CHOICE AND CHANGE The Psychology of Personal Growth and Interpersonal Relationships, 7 th ed. by April O’Connell, Vincent O’Connell, and Lois-Ann Kuntz

CHOICE AND CHANGEThe Psychology of Personal

Growthand

Interpersonal Relationships, 7th ed.

by

April O’Connell, Vincent O’Connell, and Lois-Ann Kuntz

Chapter 5 FOSTERING CARING, CONSCIENTIOUS AND CREATIVE CHILDREN

ISBN: 0-13-189170-7

Copyright © by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved

PowerPoint Slide Set, Version 1.0by April O’Connell and Lois-Ann Kuntz

for

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to comprehend:

1. How the “Flynn effect” is upending the assumptions of “IQ” scores

2. Jean Piaget’s four-stage theory of cognitive development

3. Piaget’s two-stage theory of moral/ethical development

4. The major elements of the Kohlberg-Gilligan controversy

5. The reasons for school retention and its consequences

6. Causes and complications of child abuse

7. Newer definitions of intelligence

Chapter 5 FOSTERING CREATIVE, CONSCIENTIOUS AND CARING CHILDREN


By the end of this chapter, you should be able to comprehend:

• The Flynn Effect has upended all our assumptions abut intelligence:• Intelligence tests were predicated on white, middle class populations in

and around our great urban centers • These tests were biased against other populations, such as ghetto

youth, Appalachian whites, Southern rural Blacks, and Native Americans, etc.

• To acknowledge this bias, psychologists began using quotations marks around the term “IQ”– Nevertheless, “IQ” tests continued to be used

• James Flynn has been collecting “IQ” scores for the last 50 years from around the world and has discovered:

--- “IQ” scores have been rising every generation--- On culture-reduced tests, the rise averages 18 pts

• This rise has been attributed to many factors: --- Better nutrition and health --- Enlightened teaching methods

--- Education by TV and Internet --- Better parent-child communication

THE FLYNN EFFECT: The Most Intelligent Generation Ever


PIAGET: STAGE 1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF COGNITION


Mediation. Newborn babies have no self-awareness, concepts or perceptions.

Organization of mind. What they have is simply a complex of unconnected sensations and feelings: light, sound, wet, cold, colors, and pain. During the two years, they will acquire the following:

The constancies. Color, shape, and size are beginning tohave meaning. The bottle shape is being recognized no matter what side or angle is presented. The White bottle-object also means Mmmm good!

Object permanence. Babies are beginning to comprehend that objects exist Even if they aren’t seen. They look for hidden objects if only for a few seconds.

Stranger anxiety. The fact that object permanence is taking shape means that unfamiliar faces are anxiety-provoking.

Past memory. The fact that babies look for things that have just been hidden means that memory for previous events is developing.

Future Memory. Daddy-putting-on-his-hat means that he will be leaving. Boo hoo! I don’t want Daddy to leave! Now as children develop both past and future memory, they are no longer existing in the here-and-now world. They are beginning to live in the world of human beings.

Symbol acquisition. As objects and sounds begin to have meaning, they are acquiring the symbolic function, which will lead to language comprehension, speech, reading, and writing – all those abilities that have been called the “miracle of language.”

At about two years of age, the child can mediate one idea but one idea only. By three years, the child has acquired a large vocabulary. By four years of age, the child can carry on a lengthy conversation with adults.

Child’s Phenomenology. The child’s perception of things is far different from adults. Even though the four-year old uses the same words as we do, the child lives in a far different phenomenological world from that of adults.

Organization of Mind. The attributes of the child’s mind include:

• Concrete thinking: Does not comprehend figures of speech, mediation, or metaphors.

• Functional thinking: Making sense of things according to their world view

• Animistic thinking: Believes inanimate objects are endowed with life

• Centration: Cannot decentrate from properties of length and width

• Egocentric thinking: Can not view the perspective of other people

• Animistic thinking: Similar to ancient peoples, the child lives in a magical world where ghosts and goblins and witches rule the universe and where “things go bump in the night.”

PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT2. The Stage of Concrete Operations (2 years – 8 years approx.)


Mediation: The child is able to keep two images in mind which allows for :• Decentration from present image • Comparing present and present images• Understand simple arithmetic facts • Gain a larger worldview• Understand puns and metaphors• The world is less magical and more logical• Realistic fiction is more interesting than fairytales.

Because of Piaget’s work, educators urge us: • Not to push math skills before the child has reached this stage• To wait until the child reaches the readiness stage• To apply the same readiness procedure that is done in reading• Not to be afraid to wait for a few months, even a year, the child will easily catch up in areas that require higher logical skills• Introduce scientific skills in ways that are easily, observed (weather) or valued by children,

chart a trip to a place they would like to go, such as Disneyworld• To wait for the child to reach the right stage; catching up will be swift

PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT3. The Stage of Concrete Operations: (7/8 - 11/12 years approx.)

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What is being acquired at this stage is what we call “adult thinking.” Gradually, throughout the teens and into adulthood, the person is acquiring many skills which will allow him to accomplish many things:• Systematic analysis• Abstract logic• Inductive and deductive reasoning• Hypothetical construction -- “What if . . . ?”

However, we must also note that a few individuals may never acquire some of these skills for one reason or another, such as:• Mental disorders (genetic or acquired)• Abusive or dysfunctional family life • Lack of a good role model • Poverty level existence• Lack of education

PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT4. Stage of Formal Operations


Piaget posited a two-stage theory of children’s moral/ethical development.

• Basic premise: Cognitive development and moral/ethical development go “hand-in-hand”

• Children have no real morality in this stage

• If they do not get in trouble, it’s because they have learned obedience

• They have no understanding how rules come about.

--- Rules just exist and they have to be obeyed or they will get in trouble

• They are centrated on effect--- They do not consider causation or

extenuating circumstances--- They mete out cruel justice to all --- They are not yet capable of mercy

PIAGET’S THEORY OF MORAL/ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT1. The Stage of Moral Realism or (Moral Restraint)


Principal

Around ten years old, children enter the second stage of moral development:• They begin to realize that people make rules for the good of all• They begin to make rules for the games they play

--- In fact, rule-making is often more important than the game--- They are no longer centrated on effect--- They are learning to consider causation,

extenuating circumstances, and mercy• They argue over what is “fair” and “not fair” • “Fair” and “Not Fair” will eventually lead to the adult concern for human rights, gender equality, civil rights, and equal opportunity for all citizens and groups

PIAGET’S THEORY OF MORAL/ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT2. The Stage of Moral Relativity or (Cooperation)


Kohlberg not only validated Piaget’s two-stage theory of moral/ethical Development, he extended it to three levels, and six stages: • Level One: Preconventional Level: No real morality to 10 years)

Stage 1: Obedience/Disobedience (Avoiding punishment) Stage 2: Hedonistic Self-Interest (Look out for Number One)

• Level Two: Conventional Level: Law and Order (Most adults) Stage 3: Good girl/Good boy (Wanting others to like them

Stage 4: Respect for Law and Order (Conformity to laws)• Level Three: Postconventional Level: Personal conscience

Stage 5: Contractual/Legalistic: (Respect laws or change them) Stage 6: Individual Conscience (Resist bad laws nonviolently) (only 10 percent of Americans reach stage 6, very few women)

Critics said Stage 6 encouraged anarchy Others have justified it with examples:

Chief Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes Theologian Paul Tillich Political activist: Mahatma Gandhi Political activist Martin Luther King, Jr.

Political activist Nelson Mandela

LAWRENCE KOHLBERG: Validating Piaget A Three-Level, Six Stage Theory of Moral/Ethical Development

Nelson Mandela Mahatma Gandhi


CAROL GILLIGAN: Women Have a Different Morality A Three-Stage Model of Moral/Ethical Development

Carol Gilligan proposed a gender difference between men and women: She objected to Kohlberg’s conclusion that few women ever reach Stage 6.

She also objected to his male population which came from white middle class suburbia. Gilligan proposed that women have a different kind of morality from men:

Men have a justice orientation consistent of principles which is appropriate for legal contracts, courts of law, official documents Women have a care and responsibility orientation; they will help people first and only later be concerned about principles or legality Men stick to the letter of the law; Women prefer the “spirit” of the law. She proposed a three-stage model of women’s moral/ethical development• Stage 1: Preconventional Morality or Selfish Stage Little girls (like little boys) are selfish up to adolescence• Stage 2: Conventional Moral Level: Put Others First Even as little girls they have been taught to take care of others

Eventually she takes care of others even to self-sacrifice• Stage 3: Post-Conventional Stage: Take Care of Self She learns she doesn’t always have to sacrifice herself

Her needs are also very important and she sees to them


The Dilemma: If this generation of students is the most intelligentgeneration ever, why are so many students:

• Failing in the primary grades? • Becoming drug-addicted? • Becoming delinquent in school and out? • Dropping out of high school?

Some Answers: • Boys lag behind girls in fine motor coordination -- Learning to write is difficult for boys -- Quiet seat work is also hard for boys• Children are not at necessary Piagetian stage• Environmental deprivation -- Poverty level subsistence, poor nutrition, and parents poorly educated -- Parental neglect, physical and sexual abuse -- English as a second language and frequent change of schools -- Single parenting and shuttling between divorced parents -- Slums with street gang values, who disrespect school• Failing children in the primary grades -- A meta-analysis of 20 studies of retention: 16 revealed negative results

INTELLIGENCE REDEFINED


Back to the Flynn effect: If “IQ” tests are not longer valid measures of intelligence, what can we use as measures of intelligence?

• Multiple Intelligences (MI) by Howard Gardner (mid-1980s)

-- Linguistic (reading, writing, speaking) -- Musical (singing, instrumental, composing)

-- Spatial (construction, building design)-- Bodily-kinesthetic (dancing, athletics)-- Interpersonal (getting along with others)-- Intrapersonal (self-understanding)-- Natural (discerning patterns in nature)-- Spiritual (concern for cosmic understanding)

-- Existential (concern for meaning of life)-- Emotional (empathy, friendliness, adaptability)

• Emotional Intelligence (EI) got most attention from thepsychological and educational professions.

INTELLIGENCE REDEFINEDINTELLIGENCE REDEFINED: Multiple Intelligences?


Robert Sternberg, President of the American Psychological Association for 2003, favors another definition of intelligence which he calls the “New Three R’s”

• The original “Three R’s” stand for “reading, writing, and “rithmetic”• The “New Three R’s” stand for “reasoning, resilience, and

responsibility”-- Reasoning is essentially what “IQ” tests measure

-- Resilience is the ability to rebound after crises-- Responsibility is making achievements worthwhile for others

• Sternberg research findings were as follows: -- College students who ranked high only on

reasoning did not do as well academically as students who ranked high in resilience

and responsibility as well• Implication: To Piaget’s statement: that cognitive development and moral/ethical development go “hand-in-hand,” must

now include resilience which can also be defined as good mental health

INTELLIGENCE REDEFINED: The “New Three R’s”

Resilience

Reasoning

otecting our environment

Responsibility


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CHOICE AND CHANGE The Psychology of Personal Growth and Interpersonal Relationships, 7 th ed. by April O’Connell, Vincent O’Connell, and Lois-Ann Kuntz