles and adult statuses,
such as vocation or career
development, and issues of romance.

•If adolescents explore such roles in a
healthy manner and arrive at a positive
path to follow in life, then a positive
identity will be achieved.
•If an identity is pushed on adolescents by
parents, if adolescents do not adequately
consider alternative possibilities, and if a
positive future path is not defined, then
identity confusion reigns.

Intimacy versus Isolation (Early adulthood) (20
to 40 yrs)
•This is experienced during the early adulthood
years.
•At this stage, individuals face the
developmental task of forming intimate
relationships with others.
•Young adults seek to make commitments to
others.

•If they are able to form healthy
friendships and an intimate close
relation with other individuals,
intimacy will be achieved.
•If unsuccessful, they may form sense
of isolation and self-absorption will
result.

Generativity versus Stagnation (Middle
adulthood) (40 to 65 yrs)
•This is a period of middle adulthood
where individuals acquire a genuine
concern for the welfare of future
generations, which results in providing
unselfish guidance to younger people.

•The chief challenge or task is to assist the
younger generation in developing and
leading useful lives.
•This is termed generativity.
•The feeling of having done nothing to help
the next generation, and experiencing a
sense of personal impoverishment, is
stagnation.

Integrity versus Despair (Late adulthood) (65 to
over)
•This is experienced during the old age.
•In later years of life, we look back and evaluate
what we have done with our lives.
•If the retrospective glances reveal a picture of
a life well spent and the elderly feels a sense of
satisfaction and accepts his own life, then
integrity will be achieved.

•If the older adult resolved many of the
earlier stages negatively, the
retrospective glances likely will yield
doubt or gloom, hence despair.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
•Cognitive development is the process by
which a child’s understanding of the world
changes as a function of age and
experience.
•According to Jean Piaget, children
throughout the world proceed through a
series of four stages in a fixed order.

•He maintained that these stages differ not only in
the quantity of information acquired at each
stage, but in the quality of knowledge and
understanding as well.
•Movement from one stage to the next is possible
when the child has reached an appropriate level
of maturation and has been exposed to the
relevant types of experiences.
•Children therefore reach their highest level of
cognitive growth based on the experiences.

Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years):
•At this period, infants acquire
understanding primarily through
sensory impressions and motor
activities.

•That is, infants construct an understanding
of the world by using their senses of seeing,
hearing, tasting, and touching, with
physical motoric actions.
•They also represent the environment using
images, language, or other kinds of
symbols.

•Consequently, infants have no awareness
of objects or people who are not
immediately present at a given moment,
lacking object permanence.
•Object permanence is the awareness
that objects (including people) continue
to exist even if they are out of sight.

•To test object permanence, one can
observe the reaction of a child when
the toy he or she is playing with is
hidden under a blanket or behind a
table.
•Until the age of about 9 months, the
child will make no attempt to locate
the toy. asareor@gmail.com ©2022 124

•However, soon after this age the child will
begin to actively search for the object when
it is hidden, indicating that he or she have
developed a mental representation or
picture of the toy.
•Object permanence, then, is a critical
development during the sensorimotor
stage.

Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years):
•At this level, children begin to represent the
world with words or language, images, and
drawings.
•They also develop internal representational
systems that allow them to describe people,
events, and feelings.
•Besides, they use symbols in play, pretending,
for example, that a book pushed across the
floor is a car.

•Although children’s thinking is more
advanced in this stage than it was in
the sensorimotor stage, it is still
qualitatively inferior to that of adults.
•They are egocentric in thought,
viewing the world entirely from their
own perspective.

•For instance, in playing hide and seek
games, a 3-year old child may frequently
hide his or her face against the wall,
covering the eyes, although he or she is still
in plain view.
•It seems to him or her that if he or she
cannot see, no one else will be able to see
him or her, because he or she assumes that
others share his or her view.

•Children at this stage also lack the principle of
conservation, which is the knowledge that
quantity is unrelated to the arrangement and
physical appearance of objects.
•Thus children who have not mastered this
concept do not know that the amount, volume,
or length of an object does not change when its
shape or configuration is changed.

•The term preoperational is used at this
level because it emphasizes that the
child does not yet perform operations,
which are internalized actions that
allow children to do mentally what
before they could do only physically.

•Operations, however, are
reversible mental actions.
•Mentally adding and subtracting
numbers are examples of
operations.

Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 12 years):
•This period is marked by mastery of the
principle of conservation.
•At this stage, children develop the ability to
think and reason in a more logical manner,
and do away with intuitive thoughts and
overcome some of the egocentric
characteristics of the preoperational period.

•However, they are able to grasp
the principle of reversibility, the
idea that some change can be
undone by reversing an earlier
action.
•For example, 3 + 2 = 2 + 3 = 5

•Although children make
important advances in their
logical capabilities during this
period, they still have one
major limitation (or deficiency)
in their thinking.

•They are largely bound to the
concrete, physical reality of the
world.
•They have difficulty understanding
abstract or hypothetical issues.

•Thus, a concrete operation is a
reversible mental action on real,
concrete objects.
•Concrete operations allow children
to coordinate several
characteristics rather than focus on
a single property of an object.

•Conservation involves recognition
that the length, number, mass,
quantity, area, weight, and volume
of objects and substances are not
changed by transformations that
merely alter their appearance.

•As children do not conserve all
quantities or on all tasks
simultaneously, the order of their
mastery is number, length, liquid
quantity, mass, weight, and
volume.

•Horizontal décalage is the concept
that similar abilities do not appear at
the same time within a stage of
development.
•That is, conservation of number
usually appears first and conservation
of volume last.

•For example, an 8-year-old child
may know that a long stick of clay
can be rolled back into a ball but
not understand that the ball and
the stick weigh the same.

•At about 9-years of age, the child
recognizes that they weigh the
same, and eventually, at about 11
to 12 years of age, the child
understands that the clay’s
volume is unchanged by
rearranging it.asareor@gmail.com ©2022 141

•By this children initially master
tasks in which the dimensions are
more salient and visible, only later
mastering those not as visually
apparent, such as volume.

Formal Operational Stage (12 to 15 years,
Adulthood):
•In this stage, individuals move beyond the
world of concrete experiences and think in
abstract, formal and more logical terms.
•As part of thinking more abstractly,
adolescents develop images of ideal
circumstances.

•They may think about what an ideal
parent is like and compare their
parents with this ideal standard.
•They begin to entertain possibilities
for the future and fascinated with
what they can be.

•In solving problems, formal operational
thinkers are more systematic,
developing hypotheses about why
something is happening the way it is,
and then testing these hypotheses in a
deductive fashion, referred to as
hypothetical-deductive reasoning.

Kolhberg’s Moral Development Theory
•Kohlberg’s theory of moral development is a
theory that focuses on how children develop
morality and moral reasoning.
•Kohlberg’s theory suggests that moral
development occurs in a series of six stages.
•The theory also suggests that moral logic is
primarily focused on seeking and maintaining
justice. asareor@gmail.com ©2022 148

•Moral development can be described as
changes in thoughts, feelings and behaviours
with respect to standards of right and wrong.
•Moral development has an intrapersonal
dimension, which regulates a person’s activities
when he or she is not engaged in social
interaction, and an interpersonal dimension,
which regulates social interactions and
arbitrates conflict (Santrock, 2005).

•To best comprehend moral development,
we need to consider three basic questions:
1) How do individuals reason or think about
moral development?
2) How do individuals actually behave in
moral circumstances?
3) How do individuals feel about moral
matters?

One example was “Heinz Steals the Drug.” In this scenario:
A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer and her doctors
believe only one drug might save her. This drug was a form of radium that
had been discovered by a local pharmacist in the same town. The drug was
expensive to make and the pharmacist was able to make it for $200 per dose
and sell it for $2,000 per dose (i.e., ten times what the drug cost him to
make). The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to
borrow the money, but he could only get $1,000, which is half of what it
cost.
He told the pharmacist that his wife was dying and tried to negotiate with
the pharmacist for a lower price or let him pay later. But the pharmacist
said, “No, I discovered the drug, and I am going to make money from it.”
So, Heinz got desperate and broke into the pharmacy and stole the drug to
save his wife.

•Kohlberg was not interested so much in the
answer to whether Heinz was wrong or right
but in the reasoning for each participant’s
decision.
•Based on the answers received from the
interviewees, he then classified their
reasoning into the stages of his theory of
moral development.

Authoritarian Personality
•Adorno et al. (1950) proposed
that prejudice is the result of
an individual’s personality
type.

•Adorno argued that deep-seated
personality traits predisposed some
individuals to be highly sensitive to
totalitarian and antidemocratic ideas
and therefore are prone to be highly
prejudicial.

•Individuals brought up by strict
or harsh parents or guardians
during childhood tend to
exhibit this trait of personality
characteristics.

•This is because these
individuals were not able to
express hostility towards their
parents (for being strict, harsh
and critical).

•As a result, the person would then
displace this aggression or
hostility onto safer targets,
namely those who are weaker, but
resent when it comes people who
are superior to them.

•Those with an authoritarian
personality tended to be:

162
Obsessed with rank and status.
Have respect for and submissive to authority figures.
Preoccupied with power and toughness, i..e, thinking
about power and being tough
Cruel, as a result of their upbringing.
More resistant to changing their prejudiced views.
Hostile to those who are of inferior in status, but
obedient to people with high status.

163
Fairly rigid in their opinions and beliefs.
Conventional, upholding traditional values.
More likely to categorize people into “us” and
“them” groups, seeing their own group as
superior.
Ethnocentric, i.e., the tendency of seeing their
ethnic group as superior to others.

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