Learning theories

European Journal of Education Studies
ISSN: 2501 – 1111

ISSN-L: 2501 – 1111

Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu

Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved 1

Published by Open Access Publishing Group ©2015.

dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.2009706 Volume 1│Issue 1│September 2015

JOHN DEWEY –

PHILOSOPHER AND EDUCATIONAL REFORMER

Kandan Talebi

Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Taiz University, Yemen

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
John Dewey

Abstract

John Dewey was an American philosopher and educator, founder of the philosophical

movement known as pragmatism, a pioneer in functional psychology, and a leader of

the progressive movement in education in the United States.

Keywords: John Dewey, educational reform, functional psychology, pragmatism

Introduction

John Dewey was born on October 20,

1859, in Burlington, Vermont. He

graduated with a bachelor’s degree from
the University of Vermont in 1879. After

two years as a high-school teacher in Oil

City, Pennsylvania and one teaching

elementary school in the small town of

Charlotte, Vermont, Dewey decided that

he was unsuited for employment in

primary or secondary education. After

studying with George Sylvester Morris,

Charles Sanders Peirce, Herbert Baxter

Adams, and G. Stanley Hall, Dewey

received his Ph.D. from the School of Arts & Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. His

unpublished and now lost dissertation was titled “The Psychology of Kant.”

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He started teaching philosophy and psychology at the University of Michigan in

1884. In time, his interests progressively moved from the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm

Friedrich Hegel to the new experimental influences on psychology of G. Stanley Hall

and the pragmatist philosopher and psychologist William James. Additional study of

child psychology encouraged Dewey to develop a philosophy of education that would

encounter the requests of a new dynamic democratic society.

In 1894, he joined the faculty of philosophy at the University of Chicago, where

he further promoted his progressive pedagogy in the university’s Laboratory Schools.
In 1904, Dewey left Chicago for Columbia University in New York City, where he spent

the majority of his career and wrote his most famous philosophical work, Experience

and Nature (1925).

His succeeding writing, which comprised articles in popular publications,

treated subjects in education, aesthetics, politics, and religion. John Dewey also wrote

about many other topics including experience, nature, art, logic, inquiry, democracy,

and ethics. He served as a major stimulus for various allied philosophical movements

that designed the thought development of 20th century, including empiricism,

humanism, naturalism and contextualism. He ranks among the highest thinkers of his

age on the subjects of pedagogy, philosophy of mind, epistemology, logic and

philosophy of science, social and political theory. Being one of the leading psychological

and philosophical figures of his time, he was elected as the president of the American

Psychological Association and president of the American Philosophical Association in

1899 and 1905 respectively. Dewey published more than 700 articles in 140 journals and

approximately 40 books in his lifetime.

The main theme underlying Dewey’s philosophy was his belief that a democratic
society of informed and engaged inquirers was the best means of promoting human

interests. As Dewey himself stated in 1888, while still at the University of Michigan:

“Democracy and the one, ultimate, ethical ideal of humanity are to my mind

synonymous.”

Known for his advocacy of democracy, Dewey believed that two fundamental elements,

schools and civil society, to be major elements deserving consideration and

reconstruction in order to encourage experimental intelligence and plurality. Dewey

affirmed that complete democracy was to be gained not just by extending voting rights,

but also by ensuring that among voters exists a fully formed public opinion

accomplished by communication between citizens, experts, and politicians, with the

latter being accountable for the policies they adopt.

Life and works

In 1894, Dewey joined the newly founded University of Chicago (1894 1904) where he

developed his belief in Rational Empiricism, becoming associated with the newly

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European Journal of Education Studies – Volume 1 │ Issue 1 │ 2015 3

emerging Pragmatic philosophy. His time at the University of Chicago resulted in four

essays collectively entitled Thought and its Subject-Matter, which was published with

collected works from his colleagues at Chicago under the collective title Studies in

Logical Theory (1903).

During that time, Dewey also initiated the University of Chicago Laboratory

Schools, where he was able to actualize the pedagogical beliefs that provided material

for his first major work on education, The School and Society (1899). Divergences with

the administration ultimately triggered his resignation from the University, and soon

thereafter, he relocated near the East Coast.

In 1899, Dewey was designated president of the American Psychological

Association. From 1904 until his retirement in 1930, he was professor of philosophy at

both Columbia University and Columbia University’s Teachers College.

In 1905, he became president of the American Philosophical Association. He was

a longtime member of the American Federation of Teachers.

Along with the historians Charles A. Beard and James Harvey Robinson, and the

economist Thorstein Veblen, Dewey is one of the founders of The New School. Dewey’s

most significant writings were “The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology” (1896), a critique of

a standard psychological concept and the basis of all his further work; Democracy and

Education (1916), his celebrated work on progressive education; Human Nature and

Conduct (1922), a study of the function of habit in human behavior; The Public and its

Problems (1927), a defense of democracy written in response to Walter Lippmann’s The

Phantom Public (1925); Experience and Nature” (1925), Dewey’s most “metaphysical”
statement; Art as Experience (1934), Dewey’s major work on aesthetics; A Common

Faith” (1934), a humanistic study of religion originally delivered as the Dwight H. Terry
Lectureship at Yale; Logic: The Theory of Inquiry” (1938), a statement of Dewey’s
unusual conception of logic; Freedom and Culture” (1939), a political work examining
the roots of fascism; and Knowing and the Known” (1949), a book written in conjunction
with Arthur F. Bentley that systematically outlines the concept of trans-action, which is

central to his other works. While each of these works emphases on one particular

philosophical theme, Dewey included his major themes in most of what he published.

Reflecting his immense influence on 20th-century thought, Hilda Neatby, in

1953, wrote:

“Dewey has been to our age what Aristotle was to the later Middle Ages, not a

philosopher, but the philosopher.”

At the University of Michigan, Dewey published his first two books, Psychology

(1887), and Leibniz’s New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding” (1888), both of
which expressed Dewey’s early commitment to British neo-Hegelianism. In Psychology,

Dewey attempted a synthesis between idealism and experimental science.

While still professor of philosophy at Michigan, Dewey and his junior colleagues,

James Hayden Tufts and George Herbert Mead, together with his student James

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Rowland Angell, all influenced strongly by the recent publication of William James’

Principles of Psychology (1890), began to reformulate psychology, emphasizing the

social environment on the activity of mind and behavior rather than the physiological

psychology of Wundt and his followers.

By 1894, Dewey had joined Tufts, with whom he would later write Ethics (1908), at

the recently founded University of Chicago and invited Mead and Angell to follow him,

the four men forming the basis of the so-called “Chicago group” of psychology.

Their new style of psychology, later dubbed functional psychology, had a

practical emphasis on action and application. In Dewey’s article “The Reflex Arc Concept

in Psychology” which appeared in Psychological Review in 1896, he reasons against the

traditional stimulus-response understanding of the reflex arc in favor of a “circular”

account in which what serves as “stimulus” and what as “response” depends on how one

considers the situation, and defends the unitary nature of the sensory motor circuit.

While he does not deny the existence of stimulus, sensation, and response, he disagreed

that they were separate, juxtaposed events happening like links in a chain. He

developed the idea that there is a coordination by which the stimulation is enriched by the

results of previous experiences . The response is modulated by sensorial experience.

Education and teacher education

Dewey’s educational theories were presented in My Pedagogic Creed (1897), The

School and Society (1900), The Child and the Curriculum” (1902), Democracy and
Education (1916) and Experience and Education (1938). Several themes repeat

throughout these writings. Dewey recurrently claims that education and learning are

social and interactive processes, and thus the school itself is a social institution through

which social reform can and should take place. In addition, he believed that students

thrive in an environment where they are allowed to experience and interact with the

curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take part in their own

learning.

The ideas of democracy and social reform are continually discussed in Dewey’s

writings on education. Dewey makes a strong case for the importance of education not

only as a place to gain content knowledge, but also as a place to learn how to live.

In his opinion, the main purpose of education should not revolve around the

acquisition of a pre-determined set of skills, but rather the realization of one’s full

potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good.

He notes that:

“…to prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so
to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities”

(My pedagogic creed, Dewey, 1897)

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In addition to helping students realize their full potential, Dewey goes on to

acknowledge that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change

and reform.

He notes that:

“…education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness;
and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is

the only sure method of social reconstruction”.

In addition to his ideas regarding what education is and what effect it should have on

society, Dewey had specific notions regarding how education should take place within

the classroom. In The Child and the Curriculum (1902), Dewey discusses two major

conflicting schools of thought regarding educational pedagogy. The first is centered on

the curriculum and focuses almost solely on the subject matter to be taught. Dewey

argues that the major flaw in this methodology is the inactivity of the student; within

this particular framework, “the child is simply the immature being who is to be matured; he is

the superficial being who is to be deepened” (1902, p. 13). He argues that in order for

education to be most effective, content must be presented in a way that allows the

student to relate the information to prior experiences, thus deepening the connection

with this new knowledge.

At the same time, Dewey was alarmed by many of the “child-centered” excesses of

educational-school pedagogues who claimed to be his followers, and he argued that too

much reliance on the child could be equally detrimental to the learning process. In this

second school of thought,

“…we must take our stand with the child and our departure from him. It is he and not
the subject-matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning”

(Dewey, 1902, p. 13 14)

According to Dewey, the potential flaw in this line of thinking is that it minimizes the

importance of the content as well as the role of the teacher.

In order to rectify this dilemma, Dewey encouraged for an educational

framework that strikes a balance between distributing knowledge while also

considering the interests and experiences of the student.

He notes that:

“…the child and the curriculum are simply two limits which define a single process. Just
as two points define a straight line, so the present standpoint of the child and the facts

and truths of studies define instruction”

(Dewey, 1902, p. 16)

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It is through this reasoning that Dewey became one of the most famous proponents of

hands-on learning or experiential education, which is related to, but not synonymous

with experiential learning.

He argued that:

“…if knowledge comes from the impressions made upon us by natural objects, it is
impossible to procure knowledge without the use of objects which impress the mind”

(Dewey, 1916/2009, pp. 217 218)

Dewey’s ideas went on to influence many other influential experiential models and

advocates. Problem-Based Learning (PBL), for example, a method used widely in

education today, incorporates Dewey’s ideas pertaining to learning through active

inquiry.

Dewey not only re-imagined the way that the learning process should take place,

but also the role that the teacher should play within that process. Throughout the

history of “merican schooling, education’s purpose has been to train students for work
by providing the student with a limited set of skills and information to do a particular

job. The works of John Dewey provide the most prolific examples of how this limited

vocational view of education has been applied to both the K-12 public education system

and to the teacher training schools who attempted to quickly produce proficient and

practical teachers with a limited set of instructional and discipline-specific skills needed

to meet the needs of the employer and demands of the workforce.

In The School and Society (Dewey, 1976) and Democracy of Education (Dewey,

1980), Dewey claims that rather than preparing citizens for ethical participation in

society, schools cultivate passive pupils via insistence upon mastery of facts and

disciplining of bodies. Rather than preparing students to be reflective, autonomous and

ethical beings capable of arriving at social truths through critical and intersubjective

discourse, schools prepare students for docile compliance with authoritarian work and

political structures, discourage the pursuit of individual and communal inquiry, and

perceive higher learning as a monopoly of the institution of education (Dewey, 1976;

1980).

For Dewey and his philosophical followers, education stifles individual

autonomy when learners are taught that knowledge is transmitted in one direction,

from the expert to the learner. Dewey not only re-imagined the way that the learning

process should take place, but also the role that the teacher should play within that

process.

For Dewey,

The thing needful is improvement of education, not simply by turning out teachers who

can do better the things that are not necessary to do, but rather by changing the

conception of what constitutes education

(Dewey, 1904, p. 18)

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Dewey’s qualifications for teaching a natural love for working with young children, a
natural propensity to inquire about the subjects, methods and other social issues related

to the profession, and a desire to share this acquired knowledge with others are not a

set of outwardly displayed mechanical skills. Rather, they may be viewed as

internalized principles or habits which work automatically, unconsciously (Dewey, 1904,

p. 15).

Turning to Dewey’s essays and public addresses regarding the teaching

profession, followed by his analysis of the teacher as a person and a professional, as

well as his beliefs regarding the responsibilities of teacher education programs to

cultivate the attributes addressed, teacher educators can begin to reimagine the

successful classroom teacher Dewey envisioned.

Professionalization of teaching as a social service

For many, education’s purpose is to train students for work by providing the student
with a limited set of skills and information to do a particular job. As Dewey notes, this

limited vocational view is also applied to teacher training schools who attempt to

quickly produce proficient and practical teachers with a limited set of instructional and

discipline skills needed to meet the needs of the employer and demands of the

workforce (Dewey, 1904). For Dewey, the school and the classroom teacher, as a

workforce and provider of a social service, have a unique responsibility to produce

psychological and social goods that will lead to both present and future social progress.

As Dewey notes:

“The business of the teacher is to produce a higher standard of intelligence in the

community, and the object of the public school system is to make as large as possible the

number of those who possess this intelligence. Skill, ability to act wisely and effectively in

a great variety of occupations and situations, is a sign and a criterion of the degree of

civilization that a society has reached. It is the business of teachers to help in producing

the many kinds of skill needed in contemporary life. If teachers are up to their work, they

also aid in production of character”
(Dewey, TAP, 2010, p.p.241-242)

According to Dewey, the emphasis is placed on producing these attributes in children

for use in their contemporary life because it is:

…impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now
(Dewey, MPC, 2010, p. 25)

However, although Dewey is steadfast in his beliefs that education serves an immediate

purpose (Dewey, DRT, 2010; Dewey, MPC, 2010; Dewey, TTP, 2010), he is not ignorant

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of the impact imparting these qualities of intelligence, skill and character on young

children in their present life will have on the future society. While addressing the state

of educative and economic affairs during a 1935 radio broadcast, Dewey linked the

ensuing economic depression to a lack of sufficient production of intelligence, skill and

character Dewey, T“P, , p. 4 of the nation’s workforce.
As Dewey notes, there is a lack of these goods in the present society and teachers

have a responsibility to create them in their students, who, we can assume, will grow

into the adults who will ultimately go on to participate in whatever industrial or

economical civilization awaits them. According to Dewey, the profession of the

classroom teacher is to produce the intelligence, skill and character within each student

so that the democratic community is composed of citizens who can think, do and act

intelligently and morally.

A teacher’s knowledge

Dewey believed that the successful classroom teacher possesses a passion for

knowledge and an intellectual curiosity in the materials and methods they teach. For

Dewey, this propensity is an inherent curiosity and love for learning that differs from

one’s ability to acquire, recite and reproduce textbook knowledge.

“No one, can be really successful in performing the duties and meeting these demands [of

teaching] who does not retain [her] intellectual curiosity intact throughout [her] entire

career”

(Dewey, APT, 2010, p. 34)

According to Dewey, it is not that:

…the teacher ought to strive to be a high-class scholar in all the subjects he or she has to
teach, rather, a teacher ought to have an unusual love and aptitude in some one subject:

history, mathematics, literature, science, a fine art, or whatever

(Dewey, APT, 2010, p. 35)

The classroom teacher does not have to be a scholar in all subjects; rather, a genuine

love in one will elicit a feel for genuine information and insight in all subjects taught.

In addition to this propensity for study into the subjects taught, the classroom

teacher:

…is possessed by a recognition of the responsibility for the constant study of school
room work, the constant study of children, of methods, of subject matter in its various

adaptations to pupils

(Dewey, PST, 2010, p. 37)

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For Dewey, this desire for the lifelong pursuit of learning is inherent in other

professions (e.g. the architectural, legal and medical fields; Dewey, 1904 & Dewey, PST,

2010), and has particular importance for the field of teaching.

As Dewey notes:

…this further study is not a side line but something which fits directly into the
demands and opportunities of the vocation

(Dewey, APT, 2010, p. 34)

According to Dewey, this propensity and passion for intellectual growth in the

profession must be accompanied by a natural desire to communicate one’s knowledge
with others.

There are scholars who have [the knowledge] in a marked degree but who lack

enthusiasm for imparting it. To the natural born teacher learning is incomplete unless
it is shared

(Dewey, APT, 2010, p. 35)

For Dewey, it is not enough for the classroom teacher to be a lifelong learner of the

techniques and subject-matter of education; she must aspire to share what she knows

with others in her learning community.

A teacher’s skill

The best indicator of teacher quality, according to Dewey, is the ability to watch and

respond to the movement of the mind with keen awareness of the signs and quality of

the responses her students exhibit with regard to the subject-matter presented (Dewey,

APT, 2010; Dewey, 1904).

As Dewey notes:

“I have often been asked how it was that some teachers who have never studied the art of

teaching are still extraordinarily good teachers. The explanation is simple. They have a

quick, sure and unflagging sympathy with the operations and process of the minds they

are in contact with. Their own minds move in harmony with those of others, appreciating

their difficulties, entering into their problems, sharing their intellectual victories”

(Dewey, APT, 2010, p. 36)

Such a teacher is genuinely aware of the complexities of this mind to mind transfer, and

she has the intellectual fortitude to identify the successes and failures of this process, as

well as how to appropriately reproduce or correct it in the future.

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A teacher’s disposition

As a result of the direct influence teachers have in shaping the mental, moral and

spiritual lives of children during their most formative years, Dewey holds the

profession of teaching in high esteem, often equating its social value to that of the

ministry and to parenting (Dewey, APT, 2010; Dewey, DRT, 2010; Dewey, MPC, 2010;

Dewey, PST, 2010; Dewey, TTC, 2010; Dewey, TTP, 2010). Perhaps the most important

attributes, according to Dewey, are those personal inherent qualities which the teacher

brings to the classroom. As Dewey notes, “no amount of learning or even of acquired

pedagogical skill makes up for the deficiency” (Dewey, TLS, p. 25) of the personal traits

needed to be most successful in the profession.

According to Dewey, the successful classroom teacher occupies an indispensable

passion for promoting the intellectual growth of young children. In addition, she knows

that her career, in comparison to other professions, entails stressful situations, long

hours and limited financial reward; all of which have the potential to overcome her

genuine love and sympathy for her students.

For Dewey,

“One of the most depressing phases of the vocation is the number of care worn teachers

one sees, with anxiety depicted on the lines of their faces, reflected in their strained high

pitched voices and sharp manners. While contact with the young is a privilege for some

temperaments, it is a tax on others, and a tax which they do not bear up under very well.

And in some schools, there are too many pupils to a teacher, too many subjects to teach,

and adjustments to pupils are made in a mechanical rather than a human way. Human

nature reacts against such unnatural conditions”

(Dewey, APT, 2101, p. 35)

It is essential, according to Dewey, that the classroom teacher has the mental propensity

to overcome the demands and stressors placed on her because the students can sense

when their teacher is not genuinely invested in promoting their learning (Dewey, PST,

2010). Such negative demeanors, according to Dewey, prevent children from pursuing

their own propensities for learning and intellectual growth. It can therefore be assumed

that if teachers want their students to engage with the educational process and employ

their natural curiosities for knowledge, teachers must be aware of how their reactions to

young children and the stresses of teaching influence this process.

The role of teacher education to cultivate the professional classroom teacher

Dewey’s passions for teaching a natural love for working with young children, a
natural propensity to inquire about the subjects, methods and other social issues related

to the profession, and a desire to share this acquired knowledge with others are not a

set of outwardly displayed mechanical skills. Rather, they may be viewed as

internalized principles or habits which work automatically, unconsciously (Dewey, 1904,

p. 15).

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According to Dewey, teacher education programs must turn away from focusing

on producing proficient practitioners because such practical skills related to instruction

and discipline (e.g. creating and delivering lesson plans, classroom management,

implementation of an assortment of content-specific methods) can be learned over time

during their everyday school work with their students (Dewey, PST, 2010).

As Dewey notes:

“The teacher who leaves the professional school with power in managing a class of

children may appear to superior advantage the first day, the first week, the first month, or

even the first year, as compared with some other teacher who has a much more vital

command of the psychology, logic and ethics of development. But later progress may
with such consist only in perfecting and refining skill already possessed. Such persons

seem to know how to teach, but they are not students of teaching. Even though they go on

studying books of pedagogy, reading teachers journals, attending teachers institutes,
etc., yet the root of the matter is not in them, unless they continue to be students of

subject-matter, and students of mind-activity. Unless a teacher is such a student, he may

continue to improve in the mechanics of school management, but he cannot grow as a

teacher, an inspirer and director of soul-life”

(Dewey, 1904, p. 15)

For Dewey, teacher education should focus not on producing persons who know how

to teach as soon as they leave the program; rather, teacher education should be

concerned with producing professional students of education who have the propensity

to inquire about the subjects they teach, the methods used, and the activity of the mind

as it gives and receives knowledge. According to Dewey, such a student is not

superficially engaging with these materials, rather, the professional student of

education has a genuine passion to inquire about the subjects of education, knowing

that doing so ultimately leads to acquisitions of the skills related to teaching. Such

students of education aspire for the intellectual growth within the profession that can

only be achieved by immersing one’s self in the lifelong pursuit of the intelligence, skills
and character Dewey linked to the profession.

As Dewey notes, other professional fields, such as law and medicine cultivate a

professional spirit in their fields to constantly study their work, their methods of their

work, and a perpetual need for intellectual growth and concern for issues related to

their profession. Teacher education, as a profession, has these same obligations (Dewey,

1904; Dewey, PST, 2010).

As Dewey notes:

“An intellectual responsibility has got to be distributed to every human being who is

concerned in carrying out the work in question, and to attempt to concentrate intellectual

responsibility for a work that has to be done, with their brains and their hearts, by

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hundreds or thousands of people in a dozen or so at the top, no matter how wise and

skillful they are, is not to concentrate responsibility–it is to diffuse irresponsibility”

(Dewey, PST, 2010, p. 39)

For Dewey, the professional spirit of teacher education requires of its students a

constant study of school room work, constant study of children, of methods, of subject

matter in its various adaptations to pupils. Such study will lead to professional

enlightenment with regard to the daily operations of classroom teaching.

As well as his very active and direct involvement in setting up educational

institutions such as the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (1896) and The New

School for Social Research (1919), many of Dewey’s ideas influenced the founding of

Bennington College and Goddard College in Vermont, where he served on the Board of

Trustees.

Dewey’s works and philosophy also held great influence in the creation of the

short-lived Black Mountain College in North Carolina, an experimental college focused

on interdisciplinary study, and whose faculty included Buckminster Fuller, Willem de

Kooning, Charles Olson, Franz Kline, Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, and Paul

Goodman, among others. Black Mountain College was the locus of the “Black Mountain

Poets” a group of avant-garde poets closely linked with the Beat Generation and the San

Francisco Renaissance.

References

1. John Dewey, How we think (1910)

2. Haggbloom, Steven J.; Warnick, Jason E.; Jones, Vinessa K.; Yarbrough, Gary L.;

Russell, Tenea M.; Borecky, Chris M.; McGahhey, Reagan; et al. (2002). “The 100

most eminent psychologists of the 20th century”. Review of General Psychology

6 (2): 139 152. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139.

3. Alan Ryan, John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism, (1995) p 32

4. Violas, Paul C.; Tozer, Steven; Senese, Guy B. School and Society: Historical and

Contemporary Perspectives. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social

Sciences/Languages. p. 121. ISBN 0-07-298556-9.

5. Bio of Dewey from Bowling Green State University

6. Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in the United States.

New York: Farrar, Staus and Giroux, 2002.

7. Hilda M. Neatby, So Little for the Mind (Toronto: Clarke Irwin & Co. Ltd., 1953),

pp.22 23.

8. John Dewey, Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey Letters from China and Japan. New

York,: E.P Dutton, 1920; rpr. Project Guttenberg

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JOHN DEWEY, PHILOSOPHER AND EDUCATIONAL REFORMER

European Journal of Education Studies – Volume 1 │ Issue 1 │ 2015 13

9. Field, Richard. John Dewey in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Northwest Missouri State University UTM.edu The University of Tennessee at

Martin Retrieved 29 August 2008.

10. Dewey, John (1938). Logic: The theory of Inquiry. NY: Holt, Rinehart, and

Winston. p. iv.

11. John Dewey, Arthur Bentley, (1949). Knowing and the Known. Beacon Press,

Boston.

12. John Dewey, Arthur Bentley, (1949). Knowing and the Known. Beacon Press,

Boston, p107-109.

13. John Dewey, Arthur Bentley, (1949). Knowing and the Known. Beacon Press,

Boston, p121-139.

14. “The Problem of Logical Subject Matter”, in Logic: The Theory of Inquiry 1938

15. Louis Menand. The Metaphysical Club p. 313

16. Dewey, J. (1902). The child and the curriculum. Retrieved from

http://books.google.com/books

17. Dewey, J. (2009). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy

of education. New York: WLC Books. (Original work published 1916)

18. Savery, J. R. (2006). Overview of Problem-based Learning: Definitions and
Distinctions. Journal of Problem-based Learning, 1(1).

19. Dewey, J. 1927. The Public and its Problems. Henry Holt & Co., New York. pp

126.

20. Jump up ^ John Corcoran. Conditions and Consequences. American Philosophy:

an Encyclopedia. 2007. Eds. John Lachs and Robert Talisse. New York:

Routledge. Pages 124 7.

21. The Cambridge Companion to Dewey, edited by Molly Cochran. Cambridge

University Press, 2010. Page xvii.

22. “Dewey’s Political Philosophy” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

23. F. M. Alexander Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, E. P. Dutton

& Co., 1923 ISBN 0-913111-11-2

24. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey

Journal of Education and Educational Development
Vol. 2 No. 2 (December 2015) 191 – 201

Discussion

John Dewey and His Philosophy of Education

Aliya Sikandar
Institute of Business Management

[email protected]

Abstract

This review paper on John Dewey, the pioneering educationist of
the 20th century, discusses his educational thoughts, and writings,
which gave a new direction to education at the turn of the century.
Dewey’s contributions are immense and overwhelming in the fields
of education, politics, humanism, logic, and aesthetics. This discussion
will focus on Dewey and his philosophy related to educational approaches,
pedagogical issues, and the linkages that he made between education,
democracy, experience, and society. At the heart of his educational
thought is the child. Dewey’s idea on humanism springs from his
democratic bent and his quest for freedom, equity, and the value of
child’s experiences.

Keywords: Dewey, educational approaches, humanism,
pedagogical issues

Introduction

This discussion is based on John Dewey’s (1859-1952)
contribution to education and educational philosophy. He remains
the most influential American philosopher and educationist of the
20th Century, who gave a new direction to educational thought and
processes. With his firm democratic belief in civil societies and
education, Dewey rejected authoritarian structures and subsequently
the traditional teaching methods in schools. He believed in progressive
education and advocated for reforms in pedagogical aspects of
teaching and school curricula; most importantly, Dewey believed
that at the centre of the whole academia was the child, and Dewey’s
educational philosophy and reforms were concerned primarily with
the child. Today, Dewey’s philosophy of education and its relation to

191

Sikandar John Dewey and His Philosophy of Education

experience, democracy, humanism, and pragmatism have largely
affected the modern system of education all over the world.

This discussion will look at three areas of contribution of this
great educationist’s philosophy of education. These aspects are, in
different sections united by a thread of continuity to his great philosophy
of education.

1. Dewey’s philosophy of education
2. Dewey’s philosophy of education and experience
3. The role of the teacher and the child

Dewey’s philosophy of education

Dewey’s ideas mirror the affects of new the industrialized
colonized society, fraught with the problems and aftermaths of two
World Wars. Dewey was largely inspired by Marx’s theory of social
struggle and conflict between classes. Marx’s theory of conflict is
that the society is stratified and layered with different strata and
there is a competition within these different classes. Marx stresses
that social analysis should focus on class structure and relations.
Dewey had an inspiration from Habermas’s thoughts, which are in
the traditions of Kant, and emphasize the role of education to transform
the world into a more humane, just, and egalitarian society.

His writings on democracy and education express his philosophy of
education as a way of social reform. He saw education as a means of
serving the democratic process through making corrections in the economic
evils and by obtaining political ends that would lead to progression of a
society. Hence, education for Dewey is the culmination of his political
ideas. The shaping of a society in which the common goods, among
which are the knowledge and social intelligence, are distributed fairly
among all who participate in that society (Berding, 1997).

Establishment of progressive schools in the 18th century was an
effort to liberate traditional schools’ system of education, and mainly
to facilitate the intellectual growth of a child. However, Dewey was
critical about these progressive schools on the premise that freedom

Vol. 2 No. 2 (December 2015) 192

alone was no solution; learning needs, a structure and order must be
based on a clear theory of experience, not simply the whim of teachers or
students. On the other hand, Rousseau, and later Pestalozzi, Froebel
and other educational theorists believed that a child was like a seed
and if they were left to nourish and nurture naturally, they would
naturally bear flowers and fruits.

In Democracy and Education (1916), Dewey clearly states that the
methodology of teaching leads to the purpose of teaching. As teaching
and learning is pedagogical; therefore, the subject matter should be planned
in effective ways. He clearly states, “The subject matter of the learner
is not … identical with the formulated, the crystallized, and systematized
subject matter of the adult” (p. 190). The subject matter alone is not a
guarantee of learning and development; rather, the teacher should plan
and connect the subject matter to the students, keeping in consideration
the needs, desires, interests, and cognitive development of the
students, as he shows in ‘How We Think’.

Dewey’s main concern was a disparity between the experiences of
child and the kind of concepts imposed upon him. He believed that
this gap curbs a child’s natural experiences and abilities, forcing him
to follow the dictates of a formal education. Dewey is equally critical
of the progressive education which imposes concepts, such as the
right of free expression or free activity as these tenets of education also
impose ideas upon a child. Dewey was deeply inspired by the vision
of a liberal free society and realized the pressing need of freedom
and equality, emancipation from social bounds to liberate individual
and society from the structures of power.

Dewey’s philosophy of education and experience

In Dewey’s philosophy of education, we see a close link between a
child’s life and his experiences as a continuous process, which he regards
as the aim of education. In this way, education has the scope of
equipping a child with social competence. Unless this link is made,
education is useless. Dewey sees a strong correlation between
interaction and continuity of experiences. It is through interaction
that a child brings in experiences from society. Because of such

Vol. 2 No. 2 (December 2015) 193

John Dewey and His Philosophy of Education

continuous interactions, environments are created. These
environments are the fields in which situations and conditions interact
with personal needs and purposes, and create life-long experiences.

These experiences are given value and direction by the teachers;
therefore, there should be order and direction of a child’s experiences,
which will give him a composed and integrated personality. He gives
example of the games children play, in which they follow rules of
the game willingly to continue the game. Similarly, students are
involved in class activities in groups and the moving force is to get
the activity done. This learning process allows students the freedom of
thought, judgment, and power to execute decisions. These learning
experiences should have a clear purpose, an understanding of the
surrounding conditions, knowledge of what occurred before, so
that it could allow reflection and analysis of issues and experiences.
Such structured interactions turn an impulse into a plan of action.

This brings forth Dewey’s philosophy of humanism. As a child
discovers by doing, the child is explicitly realized as the main actor
of the entire learning process. The child’s role is no longer vulnerable or
a subject of imposition. Rather, a child is a free individual with his
aptitude and interests. As he is actively involved in the learning
process, the child is an active social actor who participates in social
experiences.

An experience for him involves a dual process of understanding
and influencing the world around us, as well as being influenced
and changed by that experience. Therefore, education should be
concerned about the child’s experiences in school and in natural
environments outside the school. Particular experiences should
be assessed to the degree that they contribute to the growth or to
getting more experience. “Growth in Dewey’s context means that the
individual is gaining the ability to understand the relationships and
interconnections between various experiences between one learning
experience and another” (Gutek, 1997, p.105). According to Dewey
(1934), “Experience occurs continuously, because the interaction of
live creature and environing conditions is involved in the very process
of living” (p. 1). Dewey’s method of teaching was based on his

Vol. 2 No. 2 (December 2015) 194

Sikandar

pragmatic philosophy-the Pragmatism, and he is of the opinion that
direct experience is the basis of all methods. Any relevant knowledge
or information is in some sense experiential as it relates directly to
the lived experience of the individuals concerned (Dewey 1916).
For him, knowledge takes place in concrete and meaningful situations,
through spontaneous activities of children. Dewey’s methods of
teaching were based on the principles of learning by doing activities in
connection with life of a child. Such approaches to teaching and learning
follow strategies like project based or problem based method of learning.

Curriculum, Dewey demanded was not imposed upon the students,
rather it had the capacity to allow individual differences among the
students and value their experiences. Dewey’s curriculum theory is
based on anthropological, psychological, and social-philosophical
(political) perspectives that hold a child to be like an organism and
this organism is searching for stimuli in order to grow (Berding,
1992).

Dewey strongly supported experiential learning, as it offers
students a hands-on, collaborative learning experience, which helps
them to “fully learn new skills and knowledge” (Haynes, Sakai,
Rees, Gilbert, Frith & Passingham, 2007). Eyler and Giles (1999)
asserted that Dewey described service-learning as experiential learning
and that such learning has a “continual spiral of events starting with
direct experience, followed by periods of reflection where hypotheses
are generated about immediate and future meaning, and then tested
through experiences and actions” (p. 184). Toulmin (1984) argues,
that Dewey in his work was able to dismantle the epistemological
tradition and was able to display farsightedness and originality,
which was at his time could not be recognized. To Dewey (1916),
“Development means transformation,… that reconstruction
or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience,
and which increases ability to direct the course of subsequent
experience” (p. 76). Such experiences raise the child’s curiosity and
hope, and gives him a purpose to carry out school activities. This
participation moulds his views and perceptions about the world,
education, and also his attitude about participation in school activities.
Dewey’s philosophy of pragmatism is his premise on education as a

Vol. 2 No. 2 (December 2015) 195

Sikandar John Dewey and His Philosophy of Education

lived-experience, that is, a person experiences learning with others.
This approach of learning combines theory and experience into mutual
accommodation and adaptation. Dewey used both philosophical and
psychological perspectives to build his theory of education (McDermott,
1981). He saw that education’s purpose is to make students’ imagination
strong and he regarded it an important goal of education (Cunningham,
1994). The role of the teacher is to guide students, especially adolescents
on the verge of adulthood, “To make choices among desirable alternatives,
is vitally important in the building of character” (Cunningham, 1994,
p.12).

However, as one studies Dewey’s educational philosophy, there
appears to be a gap in the operational plan of learning through
experiences. Firstly, in Dewey’s work, we do not find any objectives
or criteria based experiences. We do not get to know how to evaluate the
experiences that help a child grow, so that in accordance, the growth
of child could be geared in measurable terms. Also, how do we know
that the child is getting more knowledgeable, mature or intellectual
through the experiences given by the school? What the learning
objectives are and where the learners are expected to reach at the
end of experiential learning. For this, the teachers would find
themselves without direction. If the learning is heavily dependent
upon experiences, then how many experiences are to be planned in
a term? How would teachers handle various responses, reactions,
feedback on a similar experience? I guess it can very soon lead to
the teacher burnout. We do not find any pilot study of experiential
learning or how are the experiences of a child then incorporated into
the objectives of learning. Next, no guidelines are given on
the processes of application in a structured manner; who are the
agents of change: school management, teachers, parents, curriculum
designers or association of schools? In this whole process of
democratization of education, what would be the role of community
or the society? What would be the role of the parents? Dewey has
not given any clear guidelines for these aspects.

The role of the teacher and the child

Dewey stresses the sensitivity of educationists towards learners’

Vol. 2 No. 2 (December 2015) 196

needs and their individual differences. For Dewey, teachers should
realize that there is no one-for-all concept of teaching and learning.
Learning processes should be planned considering the aptitude, learners’
former experiences, and their present experiences. The teacher
should observe the interest of the students, observe the directions they
naturally take, and then help them develop problem-solving skills. A
teachers’ primary purpose is to increase freedom of the children to
enable them to explore their environments. He believed in an
interdisciplinary curriculum, or a curriculum that focuses on connecting
multiple subjects, where students are allowed to freely move in and
out of classrooms, as they pursue their interests and construct their
own paths for acquiring and applying knowledge. A teacher is engaged
with the learners through interaction, which is a social process.
Teachers are members of the community of learning, and play a
major role in selecting experiences and to give a proper direction to
these educative experiences.

Dewey argues that the centre of gravity needs to shift whereby he
[the learner] is at the center (Dewey, 1910). Dewey is often referred
to as a child-centered educationist (Bantock, 1963; Darling ,1994;
Entwhistle, 1970; Pring, 2007; Woods & Barrow, 2006). Dewey
(1987) suggests, “Indeed the starting point should be the internal
condition-the child’s own instincts and powers furnish the material
and give the starting point for all education” (p. 44). His conviction was
that the child must not be authoritatively told beforehand what is good
or evil, but should discover these opposite realities for himself.

Dewey was most concerned about the development of the
individuality of child. The child’s voice was nowhere heard, as
curriculum, subject matter, and concepts were imposed on him in
the school. That is why Dewey regarded a child as the most vulnerable
member of the society, who is directly affected by the practices and
attitudes of the members of the academia- those who impose policies
on him, and control him. Dewey was specifically concerned about
the rights of child as an individual, his right to exercise his decisions,
choices in learning and education, and his participation in a democratic
learning process. A child is by nature curious, social, and constructive,
and possesses inherently the raw material to be developed by experienced

Vol. 2 No. 2 (December 2015) 197

Sikandar John Dewey and His Philosophy of Education

guide and mentor. It is therefore responsibility of the teacher to plan
positive and constructive environment for the students so as to create
positive educative experiences for them. Such environments are built
in the joint partnership of teachers and students, where together they
try out effective techniques of teaching and learning. The objective is
to make students more self-reliant. In this way, Dewey considered
his school a community where the students become active members.

Conclusion

Although Dewey’s innumerable works and contributions are in
education, politics, humanism, logic, and aesthetics, given the limited
scope of this paper the focus has been Dewey’s educational
philosophy related to experience and democracy, for the growth and
development of a child. Summing up the salient works and concepts
of John Dewey was a very challenging task. In his long satisfying career
in education, Dewey brought about revolutionary reformations in
educational philosophy, approaches, and pedagogies. Essentially,
with the child as the centre of education, Dewey’s philosophical
creed focuses on the development of child who is a valuable member
of society; a society which believes in equity and freedom, practices
democratic qualities and ideals.

There have been pedagogical and practical challenges faced
by the practitioners in applying Dewey’ approach to education. The
most important criticism is his lack of clarity as to how to set up
systems that can see through the inception of ideas to the conclusion
of the experiences, to gauge the growth and development, and to design,
and plan curriculum clearly. However, given all these objections it
cannot be denied that John Dewey remains one of the pioneering
figures of contemporary educationists, who left a rich trail of
researchers and educationists, who continually study the methods
and theories of education presented by him and add invaluably to his body
of knowledge.

Likewise, there are various operational challenges experienced
in a developing country like Pakistan. In the implementation of

Vol. 2 No. 2 (December 2015) 198

Dewey’s system of education, the administration is usually found
reluctant to set up such a system, as the physical set up is for passive
learners, traditional teaching, and limited financial resources. Another
challenge is the gap in teacher education to make the academia understand
the philosophy, objectives, and methods of offering such educational
systems. Because of this, partners in education such as, the parents,
teachers, administrators, and the child himself usually become critical
of such systems.

The role of teachers in Pakistan is also perceived in a different light.
A teacher is one who is knowledgeable and authoritative. What
would happen if students in such systems find the teacher asking
questions, or asking them to take lead? Students would naturally try
to take advantage of such teachers, and least of all, they would take
teachers less seriously. In Pakistan, students especially of professional
colleges or business schools, are highly geared towards grades and are
marks-oriented. They would be lesser adherent to the process and
would like to find out the end-product. Such system would also put
teachers under a lot of pressure to motivate and involve passive and
shy learners in projects or problem solving discussions.

Vol. 2 No. 2 (December 2015) 199

Sikandar John Dewey and His Philosophy of Education

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GALILEO, University System of Georgia
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Educational Learning Theories: 2nd Edition
Molly Zhou
Dalton State College, [email protected]

David Brown
Dalton State College, [email protected]

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Molly Y. Zhou

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Educational Learning Theories

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Permission to Use Acknowledgements

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for Permission to Use by Creative Commons licenses or authors or proper copy right holders:

Chapter 1 Behaviorism

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Chapter 3 Social Cognitive Theory

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perspectives-on-personality/

Chapter 4 Sociocultural Theory

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from https://www.surrey.ac.uk/iceepad

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Lev Vygotsky. (2017, June 2). Retrieved from http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Lev_Vygotsky#Criticism

Chapter 5 Theory of Moral Development

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Chapter 6 Experiential Learning Theory

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Chapter 7 Bioecological Model of Human Development

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Chapter 8 Psychosocial Theory of Identity Development

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Chapter 12 Information Processing Theory

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4
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http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Information_processing

A “big thank you” to EDUC 2130 Teaching and Learning class students who provided feedback on the

textbook development and gave permission to use their artwork for this book.

5

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 01 Behaviorism …….……………………………….……………………………….………….……….…..6-12

CHAPTER 02 Stages of Cognitive Development ……………….…….………….………………….….……13-18

CHAPTER 03 Social Cognitive Theory ……..……….…………………………………………………………….19-31

CHAPTER 04 Sociocultural Theory ………….……………………………………………………………………..32-38

CHAPTER 05 Theory of Moral Development……….……………….……………………………..…..…….39-51

CHAPTER 06 Experiential Learning Theory……………………………….………………………………..…..52-59

CHAPTER 07 Bioecological Model of Human Development……………………………………….……60-68

CHAPTER 08 Psychosocial Theory of Identity Development………………..….…………..….……69-78

CHAPTER 09 Theory of Multiple Intelligences……………………………….………………………………..79-88

CHAPTER 10 Bloom’s Taxonomy ……………………….…………………………………………………….…..89-102

CHAPTER 11 Theory of Human Motivation…………….…………………………………………….……103-116

CHAPTER 12 Information Processing Theory…………………….…………………………….………….117-127

6
CHAPTER 1

Behaviorism

INTRODUCTION

Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior. In defining behavior,

behaviorist learning theories emphasize changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response associations made by the

learner. John B. Watson (1878-1958) and B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) are the two principal originators of behaviorist

approaches to learning. Watson believed that human behavior resulted from specific stimuli that elicited certain responses.

Watson’s basic premise was that conclusions about human development should be based on observation of overt behavior

rather than speculation about subconscious motives or latent cognitive processes (Shaffer, 2000). Watson’s view of learning

was based in part on the studies of Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936). Pavlov was well known for his research on a learning process

called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning refers to learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus becomes

associated with a stimulus that naturally produces a behavior. Skinner believed that that seemingly spontaneous action is

regulated through rewards and punishment. Skinner believed that people don’t shape the world, but instead, the world shapes

them. Skinner also believed that human behavior is predictable, just like a chemical reaction. He is also well known for his

“Skinner box,” a tool to demonstrate his theory that rewarded behavior is repeated.

REQUIRED READING

What is Behaviorism?

Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior. In defining behavior,

behaviorist learning theories emphasize changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response associations made by the

learner. Behavior is directed by stimuli. An individual selects one response instead of another because of prior conditioning

and psychological drives existing at the moment of the action (Parkay & Hass, 2000).

Behaviorists assert that the only behaviors worthy of study are those that can be directly observed; thus, it is actions, rather

than thoughts or emotions, which are the legitimate object of study. Behaviorist theory does not explain abnormal behavior

in terms of the brain or its inner workings. Rather, it posits that all behavior is learned habits, and attempts to account for

how these habits are formed.

In assuming that human behavior is learned, behaviorists also hold that all behaviors can also be unlearned, and replaced by

new behaviors; that is, when a behavior becomes unacceptable, it can be replaced by an acceptable one. A key element to

this theory of learning is the rewarded response. The desired response must be rewarded in order for learning to take place

(Parkay & Hass, 2000).

In education, advocates of behaviorism have effectively adopted this system of rewards and punishments in their classrooms

by rewarding desired behaviors and punishing inappropriate ones. Rewards vary, but must be important to the learner in

some way. For example, if a teacher wishes to teach the behavior of remaining seated during the class period, the successful

student’s reward might be checking the teacher’s mailbox, running an errand, or being allowed to go to the library to do

homework at the end of the class period. As with all teaching methods, success depends on each student’s stimulus and

response, and on associations made by each learner.

Behaviorism Advocates

John B. Watson (1878-1958) and B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) are the two principal originators of behaviorist approaches to

learning. Watson believed that human behavior resulted from specific stimuli that elicited certain responses. Watson’s basic

premise was that conclusions about human development should be based on observation of overt behavior rather than

speculation about subconscious motives or latent cognitive processes (Shaffer, 2000). Watson’s view of learning was based

in part on the studies of Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936). Pavlov was studying the digestive process and the interaction of salivation

and stomach function when he realized that reflexes in the autonomic nervous system closely linked these phenomena. To

determine whether external stimuli had an affect on this process, Pavlov rang a bell when he gave food to the experimental

7
dogs. He noticed that the dogs salivated shortly before they were given food. He discovered that when the bell was rung at

repeated feedings, the sound of the bell alone (a conditioned stimulus) would cause the dogs to salivate (a conditioned

response). Pavlov also found that the conditioned reflex was repressed if the stimulus proved “wrong” too frequently; if the

bell rang and no food appeared, the dog eventually ceased to salivate at the sound of the bell (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov: 1849-1936)

Figure 1.1. This illustration shows the steps of Classical Conditioning.

1. Food = salivation

2. Food + Stimulus = salivation (conditioned stimulus)

3. Bell alone produces salivation (conditioned response)

Expanding on Watson’s basic stimulus-response model, Skinner developed a more comprehensive view of conditioning,

known as operant conditioning. His model was based on the premise that satisfying responses are conditioned, while

unsatisfying ones are not. Operant conditioning is the rewarding of part of a desired behavior or a random act that approaches

it (Figure 1.2). Skinner remarked that “the things we call pleasant have an energizing or strengthening effect on our behavior”

(Skinner, 1972, p. 74). Through Skinner’s research on animals, he concluded that both animals and humans would repeat

acts that led to favorable outcomes, and suppress those that produced unfavorable results (Shaffer, 2000). If a rat presses a

bar and receives a food pellet, he will be likely to press it again. Skinner defined the bar-pressing response as operant, and

the food pellet as a reinforcer. Punishers, on the other hand, are consequences that suppress a response and decrease the

likelihood that it will occur in the future. If the rat had been shocked every time, it pressed the bar that behavior would

cease. Skinner believed the habits that each of us develops result from our unique operant learning experiences (Shaffer,

2000).

Figure 1.2 Operant Conditioning (B. F. Skinner: 1904-1990)

Figure 1.2. This illustration illustrates Operant Conditioning. The mouse pushes the lever and receives a food

reward. Therefore, he will push the lever repeatedly in order to get the treat.

Behaviorist techniques have long been employed in education to promote behavior that is desirable and discourage that

which is not. Among the methods derived from behaviorist theory for practical classroom application are contracts,

consequences, reinforcement, extinction, and behavior modification.

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Contracts, Consequences, Reinforcement, and Extinction

Simple contracts can be effective in helping children focus on behavior change. The relevant behavior should be identified,

and the child and counselor should decide the terms of the contract. Behavioral contracts can be used in school as well as at

home. It is helpful if teachers and parents work together with the student to ensure that the contract is being fulfilled. Two

examples of behavior contracts are listed below:

 A student is not completing homework assignments. The teacher and the student design a contract providing

that the student will stay for extra help, ask parents for help, and complete assigned work on time. The teacher

will be available after school, and during free periods for additional assistance.

 A student is misbehaving in class. The teacher and student devise a behavioral contract to minimize distractions.

Provisions include that the student will be punctual, will sit in front of the teacher, will raise hand with

questions/comments, and will not leave his seat without permission.

Consequences occur immediately after a behavior (Figure 1.3). Consequences may be positive or negative, expected or

unexpected, immediate or long-term, extrinsic or intrinsic, material or symbolic (a failing grade), emotional/interpersonal

or even unconscious. Consequences occur after the “target” behavior occurs, when either positive or negative reinforcement

may be given. Positive reinforcement is presentation of a stimulus that increases the probability of a response. This type of

reinforcement occurs frequently in the classroom. Teachers may provide positive reinforcement by:

 Smiling at students after a correct response;

 Commending students for their work;

 Selecting them for a special project; and

 Praising students’ ability to parents.

Negative reinforcement increases the probability of a response that removes or prevents an adverse condition. Many

classroom teachers mistakenly believe that negative reinforcement is punishment administered to suppress behavior;

however, negative reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior, as does positive reinforcement. Negative implies

removing a consequence that a student finds unpleasant. Negative reinforcement might include:

 Obtaining a score of 80% or higher makes the final exam optional;

 Submitting all assignments on time results in the lowest grade being dropped; and

 Perfect attendance is rewarded with a “homework pass.”

Punishment involves presenting a strong stimulus that decreases the frequency of a particular response. Punishment is

effective in quickly eliminating undesirable behaviors. Examples of punishment include:

 Students who fight are immediately referred to the principal;

 Late assignments are given a grade of “0;”

 Three tardies to class results in a call to the parents; and

 Failure to do homework results in after-school detention (privilege of going home is removed).

Figure 1.3 Reinforcement and Punishment Comparison

REINFORCEMENT (Behavior Increases) REINFORCEMENT (Behavior Increases)

POSITIVE

(Something is

added.)

Positive Reinforcement

Something is added to increase desired

behavior.

Ex: Smile and compliment student on good

performance.

Positive Punishment

Something is added to decrease undesired

behavior.

Ex: Give student detention for failing to follow

the class rules.

NEGATIVE

(Something is

removed.)

Negative Reinforcement

Something is removed to increase desired

behavior.

Ex: Give a free homework pass for turning in

all assignments.

Negative Punishment

Something is removed to decrease undesired

behavior.

Ex: Make student miss their time in recess for

not following the class rules.

9
Extinction decreases the probability of a response by contingent withdrawal of a previously reinforced stimulus. Examples

of extinction are:

 A student has developed the habit of saying the punctuation marks when reading aloud. Classmates reinforce

the behavior by laughing when he does so. The teacher tells the students not to laugh, thus extinguishing the

behavior.

 A teacher gives partial credit for late assignments; other teachers think this is unfair; the teacher decides to then

give zeros for the late work.

 Students are frequently late for class, and the teacher does not require a late pass, contrary to school policy. The

rule is subsequently enforced, and the students arrive on time.

Modeling, Shaping, and Cueing

Modeling is also known as observational learning. Albert Bandura has suggested that modeling is the basis for a variety of

child behavior. Children acquire many favorable and unfavorable responses by observing those around them. A child who

kicks another child after seeing this on the playground, or a student who is always late for class because his friends are late

is displaying the results of observational learning.

Figure 1.4 Modeling

“Of the many cues that influence behavior, at any point in time, none is more common than the actions of others.”

(Bandura, 1986, p. 45)

Figure 1.4. In this picture, the child is modeling the behavior of the adult. Children watch and imitate the adults

around them; the result may be favorable or unfavorable behavior!

Shaping is the process of gradually changing the quality of a response. The desired behavior is broken down into discrete,

concrete units, or positive movements, each of which is reinforced as it progresses towards the overall behavioral goal. In

the following scenario, the classroom teacher employs shaping to change student behavior: the class enters the room and

sits down, but continue to talk after the bell rings. The teacher gives the class one point for improvement, in that all students

are seated. Subsequently, the students must be seated and quiet to earn points, which may be accumulated and redeemed for

rewards.

Cueing may be as simple as providing a child with a verbal or non-verbal cue as to the appropriateness of a behavior. For

example, to teach a child to remember to perform an action at a specific time, the teacher might arrange for him to receive

a cue immediately before the action is expected rather than after it has been performed incorrectly. For example, if the

teacher is working with a student that habitually answers aloud instead of raising his hand, the teacher should discuss a cue

such as hand-raising at the end of a question posed to the class.

Behavior Modification

Behavior modification is a method of eliciting better classroom performance from reluctant students. It has six basic

components:

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1. Specification of the desired outcome (What must be changed and how it will be evaluated?) One example of a

desired outcome is increased student participation in class discussions.

2. Development of a positive, nurturing environment (by removing negative stimuli from the learning
environment). In the above example, this would involve a student-teacher conference with a review of the

relevant material, and calling on the student when it is evident that she knows the answer to the question

posed.

3. Identification and use of appropriate reinforcers (intrinsic and extrinsic rewards). A student receives an intrinsic
reinforcer by correctly answering in the presence of peers, thus increasing self-esteem and confidence.

4. Reinforcement of behavior patterns develop until the student has established a pattern of success in engaging
in class discussions.

5. Reduction in the frequency of rewards-a gradual decrease the amount of one-on-one review with the student
before class discussion.

6. Evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of the approach based on teacher expectations and student
results. Compare the frequency of student responses in class discussions to the amount of support provided, and

determine whether the student is independently engaging in class discussions. (Brewer, Campbell, & Petty,

2000)

Further suggestions for modifying behavior can be found at the mentalhealth.net web site. These include changing the

environment, using models for learning new behavior, recording behavior, substituting new behavior to break bad habits,

developing positive expectations, and increasing intrinsic satisfaction.

Criticisms of Behaviorism

Behaviorism can be critiqued as an overly deterministic view of human behavior by ignoring the internal psychological and

mental processes; behaviorism oversimplifies the complexity of human behavior. Some would even argue that the strict

nature of radical behaviorism essentially defines human beings as mechanisms without free will. The behaviorist approach

has also been criticized for its inability to account for learning or changes in behavior that occur in the absence of

environmental input; such occurrences signal the presence of an internal psychological or mental process. Finally, research

by ethologists has shown that the principles of conditioning are not universal, countering the behaviorist claim of

equipotentiality across conditioning principles. Behaviorism was developed as a counter to the introspective approach that

relied primarily, if not entirely, on internal, self-reflection on conscious, mental activity. While radical behaviorism may be

quite limited in its explanatory power, it served an important role in allowing psychology to develop a scientific pursuit of

knowledge about human nature and behavior. Nevertheless, the link between stimulus and response is not just a simple,

direct, cause and effect relationship. Factors beyond the stimulus are involved in determining the response. Actions occur

based on purpose, and purpose is determined by the mind of the subject. Thus, a more complete understanding of human

behavior would need to include both the external actions of the body and the inner life of the mind.

Educational Implications

Using behaviorist theory in the classroom can be rewarding for both students and teachers. Behavioral change occurs for a

reason; students work for things that bring them positive feelings, and for approval from people they admire. They change

behaviors to satisfy the desires they have learned to value. They generally avoid behaviors they associate with

unpleasantness and develop habitual behaviors from those that are repeated often (Parkay & Hass, 2000). The entire

rationale of behavior modification is that most behavior is learned. If behaviors can be learned, then they can also be

unlearned or relearned. A behavior that goes unrewarded will be extinguished. Consistently ignoring an undesirable

behavior will go far toward eliminating it. When the teacher does not respond angrily, the problem is forced back to its

source-the student. Other successful classroom strategies are contracts, consequences, punishment and others that have been

described in detail earlier. Behaviorist learning theory is not only important in achieving desired behavior in mainstream

education. Special education teachers have classroom behavior modification plans to implement for their students. These

plans assure success for these students in and out of school.

11
REFERENCES

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundation of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice

Hall.

Brewer, E. W., Campbell, A. C., & Petty, G. C. (2000). Foundations of workforce education. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt

Publishing Company.

Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (1998). The behavioral system. Retrieved from

http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/behavior/behovr.html

Parkay, F. W., & Hass, G. (2000). Curriculum planning (7th ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Shaffer, D. (2000). Social and personality development (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.

Skinner, B. (1972). Utopia through the control of human behavior. In John Martin Rich (Ed.), Readings in the philosophy

of education. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

ADDITIONAL READING

Credible Articles on the Internet

Classroom management theories and theorists. (2013). Retrieved from

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Classroom_Management_Theorists_and_Theories/Burrhus_Frederic_Skinner#References

Cunia, E. (2005). Behavioral learning theory. Principles of Instruction and Learning: A Web Quest. Retrieved from

http://erincunia.com/portfolio/MSportfolio/ide621/ide621f03production/behavior.htm

Graham, G. (2002). Behaviorism. In E. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Stanford, CA: The

Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved from

http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2002/entries/behaviorism/

Hauser, L. (2006). Behaviorism. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from

http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/behavior.htm

Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2006). An overview of the behavioral perspective. Educational Psychology Interactive.

Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/behavior/behovr.html

Huitt, W. (1996). Classroom management: A behavioral approach. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA:

Valdosta State University. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/manage/behmgt.html

Huitt, W. (1994). Principles for using behavior modification. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta

State University. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/behavior/behmod.html

Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (1997). An introduction to classical (respondent) conditioning. Educational Psychology

Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved from

http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/behavior/classcnd.html

Wozniak, R. (1997). Behaviorism: The early years. Bryn Mawr, PA: Bryn Mawr College. Retrieved from

http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Psych/rwozniak/behaviorism.html

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Bush, G. (2006). Learning about learning: From theories to trends. Teacher Librarian, 34(2), 14-18. Retrieved from

http://proxygsu-dal1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/224878283?accountid=10403

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Delprato, D. J., & Midgley, B. D. (1992). Some fundamentals of B. F. skinner’s behaviorism. The American Psychologist,

47(11), 1507. Retrieved from http://www.galileo.usg.edu.

Ledoux, S. F. (2012). Behaviorism at 100. American Scientist, 100(1), 60-65. Retrieved from http://proxygsu-

dal1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1009904053?accountid=10403

Moore, J. (2011). Behaviorism. The Psychological Record, 61(3), 449-463. Retrieved from

http://www.galileo.usg.edu.

Ruiz, M. R. (1995). B. F. skinner’s radical behaviorism. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 19(2), 161. Retrieved from

http://proxygsu-

dal1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=slh&AN=9506232514&site=ehost

-live

Ulman, J. (1998). Applying behaviorological principles in the classroom: Creating responsive learning environments. The

Teacher Education, 34(2), 144-156.

Books in Dalton State College Library

Bjork, D. W. (1997). B.F. Skinner: A life. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism (1st ed.). New York, NY: Random House. Retrieved from

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ndx7awW_1OcC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Smith, L. D., & Woodward, W. R. (1996). B.F. Skinner and behaviorism in American culture. Bethlehem, London;

Cranbury, NJ: Lehigh University Press.

Todd, J. T., & Morris, E. K. (1995). Modern perspectives on B.F. Skinner and contemporary behaviorism. Westport, CT:

Greenwood Press.

Interactive Tutorials

Psychology Department. (2017). Positive reinforcement tutorial. Athabasca, Alberta, Canade: Athabasca University.

Retrieved from https://psych.athabascau.ca/open/prtut/index.php

Video(s)

B. F. Skinner: A fresh appraisal. (1999). Retrieved from

http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=8691&xtid=44905

13
CHAPTER 2

Stages of Cognitive Development

INTRODUCTION

Jean Piaget (1896-1980), a Swiss psychologist, is best known for his pioneering work on the development of intelligence in

children. His studies have had a major impact on the fields of psychology and education. Piaget was born August 9, 1896,

in Neuchâtel. He was educated at the University of Neuchâtel and received his doctorate in biology at age 22. Piaget became

interested in psychology and he studied and carried out research first in Zürich, Switzerland, and then at the Sorbonne in

Paris, where he began his studies on the development of cognitive abilities. He taught at various European universities while

he continued his research and writing. In 1955, he became the director of the International Center for Epistemology at the

University of Geneva, and later he was the co-director of the International Bureau of Education. He died in Geneva, on

September 17, 1980.

In his work Piaget identified the child’s four stages of mental growth. In the Sensorimotor Stage, occurring from birth to

age 2, the child is concerned with gaining motor control and learning about physical objects. In the Preoperational Stage,

from ages 2 to 7, the child is preoccupied with verbal skills. At this point the child can name objects and reason intuitively.

In the Concrete Operational Stage, from ages 7 to 11, the child begins to deal with abstract concepts such as numbers and

relationships. Finally, in the Formal Operational Stage, ages from adolescence to adulthood, the child begins to reason

logically and systematically. Among Piaget’s many books are The Language and Thought of the Child (1926), Judgment

and Reasoning in the Child (1928), The Origin of Intelligence in Children (1954), The Early Growth of Logic in the Child

(1964), and Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child (1970).

REQUIRED READING

From his observation of children, Piaget understood that children were creating ideas. They were not limited to receiving

knowledge from parents or teachers; they actively constructed their own knowledge. Piaget’s work provides the foundation

on which constructionist theories are based. Constructionists believe that knowledge is constructed and learning occurs

when children create products or artifacts. They assert that learners are more likely to be engaged in learning when these

artifacts are personally relevant and meaningful (Constructivism, n.d.).

In studying the cognitive development of children and adolescents, Piaget identified four major stages: sensorimotor,

preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational (Figure 2.1). Piaget believed all children pass through these

phases to advance to the next level of cognitive development. In each stage, children demonstrate new intellectual abilities

and increasingly complex understanding of the world. Stages cannot be “skipped;” intellectual development always follows

this sequence. The ages at which children progress through the stages are averages-they vary with the environment and

background of individual children. At any given time, a child may exhibit behaviors characteristic of more than one stage.

The first stage, sensorimotor, begins at birth and lasts until 18 months-2 years of age. This stage involves the use of motor

activity without the use of symbols. Knowledge is limited in this stage, because it is based on physical interactions and

experiences. Infants cannot predict reaction, and therefore must constantly experiment and learn through trial and error.

Such exploration might include shaking a rattle or putting objects in the mouth. As they become more mobile, infants’ ability

to develop cognitively increases. Early language development begins during this stage. Object permanence occurs at 7-9

months, demonstrating that memory is developing. Infants realize that an object exists after it can no longer be seen.

14
Figure 2.1 Stages of Cognitive Development

Figure 2.1. The inspiration web above illustrates Piaget’s four cognitive development stages: sensorimotor (birth-2

years), preoperational (2-7 years), concrete operational (7-11 years), and formal operational (adolescence-

adulthood). Illustrated by Tiffany Davis, Meghann Hummel, and Kay Sauers (2006).

The preoperational stage usually occurs during the period between toddlerhood (18-24months) and early childhood (7

years). During this stage children begin to use language; memory and imagination also develop. In the preoperational stage,

children engage in make believe and can understand and express relationships between the past and the future. More

complex concepts, such as cause and effect relationships, have not been learned. Intelligence is egocentric and intuitive, not

logical.

The concrete operational stage typically develops between the ages of 7-11 years. Intellectual development in this stage is

demonstrated through the use of logical and systematic manipulation of symbols, which are related to concrete objects.

Thinking becomes less egocentric with increased awareness of external events, and involves concrete references.

The period from adolescence through adulthood is the formal operational stage. Adolescents and adults use symbols related

to abstract concepts. Adolescents can think about multiple variables in systematic ways, can formulate hypotheses, and

think about abstract relationships and concepts.

Piaget believed that intellectual development was a lifelong process, but that when formal operational thought was attained,

no new structures were needed. Intellectual development in adults involves developing more complex schema through the

addition of knowledge.

Criticisms of Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

Researchers during the 1960’s and 1970’s identified shortcomings in Piaget’s theory. First, critics argue that by describing

tasks with confusing abstract terms and using overly difficult tasks, Piaget under estimated children’s abilities. Researchers

have found that young children can succeed on simpler forms of tasks requiring the same skills. Second, Piaget’s theory

predicts that thinking within a particular stage would be similar across tasks. In other words, preschool children should

perform at the preoperational level in all cognitive tasks. Research has shown diversity in children’s thinking across

cognitive tasks. Third, according to Piaget, efforts to teach children developmentally advanced concepts would be

unsuccessful. Researchers have found that in some instances, children often learn more advanced concepts with relatively

brief instruction. Researchers now believe that children may be more competent than Piaget originally thought, especially

in their practical knowledge. See below the illustration (the animation was created by Daurice Grossniklaus and Bob Rodes,

2002; the images below were created based on the video “Illustration of Schema, Assimilation, & Accommodation” by

Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology University of Georgia, 2012), which

15
demonstrates a child developing a schema for a dog (Figure 2.2) by assimilating information about the dog (Figure 2.3).

The child then sees a cat, using accommodation, and compares existing knowledge of a dog to form a schema of a cat

(Figure 2.4).

Figure 2.2 Schema

Figure 2.3 Assimilation Process

In Figure 2.3 when the parent reads to the child about dogs, the child constructs a schema about dogs. Later, the child sees

a dog in the park; through the process of assimilation the child expands his/her understanding of what a dog is. When the

dog barks, the child experiences disequilibria because the child’s schema did not include barking. Then the child discovers

the dog is furry, and it licks the child’s hand. Again, the child experiences disequilibria. By adding the newly discovered

information to the existing schema the child is actively constructing meaning. At this point the child seeks reinforcement

from the parent. The parent affirms and reinforces the new information. Through assimilation of the new information the

child returns to a state of equilibrium.

16
Figure 2.4. Accommodation Process

In Figure 2.4. the process of accommodation occurs when the child sees a cat in the park. A new schema must be formed,

because the cat has many traits of the dog, but because the cat meows and then climbs a tree the child begins to actively

construct new meaning. Again, the parent reinforces that this is a cat to resolve the child’s disequilibria. A new schema

about cats is then formed and the child returns to a state of equilibrium.

Educational Implications

An important implication of Piaget’s theory is adaptation of instruction to the learner’s developmental level. The content of

instruction needs to be consistent with the developmental level of the learner. The teacher’s role is to facilitate learning by

providing a variety of experiences. “Discovery Learning” provides opportunities for learners to explore and experiment,

thereby encouraging new understandings (Kafia & Resnick, 1996). Opportunities that allow students of differing cognitive

levels to work together often encourage less mature students to advance to a more mature understanding. One further

implication for instruction is the use of concrete “hands on” experiences to help children learn. Additional suggestions

include:

 Provide concrete props and visual aids, such as models and/or time line;

 Use familiar examples to facilitate learning more complex ideas, such as story problems in math;

 Allow opportunities to classify and group information with increasing complexity; use outlines and hierarchies

to facilitate assimilating new information with previous knowledge; and

 Present problems that require logical analytic thinking; the use of tools such as “brain teasers” is encouraged.

Huitt and Hummel (1998) asserted that only 35% of high school graduates in industrialized countries obtain formal

operations and many people do not think formally during adulthood. This is significant in terms of developing instruction

and performance support tools for students who are chronologically adults, but may be limited in their understanding of

abstract concepts. For both adolescent and adult learners, it is important to use these instructional strategies:

 Use visual aids and models;

 Provide opportunities to discuss social, political, and cultural issues; and

 Teach broad concepts rather than facts, and to situate these in a context meaningful and relevant to the

learner.

17
REFERENCES

Constructivism. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.edwebproject.org/constructivism.html

Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology University of Georgia. (2012, September 25).

Illustration of Schema, Assimilation, & Accommodation [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/3-A9SgbAK5I

Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (1998). Cognitive development. Retrieved from

http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/piaget.html

Kafia, Y. B., & Resnick, M. (1996). Introduction. In Y. Kafai & M. Resnick. (Eds.), Construction in practice designing,

thinking and learning in a digital world. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associated Publisher.

ADDITIONAL READING

Credible Articles on the Internet

Atherton, J. S. (2013). Learning and teaching: Piaget’s developmental theory. Retrieved from

http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm

Campbell, R. (2006). Jean Piaget’s genetic epistemology: Appreciation and critique. Retrieved from

http://campber.people.clemson.edu/piaget.html

Cole, M., & Wertsch, J. (1996). Beyond the individual-social antimony in discussions of Piaget and Vygotsky. Retrieved

from http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock/virtual/colevyg.htm

Huitt, W. (2004). Observational (social) learning: An overview. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA:

Valdosta State University. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/soccog/soclrn.html

Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2003). Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta,

GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/piaget.html

McLeod, S. A. (2009). Jean Piaget. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

Piaget, J. (1964). Part I: Cognitive development in children: Piaget development and learning. Journal of Research in

Science Teaching, 2, 176-186. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tea.3660020306/pdf

Presnell, F. (1999). Muskingum university department of psychology. Retrieved from

http://muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/piaget.htm

Wood, K. C., Smith, H., & Grossniklaus, D. (2001). Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging

perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from

http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Piaget%27s_Stages

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Asokan, S., Surendran, S., Asokan, S., & Nuvvula, S. (2014). Relevance of Piaget’s cognitive principles among 4-7 years

old children: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Journal of the Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry,

32(4), 292-296.

Brizuela, B. M. (1997). The essential Piaget: An interpretive reference and guide. Harvard Educational Review, 67(4),

835-836.

Ewing, J. C., Foster, D. D., & Whittington, M. S. (2011). Explaining student cognition during class sessions in the

context: Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. NACTA Journal, 55(1), 68-75.

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Murray, L. A. (1996). Cognitive development today: Piaget and his critics. British Journal of Psychology, 87, 166.

Piaget, J. (1972). Intellectual evolution from adolescence to adulthood. Human Development, 51(1), 40-47.

Vidal, F. (1997). Towards re-reading Jean Piaget. Human Development, 40(2), 124-126.

Books at Dalton State College Library

Ginsburg, H., & Opper, S. J. A. (1979). Piaget’s theory of intellectual development (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Prentice-Hall.

Piaget, J., Gruber, H. E., & Vonèche, J. J. (1977). The essential Piaget. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Wadsworth, B. J. (1978). Piaget for the classroom teacher. New York, NY: Longman.

Interactive Tutorials and Videos

Carlsen, M. (2009). Piaget’s concrete operational stage. Retrieved from

Cognitive development. (1995). Retrieved from Films on Demand Database.

McQuillen, M. (2009). Stages 3 and 4 of Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development. Retrieved from

http://www.sophia.org/tutorials/piagets-4-stages-of-cognitive-development-sensorim

Piaget’s developmental theory: An overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://youtu.be/QX6JxLwMJeQ

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CHAPTER 3

Social Cognitive Theory

INTRODUCTION

Albert Bandura (1925- ) was born in Mundare, Alberta in 1925. He was the youngest of six children. Both of his parents

were immigrants from Eastern Europe. Bandura’s father worked as a track layer for the Trans-Canada railroad while his

mother worked in a general store before they were able to buy some land and become farmers. Though times were often

hard growing up, Bandura’s parents placed great emphasis on celebrating life and more importantly family. They were also

very keen on their children doing well in school. Mundare had only one school at the time so Bandura did all of his schooling

in one place.

After spending a summer working in Alaska after finishing high school, Bandura went to the University of British Columbia.

He graduated three years later in 1949 with the Bolocan Award in psychology. Bandura went to the University of Iowa to

complete his graduate work. At the time the University of Iowa was central to psychological study, especially in the area of

social learning theory. Bandura completed his Master’s in 1951 followed by a Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1952. After

completing his doctorate, Bandura went onto a postdoctoral position at the Wichita Guidance Center before accepting a

position as a faculty member at Stanford University in 1953. Bandura has studied many different topics over the years,

including aggression in adolescents (more specifically he was interested in aggression in boys who came from intact middle-

class families), children’s abilities to self-regulate and self-reflect, and of course self-efficacy (a person’s perception and

beliefs about their ability to produce effects, or influence events that concern their lives).

Bandura is perhaps most famous for his Bobo Doll experiments in the 1960s. At the time there was a popular belief that

learning was a result of reinforcement. In the Bobo Doll experiments, Bandura presented children with social models of

novel (new) violent behavior or non-violent behavior towards the inflatable redounding Bobo Doll. Children who viewed

the violent behavior were in turn violent towards the doll; the control group was rarely violent towards the doll. That became

Bandura’s social learning theory in the 1960s. Social learning theory focuses on what people learn from observing and

interacting with other people. It is often called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it

encompasses attention, memory, and motivation. Bandura and his colleagues Dorrie and Sheila Ross continued to show that

social modeling is a very effective way of learning. Bandura went on to expand motivational and cognitive processes on

social learning theory. In 1986, Bandura published his second book Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social

Cognitive Theory, in which he renamed his original social learning theory to be social cognitive theory. Social cognitive

theory claims that learning occurs in a social context with a dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment,

and behavior. Social cognitive theory posits that people are not simply shaped by that environment; they are active

participants in their environment. Bandura is highly recognized for his work on social learning theory and social cognitive

theory.

REQUIRED READING

The Origin of Social Cognitive Theory: Social Learning Theory

In 1961 and 1963 along with his students and colleagues, Bandura conducted a series of studies known as the Bobo doll

experiments to find out why and when children display aggressive behaviors. These studies demonstrated the value of

modeling for acquiring novel behaviors. These studies helped Bandura publish his seminal article and book in 1977 that

expanded on the idea of how behavior is acquired (Evans & Bandura, 1989), thus social learning theory. In his article

Bandura (1977a) claimed that Social Learning Theory shows a direct correlation between a person’s perceived self-efficacy

and behavioral change. Self-efficacy comes from four sources: “performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal

persuasion, and physiological states” (Bandura, 1977a, p. 195).

Social learning is also commonly referred to as observational learning, because it comes about as a result of observing

models. Bandura became interested in social aspects of learning at the beginning of his career. Early theories considered

behavior to be a function of the person and their environment, or a function of the interaction between the person and their

environment. Bandura believed that behavior itself influences both the person and the environment, each of which in turn

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affects behavior and each other. The result is a complex interplay of factors known as reciprocal determinism. Social

learning theory emphasizes that behavior, personal factors, and environmental factors are all equal, interlocking

determinants of each other (Bandura, 1973, 1977a; Figure 3.1).

Figure 3.1 Reciprocal Determinism

Figure 3.1. Bandura proposed the idea of reciprocal determinism, in which our behavior, Personal factors, and

environmental factors all influence each other.

Reciprocal determinism can be seen in everyday observations, such as those made by Bandura and others during their studies

of aggression. For example, approximately 75 percent of the time, hostile behavior results in unfriendly responses, whereas

friendly acts seldom result in such consequences. With little effort, it becomes easy to recognize individuals who create

negative social climates (Bandura, 1973). Thus, while it may still be true that changing environmental contingencies changes

behavior, it is also true that changing behavior alters the environmental contingencies. This results in a unique perspective

on freedom vs. determinism. Usually we think of determinism as something that eliminates or restricts our freedom.

However, Bandura believed that individuals can intentionally act as agents of change within their environment, thus altering

the factors that determine their behavior. In other words, we have the freedom to influence factors that which determine our

behavior:

…Given the same environmental constraints, individuals who have many behavioral options and are adept at

regulating their own behavior will experience greater freedom than will individuals whose personal resources are

limited. (Bandura, 1977a, p. 203)

It is important to note that learning can occur without a change in behavior. According to Ormrod’s (2008) general principles

of social learning, while a visible change in behavior is the most common proof of learning, it is not absolutely necessary.

Social learning theorists say that because people can learn through observation alone, their learning may not necessarily be

shown in their performance.

Overview of Social Cognitive Theory

In 1986, Bandura published his second book Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory, which

expanded and renamed his original theory. He called the new theory Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Bandura changed the

name social learning theory to social cognitive theory to emphasize the major role cognition plays in encoding and

performing behaviors. In this book, Bandura (1986) argued that human behavior is caused by personal, behavioral, and

environmental influences. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) holds that portions of an individual’s knowledge acquisition can

be directly related to observing others within the context of social interactions, experiences, and outside media influences.

The theory states that when people observe a model performing a behavior and the consequences of that behavior, they

Personal Factors

(Cognition, Affect,
Biology)

Environmental
Factors

Behavior

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remember the sequence of events and use this information to guide subsequent behaviors. Observing a model can also

prompt the viewer to engage in behavior they already learned (Bandura, 1986, 2002). In other words, people do not learn

new behaviors solely by trying them and either succeeding or failing, but rather, the survival of humanity is dependent upon

the replication of the actions of others. Depending on whether people are rewarded or punished for their behavior and the

outcome of the behavior, the observer may choose to replicate behavior modeled. Media provides models for a vast array

of people in many different environmental settings.

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) is a learning theory based on the idea that people learn by observing others. These learned

behaviors can be central to one’s personality. While social psychologists agree that the environment one grows up in

contributes to behavior, the individual person (and therefore cognition) is just as important. People learn by observing others,

with the environment, behavior, and cognition all as the chief factors in influencing development in a reciprocal triadic

relationship. For example, each behavior witnessed can change a person’s way of thinking (cognition). Similarly, the

environment one is raised in may influence later behaviors, just as a father’s mindset (also cognition) determines the

environment in which his children are raised. The reciprocal determinism was explained in the schematization of triadic

reciprocal causation (Bandura, 2002). The schema shows how the reproduction of an observed behavior is influenced by

the interaction of the following three determinants:

1. Personal: Whether the individual has high or low self-efficacy toward the behavior (i.e. Get the learner to believe
in his or her personal abilities to correctly complete a behavior).

2. Behavioral: The response an individual receives after they perform a behavior (i.e. Provide chances for the learner
to experience successful learning as a result of performing the behavior correctly).

3. Environmental: Aspects of the environment or setting that influence the individual’s ability to successfully complete
a behavior (i.e. Make environmental conditions conducive for improved self-efficacy by providing appropriate

support and materials). (Bandura, 2002)

Human Agency

Social Cognitive Theory is proposed in an agentic perspective (Bandura, 1986), which suggested that, instead of being just

shaped by environments or inner forces, individuals are self-developing, self-regulating, self-reflecting and proactive:

…Social cognitive theory rejects a duality of human agency and a disembodied social structure. Social systems are

the product of human activity, and social systems, in turn, help to organize, guide, and regulate human affairs.

However, in the dynamic interplay within the societal rule structures, there is considerable personal variation in the

interpretation of, adoption of, enforcement of, circumvention of, and opposition to societal prescriptions and

sanctions…freedom is conceived not just passively as the absence of constraints, but also proactively as the exercise

of self-influence…(Bandura, 2006, p. 165).

Specifically, human agency operates within three modes:

 Individual Agency: A person’s own influence on the environment;

 Proxy Agency: Another person’s effort on securing the individual’s interests;

 Collective Agency: A group of people work together to achieve the common benefits. (Pajares, Prestin, Chen, &
Nabi, 2009)

Human agency has four core properties:

 Intentionality: Individuals’ active decision on engaging in certain activities;

 Forethought: Individuals’ ability to anticipate the outcome of certain actions;

 Self-reactiveness: Individuals’ ability to construct and regulate appropriate behaviors;

 Self-reflectiveness: Individuals’ ability to reflect and evaluate the soundness of their cognitions and behaviors.

(Pajares, Prestin, Chen, & Nabi, 2009)

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Human Capability

Evolving over time, human beings are featured with advanced neutral systems, which enable individuals to acquire

knowledge and skills by both direct and symbolic terms (Bandura, 2002). Four primary capabilities are addressed as

important foundations of social cognitive theory: symbolizing capability, self-regulation capability, self-reflective

capability, and vicarious capability:

1. Symbolizing Capability: People are affected not only by direct experience but also indirect events. Instead of merely
learning through laborious trial-and-error process, human beings are able to symbolically perceive events conveyed

in messages, construct possible solutions, and evaluate the anticipated outcomes.

2. Self-regulation Capability: Individuals can regulate their own intentions and behaviors by themselves. Self-
regulation lies on both negative and positive feedback systems, in which discrepancy reduction and discrepancy

production are involved. That is, individuals proactively motivate and guide their actions by setting challenging

goals and then making effort to fulfill them. In doing so, individuals gain skills, resources, self-efficacy and beyond.

3. Self-reflective Capability: Human beings can evaluate their thoughts and actions by themselves, which is identified
as another distinct feature of human beings. By verifying the adequacy and soundness of their thoughts through

enactive, various, social, or logical manner, individuals can generate new ideas, adjust their thoughts, and take

actions accordingly.

4. Vicarious Capability: One critical ability human beings featured is to adopt skills and knowledge from information
communicated through a wide array of mediums. By vicariously observing others’ actions and their consequences,

individuals can gain insights into their own activities. Vicarious capability is of great value to human beings’

cognitive development in nowadays, in which most of our information encountered in our lives derives from the

mass media than trial-and-error process. (Bandura, 2002)

Core Concepts of Social Cognitive Theory

Modeling/Observational Learning

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) revolves around the process of knowledge acquisition or learning directly correlated to the

observation of models. The models can be those of an interpersonal imitation or media sources. Effective modeling teaches

general rules and strategies for dealing with different situations (Bandura, 1988). Modeling is the term that best describes

and, therefore, is used to characterize the psychological processes that underlie matching behavior (Bandura, 1986):

Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their

own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through

modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this

coded information serves as a guide for action. (Bandura, 1977b, p. 22)

Individuals differ in the degree to which they can be influenced by models, and not all models are equally effective.

According to Bandura, three factors are most influential in terms of the effectiveness of modeling situations: the

characteristics of the model, the attributes of the observers, and the consequences of the model’s actions. The most relevant

characteristics of an influential model are high status, competence, and power. When observers are unsure about a situation,

they rely on cues to indicate what they perceive as evidence of past success by the model. Such cues include general

appearance, symbols of socioeconomic success (e.g., a fancy sports car), and signs of expertise (e.g., a doctor’s lab coat).

Since those models appear to have been successful themselves, it seems logical that observers might want to imitate their

behavior. Individuals who are low in self-esteem, dependent, and who lack confidence are not necessarily more likely to be

influenced by models. Bandura proposed that when modeling is used to explicitly develop new competencies, the ones who

will benefit most from the situation are those who are more talented and more venturesome (Bandura, 1977b).

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Despite the potential influence of models, the entire process of observational learning in a social learning environment

would probably not be successful if not for four important component processes: attentional processes, retention processes,

production (or reproduction) processes, and motivational processes (Bandura, 1977b, 1986). The fact that an observer must

pay attention to a model might seem obvious, but some models are more likely to attract attention. Individuals are more

likely to pay attention to models with whom they associate, even if the association is more cognitive than personal. It is also

well-known that people who are admired, such as those who are physically attractive or popular athletes, make for attention-

getting models. There are also certain types of media that are very good at getting people’s attention, such as television

advertisements (Bandura, 1977b, 1986). It is a curious cultural phenomenon that the television advertisements presented

during the National Football League’s Super Bowl have become almost as much of the excitement as the game itself (and

even more exciting for those who are not football fans)!

The retention processes involve primarily an observer’s memory for the modeled behavior. The most important memory

processes, according to Bandura (1977b), are visual imagery and verbal coding, with visual imagery being particularly

important early in development when verbal skills are limited. Once modeled behavior has been transformed into visual

and/or verbal codes, these memories can serve to guide the performance of the behavior at appropriate times. When the

modeled behavior is produced by the observer, the so-called production process, the re-enactment can be broken down into

the cognitive organization of the responses, their initiation, subsequent monitoring, and finally the refinement of the

behavior based on informative feedback. Producing complex modeled behaviors is not always an easy task:

…A common problem in learning complex skills, such as golf or swimming, is that performers cannot fully observe

their responses, and must therefore rely upon vague kinesthetic cues or verbal reports of onlookers. It is difficult to

guide actions that are only partially observable or to identify the corrections needed to achieve a close match between

representation and performance. (Bandura, 1977b, p. 28)

Finally, motivational processes determine whether the observer is inclined to match the modeled behavior in the first place.

Individuals are most likely to model behaviors that result in an outcome they value, and if the behavior seems to be effective

for the models who demonstrated the behavior. Given the complexity of the relationships between models, observers, the

perceived effectiveness of modeled behavior, and the subjective value of rewards, even using prominent models does not

guarantee that they will be able to create similar behavior in observers (Bandura, 1977b, 1986).

In short, for modeling /observational learning to occur, four processes exist:

 Attention: Observers selectively give attention to specific social behavior depending on accessibility, relevance,
complexity, functional value of the behavior or some observer’s personal attributes such as cognitive capability,

value preference, preconceptions.

 Retention: Observe a behavior and subsequent consequences, then convert that observation to a symbol that can be

accessed for future reenactments of the behavior. Note: When a positive behavior is shown a positive reinforcement

should follow, this parallel is similar for negative behavior.

 Production: refers to the symbolic representation of the original behavior being translated into action through

reproduction of the observed behavior in seemingly appropriate contexts. During reproduction of the behavior, a

person receives feedback from others and can adjust their representation for future references.

 Motivation: reenacts a behavior depending on responses and consequences the observer receives when reenacting

that behavior. (Bandura, 1986, 2002)

A common misconception regarding modeling is that it only leads to learning the behaviors that have been modeled.

However, modeling can lead to innovative behavior patterns. Observers typically see a given behavior performed by

multiple models; even in early childhood one often gets to see both parents model a given behavior. When the behavior is

then matched, the observer will typically select elements from the different models, relying on only certain aspects of the

behavior performed by each, and then create a unique pattern that accomplishes the final behavior. Thus, partial departures

from the originally modeled behavior can be a source of new directions, especially in creative endeavors (such as composing

music or creating a sculpture). In contrast, however, when simple routines prove useful, modeling can actually stifle

innovation. So, the most innovative individuals appear to be those who have been exposed to innovative models, provided

24
that the models are not so innovative as to create an unreasonably difficult challenge in modeling their creativity and

innovation (Bandura, 1977b, 1986; Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1963).

Moreover, modeling does not limit to only live demonstrations but also verbal and written behavior can act as indirect forms

of modeling. Modeling not only allows students to learn behavior that they should repeat but also to inhibit certain behaviors.

For instance, if a teacher glares at one student who is talking out of turn, other students may suppress this behavior to avoid

a similar reaction. Teachers model both material objectives and underlying curriculum of virtuous living. Teachers should

also be dedicated to the building of high self-efficacy levels in their students by recognizing their accomplishments.

Outcome Expectancies

To learn a particular behavior, people must understand what the potential outcome is if they repeat that behavior. The

observer does not expect the actual rewards or punishments incurred by the model, but anticipates similar outcomes when

imitating the behavior (called outcome expectancies), which is why modeling impacts cognition and behavior. These

expectancies are heavily influenced by the environment that the observer grows up in; for example, the expected

consequences for a DUI in the United States of America are a fine, with possible jail time, whereas the same charge in

another country might lead to the infliction of the death penalty. For example, in the case of a student, the instructions the

teacher provides help students see what outcome a particular behavior leads to. It is the duty of the teacher to teach a student

that when a behavior is successfully learned, the outcomes are meaningful and valuable to the students.

Self-Efficacy

Social Cognitive Theory posits that learning most likely occurs if there is a close identification between the observer and

the model and if the observer also has a good deal of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the extent to which an individual believes

that they can master a particular skill. Self-efficacy beliefs function as an important set of proximal determinants of human

motivation, affect, and action-which operate on action through motivational, cognitive, and affective intervening processes

(Bandura, 1989).

According to Bandura (1995), self-efficacy is “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action

required to manage prospective situations” (p. 2). Bandura and other researchers have found an individual’s self-efficacy

plays a major role in how goals, tasks, and challenges are approached. Individuals with high self-efficacy are more likely to

believe they can master challenging problems and they can recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments. Individuals

with low self-efficacy tend to be less confident and don’t believe they can perform well, which leads them to avoid

challenging tasks. Therefore, self-efficacy plays a central role in behavior performance. Observers who have high level of

self-efficacy are more likely to adopt observational learning behaviors. Self-efficacy can be developed or increased by:

 Mastery experience: which is a process that helps an individual achieve simple tasks that lead to more complex

objectives.

 Social modeling: provides an identifiable model that shows the processes that accomplish a behavior.

 Improving physical and emotional states: refers to ensuring a person is rested and relaxed prior to attempting a new

behavior. The less relaxed, the less patient, the more likely they won’t attain the goal behavior.

 Verbal persuasion: is providing encouragement for a person to complete a task or achieve a certain behavior.

(McAlister, Perry, & Parcel, 2008)

For example, students become more effortful, active, pay attention, highly motivated and better learners when they perceive

that they have mastered a particular task (Bandura, 1993). It is the duty of the teacher to allow student to develop and

perceive their efficacy by providing feedback to understand their level of proficiency. Teachers should ensure that the

students have the knowledge and strategies they need to complete the tasks. Self-efficacy development is an exploring

human agency and human capability process. Young children have little understanding of what they can and cannot do, so

the development of realistic self-efficacy is a very important process:

…Very young children lack knowledge of their own capabilities and the demands and potential hazards of different

courses of action. They would repeatedly get themselves into dangerous predicaments were it not for the guidance of

others. They can climb to high places, wander into rivers or deep pools, and wield sharp knives before they develop

the necessary skills for managing such situations safely…Adult watchfulness and guidance see young children through

25
this early formative period until they gain sufficient knowledge of what they can do and what different situations

require in the way of skills. (Bandura, 1986, p. 414)

During infancy, the development of perceived causal efficacy, in other words the perception that one has affected the world

by one’s own actions, appears to be an important aspect of developing a sense of self. As the infant interacts with its

environment, the infant is able to cause predictable events, such as the sound that accompanies shaking a rattle. The

understanding that one’s own actions can influence the environment is something Bandura refers to as personal agency, the

ability to act as an agent of change in one’s own world. The infant also begins to experience that certain events affect models

differently than the child. For example, if a model touches a hot stove it does not hurt the infant, so the infant begins to

recognize their uniqueness, their actual existence as an individual. During this period, interactions with the physical

environment may be more important than social interactions, since the physical environment is more predictable, and

therefore easier to learn about (Bandura, 1986, 1997). Quickly, however, social interaction becomes highly influential.

Not only does the child learn a great deal from the family, but as they grow peers become increasingly important. As the

child’s world expands, peers bring with them a broadening of self-efficacy experiences. This can have both positive and

negative consequences. Peers who are most experienced and competent can become important models of behavior.

However, if a child perceives themselves as socially inefficacious, but does develop self-efficacy in coercive, aggressive

behavior, then that child is likely to become a bully. In the midst of this effort to learn socially acceptable behavior, most

children also begin attending school, where the primary focus is on the development of cognitive efficacy. For many

children, unfortunately, the academic environment of school is a challenge. Children quickly learn to rank themselves

(grades help, both good and bad), and children who do poorly can lose the sense of self-efficacy that is necessary for

continued effort at school. According to Bandura, it is important that educational practices focus not only on the content

they provide, but also on what they do to children’s beliefs about their abilities (Bandura, 1986, 1997).

As children continue through adolescence toward adulthood, they need to assume responsibility for themselves in all aspects

of life. They must master many new skills, and a sense of confidence in working toward the future is dependent on a

developing sense of self-efficacy supported by past experiences of mastery. In adulthood, a healthy and realistic sense of

self-efficacy provides the motivation necessary to pursue success in one’s life. Poorly equipped adults, wracked with self-

doubt, often find life stressful and depressing. Even psychologically healthy adults must eventually face the realities of

aging, and the inevitable decline in physical status. There is little evidence, however, for significant declines in mental states

until very advanced old age. In cultures that admire youth, there may well be a tendency for the aged to lose their sense of

self-efficacy and begin an inexorable decline toward death. But in societies that promote self-growth throughout life, and

who admire elders for their wisdom and experience, there is potential for aged individuals to continue living productive and

self-fulfilling lives (Bandura, 1986, 1997).

In summary, as we learned more about our world and how it works, we also learned that we can have a significant impact

on it. Most importantly, we can have a direct effect on our immediate personal environment, especially with regard to

personal relationships, behaviors, and goals. What motivates us to try influencing our environment is specific ways in which

we believe, indeed, we can make a difference in a direction we want in life. Thus, research has focused largely on what

people think about their efficacy, rather than on their actual ability to achieve their goals (Bandura, 1997).

Self-Regulation

Self-regulation and self-efficacy are two elements of Bandura’s theory that rely heavily on cognitive processes. They

represent an individual’s ability to control their behavior through internal reward or punishment in the case of self-

regulation, and their beliefs in their ability to achieve desired goals as a result of their own actions, in the case of self-

efficacy. Bandura never rejects the influence of external rewards or punishments, but he proposes that including internal,

self-reinforcement and self-punishment expands the potential for learning:

…Theories that explain human behavior as solely the product of external rewards and punishments present a truncated

image of people because they possess self-reactive capacities that enable them to exercise some control over their own

feelings, thoughts, and actions. Behavior is therefore regulated by the interplay of self-generated and external sources

of influence…(Bandura, 1977b, p. 129).

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Self-regulation is a general term that includes both self-reinforcement and self-punishment. Self-reinforcement works

primarily through its motivational effects. When an individual sets a standard of performance for themselves, they judge

their behavior and determine whether or not it meets the self-determined criteria for reward. Since many activities do not

have absolute measures of success, the individual often sets their standards in relative ways. For example, a weight-lifter

might keep track of how much total weight they lift in each training session, and then monitor their improvement over time

or as each competition arrives. Although competitions offer the potential for external reward, the individual might still set

a personal standard for success, such as being satisfied only if they win at least one of the individual lifts. The standards

that individuals set for themselves can be learned through modeling. This can create problems when models are highly

competent, much more so than the observer is capable of performing (such as learning the standards of a world-class athlete).

Children, however, seem to be more inclined to model the standards of low-achieving or moderately competent models,

setting standards that are reasonably within their own reach (Bandura, 1977b). According to Bandura, the cumulative effect

of setting standards and regulating one’s own performance in terms of those standards can lead to judgments about one’s

self. Within a social learning context, negative self-concepts arise when one is prone to devalue oneself, whereas positive

self-concepts arise from a tendency to judge oneself favorably (Bandura, 1977b). Overall, the complexity of this process

makes predicting the behavior of an individual rather difficult, and behavior often deviates from social norms in ways that

would not ordinarily be expected. However, this appears to be the case in a variety of cultures, suggesting that it is indeed

a natural process for people (Bandura & Walters, 1963).

Impact of Social Cognitive Theory

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) has influenced many areas of inquiry including media, health education, and morality. Social

cognitive theory is often applied as a theoretical framework of studies pertained to media representation regarding race,

gender, age and beyond (Aubrey, 2004; Mastro & Stern, 2003; Raman, Harwood, Weis, Anderson, & Miller, 2008). Social

cognitive theory suggested heavily repeated images presented in mass media can be potentially processed and encoded by

the viewers (Bandura, 2011). Media content analytic studies examine the substratum of media messages that viewers are

exposed to, which could provide an opportunity to uncover the social values attached to these media representations (Raman,

Harwood, Weis, Anderson, & Miller, 2008). Although media contents studies cannot directly test the cognitive process,

findings can offer an avenue to predict potential media effects from modeling certain contents, which provides evidence

and guidelines for designing subsequent empirical work (Nabi & Clark, 2008; Raman, Harwood, Weis, Anderson, & Miller,

2008). Social cognitive theory is pervasively employed in studies examining attitude or behavior changes triggered by the

mass media. As Bandura suggested, people can learn how to perform behaviors through media modeling (Bandura, 2002).

Social Cognitive theory has been widely applied in media studies pertained to sports, health, education and beyond. For

instance, Hardin and Greer (2009) examined the gender-typing of sports within the theoretical framework of social cognitive

theory, suggesting that sports media consumption and gender-role socialization significantly related with gender perception

of sports in American college students. In series TV programming, according to social cognitive theory, the awarded

behaviors of liked characters are supposed to be followed by viewers, while punished behaviors are supposed to be avoided

by media consumers. However, in most cases, protagonists in TV shows are less likely to experience the long-term suffering

and negative consequences caused by their risky behaviors, which could potentially undermine the punishments conveyed

by the media, leading to a modeling of the risky behaviors. Nabi and Clark (2008) conducted experiments about individual’s

attitudes and intentions consuming various portrayals of one-night stand sex-unsafe and risky sexual behavior, finding that

individuals who had not previously experience one-night stand sex, consuming media portrayals of this behavior could

significantly increase their expectations of having a one-night stand sex in the future, although negative outcomes were

represented in TV shows.

In health communication, Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) has been applied in research related to smoking quit, HIV

prevention, safe sex behaviors, and so on (Bandura 1994, 2004). For example, Martino, Collins, Kanouse, Elliott, and Berry

(2005) examined the relationship between the exposure to television’s sexual content and adolescents’ sexual behavior

through the lens of social cognitive theory, confirming the significant relationship between the two variables among white

and African American groups; however, no significant correlation was found between the two variables in the ethic group

of Hispanics, indicating that peer norm could possibly serve as a mediator of the two examined variables.

In public health, Miller’s (2005) study found that choosing the proper gender, age, and ethnicity for models ensured the

success of an AIDS campaign to inner city teenagers. This occurred because participants could identify with a recognizable

peer, have a greater sense of self-efficacy, and then imitate the actions to learn the proper preventions and actions. A study

27
by Ahmed (2009) looked to see if there would be an increase in breastfeeding by mothers of preterm infants when exposed

to a breastfeeding educational program guided by SCT. Sixty mothers were randomly assigned to either participate in the

program or they were given routine care. The program consisted of SCT strategies that touched on all three SCT

determinants: personal-showing models performing breastfeeding correctly to improve self-efficacy, behavioral -weekly

check-ins for three months reinforced participants’ skills, environmental-mothers were given an observational checklist to

make sure they successfully completed the behavior. The author found that mothers exposed to the program showed

significant improvement in their breastfeeding skills, were more likely to exclusively breastfeed, and had fewer problems

then the mothers who were not exposed to the educational program.

In morality development, Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) emphasizes a large difference between an individual’s ability to

be morally competent and morally performing. Moral competence involves having the ability to perform a moral behavior,

whereas moral performance indicates actually following one’s idea of moral behavior in a specific situation (Santrock,

2008). Moral competencies include:

 what an individual is capable of

 what an individual knows

 what an individual’s skills are

 an individual’s awareness of moral rules and regulations

 an individual’s cognitive ability to construct behaviors

As far as an individual’s development is concerned, moral competence is the growth of cognitive-sensory processes; simply

put, being aware of what is considered right and wrong. By comparison, moral performance is influenced by the possible

rewards and incentives to act a certain way (Santrock, 2008). For example, a person’s moral competence might tell them

that stealing is wrong and frowned upon by society; however, if the reward for stealing is a substantial sum, their moral

performance might indicate a different line of thought. Therein lies the core of social cognitive theory.

For the most part, social cognitive theory remains the same for various cultures. Since the concepts of moral behavior did

not vary much between cultures (as crimes like murder, theft, and unwarranted violence are illegal in virtually every society),

there is not much room for people to have different views on what is morally right or wrong. The main reason that social

cognitive theory applies to all nations is because it does not say what is moral and immoral; it simply states that we can

acknowledge these two concepts. Our actions in real-life scenarios are based on whether we believe the action is moral and

whether the reward for violating our morals is significant enough, and nothing else (Santrock, 2008).

Continued Impact of Social Cognitive Theory

Bandura is still influencing the world with expansions of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). SCT has been applied to many

areas of human functioning such as career choice and organizational behavior as well as in understanding classroom

motivation, learning, and achievement (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). Bandura (2001) brought SCT to mass

communication in his journal article that stated the theory could be used to analyze how “symbolic communication

influences human thought, affect and action” (p. 3). The theory shows how new behavior diffuses through society by

psychosocial factors governing acquisition and adoption of the behavior. Bandura’s (2011) book chapter “The Social and

Policy Impact of Social Cognitive Theory” to extend SCT’s application in health promotion and urgent global issues, which

provides insight into addressing global problems through a macro social lens, aiming at improving equality of individuals’

lives under the umbrellas of SCT. This work focuses on how SCT impacts areas of both health and population effects in

relation to climate change. He proposes that these problems could be solved through television serial dramas that show

models similar to viewers performing the desired behavior. On health, Bandura (2011) writes that currently there is little

incentive for doctors to write prescriptions for healthy behavior, but he believes the cost of fixing health problems start to

outweigh the benefits of being healthy. Bandura argues that we are on the cusp of moving from a disease model (focusing

on people with problems) to a health model (focusing on people being healthy) and SCT is the theory that should be used

to further a healthy society. On Population, Bandura (2011) states population growth is a global crisis because of its

correlation with depletion and degradation of our planet’s resources. Bandura argues that SCT should be used to get people

to use birth control, reduce gender inequality through education, and to model environmental conservation to improve the

state of the planet. Green and Peil (2009) reported he has tried to use cognitive theory to solve a number of global problems

such as environmental conservation, poverty, soaring population growth, etc.

28
Criticism of Social Cognitive Theory

One of the main criticisms of the social cognitive theory is that it is not a unified theory. This means that the different aspects

of the theory may not be connected. For example, researchers currently cannot find a connection between observational

learning and self-efficacy within the social-cognitive perspective. The theory is so broad that not all of its component parts

are fully understood and integrated into a single explanation of learning. The findings associated with this theory are still,

for the most part, preliminary. The theory is limited in that not all social learning can be directly observed. Because of this,

it can be difficult to quantify the effect that social cognition has on development. Finally, this theory tends to ignore

maturation throughout the lifespan. Because of this, the understanding of how a child learns through observation and how

an adult learns through observation are not differentiated, and factors of development are not included.

Educational Implications of Social Cognitive Theory

An important assumption of Social Cognitive Theory is that personal determinants, such as self-reflection and self-

regulation, do not have to reside unconsciously within individuals. People can consciously change and develop their

cognitive functioning. This is important to the proposition that self-efficacy too can be changed, or enhanced. From this

perspective, people are capable of influencing their own motivation and performance according to the model of triadic

reciprocality in which personal determinants (such as self-efficacy), environmental conditions (such as treatment

conditions), and action (such as practice) are mutually interactive influences. Improving performance, therefore, depends

on changing some of these influences. In teaching and learning, the challenge upfront is to 1) get the learner to believe in

his or her personal capabilities to successfully perform a designated task; 2) provide environmental conditions, such as

instructional strategies and appropriate technology, that improve the strategies and self-efficacy of the learner; and 3)

provide opportunities for the learner to experience successful learning as a result of appropriate action (Self-efficacy Theory,

n.d.). Accordingly, the theory itself has numerous implications in classroom teaching and learning practices:

1. Students learn a great deal simply by observing others;
2. Describing the consequences of behavior increases appropriate behaviors, decreasing inappropriate ones; this

includes discussing the rewards of various positive behaviors in the classroom;

3. Modeling provides an alternative to teaching new behaviors. To promote effective modeling, teachers must ensure
the four essential conditions exist: attention, retention, production, and motivation (reinforcement and punishment);

4. Instead of using shaping, an operant conditioning strategy, teachers will find modeling is a faster and more
efficient means of teaching new knowledge, skills, and dispositions;

5. Teachers must model appropriate behaviors and they do not model inappropriate behaviors;
6. Teachers should expose students to a variety of models including peers and other adult models; this is important to

break down stereotypes;

7. Modeling also includes modeling of interest, thinking process, attitudes, instructional materials, media (TV and
advertisement), academic work achievement and progress, encouragement, emotions, etc. in the physical, mental

and emotional aspects of development.

8. Students must believe that they are capable of accomplishing a task; it is important for students to develop a sense
of self-efficacy. Teachers can promote such self-efficacy by having students receive confidence-building messages,

watch others be successful, and experience success on themselves;

9. Teachers should help students set realistic expectations ensuring that expectations are realistically challenging.
Sometimes a task is beyond a student’s ability;

10. Self-regulation techniques provide an effective method for improving student behaviors.

REFERENCES

Ahmed, A. (2009, July). Effect of breastfeeding educational program based of Bandura social cognitive theory on

breastfeeding outcomes among mothers of preterm infants. Poster presented at the ILCA Conference, Orlando, FL.

Aubrey, J. S. (2004). Sex and punishment: An examination of sexual consequences and the sexual double standard in teen

programming. Sex Roles, 50(7-8), 505-514.

29
Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Bandura, A. (1977a). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-

215. doi:10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191

Bandura, A. (1977b). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought & action: A social cognitive theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-

Hall.

Bandura, A. (1988). Organizational application of social cognitive theory. Australian Journal of Management, 13(2), 275-

302. doi:10.1177/031289628801300210

Bandura, A. (1989). Human agency in social cognitive theory. American Psychologist, 44(9), 1175-1184.

doi:10.1037/0003-066X.44.9.1175

Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist,28(2),

117-148. doi:10.1207/s15326985ep2802_3

Bandura, A. (1994). Social cognitive theory and exercise of control over HIV infection. Preventing AIDS, 25-59.

Bandura, A. (1995). Self-efficacy in changing societies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company.

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. Media Psychology, 3(3), 265-299.

doi:10.1207/S1532785XMEP0303_03

Bandura, A. (2002). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. In J. Bryant & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), Media effects:

Advances in theory and research (pp. 94-124). New York, NY: Routledge.

Bandura, A. (2004). Health promotion by social cognitive means. Health Education & Behavior, 31(2), 143-164.

Bandura, A. (2006). Toward a psychology of human agency. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 164-180.

Bandura, A. (2011). The social and policy impact of social cognitive theory. In M. Mark, S. Donaldson, & B. Campbell

(Eds.), Social psychology and evaluation (pp. 33-70). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Bandura, A., & Walters, R. H. (1963). Social learning and personality development. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and

Winston.

Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). A comparative test of the status envy, social power, and secondary

reinforcement theories of identificatory learning. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 527-534.

Evans, R. I., & Bandura, A. (1989). Albert Bandura, the man and his ideas: A dialogue. New York, NY: Praeger.

Green, M., & Peil, J. A. (2009). Theories of human development: A comparative approach (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River,

NJ: Prentice Hall Inc.

Hardin, M., & Greer, J. D. (2009). The influence of gender-role socialization, media use and sports participation on

perceptions of gender-appropriate sports. Journal of Sport Behavior, 32(2), 207-226.

Lent, R., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994, August). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic

interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45(1), 79-122.

30
Martino, S. C., Collins, R. L., Kanouse, D. E., Elliott, M., & Berry, S. H. (2005). Social cognitive processes mediating the

relationship between exposure to television’s sexual content and adolescents’ sexual behavior. Journal of Personality and

Social Psychology, 89(6), 914.

Mastro, D. E, & Stern, S. R. (2003). Representations of race in television commercials: A content analysis of prime-time

advertising. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47(4), 638-647.

McAlister, A. L., Perry, C. L., & Parcel, G. S. (2008). How individuals, environments, and health behaviors interact:

Social cognitive theory. In K. Glanz, B. K. Rimer, & K. Viswanath (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory,

research, and practice (4th ed., pp. 169-188). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Miller, K. (2005). Communication theories: Perspectives, processes, and contexts (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-

Hill.

Nabi, R. L., & Clark, S. (2008). Exploring the limits of social cognitive theory: Why negatively reinforced behaviors on

TV may be modeled anyway. Journal of Communication, 58(3), 407-427.

Ormrod, J. (2008). Human learning (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Pajares, F., Prestin, A., Chen, J., & Nabi, R. L. (2009). Social cognitive theory and media effects. In R. L. Nabi, & M. B.

Oliver (Eds.), The sage handbook of media processes and effects (pp. 283-297). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications,

Inc.

Raman, P., Harwood, J., Weis, D., Anderson, J. L., & Miller, G. (2008). Portrayals of older adults in US and Indian

magazine advertisements: A cross-cultural comparison. The Howard Journal of Communications,19(3), 221-240.

Santrock, J. W. (2008). A topical approach to lifespan development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Inc.

Self-efficacy theory. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Self-efficacy_theory

ADDITIONAL READING

Credible Articles on the Internet

Bandura, A. (1989). Human agency in social cognitive theory. The American Psychologist, 44, 1175-1184. Retrieved

from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/Bandura1989AP.pdf

Bandura, A. (1989). Social cognitive theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of child development (pp. 1-60). Greenwich, CT:

JAI Press. Retrieved from http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/Bandura1989ACD.pdf

Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (pp. 71-81). New York,

NY: Academic Press. Retrieved from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/Bandura1994EHB.pdf

Bandura, A. (1999). A social cognitive theory of personality. In L. Pervin, & O. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality,

(2nd ed., pp. 154-196). New York, NY: Guilford Publications. Retrieved from

https://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/Bandura1999HP.pdf

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory of self-regulation. Retrieved from

http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/BanduraPubs/Bandura1991OBHDP.pdf

Bandura, A. (2002). Social cognitive theory in cultural context. Journal of Applied Psychology: An International Review,

51, 269-290. Retrieved from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/Bandura2002AP.pdf

Beck, H. P. (2001). Social learning theory. Retrieved from http://www1.appstate.edu/~beckhp/aggsociallearning.htm

Boeree, C. (2009). Personality theories: Albert Bandura. Retrieved from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/bandura.html

31
Green, C. (1999). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. Retrieved from

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bandura/bobo.htm

McLeod, S. (2016). Bandura: Social learning theory. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html

Moore, A. (1999). Albert Bandura. Retrieved from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/bandura.htm

Pajares, F. (2002). Overview of social cognitive theory and of self-efficacy. Retrieved from

https://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Pajares/eff.html

Social learning theory. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/nau.edu/educationallearningtheories/home/social-

learning-thoery

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Grusec, J. E. (1992). Social learning theory and developmental psychology: The legacies of Robert Sears and Albert

Bandura. Developmental Psychology, 28(5), 776-786.

Ponton, M. K., & Rhea, N. E. (2006). Autonomous learning from social cognitive perspective. New Horizons in Adult

Education & Human Resource Development, 20(2), 38-49.

Books in Dalton State College Library

Bandura, A., & Walters, R. H. (1959). Adolescent aggression: A study of the influence of child-training practices and

family interrelationships. New York, NY: Ronald Press Co.

Bandura, A., & Walters, R. H. (1963). Social learning and personality development. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and

Winston.

Videos and Tutorials

Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment. (2012). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmBqwWlJg8U

Films Media Group. (2003). Bandura’s social cognitive theory: An introduction. Retrieved from Films on Demand

database.

32
CHAPTER 4

Sociocultural Theory

INTRODUCTION

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1896-1934) was born in Russia in 1896. He graduated with a law degree from Moscow

University. Vygotsky’s first big research project was in 1925 with a focus on psychology of art. A few years later, he pursued

a career as a psychologist working with Alexander Luria and Alexei Leontiev. Together, they began the Vygotskian

approach to psychology. Despite receiving no formal training in psychology, Vygotsky was fascinated by it. After his death

of tuberculosis in 1934, his ideas were repudiated by the government. However, his ideas were kept alive by his students.

When the Cold War ended in 1960s, Vygotsky’s works were introduced to the English-speaking world. Vygotsky has written

several articles and books on his theories and psychology, including Thought and Language, a widely recognized classic

foundational work of cognitive science, published in 1934, the same year after his death.

Vygotsky is best known for being an educational psychologist with a sociocultural theory. This theory suggests that social

interaction leads to continuous step-by-step changes in children’s thought and behavior that can vary greatly from culture to

culture (Woolfolk, 1998). Basically, Vygotsky’s theory suggests that development depends on interaction with people and

the tools that the culture provides to help form their own view of the world. There are three ways a cultural tool can be

passed from one individual to another. The first one is imitative learning, where one person tries to imitate or copy another.

The second way is by instructed learning which involves remembering the instructions of the teacher and then using these

instructions to self-regulate. The final way that cultural tools are passed on to others is through collaborative learning, which

involves a group of peers who strive to understand each other and work together to learn a specific skill (Tomasello, Kruger,

& Ratner, 1993).

REQUIRED READING

Discussion is given on the contribution of Vygotsky’s ideas to the understanding of the relation between the social world

and cognitive development. Particular attention is given to the significance of culture, the role of language, and the student’s

relationship with and development within this social world. In doing so, some similarities and contrasts between other

learning theorists, specifically Piaget, are briefly discussed. Vygotsky’s views of the integrated and dynamic social nature

of learning are described, and the notion of a zone of proximal development, which utilizes such ideas, is introduced.

Vygotsky’s ideas on cognitive development are shown to lead to student-centered and a co-constructivist basis of learning,

in which the student potential within the social context is accommodated.

The relationship between the social world and cognitive development has been considered by several investigators, such as

Piaget (1959), Vygotsky (1978), Bandura (1977), Rogoff (1990), and Wood (1998). A commonality of the various theories

is that student learning is not viewed as a simple process of information transfer from a source (teacher, parent, computer),

but often involves an active social interaction in which, for example, a student constructs knowledge through discovery and

experiment (Piaget), learns through imitation or observation (Bandura), or relies upon teacher support which is congruent

with the student’s immediate (proximal) potential for learning (Vygotsky). The work of Vygotsky gives particular attention

to the inter-relationships between macro-social (i.e. cultural-historical) and micro-social (i.e. interpersonal) influences on

cognitive development, and thus social influences on learning in a broad sense. External social forces are viewed as important

in the learner’s development, in which the learner is considered an apprentice (see also Rogoff, 1990) requiring the guidance,

facilitation and support of teachers. This view is often contrasted with that of Piaget’s theory, in which the main forces

driving cognitive development of a student are seen as within the individual (i.e. the student as a scientist), constrained to

some extent by developmental stages (Lefrancois, 1999).

In the following sections, attention will be given to the ideas of Vygotsky on the relationship between the social world and

cognitive development. In particular, the influences of culture, history and language on development will be considered, and

a proposed mechanism of cognitive development through notions of student potential described. The specific implications

of these ideas for educators will then be considered.

33
Cognitive Development and the Social World

As indicated above, the social world as defined by Vygotsky considers not only the interpersonal interactions between, say,

a student and teacher, or student and peer, but also the broader sociocultural and historical influences on learning and the

learning environment. The underlying themes of Vygotsky’s theory on cognitive development have thus often been

summarized as: (i) the significance of culture, (ii) the role of a principal proponent of culture: language, and (iii) the student’s

relationship with and development within this sociocultural world. In this context, culture is viewed as socially accepted

behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs, and is constructed through human societal products such as institutions, symbol systems,

and tools such as language. Culture in this sense is a dynamic outcome of historical events and developments, and thus

products of human development. However, as emphasized by Vygotsky, at any particular historical time, culture itself will

influence human mental functioning and behavior, and thus a complex integrated relationship between the cultural

environment and personal development. In other words, humans are not only producing culture, but are also products of

culture themselves.

The cultural influences on childhood development can be exemplified through the elementary and higher mental notions of

Vygotsky. The former describes innate functions or characteristics of a young child such as responding to a mother’s voice

and crying for a need. In the course of development, perhaps through operant conditioning, imitation, perception or some

limited cognitive evaluation, elementary functions are gradually transformed into higher mental functions such as problem

solving, logic, and propositional and hypothetical thinking. Vygotsky believed that this transformation is strongly influenced

by culture. For example, culture results in language and other symbolism which perhaps define non-primitive consciousness

(see below), and create the social processes and pressures (motives) for adopting the patterns of behavior and attitudes which

are characteristic of that culture.

Vygotsky believed that language makes thought possible and is thus the basis of consciousness. Without language his view

was that human development could not exceed that of primitive sense and perception functions, characteristic of lower forms

of mammalian life. Language was also seen as the tool of culture which enables social interaction, and thus the direction of

behavior and attitudes, and indeed the propagation and development of culture itself. The specific and early relationship of

language and cognition can be identified through three key stages in the development of speech: social, egocentric, and inner

speech (Vygotsky, 1986). Social or external speech dominates the first stage of language development, and is a means by

which young children (typically up to the age of 3) express emotions or simple thoughts. The speech is principally used for

control of behavior of others, but also acts as a means of conveying early social influences such as parental tolerances of

behavior. Such influences inevitably lead to the restructuring of thoughts, and thus cognition. Egocentric speech occurs

between the ages of 3 and 7 and describes an intermediate stage of language development between external speech and inner

thoughts (see below). In this stage, the child will often talk to him or herself in an effort to control their own behavior or

justify actions or approaches to a task. With maturity, egocentric speech becomes inner speech (self-talk), which has also

been referred to as the stream of consciousness by James (1890). Vygotsky believed that inner speech enables individuals

to direct and organize thought, and thus an important proponent of higher mental functioning. Hence, the set of arbitrary and

conventional symbols which are used to convey meaning, but which are culturally determined in form and interpretation,

become a part of the individual’s cognitive being.

Closely related to the formation of inner speech is the concept of internalization. This involves the internal acceptance

(perhaps with individual modification or interpretation) of social (external) values, beliefs, attitudes or standards, as one’s

own. In this sense, the psychological make-up of the individual is altered through internalization, and provides a dynamic

mechanism by with the inter-social becomes the intra-social. However, such a mental adoption processes should not be

confused with processes such as introjection or socialization. The former describes internalization in which there is little

active participation by the individual; c.f. operant learning, and indeed some forms of hypnosis. In contrast, socialization

describes a pseudo-internalization process in which apparent beliefs arise from a need to conform to society rather than any

actual commitment. Internalization as viewed by Vygotsky therefore, represents a genuine, participative, and constructed

process, but nevertheless determined by sociocultural influences. As indicated above, the outcome of internalization is that

interpersonal or personal-cultural influences, become transformed into intrapersonal characteristics. Thus, every function in

the child’s cognitive development, such as attention, logic or concept formation, appears twice: first on the social level and

then on the individual level (Vygotsky, 1978).

An important implication of the above ideas is that there is much opportunity through the school system to influence the

cognitive development of children. For example, through language, the presentation and interpretation of history and current

34
affairs, and the attitudes, beliefs and values of teachers (or significant others), the thought patterns and beliefs of students

may be shaped. Unlike Piaget, who believed that children construct their own ideas of the world, Vygotsky’s ideas suggest

that student-teacher and student-peer relationships are of prime importance of generating and facilitating new ideas,

perspectives, and cognitive strategies. Furthermore, the student apprentice can be seen to be active within their learning

environments, attempting to construct understanding where possible, and possibly contribute to or affirm with the adopted

culture. In turn, this aspect of human development inevitably has influence on the environment itself, and thus a dialectic

process in which learning and development is affected by the social world, and the social world changed through learning

and development (Tudge & Winterhoff, 1993). In a similar way, Vygotsky has argued that natural (i.e. biological) and

cultural development coincide and merge to form a dynamic and integrated sociobiological influence on personality

(Vygotsky, 1986).

A second important implication of Vygotsky’s views is that rather than deriving explanations of a student’s psychological

activity (e.g. intelligence and motivation) from the student’s characteristics, attention should be given to student behavior

and performance when engaged in a social situation. Vygotsky in specific postulated the notion of a zone of proximal

development (ZPD) which defines the difference between the child’s independent learning accomplishments, and

accomplishments under the guidance of a person who is more competent at the specific task at hand. Vygotsky particularly

viewed adults, rather than peers, as key in this relationship, perhaps because adults are more likely to be truly competent in

the task, and thus less likely to cause regression rather than progression in the collaboration (Tudge & Winterhoff, 1993).

The maximization of potential was then viewed as a social process, which challenges the traditional notions of intelligence

testing with psychometric tests. For example, emphasis is given to the potential of the student and its social contextualization,

rather than current cognitive abilities measured independent of a social context. However, this notion of potential does not

necessarily imply an intelligence level, since the ZPD is a dynamic assessment which may be complicated through the

various student-specific influences of the social learning environment. Past experiences (prior knowledge), personality

attributes, locus of control, and self-esteem for example, may all have possible influences on the efficacy of learning through

the social interaction. Likewise, as a further complexity, the ZPD is not a well-defined space, but created in the course of

the social interaction (Tudge & Winterhoff, 1993). Nevertheless, the notion of the ZPD gives importance to the student-

centered basis of education, and suggests that the individual progression towards an overall learning outcome will be dictated

by the guided and subjective accomplishments of intermediate (proximal) outcomes.

Educational Implications

Although the social influences on cognitive development have been considered by other researchers, such as Piaget and

Bandura, Vygotsky emphasized that individual development is inherently integrated with cultural, historical, and inter-

personal factors. Furthermore, Vygotsky viewed the individual in the social context as the unit of analysis in development,

rather than the sole individual. In other words, whilst the internalization of thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs have been widely

accepted to be socially influenced, further higher mental development is postulated by Vygotsky to be inseparably dependent

upon social interactions, and indeed new understanding is not necessarily viewed as an external feature to be adopted by the

student, but something which is created in the process of the social (teaching) interactions (Tudge & Winterhoff, 1993).

Some general implications of Vygotsky’s ideas on the social influences on cognitive development have been mentioned

above, and can be summarized as:

 the central role of the teacher-student relationship in learning;

 the inherent cultural and immediate-social influences upon the student’s attitudes and beliefs towards, for
example, learning, schooling, and the education philosophy;

 the importance and power of language as a primary tool for the transference of sociocultural influences upon the
child; and

 the benefits of student-centered teaching, whereby the student can efficiently progress within their potential
towards a learning outcome; i.e. constructing knowledge through social interaction or co-constructivism. (Tudge

& Winterhoff, 1993)

Further specific educational implications of the above points arise when considering practical teaching within schools. For

example, given a child with particular personality traits and temperament, how should a teacher instigate a teaching objective

which is congruent with Vygotskian ideas? The ZPD describes what a student can accomplish with the help of competent

support, therefore it describes the actual task that can be effectively supported by the teacher. Although this may seem a

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rather circular argument, the implication here is that teachers need to continuously evaluate how effectively a student is

progressing in a learning activity and respond accordingly with modified tasks or intermediary learning objectives.

In other words, students should be given frequent opportunities to express understanding, and learning tasks fine-tuned by

the teacher to address individual capabilities. Such teacher support, which is graduated and task-apportioned based on student

needs, has been commonly referred to as scaffolding, which symbolizes strong initial teacher support which is gradually

reduced as the student approaches the desired learning outcome. In specific, scaffolding may range from very detailed and

explicit tuition, such as the explanation of procedures and demonstrations, to the facilitation or organization of activities for

student self-tuition. Scaffolding has also been interpreted as a mechanism by which sequential ZPD’s are used to achieve a

learning outcome beyond a child’s immediate (starting) potential, and thus the specific learning activities change as the

student competence towards the ultimate task grows (Biggs & Moore, 1993). The notion of ZPD also suggests that effective

teaching should not only be within the proximate potential of the individual, but should perhaps be at the upper-level of the

ZPD so as to maintain the student interest in the activity.

But how are the above teaching implications of ZPD different from what experienced teachers naturally do? As stated earlier,

the social interaction aspect is a key emphasis in the learning process, and therefore the student needs to be active in the

learning interaction, and in collaboration with the teacher. Where teaching logistics dictate large classes, small group work

should be encouraged whereby peer-support and improved teacher interaction can be maintained. However, as mentioned

earlier, overt reliance on peer-support could cause regression in some cases, and requires careful evaluation and support by

the teacher. Furthermore, in an educational context, a teacher is likely to prove the best role model, i.e. the best conveyer of

culturally esteemed factors pertaining to education; see also the discussions of Biggs and Moore (1993) on modelling in

learning.

The use of language related activities in the school environment are also indicated to be of importance to cognitive

development. For example, the development of communication skills may influence the clarity and breadth of inner speech,

and thus thought patterns. However, care is needed in the degree of literal interpretation of such influences, which may

incorrectly suggest, for example, that students with difficulties in expressing themselves, or grasping subtle meanings in

language, are necessarily poor in cognitive ability. Furthermore, certain abilities such as bodily-kinesthetic and musical

skills, may not necessarily be best represented through language-based thought. However, at an early school age, the

development of language is likely to be an enabling tool towards other educational abilities, which in our current cultural

setting have a cognitive bias.

Finally, an interesting issue which arises through consideration of Vygotskian views is the specific role and advantages of

computer-based learning. Here, in one sense, social interaction is removed, but in another, may be replaced by an interactive

and responding interface, which could perhaps evaluate and respond to the user’s ZPD. Such sophisticated computation

would inevitably rely on expert-systems type technologies, such that there is an intelligent (e.g. humanly adaptive like)

response to user queries and misunderstandings. The relatively unsophisticated nature of many current educational software,

even those which are stated to be interactive, may explain the current mixed results of such software.

The influence of the social world on cognitive development has been considered through the views of Vygotsky. The

dynamic relationships between culture, history, interpersonal interactions and psychological development have been

described, and the important role of language as a common and conducting medium discussed. One specific educational

application of such ideas is through the ZPD, which emphasizes the importance of the social aspect of learning, and

particularly the student-centered and co-constructivist basis of learning in which the individual’s potential within the social

context is addressed. Such ideas have had impact on the school system by challenging teacher-directed (as opposed to

student-centered) learning programs, and perhaps emphasize the care needed in, for example, computer-based and distance

learning teaching initiatives.

Criticisms of Sociocultural Theory

The writings of Vygotsky have been widely-criticized both during his lifetime and after his death. Vygotsky did not do

empirical work to validate his findings instead relying on observation and testing. Social interaction is central to Vygotsky.

However, he did not say what types of social interaction are best for learning.

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One criticism is Vygotsky’s view of active construction of knowledge. Some critics suggest that learning is not always a

result of active construction. Rather, learning can occur passively or osmotically. Some children, regardless of how much

help is given by others, may still develop at a slower rate cognitively. This suggests that there are other factors involved

such as genetics.

Vygotsky’s theory of language is not well-developed. Vygotsky, of course, died at age 37 and may have gone on to elucidate

his theories had he survived. His theories rely a lot on cultural influences, for it is culture that helps to develop learners’

language acquisition and cognitive development. Vygotsky states that little language acquisition and cognitive development

come from biological factors. However, some psychologists dismiss the idea that cultural influences play a dominant role

in development of language. Some children take years to learn basic skills despite plenty of social support. In some cases,

children are unable to grasp certain concepts until they reach a level of maturity. This lends credence to Piaget’s view of

cognitive development occurring in stages and children not being unable to learn some concepts until they reach a certain

age.

Perhaps the main criticism of Vygotsky’s work concerns the assumption that it is relevant to all cultures. Rogoff (1990)

dismisses the idea that Vygotsky’s ideas are culturally universal and instead states the concept of scaffolding-which is

heavily dependent on verbal instruction-may not be equally useful in all cultures for all types of learning. Indeed, in some

instances, observation and practice may be more effective ways of learning certain skills.

In addition, Vygotsky was criticized for the concept of the “zone of proximal development,” referred to as “one of the most

used and least understood constructs to appear in contemporary educational literature” (Palinscar, 1998, p. 370) and “used

as little more than a fashionable alternative to Piagetian terminology or the concept of IQ for describing individual

differences in attainment or potential” (Faukner, Littleton, & Woodhead, 2013, p. 114).

Vygotsky’s work has not received the same level of intense scrutiny that Piaget’s has, partly due to the time-consuming

process of translating Vygotsky’s work from Russian. Also, Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective does not provide as many

specific hypotheses to test as did Piaget’s theory, making refutation difficult, if not impossible.

REFERENCES

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.

Biggs, J. B., & Moore, P. J. (1993). Process of learning (3rd ed.). London: Prentice Hall.

Faukner, D., Littleton, K., & Woodhead, M. (Eds.). (2013). Learning relationships in the classroom. New York, NY:

Routledge.

James, W., (1950, originally published 1890). The principles of psychology. New York, NY: Dover.

Lefrancois, G. R. (1999). Psychology for teaching (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning.

Palinscar, A. S. (1998). Keeping the metaphor of scaffolding fresh: A response to C. Addison Stone’s The metaphor of

scaffolding: Its utility for the field of learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 31, 370-373.

Piaget, J. (1959). The language and thought of the child (3rd

ed.). London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in the social context. Oxford, UK: Oxford University

Press.

Tomasello, M., Kruger A. C., & Ratner, H. H. (1993). Cultural learning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16(1), 495-552.

Tudge, J. R. H., & Winterhoff, P. A. (1993). Vygotsky, Piaget, and Bandura: Perspectives on the relations between the social

world and cognitive development. Human Development, 36, 61.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Vygotsky, L. S. (1986, edited and translated by A. Kozulin). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Wood, D. (1998). How children think and learn (2nd ed.). London, UK: Blackwell.

ADDITIONAL READING

Credible Articles on the Internet

Carol, S., & Princess, C. (n.d.). Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved from:

http://cadres.pepperdine.edu/omcadre6/BookProject/vygotsky.htm

Cole, M., & Wertsch, J. (1996). Beyond the individual-social antimony in discussions of Piaget and Vygotsky. Retrieved

from http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock/virtual/colevyg.htm

Dahms, M., Geonnotti, K., Passalacqua, D., Schilk, J. N., Wetzel, A., & Zulkowsky, M. (2008). The educational theory of

Lev Vygotsky: An analysis. In G. Clabaugh (Ed.), The educational theory of Lev Vygotsky:

A multidimensional analysis. Retrieved from http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Vygotsky.html

Gallagher, C. (1999). Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky. Retrieved from:

http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/vygotsky.htm

McCloud, S. (2009). Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html

Offord, L. (2005). The Mozart of psychology: Lev Semenovich Vygotsky. Retrieved from http://vygotsky.afraid.org/

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. (2016). Retrieved from:

https://oli.cmu.edu/jcourse/workbook/activity/page?context=df3e72f10a0001dc49e717888ad145d1

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Abdi, A. A. (2000). Dialogic inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education. McGill Journal of

Education, 35(1), 91-94.

Byrnes, H., Lantolf, J. P., & Thorne, S. L. T. (2008). Sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language

development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 30(3), 394-396.

De León, L. (2012). Model of models: Preservice teachers in a Vygotskian scaffold. The Educational Forum, 76(2), 144-

157.

Gindis, B. (1999). Vygotsky’s vision: Reshaping the practice of special education for the 21st century. Remedial and

Special Education, 20(6), 333.

Jaramillo, J. A. (1996). Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and contributions to the development of constructivist curricula.

Education, 117(1), 133-140.

Lantolf, J. P. (2006). Sociocultural theory and L2: State of the art. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28(1), 67-109.

Mahn, H. (1999). Vygotsky’s methodological contribution to sociocultural theory. Remedial and Special Education, 20(6),

341.

Shabani, K., Khatib, M., & Ebadi, S. (2010). Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development: Instructional implications and

teachers’ professional development. English Language Teaching, 3(4), 237-248.

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Books at Dalton State College Library

Dixon-Krauss, L. (1996). Vygotsky in the classroom: Mediated literacy instruction and assessment. [Washington, DC]:

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Education Resources Information

Center.

Kozulin, A. (1990). Vygotsky’s psychology: A biography of ideas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Maddux, C. D., Johnson, D. L., & Willis, J. W. (1997). Educational computing: Learning with tomorrow’s technologies.

Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Smidt, S. (2009). Introducing Vygotsky: A guide for practitioners and students in early years education. New York, NY:

Routledge.

Videos and Tutorials

Vygotsky’s developmental theory: An introduction. (1994). Retrieved from Films on Demand database.

Vygotsky’s developmental theory: Child constructs knowledge. (1994). Retrieved from Films on Demand database.

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CHAPTER 5

Theory of Moral Development

INTRODUCTION

Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) was a 20th century psychologist known primarily for his research into moral psychology

and development. Lawrence Kohlberg was born in Bronxville, New York on October 25, 1927. He received his Ph.D. in

psychology from the University of Chicago in 1958. His dissertation was based on his research into the moral choices of

adolescent boys and led to a life devoted to the exploration of moral and ethical development in young people. In 1962, he

returned to the University of Chicago as an assistant professor. Kohlberg died of an apparent suicide in 1987, after a long

battle with depression coupled with painful symptoms from a tropical parasite he had contracted in Belize in 1971.

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development were influenced by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget’s stage-based theory of

cognitive development. Kohlberg expanded on Piaget’s cognitive development stages to form the six stages of moral

development. He argued that correct moral reasoning was the most significant factor in moral decision-making, and that

correct moral reasoning would lead to ethical behavior. Kohlberg believed that individuals progress through stages of moral

development just as they progress through stages of cognitive development. Kohlberg’s theory of moral development

included three levels and six stages. To determine which stage of moral development his subjects were in, Kohlberg

presented them with invented moral dilemmas, such as the case of a man who stole medicine for his sick wife. According

to Kohlberg, few people reach stages five and six; most tend to stay at stage four. Kohlberg purported that women were

often at a lower stage of moral development than men, but psychologist Carol Gilligan questioned his findings. Gilligan

claims that women place a stronger emphasis on caring and empathy, rather than justice. She developed an alternative

scale, heavily influenced by Kohlberg’s scale, which showed that both men and women could reach advanced stages of

moral development.

REQUIRED READING

Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development constitute an adaptation of a psychological theory originally conceived

of by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Kohlberg began work on this topic while a psychology postgraduate student at

the University of Chicago in 1985, and expanded and developed this theory throughout his life.

The theory holds that moral reasoning, the basis for ethical behavior, has six identifiable developmental stages, each more

adequate at responding to moral dilemmas than its predecessor. Kohlberg followed the development of moral judgment far

beyond the ages studied earlier by Piaget, who also claimed that logic and morality develop through constructive stages.

Expanding on Piaget’s work, Kohlberg determined that the process of moral development was principally concerned with

justice, and that it continued throughout the individual’s lifetime, a notion that spawned dialogue on the philosophical

implications of such research.

Kohlberg relied for his studies on stories such as the Heinz dilemma, and was interested in how individuals would justify

their actions if placed in similar moral dilemmas. He then analyzed the form of moral reasoning displayed, rather than its

conclusion, and classified it as belonging to one of six distinct stages.

There have been critiques of the theory from several perspectives. Arguments include that it emphasizes justice to the

exclusion of other moral values, such as caring; that there is such an overlap between stages that they should more properly

be regarded as separate domains; or that evaluations of the reasons for moral choices are mostly post hoc rationalizations

(by both decision makers and psychologists studying them) of essentially intuitive decisions.

Nevertheless, an entirely new field within psychology was created as a direct result of Kohlberg’s theory, and according to

Haggbloom et al.’s (2002) study of the most eminent psychologists of the 20th century, Kohlberg was the 16th most

frequently cited psychologist in introductory psychology textbooks throughout the century, as well as the 30th most eminent

overall.

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Kohlberg’s scale is about how people justify behaviors and his stages are not a method of ranking how moral someone’s

behavior is. There should however be a correlation between how someone scores on the scale and how they behave, and the

general hypothesis is that moral behavior is more responsible, consistent and predictable from people at higher levels.

Three Levels and Six Stages

Kohlberg’s six stages (Figure 5.1) can be more generally grouped into three levels of two stages each: pre-conventional,

conventional and post-conventional. Following Piaget’s constructivist requirements for a stage model, as described in his

theory of cognitive development, it is extremely rare to regress in stages-to lose the use of higher stage abilities. Stages

cannot be skipped; each provides a new and necessary perspective, more comprehensive and differentiated than its

predecessors but integrated with them.

Figure 5.1 Levels and Stages of Moral Development

Level 1 Pre-Conventional

1. Obedience and punishment orientation

(How can I avoid punishment?)

2. Self-interest orientation

(What’s in it for me?)

(Paying for a benefit)

Level 2 Conventional

3. Interpersonal accord and conformity

(Social norms)

(The good boy/good girl attitude)

4. Authority and social order maintaining orientation

(Law and order morality)

Level 3 Post-Conventional

5. Social contract orientation

6. Universal ethical principles

(Principled conscience)

Pre-Conventional Level

The pre-conventional level of moral reasoning is especially common in children, although adults can also exhibit this level

of reasoning. Reasoners at this level judge the morality of an action by its direct consequences. The pre-conventional level

consists of the first and second stages of moral development, and is solely concerned with the self in an egocentric manner.

A child with pre-conventional morality has not yet adopted or internalized society’s conventions regarding what is right or

wrong, but instead focuses largely on external consequences that certain actions may bring.

In Stage One (obedience and punishment driven), individuals focus on the direct consequences of their actions on

themselves. For example, an action is perceived as morally wrong because the perpetrator is punished. “The last time I did

that I got spanked so I will not do it again.” The worse the punishment for the act is, the more “bad” the act is perceived to

be. This can give rise to an inference that even innocent victims are guilty in proportion to their suffering. It is “egocentric,”

lacking recognition that others’ points of view are different from one’s own.

There is “deference to superior power or prestige.”

Stage Two (self-interest driven) espouses the “what’s in it for me” position, in which right behavior is defined by whatever

is in the individual’s best interest. Stage two reasoning shows a limited interest in the needs of others, but only to a point

where it might further the individual’s own interests. As a result, concern for others is not based on loyalty or

intrinsic respect, but rather a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” mentality. The lack of a societal perspective in

the pre-conventional level is quite different from the social contract (Stage Five), as all actions have the purpose of serving

the individual’s own needs or interests. For the stage two theorists, the world’s perspective is often seen as morally relative.

Conventional Level

The conventional level of moral reasoning is typical of adolescents and adults. Those who reason in a conventional way

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judge the morality of actions by comparing them to society’s views and expectations. The conventional level consists of the

third and fourth stages of moral development. Conventional morality is characterized by an acceptance of society’s

conventions concerning right and wrong. At this level an individual obeys rules and follows society’s norms even when

there are no consequences for obedience or disobedience. Adherence to rules and conventions is somewhat rigid, however,

and a rule’s appropriateness or fairness is seldom questioned.

In Stage Three (interpersonal accord and conformity driven), the self enters society by filling social roles. Individuals are

receptive to approval or disapproval from others as it reflects society’s accordance with the perceived role. They try to be a

“good boy” or “good girl” to live up to these expectations, having learned that there is inherent value in doing so. Stage

three reasoning may judge the morality of an action by evaluating its consequences in terms of a person’s relationships,

which now begin to include things like respect, gratitude, and the “golden rule.” “I want to be liked and thought well of;

apparently, not being naughty makes people like me.” Desire to maintain rules and authority exists only to further support

these social roles. The intentions of actions play a more significant role in reasoning at this stage; “they mean well …”

In Stage Four (authority and social order obedience driven), it is important to obey laws, dictums and social conventions

because of their importance in maintaining a functioning society. Moral reasoning in stage four is thus beyond the need for

individual approval exhibited in stage three; society must learn to transcend individual needs. A central ideal or ideals often

prescribe what is right and wrong, such as in the case of fundamentalism. If one person violates a law, perhaps everyone

would-thus there is an obligation and a duty to uphold laws and rules. When someone does violate a law, it is morally

wrong; culpability is thus a significant factor in this stage as it separates the bad domains from the good ones. Most active

members of society remain at stage four, where morality is still predominantly dictated by an outside force.

Post-Conventional Level

The post-conventional level, also known as the principled level, consists of stages five and six of moral development. There

is a growing realization that individuals are separate entities from society, and that the individual’s own perspective may

take precedence over society’s view; they may disobey rules inconsistent with their own principles. These people live by

their own abstract principles about right and wrong principles that typically include such basic human rights as life, liberty,

and justice. Because of this level’s “nature of self before others,” the behavior of post-conventional individuals, especially

those at stage six, can be confused with that of

those at the pre-conventional level.

People who exhibit post-conventional morality view rules as useful but changeable mechanisms ideally rules can maintain

the general social order and protect human rights. Rules are not absolute dictates that must be obeyed without question.

Contemporary theorists often speculate that many people may never reach this level of abstract moral reasoning.

In Stage Five (social contract driven), the world is viewed as holding different opinions, rights and values. Such perspectives

should be mutually respected as unique to each person or community. Laws are regarded as social contracts rather than rigid

edicts. Those that do not promote the general welfare should be changed when necessary to meet “the greatest good for the

greatest number of people.” This is achieved through majority decision, and inevitable compromise. Democratic

government is ostensibly based on stage five reasoning.

In Stage Six (universal ethical principles driven), moral reasoning is based on abstract reasoning using universal ethical

principles. Laws are valid only insofar as they are grounded in justice, and a commitment to justice carries with it an

obligation to disobey unjust laws. Legal rights are unnecessary, as social contracts are not essential for deontic moral action.

Decisions are not reached hypothetically in a conditional way but rather categorically in an absolute way, as in the

philosophy of Immanuel Kant. This involves an individual imagining what they would do in another’s shoes, if they believed

what that other person imagines to be true. The resulting consensus is the action taken. In this way action is never a means

but always an end in itself; the individual acts because it is right, and not because it is instrumental, expected, legal, or

previously agreed upon. Although Kohlberg insisted that stage six exists, he found it difficult to identify individuals who

consistently operated at that level.

Further Stages

In Kohlberg’s empirical studies of individuals throughout their life Kohlberg observed that some had apparently undergone

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moral stage regression. This could be resolved either by allowing for moral regression or by extending the theory. Kohlberg

chose the latter, postulating the existence of sub-stages in which the emerging stage has not yet been fully integrated into

the personality. In particular Kohlberg noted a stage 4½ or 4+, a transition from stage four to stage five, which shared

characteristics of both. In this stage the individual is disaffected with the arbitrary nature of law and order reasoning;

culpability is frequently turned from being defined by society to viewing society itself as culpable. This stage is often

mistaken for the moral relativism of stage two, as the individual views those interests of society that conflict with their own

as being relatively and morally wrong. Kohlberg noted that this was often observed in students entering college.

Kohlberg suggested that there may be a seventh stage-Transcendental Morality, or Morality of Cosmic Orientation-which

linked religion with moral reasoning. Kohlberg’s difficulties in obtaining empirical evidence for even a sixth stage, however,

led him to emphasize the speculative nature of his seventh stage.

Theoretical Assumptions (Philosophy)

The picture of human nature Kohlberg begins with is that humans are inherently communicative and capable of reason.

They also possess a desire to understand others and the world around them. The stages of Kohlberg’s model relate to the

qualitative moral reasonings adopted by individuals, and so do not translate directly into praise or blame of any individual’s

actions or character. Arguing that his theory measures moral reasoning and not particular moral conclusions, Kohlberg

insists that the form and structure of moral arguments is independent of the content of those arguments, a position he calls

“formalism” (Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2 Formal Elements

Stages Views of Persons Social Perspective Level

6 Sees how human fallibility and frailty are impacted by

communication

Mutual respect as a universal principle

5 Recognize that contracts will allow persons to increase welfare

of both

Contractual perspective

4 Able to see abstract normative systems Social systems perspective

3 Recognize good and bad intentions Social relationships perspective

2 Sees that a) others have goals and preferences; b) either to

conform or to deviate from norms

Instrumental egoism

1 No VOP: only self and norm are recognized Blind egoism

Kohlberg’s theory centers on the notion that justice is the essential characteristic of moral reasoning. Justice itself relies

heavily upon the notion of sound reasoning based on principles. Despite being a justice-centered theory of morality,

Kohlberg considered it to be compatible with plausible formulations of deontology and eudaimonia.

Kohlberg’s theory understands values as a critical component of the right. Whatever the right is, for Kohlberg, it must be

universally valid across societies (a position known as “moral universalism”); there can be no relativism. Moreover, morals

are not natural features of the world; they are prescriptive. Nevertheless, moral judgments can be evaluated in logical terms

of truth and falsity.

According to Kohlberg, someone progressing to a higher stage of moral reasoning cannot skip stages. For example, an

individual cannot jump from being concerned mostly with peer judgments (stage three) to being a proponent of social

contracts (stage five). On encountering a moral dilemma and finding their current level of moral reasoning unsatisfactory,

however, an individual will look to the next level. Realizing the limitations of the current stage of thinking is the driving

force behind moral development, as each progressive stage is more adequate than the last. The process is therefore

considered to be constructive, as it is initiated by the conscious construction of the individual, and is not in any meaningful

sense a component of the individual’s innate dispositions, or a result of past inductions.

Progress through Kohlberg’s stages happens as a result of the individual’s increasing competence, both psychologically and

in balancing conflicting social-value claims. The process of resolving conflicting claims to reach an equilibrium is called

“justice operation.” Kohlberg identifies two of these justice operations: “equality,” which involves an impartial regard for

persons, and “reciprocity,” which means a regard for the role of personal merit. For Kohlberg, the most adequate result of

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both operations is “reversibility,” in which a moral or dutiful act within a particular situation is evaluated in terms of whether

or not the act would be satisfactory even if particular persons were to switch roles within that situation (also known

colloquially as “moral musical chairs”).

Knowledge and learning contribute to moral development. Specifically important are the individual’s “view of persons” and

their “social perspective level,” each of which becomes more complex and mature with each advancing stage. The “view of

persons” can be understood as the individual’s grasp of the psychology of other persons; it may be pictured as a spectrum,

with stage one having no view of other persons at all, and stage six being entirely socio-centric. Similarly, the social

perspective level involves the understanding of the social universe, differing from the view of persons in that it involves an

appreciation of social norms.

Examples of Applied Moral Dilemmas

Kohlberg established the Moral Judgement Interview in his original 1958 dissertation. During the roughly 45-minute tape

recorded semi-structured interview, the interviewer uses moral dilemmas to determine which stage of moral reasoning a

person uses. The dilemmas are fictional short stories that describe situations in which a person has to make a moral decision.

The participant is asked a systemic series of open-ended questions, like what they think the right course of action is, as well

as justifications as to why certain actions are right or wrong. The form and structure of these replies are scored and not the

content; over a set of multiple moral dilemmas an overall score is derived.

Heinz Dilemma

A dilemma that Kohlberg used in his original research was the druggist’s dilemma: Heinz Steals the Drug in Europe. From

a theoretical point of view, it is not important what the participant thinks that Heinz should do. Kohlberg’s theory holds that

the justification the participant offers is what is significant, the form of their response. Below are some of many examples

of possible arguments that belong to the six stages:

Stage One (obedience): Heinz should not steal the medicine because he would consequently be put in prison, which would

mean he is a bad person. Or: Heinz should steal the medicine because it is only worth $200, not how much the druggist

wanted for it. Heinz had even offered to pay for it and was not stealing anything else.

Stage Two (self-interest): Heinz should steal the medicine because he will be much happier if he saves his wife, even if he

will have to serve a prison sentence. Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine because prison is an awful place, and he would

probably experience anguish over a jail cell more than his wife’s death.

Stage Three (conformity): Heinz should steal the medicine because his wife expects it; he wants to be a good husband. Or:

Heinz should not steal the drug because stealing is bad and he is not a criminal; he tried to do everything he could without

breaking the law, you cannot blame him.

Stage Four (law-and-order): Heinz should not steal the medicine because the law prohibits stealing, making it illegal. Or:

Heinz should steal the drug for his wife but also take the prescribed punishment for the crime as well as paying the druggist

what he is owed. Criminals cannot just run around without regard for the law; actions have consequences.

Stage Five (human rights): Heinz should steal the medicine because everyone has a right to choose life, regardless of the

law. Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine because the scientist has a right to fair compensation. Even if his wife is sick,

it does not make his actions right.

Stage Six (universal human ethics): Heinz should steal the medicine, because saving a human life is a more fundamental

value than the property rights of another person. Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine, because others may need the

medicine just as badly, and their lives are equally significant.

Criticisms of the Theory of Moral Development

One criticism of Kohlberg’s theory is that it emphasizes justice to the exclusion of other values, and so may not adequately

address the arguments of those who value other moral aspects of actions. In addition, Kohlberg’s theory was initially

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developed based on empirical research using only male participants. Carol Gilligan, a former student of Kohlberg, argued

that Kohlberg’s theory is overly androcentric and did not adequately describe the concerns of women although research has

generally found no significant pattern of differences in moral development between sexes.

Next, Kohlberg’s stages are not culturally neutral, as demonstrated by its application to a number of different cultures.

Although they progress through the stages in the same order, individuals in different cultures seem to do so at different

rates. Kohlberg has responded by saying that although different cultures do indeed inculcate different beliefs, his stages

correspond to underlying modes of reasoning, rather than to those beliefs.

Lastly, other psychologists have questioned the assumption that moral action is primarily a result of formal reasoning. Social

intuitionists such as Jonathan Haidt, for example, argue that individuals often make moral judgments without weighing

concerns such as fairness, law, human rights, or abstract ethical values. Thus the arguments analyzed by Kohlberg and other

rationalist psychologists could be considered post hoc rationalizations of intuitive decisions; moral reasoning may be less

relevant to moral action than Kohlberg’s theory suggests.

Educational Implications

Moral and Character Development in Education (Huitt, 2004)

In assisting students with moral and character development, it is acknowledged that morals and character traits/attributes

come into play within a rapidly changing context. Teachers cannot teach students all the specific knowledge, values, or

behaviors that will lead to success in all aspects of their lives. Teachers must, therefore, acknowledge that some values are

relative and teach students to develop their own views accordingly. At the same time, teachers must acknowledge that there

are some absolutes with respect to morality and character that are accepted as commonalties among members of specific

communities, major world religions, and moral philosophers. Teachers have an obligation to teach or support these morals

and character development in the classroom, in the family, in religious organizations, and communities at large.

Moral and character development is integral to the development of self (Ashton & Huitt, 1980), and is as much the

responsibility of early caregivers as it is of later educators. Nucci (1989) showed that “children’s moral understandings were

independent of specific religious concepts” and that both secular and religious children focus “on the same set of

fundamental interpersonal issues: those pertaining to justice and compassion” (p. 195). In sum, parents, educators, affiliates

of religious organizations, and community members have an obligation to provide young people with training appropriate

to their age level that would assist them in holding to the absolutes that are common across philosophies and beliefs of the

major religious traditions, while at the same time helping them develop and defend own acquired values.

Wynne (1989) reports that the quality of relationships among faculty (and between the faculty and adults in authority) is a

major factor in the development of student character. An atmosphere of adult harmony is vitally important. According to

Wynne, schools effectively assisting pupil character development are:

1. directed by adults who exercise their authority toward faculty and students in a firm, sensitive, and imaginative
manner, and who are committed to both academics and pupil character development;

2. staffed by dedicated faculty who make vigorous demands on pupils and each other;
3. structured so that pupils are surrounded by a variety of opportunities for them to practice helping (prosocial)

conduct;

4. managed to provide pupils-both individually and collectively-with many forms of recognition for good conduct;
5. oriented toward maintaining systems of symbols, slogans, ceremonies, and songs that heighten pupils’ collective

identities;

6. dedicated to maintaining pupil discipline, via clear, widely disseminated discipline codes that are vigorously
enforced and backed up with vital consequences;

7. committed to academic instruction and assigned pupils significant homework and otherwise stressed appropriate
academic rigor;

8. sensitive to the need to develop collective pupil loyalties to particular classes, clubs, athletic groups, and other sub-
entities in the school;

9. sympathetic to the values of the external adult society, and perceive it as largely supportive and concerned with the
problems of the young;

45
10. always able to use more money to improve their programs, but rarely regard lack of money as an excuse for serious

program deficiencies;

11. open to enlisting the help, counsel, and support of parents and other external adults, but willing to propose important

constructive changes in the face of (sometimes) ill-informed parent resistance;

12. disposed to define “good character” in relatively immediate and traditional terms.

In teaching moral and characters, it was not a failure of the economic or material aspect of society, in many cases, but rather

a failure of the human, social, political, or spiritual aspects. The educational system must prepare individuals to progress in

each of these arenas of life. Therefore, character development must be seen as an organic process in the development of the

material/physical, human/psychological, and spiritual/transcendental aspects of human being.

The need for moral and character development in education led to the character education movement in the US. By the early

2000s, character education had become the fastest growing school reform movement (Kline, 2017). According to the US

Department of Education (n.d.) website, character education is defined as a learning process that enables students and adults

in a school community to understand, care about and act on core ethical values such as respect, justice, civic virtue and

citizenship, and responsibility for self and others. Thus a set of morally desirable traits exists and these traits should be

purposefully taught in schools (Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, 2004; McClellan, 1999; Prestwich, 2004).

Huitt (2004) identified a list of moral and character attributes/traits as the focus for K-12 schools (Figure 5.3) based on data

results collected in south GA. Those attributes/traits can be integrated into the curriculum to assist young people strive for

excellence in both character and competencies. Lesson Plan examples from Figure 5.4 to Figure 5.8) are just a few.

Figure 5.3 Attributes/Character Traits for Moral and Character Development

Ability to See Another’s Perspective

Ability to Work in Teams

Accountable

Attentive

Caring

Committed

Compassionate

Competent

Confident

Considerate

Cooperative

Courageous

Courteous

Dedicated

Dependable & Reliable

Determined

Disciplined Mind

Drug-Free

Empathetic

Fair
Faithful

Freedom from Prejudice

Good-Citizenship

Hard-Working

Helpful

High Self-Esteem

Honest

Honorable

Independent

Integrity

Knowledgeable

Law-Abiding

Love of Learning

Loyal

Moral

Obedient

Open-minded

Optimistic

Patient

Persevering

Positive, Encouraging Attitude

Prepared

Productive

Prompt & Punctual

Respect & Accept Authority

Respect for Physical Health

Respect for Self & Own Rights

Respect for the Creator

Respect for the Natural Environment

Respect the Rights of Others

Respectful

Responsible

Rule-Following

Searches for Meaning

Self-Controlled

Self-Disciplined

Strives for Excellence

Teachable

Thankful

Trustworthy

Truthful

Valuing Family

The Lesson Plan is a great place for teachers to start teaching and supporting moral and character development in the

classroom. Below are several examples of teaching and supporting moral and character development in a variety of subject

areas across various grade levels:

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Figure 5.4 Teaching Trait Honesty in Language Arts

Grade Level: 1st Content Area: Language Arts

Learning Objective(s) Predict outcomes, oral speaking, following 2-3 step directions.

Moral/Character Trait(s) Honesty

Lesson Title Too Many Tamales

Lesson Summary After reading the story Too Many Tamales about a girl who loses her mother’s ring,

discuss how Maria solved the problem. Discuss other implications of the story. Divide

the class into five groups. Allow the groups to choose from five questions related to

honesty. After 10 minutes of planning together, each group acts out the honest way to

handle the situation they were given.

Figure 5.5 Teaching Trait Integrity in Social Studies/Health

Grade Level: 7-12 Content Area: Social Studies/Health

Learning Objective(s) Define integrity and relate what is has to do with your character.

Moral/Character Trait(s) Integrity

Lesson Title Are You a Person of Integrity?

Lesson Summary Discussion questions about integrity for use either with or without a video.

Figure 5.6 Teaching Traits Cooperation and Determination in Science/Health

Grade Level: 5-12 Content Area: Science/Health

Learning Objective(s) Students will be better able to solve problems in a group team experience, strengthen

group cohesion through team building and communication, and reinforce individual

communication skills.

Moral/Character Trait(s) Cooperation; Determination

Lesson Title Group Rope Squares

Lesson Summary This activity reinforces group cohesion and communication skills as well as problem

solving and cooperation. Groups are formed and students have to work together to

make a square out of coiled rope.

Figure 5.7 Teaching Traits Self-Discipline and Responsibility in Music

Grade Level: 7-8 Content Area: Music

Learning Objective(s) National Music Standards Learning Objectives: Singing, alone and with others, a

varied repertoire of music Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied

repertoire of music. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Moral/Character Trait(s) Self-discipline; Responsibility

Lesson Title Choral Concert

Lesson Summary Students perform song using correct posture, singing voice, and rhythm. Students

perform accompaniment on non-pitched percussion instruments with appropriate

technique and rhythm. Students discuss social and cultural context of the song lyrics.

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Figure 5.8 Teaching Traits Respect for Self and Respect for Others in Reading/Language Arts, Health, and Mathematics

Grade Level: 6 Content Area: Reading/Language Arts, Health, Mathematics

Learning Objective(s) Reading/Language Arts

 gather information from reference works: books… periodicals… dictionaries…

thesauruses… encyclopedia… atlases and almanacs

 present information through reports… demonstrations and projects

Health

 explain the personal responsibility of individuals and community members

for maintaining public safety

Mathematics

 collect data

 display data using tables and graphs

 read… analyze and interpret tables and graphs

Moral/Character Trait(s) Respect for Self, Respect for Others

Lesson Title Smoke ‘Em Out

Lesson Summary Students develop and use a questionnaire to survey others on their awareness of the

danger of second hand smoke, then graph the data collected, relate their findings to at

least two character qualities/traits and present to the class.

Moral Development and Classroom Management (Nucci, 2009)

Schools and classrooms contribute to students’ moral development through the nature of the overall social and emotional

climate. This includes the way in which teachers and schools address behavioral issues through classroom management and

discipline. Paying attention to the emotional climate of classrooms is important because children incorporate emotional

experiences within their social cognitive schemes.

Variations in the emotional experiences of children can affect their moral orientations. The development of morality in

children is supported by experiences of emotional warmth and fairness. Children who grow up in such environments tend

to construct a view of the world based on goodwill. A child who maintains an orientation of goodwill feels emotionally

secure and expects the world to operate according to basic moral standards of fairness. Children who maintain this

orientation are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior. A moral classroom climate is one that fosters this tendency

toward goodwill. The elements of a moral classroom climate address the following four needs: autonomy, belonging,

competence, and fairness.

In early childhood it is especially important to construct a classroom climate characterized by positive emotion. In middle

childhood students are less dependent on adults. However, they become more susceptible to social comparison and peer

exclusion. A positive moral climate reduces competition and increases opportunities for peer collaborative learning and

social problem solving. In adolescence the challenge is to offset the negative impact of student cliques and tendencies toward

alienation. Large high schools pose special challenges for the creation of moral community. The Just Community School

and the Small Schools movement are efforts to address this challenge through “schools within schools.

A positive moral atmosphere is complemented by behavioral management in the form of developmental discipline. In

addition to the goals of control and efficiency common to all approaches to behavioral management, developmental

discipline includes the additional goal of fostering students’ social and moral competence. Developmental discipline

engages students’ intrinsic motivation to do what is right for their own reasons. Developmental discipline deemphasizes the

use of external rewards and punishments to shape behavior. Conflicts and misbehavior are addressed primarily through

social problem solving. Teacher discourse provides suggestions and scaffolding to support students’ efforts to resolve

disputes and arrive at fair solutions.

Teacher feedback in support of positive behavior avoids the use of external rewards such as gold stars or certificates of

recognition for good conduct or character because such external rewards reduce intrinsic moral motivation. Moral action

and compliance with school conventions is aided by teachers’ judicious use of positive feedback in the form of validations

that use moderate language referring to specific behavior and not the characteristics of the student. Responses to misbehavior

should minimize the use of consequences when alternative problem-solving methods are available. When consequences are

48
to be employed they should be “light” and in the form of logical consequences that are connected in a meaningful way to

the nature of the transgression.

Moral Development and Cheating in the Classroom

Cheating is a violation of social norms (Kline, 2017). Williams (2012) categorized cheating into five dimensions: total

cheating, serious cheating, social cheating, plagiarism, and student identified serious cheating. Academic Dishonesty (n.d.)

breaks cheating into two dimensions: individual characteristics, such as gender and GPA, and institutional environment. To

cheat or not, on the surface, it would seem that a student’s level of moral development would be the central factor for

deciding whether or not to cheat (Kline, 2017). According to Thoma and Dong (2014) moral reasoning generally increases

as the level of education increases. According to Kohlberg’s theory, higher stages of moral development would result in

clearer moral thinking and thus produce better moral actions and behaviors.

However, in the case of cheating in the classroom, it is found that moral behavior is situation specific regardless of moral

development levels or stages (Harthshorne & May, 1928-1930; Kline, 2017; Leming, 2008) Honesty or dishonesty in one

situation does not predict the behavior of a child in another situation; no significant difference was found on cheating

between students who used religious or moral focused programs and those who did not (Clouse, 2001; Harthshorne & May,

1930; Leming, 1993). Research has shown low levels of significance for factors such as level of education, GPA, a little or

no significance for grade level, and cheating is equally prevalent across academic levels and demographic variables such as

ethnicity or gender, but it does decrease with age at the college level (Geddes, 2011; Kline, 2017; McCabe & Trevino, 1993;

Williams, 2012).

Cheating has always been a concern for educators and it is more prevalent than ever despite all of the focus and efforts on

moral education (Kline, 2017; Schab, 1991). A general decrease in aversion toward dishonesty and an increase in the

willingness to engage in dishonest behavior over a 30-year period was reported by Schab (1991). There is a disconnect

between perceptions of cheating and cheating behaviors (Honz, Kiewra, & Yang, 2010; Williams, 2012). Giving answers

or homework to another student is viewed more lightly than receiving or stealing answers or homework from another

student; cheating within the classroom was viewed as a greater offense than cheating outside the classroom (Honz, Kiewra,

& Yang, 2010). A significant relationship between cheating incidences and perceptions of cheating was also found that the

less serious the cheating was perceived to be, the greater the number of cheating incidences was, meaning that the more

seriously the behavior was perceived, the less frequently it occurred (Kline, 2017; Williams 2012). Remarkably, there
was no large discrepancy in cheating perceptions across grade level and academic level (Kline, 2017).

What does this all mean for teachers? In responding to cheating, preventive measures are among the first strategies in the

classroom (Santrock, 2018). It is the teachers’ responsibility to help students understand the purpose of learning and goals

of education. Teachers should foster intrinsic motivation for learning in the classroom. Learning is not to get a high grade.

To improve students’ self-efficacy for tests, teachers can help students understand the learning materials, and provide help

for students. Study guides and additional assistance can help better prepare students not to cheat. Woolfolk (2015) also

suggested the use of a variety of assessment measures in testing students’ learning, in order to reduce testing pressure and

cheating and to promote intrinsic learning, such as the use of group project, research project, open-book exam, and take-

home test, to name a few. Teachers can emphasize the importance of moral behavior and character integrity in the classroom.

To help shape students’ perceptions on cheating, parents, peers, and others can also help influence students as to what

behavior is acceptable and what is not in terms of cheating (Thoma & Dong, 2014). It is important to teach students to be

responsible, disciplined, moral individuals (Sandtrock, 2018).

In addition to clarifying goals and purpose of education for intrinsic motivation for learning, providing assistance for testing

preparation, instilling character traits, and shaping perceptions on cheating, and the use of a variety of forms of testing

learning as mentioned above, it is necessary to help students form proper expectations of testing and cheating culture. Rules

of testing and consequences of cheating must to be clearly announced to students in the classroom. Students’ questions

related to testing procedures need to be addressed before testing. During testing, teachers need to closely monitor students’

progress so that no opportunities are created for students to cheat. Cheating incidences should be handled immediately to

stop continuous violations. To reduce cheating incidences, testing pressure, and cheating temptations during testing, teachers

can help create a low-pressure testing atmosphere, for examples, classical music may be used as background music. Cheating

should be dealt promptly, properly, and consistently according to the established rules and policies to reduce and stop

49
cheating offences. This again helps create a culture of not cheating, form an intrinsically motivated learning atmosphere,

and shape students’ perceptions of what is acceptable and what is not in terms of cheating behaviors.

REFERENCES

Academic Dishonesty. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.mnsu.edu/cetl/teachingresources/articles/academicdishonesty.html

Ashton, P., & Huitt, W. (1980). Egocentrism-sociocentrism: The dynamic interplay in moral development. In J. Magary,

P. Taylor, & G. Lubin (Eds.), Piagetian theory and the helping professions (Vol. 9, pp. 293-297). Chicago, IL:

Association for the Study of Piagetian Theory.

Clouse, B. (2001). Moral education: Borrowing from the past to advance the future. Contemporary Education, 72(1), 23-

28.

Editorial projects in education research center. (2004, August 3). Issues A-Z: Character education. Education Week.

Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/character-education/

Geddes, K. A. (2011). Academic dishonesty among gifted and high-achieving students. Gifted Child Today, 34(2), 50-56.

Haggbloom, S. J., Warnick, R., Waarnick, J. E., Jones, V., K., Yarbrough, G. L., McGahhey, R., … Monte, E. (2002). The

100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. Review of General Psychology, 6(2), 139-154. doi:10.1037/1089-

2680.6.2.139

Hartshorne, H., & May, M. (1928-1930). Studies in the nature of character. New York, NY: Macmillan.

Hartshorne, H., & May, M. (1930). A summary of the work of the character education inquiry. Religious Education, 25,

607-619, 754-762.

Honz, K., Kiewra, K. A., & Yang, Y. (2010). Cheating perceptions and prevalence across academic settings. Mid-Western

Educational Researcher, 23(2), 10-17.

Huitt, W. (2004). Moral and character development. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA. Retrieved from

http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/morchr/morchr.html

James, R. (1979). Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Kline, J. T. (2017). Morality, cheating, and the purpose of public education. Retrieved from

http://preserve.lehigh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3663&context=etd

Leming, J. S. (1993). Synthesis of research / in search of effective moral education. Educational Leadership, 51(3), 63-71.

Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov93/vol51/num03/Synthesis-of-Research-~-In-

Search-of-Effective-Character-Education.aspx

Leming, J. S. (2008). Research and practice in moral and character education: Loosely coupled phenomena. In L. P. Nucci

& D. Narváez (Eds.), Handbook of moral and character education (pp. 134-157). New York, NY: Routledge.

McCabe, D. L., & Trevino, L. K. (1993). Academic dishonesty: Honor codes and other contextual influences. The Journal

of Higher Education, 64(5), 522-538.

McClellan, B. E. (1999). Moral education in America: Schools and the shaping of character from colonial times to the

present (1st ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Nucci, L. (1989). Challenging conventional wisdom about morality: The domain approach to values education. In L.

Nucci (Ed.), Moral development and character education: A dialogue (pp. 183-203). Berkley, CA: McCutchan.

50

Nucci, L. P. (2009). Nice is not enough: Facilitating moral development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Prestwich, D. L. (2004). Moral education in America’s Schools. School Community Journal, 14(1), 139-150.

Santrock, J. (2018). Educational psychology (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Schab, F. (1991). Schooling without learning: Thirty years of cheating in high school. Adolescence, 26(104), 839-847.

Thoma, S. J., & Dong, Y. (2014). The defining issues test of moral judgment development. Behavioral Development

Bulletin, 19(3), 55-61.

Williams, L. K. (2012). Cheating incidences, perceptions of cheating, and the moral development level of college

students. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1009056995

Woolfolk, A. (2015). Educational psychology (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Wynne, E. (1989). Transmitting traditional values in contemporary schools. In L. Nucci, Moral development and

character education: A dialogue (pp. 19-36). Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.

ADDITIONAL READING

Credible Articles on the Internet

Barger, R. (2000). Kohlberg. Retrieved from http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/kohlberg01bk.htm

Barger, R. N. (2000). Summary and inspiration for Kohlbergs theory of moral development stages. Retrieved from

http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/kohlberg01bk.htm

Crain, W. C. (1985). Theories of development. Retrieved from http://view2.fdu.edu/site-downloads/8266

Davis, D. (2010). Kohlberg’s moral stages. Retrieved from

http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/p109g/kohlberg.stages.html

Domain based moral education. Retrieved from http://www.moraledk12.org/

Huitt, W. (2004). Values. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved from

http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/affect/values.html

Garrett, J. (2003). Theories of cognitive and moral development. Retrieved from

http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/cogmordv.htm

Kohlberg’s ideas of moral reasoning. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/KOHL/kidmoral.HTML

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. (2009). Retrieved from

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_development

McLeod, S. (2011). Kohlnberg. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/kohlberg.html

Moral development and moral education: An overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.moraledk12.org/#!about-

mde/c1se

Sax, R. (2005). Do the right thing: Cognitive science’s search for a common morality. Retrieved from
http://www.bostonreview.net/rebecca-saxe-common-morality-cognitive-science

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Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Armon, C., & Dawson, T. L. (1997). Developmental trajectories in moral reasoning across the life span. Journal of Moral

Education, 26(4), 433-453.

Baxter, G. D., & Rarick, C. A. (1987). Education for the moral development of managers: Kohlberg’s stages of moral

development and integrative education. Journal of Business Ethics (1986-1998), 6(3), 243.

Blum, L. (1999). Race, community and moral education: Kohlberg and Spielberg as civic educators. Journal of Moral

Education, 28(2), 125-143.

Bruess, B. J., & Pearson, F. C. (2002). The debate continues: Are there gender differences in moral reasoning as defined

by Kohlberg? College Student Affairs Journal, 21(2), 38-52.

Henry, S. E. (2001). What happens when we use Kohlberg? His troubling functionalism and the potential of pragmatism

in moral education. Educational Theory, 51(3), 259.

Kirschenbaum, H. (1976). Clarifying values clarification: Some theoretical issues and a review of research. Group &

Organization Studies (Pre-1986), 1(1), 99.

Kohlberg L. (1966). Moral development in the schools: A developmental view. The School Review, 74(1), 1-30.

Osen, F. K. (1996). Kohlberg’s dormant ghosts: The case of education. Journal of Moral Education, 25(3), 253-273.

Thompson, R., Laible, D., & Ontai, L. (2006). Early understanding of emotion, morality, and the self: Developing a

working model. In R. Kail (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 31). San Diego, CA: Academic.

Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.662.2102&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Weinstock, M., Assor, A., & Broide, G. (2009). Schools as promoters of moral judgment: The essential role of teachers’

encouragement of critical thinking. Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal, 12(1), 137-151.

Books at Dalton State College Library

Sheehy, N. (2004). Fifty key thinkers in psychology. New York, NY: Routledge.

Slater, A., & Quinn, P. C. (2012). Developmental psychology: Revisiting the classic studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Videos and Tutorials

Child development theorists: Freud to Erikson to Spock and beyond. (2009). Retrieved from Films on Demand database.

Khan Academy. (2014). Kohlberg moral development. Retrieved from

52
CHAPTER 6

Experiential Learning Theory

INTRODUCTION

David Allen Kolb (1939- ), American “organizational” sociologist and educational theorist, is best known for his research

into experiential learning and learning styles. Kolb received his Bachelor of Arts from Knox College in 1961, his Master of

Arts from Harvard in 1964 and his Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University in 1967. His research has its roots in the

works of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin and Jean Piaget and the more recent work of Jack Mezirow, Paulo Freire and other

theorists, focusing on how humans process experience. As part of that tradition, Kolb states that experiential learning is a

process where knowledge results from making meaning as a result of direct experience, i.e., or simply “learning from

experience.” His experiential learning theory is a holistic or “meta-view” of learning that is a combination of experience,

perception, cognition, and behavior. To explore and continue research on the experiential learning theory, David Kolb,

along with his wife Alice Kolb, founded Experience Based Learning Systems (EBLS) in 1981. In addition to experiential
learning, Kolb is also known for contributions in important research into organizational behavior, individual and social

change, and career development and professional education. Kolb is an emeritus professor of organizational behavior at

Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

REQUIRED READING

Experiential learning is a cyclical process that capitalizes on the participants’ experiences for acquisition of knowledge. This

process involves setting goals, thinking, planning, experimentation, reflection, observation, and review. By engaging in

these activities, learners construct meaning in a way unique to themselves, incorporating the cognitive, emotional, and

physical aspects of learning.

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”

(Confucius Circa 450 BC)

The Experiential Learning Theory

Experiential Learning Theory “provides a holistic model of the learning process and a multi-linear model of adult

development” (Baker, Jensen, & Kolb, 2002, p. 51). In other words, this is an inclusive model of adult learning that intends

to explain the complexities of and differences between adult learners within a single framework. The focus of this theory is

experience, which serves as the main driving force in learning, as knowledge is constructed through the transformative

reflection on one’s experience (Baker, Jensen, & Kolb, 2002).

The learning model outlined by the Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) contains two distinct modes of gaining experience

that are related to each other on a continuum: concrete experience (apprehension) and abstract conceptualization

(comprehension). In addition, there are also two distinct modes of transforming the experience so that learning is achieved:

reflective observation (intension) and active experimentation (extension) (Baker, Jensen, & Kolb, 2002). When these four

modes are viewed together, they constitute a four-stage learning cycle that learners go through during the experiential

learning process (Figure 6.1). The learners begin with a concrete experience, which then leads them to observe and reflect

on their experience. After this period of reflective observation, the learners then piece their thoughts together to create

abstract concepts about what occurred, which will serve as guides for future actions. With these guides in place, the learners

actively test what they have constructed leading to new experiences and the renewing of the learning cycle (Baker, Jensen,

& Kolb).

53
Figure 6.1 Experiential Learning Cycle

Figure 6.1. The graphic above is a representation of the Experiential Learning Cycle, which includes the

components of experience, critical reflection, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation, and more critical

reflection. Real experiences help the individual learn advanced abstract concepts. The experiences might result in

paths, which allow the individual to actively collect information to learn and become a member of the community of

practice. Perhaps critical thinking and reflection may refine ideas or lead the individual to consider alternate

possibilities. Each phase potentially leads to another and builds upon the former (LaBanca, 2008).

The ELT model for learning can be viewed as a cycle consisting of two distinct continuums, apprehension-comprehension

and intension-extension. However, these dialectical entities must be integrated in order for learning to occur. Apprehension-

comprehension involves the perception of experience, while intension-extension involves the transformation of the

experience. One without the other is not an effective means for acquiring knowledge (Baker, Jensen, & Kolb, 2002). Another

way to view this idea is summarized as follows, “perception alone is not sufficient for learning; something must be done

with it” and “transformation alone cannot represent learning, for there must be something to be transformed” (Baker, Jensen,

& Kolb, pp. 56-67).

The ELT model attempts to explain why learners approach learning experiences in such different manners but are still able

to flourish. Indeed, some individuals develop greater proficiencies in some areas of learning when compared to others

(Laschinger, 1990). The ELT model shows that during the learning process, learners must continually choose which abilities

to use in a given learning situation and resolve learning abilities that are on opposite ends of a continuum (Baker, Jensen,

& Kolb, 2002). Indeed, learners approach the tasks of grasping experience and transforming experience from different points

within a continuum of approaches. However, it is important that they also resolve the discomfort with the opposite approach

on the continuum in order for effective learning to occur. Thus, if a learner is more comfortable perceiving new information

in a concrete manner and actively experimenting during the processing of the experience, the learner must also undergo

some abstract conceptualization and reflective observation in order to complete the cycle and lead to effective learning.

Thus, a learner who experiments with models and manipulates them in the process of learning must also be able to

conceptualize and form observations based on what s/he experiences. This must occur, even if the learners do not consider

themselves strong in these areas (Baker, Jensen, & Kolb). This is at the heart of the ELT model and Kolb’s view of the adult

learner.

Applications of Experiential Learning Theory

There are currently many applications of Experiential Learning Theory within educational systems, especially on college

campuses. These examples include field courses, study abroad, and mentor-based internships (Millenbah, Campa, &

Winterstein, 2000). Additional examples of well-established experiential learning applications include cooperative

education, internships and service learning. There are also numerous examples of computer-based interventions based on

experience.

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Cooperative Education (Co-Op)

Cooperative Education (Co-Op) is a structured educational strategy integrating classroom studies with work-based learning

related to a student’s academic or career goals. It provides field-based experiences that integrate theory and practice. Co-Op

is a partnership among students, educational institutions, and work sites which include business, government, and non-profit

community organizations. Students typically earn credit and a grade for their co-op experience while working in a paid or

unpaid capacity. College and university professional and career-technical programs such as engineering, media arts and

business often require cooperative education courses for their degrees. The National Commission for Cooperative Education

(http://www.co-op.edu/) supports the development of quality work-integrated learning programs.

Internships

Closely related to cooperative education are internships. An internship is typically a temporary position, which may be paid

or unpaid, with an emphasis on on-the-job training, making it similar to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or

university students, but they can also be high school students or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. Student

internships provide opportunities for students to gain experience in their field, determine if they have an interest in a

particular career, create a network of contacts, and, in some circumstances, gain school credit.

Service Learning

Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and

reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities with the emphasis on

meeting community needs. Because of its connection to content acquisition and student development, service-learning is

often linked to school and college courses. Service-learning can also be organized and offered by community organizations.

Learn and Serve America (http://www.servicelearning.org/) supports the service-learning community in education,

community-based initiatives and tribal programs, as well as all others interested in strengthening schools and communities

using service-learning techniques and methodologies.

Field Course Scenario

A university offers a field-based campus course in wildlife and research management that requires students to actively

participate in activities other than those normally encountered during a lecture or recitation section of class. These students

are introduced to various vegetation sampling techniques in the one-hour lecture period, but application and use of the

techniques occurs when students must describe the vegetation’s structural differences between two woodlots on campus.

Students are provided with a general goal statement requiring them to differentiate between the two areas based on structure

but are not told how to determine these differences or how detailed the description of structure must be (e.g., vertical cover

or vertical cover broken out by height strata). Students must first determine the objectives of the project before proceeding.

Once these have been agreed on with all members of the group, methods for collecting the data are determined. Students

may work with others in the class or with the instructor to determine the most appropriate sampling design. After selecting

an appropriate sampling design, students are required to collect the data, and thus learn about the technique(s) through

experience with it (concrete experience). By doing so, students learn how to use the technique and are able to more readily

decide if the technique is suitable under different sampling regimes (reflection and generalization).

During this process, students gain a broader understanding of the technique and its applicability; much of this may never be

addressed or presented in a classroom setting. Based on the prerequisites for the course, the instructor worked from the

assumption that students have an understanding of ecological concepts and basic statistics. Having these prerequisites

facilitates students putting the techniques to use in the environment being studied. An additional benefit of allowing students

to experiment with techniques is that unexpected events may occur e.g., it rains halfway through sampling. These

unstructured events can further increase a student’s confidence, excitement, and familiarity with a technique requiring the

student to make decisions about how to proceed or when to stop (active experimentation). These types of events are difficult

to model in a classroom, and even if possible, many students do not know how to deal with unexpected circumstances when

their only training has been through discussion. Feeling adequately trained to handle these circumstances will require

students to have firsthand knowledge and experience with real-world situations.

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Another popular use of experiential learning which has been around for a long time is role play. It has been used for

educational and training purposes, for military strategic and tactical analysis and simply as games. We role play in

childhood-imitating our parents, playing with dolls and cars, building sand castles and pretending we are princes and

warriors-with the result that learning takes place, preparing us for life.

Role Play Scenario

The subject of this lesson is a controversy that has deep roots in American History, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Using the PBS documentary video In The Light Of Reverence, the teacher has the students closely examine the struggles

of the Lakota Sioux to maintain their sacred site at Mato Tipila (Lakota for Bear’s Lodge) at Devils Rock in Wyoming.

Although the site at Devil’s Rock was never ceded by treaty to the U.S. government, it is now under the administration of

the National Park Service. Rock climbers claim any U.S. citizen should have complete access to the site because it is on

federal land. In deference to the religious practices of the Lakota, the National Park Service asks that people do not climb

there during the entire month of June. The case has been litigated up to the Supreme Court.

After watching the video and discussing various aspects of the controversy, students role-play members of four teams: the

Lakota, rock climbers, National Park Service, and the courts. Using extensive online resources linked to the lesson, students

research the issues and evaluate the sources. The first three teams present their demands in a hearing. The court tries to help

them reach a compromise and then adjudicates any unresolved issues. The lesson continues as students compare the plight

of the Lakota to that of the Hopi and Wintu, who also struggle to maintain their sacred lands. The students will understand

the concept of “rights in conflict” arising under the First Amendment (freedom of religion), interpret a current conflict from

multiple perspectives, learn to advocate for a point of view, and learn to resolve a conflict through a conflict resolution

scenario.

Simulations and Gaming

Simulations and gaming within instruction also involve direct experience and thus are valid examples of experiential

learning. Within game interactions, there are often several cycles presented to the participant. These cycles generally consist

of participation by the user, decision making, and a period of analysis. This process coincides greatly with the Experiential

Learning Cycle outlined above (Marcus, 1997). In addition, it has been found that simulations which shorten the debriefing

period at the end of the game session can diminish their own effectiveness. This means that games which do not allow for

appropriate reflection are not as effective as if proper reflection occurs. Thus, it is apparent that the reflective observation

and abstract conceptualization portions of simulations and games are vital to learning, which has also been established by

the Experiential Learning Theory (Ulrich, 1997).

E-learning

Yet another application of experiential learning is in the field of e-learning. Specifically, there has been an effort to utilize

this model to increase the effectiveness of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) e-learning courses. It was found

that many of these courses did not allow for concrete experience and active experimentation due to the fact that the learning

processes were based on more traditional learning methods and not capitalizing on the self-directed nature of the learners

(Friedman, Watts, Croston, & Durkin, 2002). However, with the use of different technologies such as multimedia resources,

web-based discussions, online planners, and creative tasks, e-learning courses could be improved in a manner that would

strengthen the entire experiential learning cycle for the learner (Frank, Reich, & Humphreys, 2003).

Steps to Integrating Experiential Learning in the Classroom

1. Set up the experience by introducing learners to the topic and covering basic material that the learner must
know beforehand (the video scenario as well as discussion).

2. Engage the learner in a realistic experience that provides intrigue as well as depth of involvement (mock
trial).

3. Allow for discussion of the experience including the happenings that occurred and how the individuals
involved felt (discussion afterwards).

4. The learner will then begin to formulate concepts and hypotheses concerning the experience through
discussion as well as individual reflection (discussion afterwards, but also could be done with journaling).

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5. Allow the learners to experiment with their newly formed concepts and experiences (interpreting current

conflict and conflict resolution scenario).

6. Further reflection on experimentation (discussion, but could also be done through journaling).

Criticisms of Experiential Learning Theory

Since Kolb created the Experiential Learning Theory and the accompanying learning model, his work has been met with

various criticisms about its worth and effectiveness. One of the criticisms of this model is that the concrete experience part

of the learning cycle is not appropriately explained in the theory and remains largely unexplored. Herron (as cited in Yorks

& Kasl, 2002, pp. 180-181) believes that “the notion of feeling is nowhere defined or elaborated, thus concrete experience

is not properly explored. The model is really about reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active

experimentation.” Another common criticism of the theory that exposes a weakness is that the idea of immediate and

concrete experience is problematic and unrealistic (Miettinen, 2000).

Other criticisms of the ELT are that the concepts outlined by Kolb are too ill-defined and open to various interpretations

and that the ideas he presents are an eclectic blend of ideas from various theorists that do not fit logically together. Another,

perhaps more biting criticism of Kolb’s work is that his ELT model is only an attempt to explain the societal benefit of his

Learning Styles Inventory and thus may actually be a well derived marketing ploy (Miettinen, 2000). Also, it is believed

that the phases in the ELT learning model remain separate and do not connect to each other in any manner (Miettinen).

However, the most tangible weaknesses of the ELT and the ELT learning model are the vast differences between it and the

ideas established by John Dewey, whose beliefs are largely attributed to the establishment of the ELT. Dewey believed that

non-reflective experience borne out of habit was the dominant form of experience and that reflective experience only

occurred when there were contradictions of the habitual experience. But, in a glaring weakness of the ELT, Kolb does not

adequately discuss the role of non-reflective experience in the process of learning (Miettinen, 2000). In addition, Dewey

believed that observations of reality and nature were the starting point of knowledge acquisition. Kolb, however, believes

that the experience is the starting point of knowledge acquisition and disregards the observations concerning the subjective

reality of the learner, another blatant weakness (Miettinen). A final weakness in the ELT that was noticed is its lack of

discussion concerning the social aspect of experience. The ELT learning model focused on the learning process for a single

learner and failed to mention how the individual fit into a social group during this process and what role this group may

play. Also, there was no discussion on how a social group may gain knowledge through a common experience.

Revised Experiential Learning Cycle

With all of the criticisms of the Experiential Learning Theory, it may be too easy to overlook its merits in the field of adult

education. Each adult has his/her own unique set of experiences and set of learning abilities that he/she feels comfortable

utilizing. Kolb’s theory accounts for this fact and shows how the learner can utilize his/her experiences and learning strengths

in the process of constructing knowledge. Kolb also did a good job of integrating the two dialectical entities into the model

to create a complete learning cycle in which the entire learning process can be traced. In addition, Kolb did a great job of

showing how the learner can be effective utilizing his/her learning strengths, while at the same time using skills that are

underdeveloped to complete the learning cycle.

However, due to the weaknesses of the ELT model as created by Kolb, it is necessary to construct another model, which

includes Kolb’s beliefs and at the same time confronts the weaknesses that have been found. Below (Figure 6.2) is a

representation of a model that could be used for this purpose. The idea behind this model was to include the observations

of the learners’ own subjective reality as a starting point for experience. Then, a disruptive experience occurs, which

challenges the habitual patterns of the learner. Once the experience has been encountered learners enter a stage of emotion

inventory in which they become cognizant of their emotions in reaction to the experience. These emotions then play a role

in the next step, which is a stage of reflective observation similar to that outlined by Kolb in his model. After this stage,

learners enter a stage of conceptualization and hypothesis formation in which they attempt to piece the information gathered

thus far concerning the experience into logical chunks. Once this occurs, learners address the experience in some manner.

This may include active experimentation to test a hypothesis. Or, it may also include higher order planning which requires

even more in-depth examination of the experience. This stage can lead to two different types of experiences, expected and

disruptive, both of which lead to repetition of the learning cycle. The expected experiences include those which can be

predicted by the concepts and hypothesis that were established in the learning cycle. Disruptive experiences, on the other

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hand, include those that conflict with the concepts that were formulated in the experiential process. It is also readily evident

in the model that the experiential learning cycle can occur individually or within a social group.

Figure 6.2 Revised Experiential Learning Cycle

Figure 6.2. The graphic depicts the revised experiential learning cycle. It includes the encompassing circle of the

environment as well as cycle of events in the learning process that can occur individually or in a group. The different

elements are explained below in the order that they appear on the cycle.

Performed Individually

 Subjective Stimuli: Observations about an individual’s surrounding environment and nature made by the

individual, as well as more affective and temporal judgments about things not really seen but that are definitely

felt. It is possible that individuals can learn from this activity and not enter the cycle depicted below.

Can Occur Individually or In a Social Group

 Disruptive Experience: Experience that is a disruption of the habitual manner in which an individual

experiences things. This is in contrast to a non-reflective experience borne out of habit.

 Emotion Inventory: Inventory of emotions that are created by the disruptive experience.

 Reflective Observation: Observations concerning the experience and reflection upon the event including causes,

possible effects, etc.

 Conceptualization/Hypothesizing: Further processing of the experience; creating concepts to explain the

experience and construction of explanatory hypotheses.

 Addressing: The concepts and hypotheses that have been constructed are formulated and the experience is

addressed in some manner. There is an attempt to predict future experience. This may involve planning, active

experimentation, or cautious testing.

The encompassing circle of the environment depicts how all of the activities take place in the context of a certain

environment and are affected somehow by the environment.

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Educational Implications

Experiential Learning Theory outlines the manner in which learners gain knowledge and understanding through experiences.

Though some may debate which steps are present in experiential learning, there is no debate about the worth of experience

in learning. Through experience, learners are able to construct firsthand a sense of understanding of the events going on

around them. Educators have begun to harness the power of experience in study abroad courses, field studies, role plays,

and numerous computer-based interventions. The future could bring even more applications of this theory, a possibility as

exciting for the learner as much as it is the facilitator.

REFERENCES

Baker, A., Jensen, P., & Kolb, D. (2002). Conversational learning: An approach to knowledge creation. Wesport, CT:

Quorum Books.

Frank, M., Reich, N., & Humphreys, K. (2003). Respecting the human needs of students in development of e-learning.

Computers & Education, 40, 57-70.

Friedman, A., Watts, D., Croston, J., & Durkin, C. (2002). Evaluating online CPD using educational criteria derived from

the experiential learning cycle. British Journal of Educational Technology, 33, 367-378.

LaBanca, F. (2008). Impact of problem finding on the quality of authentic open inquiry science research projects.

Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Danbury, CT: Western Connecticut State University.

Laschinger, H. (1990). Review of experiential learning theory research in the nursing profession. Journal of Advanced

Nursing, 15, 985-993.

Miettinen, R. (2000). The concept of experiential learning and John Dewey’s theory of reflective thought and action.

International Journal of Lifelong Education, 19(1), 54-72.

Millenbah, K. F., Campa, H. III, & Winterstein, S. R. (2000). Models for the infusing experimental learning in the

curriculum. In W. B. Kurtz, M. R. Ryan, & D. E. Larson (Eds.), Proceedings of the third biennial conference in natural

resource education (pp. 44-49). Retrieved from

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b28c/cbe10099e8e065dfbf2b0bcfb117aacb9bba.pdf

Ulrich, M. (1997). Links between experiential learning and simulation & gaming. Retrieved from

http://www.ucs.ch/service/download/docs/articleexplearning.pdf

Yorks, L., & Kasl. E. (2002). Toward a theory and practice for whole-person learning: Reconceptualizing experience and

the role of affect. Adult Education Quarterly, 52(3), 176-192.

ADDITIONAL READING

Credible Articles on the Internet

Burnard. P. (1989). Experiential learning: Some theoretical considerations. International Journal of Life Long Education,

7(2), 127-133. Retrieved from

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0260137880070204?journalCode=tled20#preview

Coffey, H. (2010). Experiential education. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4967

Dewey, J. (1902). The school as social center. Proceedings of the National Education Association, 373-383. Retrieved

from http://www.cws.illinois.edu/IPRHDigitalLiteracies/dewey%201902%20school%20as%20social%20center.pdf

Experiential Learning. (2009). Retrieved from:

https://www.niu.edu/facdev/_pdf/guide/strategies/experiential_learning.pdf

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Field, R. (1998). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/dewey/

Greenaway, R. (n.d.). Experiential learning articles and critiques of David Kolb’s theory. Retrieved from

http://reviewing.co.uk/research/experiential.learning.htm#axzz3KUY7zIoh

Neill, J. (2005). John Dewey the modern father of experiential education. Retrieved from:

http://www.wilderdom.com/experiential/ExperientialDewey.html

Neill, J. (2005). Summary of Dewey’s Experience and Education.

http://www.wilderdom.com/experiential/SummaryJohnDeweyExperienceEducation.html

Oxendine, C., Robinson, J., & Willson, G. (2004). Experiential learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on

learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Experiential_Learning

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Kayes, D. (2002). Experiential learning and its critics: Preserving the role of experience in management learning and

education. Academy Of Management Learning & Education, 1(2), 137-149.

Kirschner, P., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the

failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. Educational Psychologist,

41(2), 75-86. Retrieved from

http://www.cogtech.usc.edu/publications/kirschner_Sweller_Clark.pdf

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Prentice Hall.

Roberts, T. G. (2003). An interpretation of Dewey’s experiential learning theory. Retrieved from ERIC database.

(ED481922)

Schmidt, M. (2010). Learning from teaching experience: Dewey’s theory and preservice teachers’ learning. Journal of

Research in Music Education, 58(2), 131-146.

Dalton State College Books

Boisvert, R. D. (1998). John Dewey: Rethinking our time. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Campbell, H. M. (1971). John Dewey. New York, NY: Twayne.

Hook, S. (1971). John Dewey: An intellectual portrait. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Videos and Tutorials

John Dewey: An introduction to his life and work. (2003). Retrieved from Films on Demand database.

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CHAPTER 7

Bioecological Model of Human Development

INTRODUCTION

Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917- ), a Russian American psychologist, was born on April 29, 1917 to Dr. Alexander

Bronfenbrenner and Kamenetski Bronfenbrenner. At the age of 6, his family relocated to United States. For a short period

of time, they settled at Letchworth village in Pittsburgh where his father worked as a research director and clinical

psychologist. Bronfenbrenner attended Cornell University after his graduation from Haverstraw High School. In 1938, he

completed his double major in psychology and music. After that he completed his M.A. at Harvard University. In 1942, he

completed his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Shortly after that, he was hired as a psychologist in the army doing

many assignments for the Office of Strategic Services and the Army Air Corps. In the administration and research, he

worked as an assistant chief psychologist before he accepted the offer from the University of Michigan to work as an

assistant professor in Psychology. In 1948, he accepted an offer from Cornell University as a professor in Human

development, family studies and psychology. He also served as a faculty member on the Board of Trustees in the late 1960’s

and 1970’s. Urie is admired all over the world to develop the innate relationship between research and policy on child

development. He holds the view that child development is better applicable when institutional policies motivate studies in

a natural environment and theory is best suited in a practical application when it is relevant.

REQUIRED READING

The literature from the human developmental sciences provides more comprehensive conceptual and operational definitions

of human development than the economic literature typically does (Gottlieb, Wahlsten, & Lickliter, 1998; Lerner, 1998;

Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998). In essence, according to Thelen and Smith (1998), “The theory of development

is based on very general and content-independent principles that describe the behavior of complex physical and biological

systems” (p. 258). Thus, development can only be understood as (1) “the multiple, mutual, and continuous interaction of all

the levels of the development system, from the molecular to the cultural”; and (2) “as nested processes that unfold over

many time scales, from milliseconds to years” (Thelen & Smith, 1998, p. 258). In other words, human development refers

to change over time, and time is typically characterized as chronological age. Age is not the cause of development; it is just

a frame of reference. More specifically, development comprises interactions among various levels of functioning, from the

genetic, physiological, and neurological to the behavioral, social, and environmental. Human development is a permanent

exchange among these levels. And the more mature the person, the more influence and control the person has over the

organization of these interactions.

Human developmental science attributes the driving force of development to so-called proximal processes: stimulating,

regular face-to-face interactions over extended periods with people, objects, or symbols, which promote the realization of

the genetic potential for effective biological, psychological, and social development. For example, parents influence and

shape their children through parenting behaviors, role modeling, and encouraging certain behaviors and activities for their

children.

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model (Figure 7.1) is well suited to illustrate some important dimensions of these human

developmental processes, as it captures the complexity of human development as an intricate web of interrelated systems

and processes. A basic tenet of the bioecological systems’ theories of development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) is that

child and youth development is influenced by many different “contexts,” “settings,” or “ecologies” (for example, family,

peers, schools, communities, sociocultural belief systems, policy regimes, and, of course, the economy). The model is able

to account for multiple face-to-face environments, or settings, within the microsystem of a person (for example, family,

school, peers); how relations between settings (mesosystem) can affect what happens within them (for example, interactions

between school and family); and how settings within which the individuals have no direct presence (exo- and macrosystem)

can affect settings in their microsystems (for example, how parents’ experiences at their workplace affect their relationships

within the family) (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Thus, this model allows the analysis of the lives of people, “living organisms

whose biopsychological characteristics, both as a species and as individuals, have as much to do with their development as

do the environments in which they live their lives” (Bronfenbrenner, 1995, p. 8).

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Figure 7.1 Bioecological Model of Human Development

Figure 7.1. Source: Visual adaptation of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of child development

(Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Note: SES = socioeconomic status.

A central question in scientific research on how ecologies influence development is how macrosystem contexts and events

(for example, aggregate economic shocks) influence intermediate (exo- and mesosystem) contexts, which in turn influence

the settings or contexts within the developing person’s microsystem, settings within which the person has face-to-face

interactions or proximal processes. Aggregate economic shocks are thought to affect the ecology of human development by

hitting the macrosystem, as depicted in Figure 7.1.

This model is integrative and interdisciplinary, drawing on and relating concepts and hypotheses from disciplines as diverse

as biology, behavioral genetics and neurobiology, psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology, history, and economics-

focusing on and highlighting processes and links that shape human development through the life course (Bronfenbrenner,

1995). In particular, this model relates to the economic model of human capital investments outlined earlier in many, but

not all, respects. It provides a complementary framework for understanding how shocks affect human development

understood as complex systems of interactive processes between developing individuals and their surroundings. As such,

bioecological developmental models have the potential to enrich or expand the standard economic approach to human

capital.

In what follows we will expound on human developmental processes and how these are nested within a complex set of

systems and settings. “Domains,” “processes,” and “context” provide a convenient organizational structure for discussing

the complex topic of human development.

Domains

It is widely understood that human development has many distinct and important dimensions, or domains (Alkire, 2002).

Fundamental domains of development are not generally hierarchical (one is not more important than others), irreducible

(fundamental dimensions cannot be reduced to other dimensions), or incommensurable (they cannot be adequately compared

to each other). Nonetheless, in the practical world of science, programs, and policies, some domains receive more attention

than others. In the scientific study of child and youth development, three domains-physical, biological, and neuroanatomical

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development; cognitive, language, and academic development; and social, emotional, and behavioral development-have

received much more attention than have moral, spiritual, and religious development or artistic and aesthetic development.

The program and policy world parallels the scientific world in placing greater emphasis on children’s physical, cognitive,

and social-emotional development, roughly aligned with the domains of health, education, and social-emotional or

psychosocial well-being.

Each of these three fundamental domains is a complex system of complex subsystems. These systems emerge and evolve

over the course of human development and are complexly interrelated to other domains of human developmental systems

and subsystems. The “organizational systems” perspective on human development focuses on these fundamental domains

and strives to account for how advances or lags in one domain affect and are affected by advances or lags in other domains.

For example, the evidence reveals that nutrients by themselves do not suffice to bring about even purely physical, biological,

or neuroanatomical development and thus that development can be significantly delayed and even irreversibly compromised

in the absence of other factors crucial to development, such as a secure attachment relationship and other proximal processes

(Corrales & Utter, 2005). The bioecological systems’ perspective on human development examines how different contexts,

settings, experiences, and events affect different domains of child and youth development.

The implications of multiple and interrelated domains of development are clear. Examining the impacts both within the

physical (health), cognitive (educational), and social-emotional (psychosocial wellbeing) domains and across these domains

will likely enrich efforts to understand child and youth development.

Processes

Put very simply, children’s development is the result of proximal processes; of participating in increasingly complex

reciprocal interactions with people, objects, and symbols in their immediate environments (their microsystem contexts) over

extended periods of time (represented by the chronosystem) (Bronfenbrenner, 1994a). Thus, according to Bronfenbrenner’s

definition, “a microsystem is a pattern of activities, social roles, and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing

person in a given face-to-face setting with particular physical, social, and symbolic features that invite, permit, or inhibit

engagement in sustained, progressively more complex interaction with, and activity in, the immediate environment”

(Bronfenbrenner, 1994b, p. 39). Examples of settings within the microsystem are families, neighborhoods, day care centers,

schools, playgrounds, and so on within which activities, roles, and interpersonal relations set the stage for proximal processes

as crucial mechanisms for human development.

The heterogeneity in individual outcomes thus stems from systematic variation in individuals’ characteristics and

environments and in the nature of the developmental outcomes under scrutiny, which jointly determine form, power, content,

and direction of proximal processes (Bronfenbrenner, 1994a). Thus, proximal processes determine the capacities of

individuals to (1) differentiate perception and response; (2) direct and control their own behaviors; (3) cope successfully

under stress; (4) acquire knowledge and skills; (5) establish and maintain mutually rewarding relationships; and (6) modify

and construct their own physical, social, and symbolic environments (Bronfenbrenner, 1994a). Proximal processes are

thought to be the most important influences on children’s development.

Of course, not only do microcontexts affect children and youth, but also children and youth affect their microcontexts.

Children, youth, and the mircocontexts transact (see Sameroff, 2009, for a transactional model). Insecurely attached children

are more emotionally demanding for stressed parents to care for, and children slowed in language development stimulate

less verbal exchange with adults. Economic shocks are likely to have an impact on these transactional, bidirectional systems

of influences between children or youth and their immediate environments. This view of human development as

transactional places heavy design and data demands on studies of the underlying mechanisms or pathways of influence,

including studies of the influence of economic shocks on child and youth development.

Context and the Interplay of Systems and Settings

In the bioecological model, contextual effects are manifested in a complex interplay of the micro-, meso-, exo-, and

macrosystems. The ways these systems interact and influence each other can contribute to an understanding of how shocks

to the macrosystem, such as a financial crisis, can disrupt the developmental process as it is transmitted to various settings

in a child’s microsystem. Household socioeconomic status, neighborhood characteristics, and school environments, just to

mention a few, will determine the quality, frequency, and intensity of proximal processes. For instance, there is a significant

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body of literature that looks at how household poverty and hardship affect child development (see, for example, Duncan &

Brooks-Gunn, 1997). Neighborhood and community contexts and their influence on children have also been studied

extensively (see, for example, Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, & Aber, 1997). For instance, although family socioeconomic status

is correlated with well-being and human development, it is not clear if socioeconomic status causes variations in health and

well-being or if personal characteristics and dispositions of individuals influence both their socioeconomic status and their

future socioemotional well-being and behavior (Conger, Conger, & Martin, 2010, p. 687; Mayer, 1997). In addition, studies

have started to unravel the pathways through which poverty affects child and youth development, ranging from the

availability of quality prenatal and perinatal care, exposure to environmental toxins such as lead, less cognitive stimulation

at home, harsh and inconsistent parenting, to lower teacher quality (McLoyd, 1998). Furthermore, various studies have

compared the implications of temporary versus chronic deprivation and how the impact differs according to life stage of the

developing person (see, for accounts, Elder, 1999; McLoyd, 1998; McLoyd et al., 2009). In other words, a temporary drop

in socioeconomic status during a crisis may have markedly different long-term implications depending on the age of the

child.

A mesosystem, according to Bronfenbrenner, “comprises the linkages and processes taking place between two or more

settings containing the developing person” (1994b, p. 40), such as the relations between home and school He notes that “it

is formed or extended whenever the developing person moves into a new setting” (1979, p. 25). The main distinction

between the meso- and the microsystem is that in the microsystem activities, social roles, and interpersonal relations are

confined to one setting, whereas the mesosystem incorporates the interactions across the boundaries of at least two settings

(Bronfenbrenner, 1979, p. 209). The mesosystem is structured by institutions that have taken-for-granted rules for interaction

and that shape expected behaviors with the help of shared norms. Institutions may be mutually reinforcing or in tensions

with one another, as when the implicit rules for gaining status among peers are at odds with standards of behavior valued

by schools and with rules facilitating educational achievement (Carter, 2007; Warikoo, 2010).

Settings in the mesosystem can enhance (or diminish) people’s developmental potential when (1) a transition is made

together with a group of others that they have engaged with in previous settings (versus alone) (for example, transition with

a group of peers from kindergarten to school); (2) when roles and activities between two settings are compatible (or

incompatible) and encourage (or discourage) trust, positive orientation, and consensus on goals, as well as a balance of

power in favor of the developing person; (3) when the number of structurally different settings is increased (or decreased)

and others are more (or less) mature or experienced; and (4) when cultural or subcultural contexts differ from each other

(Bronfenbrenner, 1979, pp. 209-223).

An exosystem refers to “the linkages and processes taking place between two or more settings, at least one of which does

not contain the developing person, but in which events occur that indirectly influence processes within the immediate setting

in which the developing person lives” (Bronfenbrenner, 1994b, p. 40). An example of such an exosystem setting would be

the parent’s workplace, in which the child does not interact directly, but which could indirectly, through parental stress, job

loss, or the like, influence family dynamics and thus the developing child. Consequently, a causal sequence of at least two

steps is required to qualify as an exosystem. The first step is to establish a connection between events in the external setting,

or exosystem, which does not include the developing person, to processes in the microsystem, which does include the person,

and, second, to link these processes to developmental changes in the developing person (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Important

to note in this context is the ability of the child to influence parents just as much as parents influence the child, and this

influence can reach far beyond the family into settings of the child’s exosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).

Research to date has focused on three prominent exosystems that are particularly likely to influence the developmental

processes of children and youth through their influence on the family, school, and peers: parents’ workplaces, family social

networks, and neighborhood-community contexts (Bronfenbrenner, 1994b). To illustrate, Kohn’s research (see, for

example, Pearlin & Kohn, 2009) demonstrated that the beliefs, standards, and expectations parents face at work, for example

concerning their autonomy or dependency, is what they bring home and essentially expect the same from their children. As

a result, parents who were always subdued at work have a tendency to subdue their children. This factor may help explain

intergenerational transmission of values. Economic shocks can have a tremendous effect on exosystems, affecting not only

the workplaces of parents but also the situations of those who do not have work. Several functions of work-such as

organization of the day, income, and social status, among others-can be affected.

The macrosystem captures “the overarching pattern of micro-, meso-, and exosystems characteristic of a given culture or

subculture, with particular reference to the belief systems, bodies of knowledge, material resources, customs, lifestyles,

64
opportunity structures, hazards, and lifecourse options that are embedded in each of these broader systems”

(Bronfenbrenner, 1994b, p. 40). These include the laws and regulations, political economy, economic markets, and public

policies of the societies within which the developing person is embedded. Incorporating the macrosystem takes the analysis

beyond the identification of class, ethnic, and cultural differences in child-rearing practices and outcomes and incorporates

the phenomena of aggregate economic shocks. Of particular interest are dynamic aspects of “ecological transitions,” such

as investigations of how social and economic changes affect children and youths’ development and how they adapt to such

changes in the macrosystem.

While Bronfenbrenner refers mainly to cultural aspects of the macrosystem, a society’s cultural frameworks, politics, and

institutions are all closely interrelated and mutually reinforcing. Thus, the process of change can be induced through several

channels or entities, the result of which will be a “complicated set of interlocking physical and social relations, patterns, and

processes” (Martin, McCann, & Purcell, 2003, p. 114). Put another way, the macrosystem can be interpreted as “space” that

Lefebvre (1991) defined as an “unavoidably social product created from a mix of legal, political, economic, and social

practices and structures” (p. 190). Individuals draw on these cultural tools that their environment puts at their disposal, or

that they choose to make sense of challenges and imagine effective solutions. They also find strategies for action by

observing the behaviors of those around them and the consequences of their actions.

The bioecological model is flexible enough to accommodate cross-national variations in the weight given to various aspects

of human development influenced by the local culture (for instance, the greater emphasis on self-esteem, self-actualization,

and individualization characteristic of the American upper-middle class; see Markus, 2004). It also takes into consideration

meso- and macrolevel conditions for collective human development, including shared myths and narratives that buttress the

individual sense of self and capabilities (see, for example, Hall & Lamont, 2009).

Similarly, the bioecological model is capable of capturing “experiences.” Proximal processes and other interactions are

“experienced by the developing person,” which is meant to indicate, “that the scientifically relevant features of any

environment include not only its objective properties but also the way in which these properties are perceived by the persons

in that environment” (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, p. 22). Experiences in this sense are individual (and collective) constructs of

the “objective,” which determines an individual’s (and a group’s) capacity for making meaning and for self-representation

(Hall & Lamont, 2009). Experiences, while in part determined by the individual’s personality, are embedded in local culture

and customs; thus, understanding the cultural frameworks and narratives that shape the relationships and processes within

and between settings and systems is crucial to recognizing factors that enhance or weaken the resilience of a developing

person.

One example of the cultural or contextual variability in the meaning of experience comes from the empirical literature on

the influence of parenting styles on the development of children’s academic and social-emotional competencies. Early

research indicated that authoritative parenting (which combines warmth with firm control) promoted greater child

competence than did authoritarian (low warmth, very high control) or laissez-faire (low warmth, low control) parenting (for

reviews, see Baumrind, 1989, 1991). But subsequent research observed race, ethnic, and neighborhood differences in the

influence of parenting styles on child competence. In a sample of African American and Latino-American parents living in

dangerous inner-city neighborhoods, authoritarian parenting behaviors were associated with less adolescent delinquency

than authoritative parenting behaviors (Florsheim, Tolan, & Gorman-Smith, 1996). This pattern of findings has led child

developmentalists to believe that “high control” parenting has greater adaptive value in more dangerous neighborhoods and

may be “experienced” by children in a different way in those contexts (Furstenberg et al., 1999; Garcia-Coll et al., 1996;

McLoyd, 1990; Rodriguez & Walden, 2010).

Finally, only recently have the theory, measures, and mathematical models been available to enable the rigorous empirical

study of child and youth development in context. As pointed out previously, children and youth are embedded in and transact

with each other in and across contexts. Consequently, the study of peer and other spillover effects in human developmental

science has grown, as it has in the social sciences, although many of these studies do not convincingly control for what

determines the individuals with whom one interacts. These advances are directly relevant to improving our understanding

of the impact of economic shocks on child and youth development.

To reiterate, the human developmental process consequently depends on more than the available resources, prices, policies,

and parental preferences for investments in their children. From a human development perspective, if we are to fully

understand the effects of economic shocks on child and youth development, we must track the influence of economic

65
(macro) shocks on exo- and mesosystems and in turn on children’s microsystem contexts and the proximal processes-that

is, the reciprocal interactions between children and immediate contexts-that are the drivers of human development.

Educational Implications

The Bioecological Model by Bronfenbrenner looked at patterns of development across time as well as the interactions

between the development of the child and the environment. The implications of the Model include the social and political

policies and practices affecting children, families, and parenting. The Bioecological Model as depicted in Figure 7.1 serve

as a visual organizer to both summarize and unpack key concepts and themes as they related to individual development,

teaching and learning, and educational practices. As teachers and educators strive to become evidence-based practitioners,

the goal of learning this Model is to understand the theoretical and research foundations that inform the work in supporting

students’ well-being, teaching and learning and identify and use other factors/resources such as parents, family, peers, to

provide positive influence on students’ learning and development.

In that regard, Bronfenbrenner‘s Bioecological Model encourages much consideration of what constitutes supportive

interactions in fostering development. It goes beyond identifying what might influence development, and, more importantly,

assists in considering how and why it influences development. Furthermore, Bronfenbrenner’s theory also assists in

considering how an interaction might be added or taken away or improved to foster development and, especially, how a

face-to-face interaction between a developing individual and an agent within his or her environment might be changed.

Although Bronfenbrenner’s multi-system model has value in identifying the resources that influence development, it is

likely of most value in assisting consideration of how the resource might be used. Inherent within this idea is the emphasis

Bronfenbrenner places on proximal processes, those interactions nearest to the individual have the greatest influence on the

development of the individual.

Criticisms of the Bioecological Model

A criticism of Bronfenbrenner has been that the model focuses too much on the biological and cognitive aspects of human

development, but not much on socioemotional aspect of human development. A more comprehensive view of human

development with the 3 domains of human development in the center is suggested (Integrated Ecological Systems and

Framework, n.d.). This ecological model is called the Integrated Ecological Systems Framework (Figure 7.2).

Figure 7.2 Integrated Ecological Systems Framework

Figure 7.2. Source: Integrated Ecological Systems and Framework (n.d.). The picture above illustrated Integrated

Systems Framework with 3 domains of human development in the center: Biological Domain, Cognitive Domain, and

Socioemotional Domain.

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Developmentalists often refer to the three domains as overlapping circles that represent the intricately interwoven

relationship between each of the following aspects of an individual’s experience (Figure 7.3). Biological Processes: the

physical changes in an individual’s body. Cognitive Processes: the changes in an individual’s thinking and intelligence.

Socioemotional Processes: the changes in an individual’s relationship with other people in emotions, in personality and in

the role of social contexts in development.

Figure 7.3 Processes of Human Development

Figure 7.3. Source: Integrated Ecological Systems and Framework. (n.d.). The picture above illustrated the three

domains of processes: Biological Processes, Cognitive Processes, and Socioemotional Processes.

REFERENCES

Alkire, S. (2002). Dimensions of human development. World Development, 30(2), 181-205. UK: Elsevier Science.

Baumrind, D. (1989). Rearing competent children. In W. Damon (Ed.), Child development today and tomorrow (pp. 349-

378). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994). Nature-Nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: A bioecological model.

Psychological Review, 101(4), 568-86.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1995). Developmental ecology through space and time: A future perspective. In P. Moen, G. Elder,

& K. Lusher (Eds.), Examining lives in context: Perspectives on the ecology of human development (pp. 619-647).

Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The biological model of human development. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner

(Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 793-828). New

York, NY: Wiley.

Carter, P. (2007). Keeping it real: School success beyond black and white. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Conger, R., K. Conger, & Martin, M. (2010). Socioeconomic status, family processes, and individual development.

Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 685-704.

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Corrales, K., & Utter, S. (2005). Growth failure. In P. Q. Samour & K. King, Handbook of pediatric nutrition (3rd ed.).

Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Damon, W., & Lerner, R. M. (1998). Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development. New

York, NY: Wiley.

Duncan, G., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage

Foundation.

Elder, G., & Caspi, A. (1988). Economic stress in lives: Developmental perspectives. Journal of Social Issues, 44 (4), 25-

45.

Florsheim, P., Tolan P. H., & Gorman-Smith, D. (1996). Family processes and risk for externalizing behavior problems

among African American and Hispanic boys. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64 (6), 1222-1230.

Furstenburg, F. F., Cook, T., Eccles, J., Elder, G. H., & Sameroff, A. (1999). Managing to make it: Urban families in

high-risk neighborhoods. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Garcia-Coll, C., Lamberty, G., Jenkins, R., Mc Adoo, H. P., Crnic, P., Wasik, B. H., & Vázquez, H. G. (1996). An

integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children. Child Development, 67(5), 1891-

1914.

Gottlieb, G., Wahlsten, D., & Lickliter, R. (1998). The significance of biology for human development: A developmental

psychobiological systems view.” In R Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (6th ed., Vol. 1). New York, NY:

Wiley.

Hall, P., & Lamont, M. (Eds.). (2009). Successful societies: How institutions and culture affect health. Cambridge, UK:

Cambridge University Press.

Integrated ecological systems and framework. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://sites.google.com/site/humandevelopmentlearning/integrated-framework

Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell Publishing.

Markus, H. R. (2004). Culture and personality: Brief for an arranged marriage. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 75-

83.

Martin, D., McCann, E., & Purcell, M. (2003). Space, scale, governance, and representation: Contemporary geographical

perspectives on urban politics and policy. Journal of Urban Affairs, 25(2), 113-121.

McLoyd, V. C. (1990). The impact of economic hardship on black families and children: Psychological distress,

parenting, and socioemotional development. Child Development, 61(2), 311-346.

Pearlin, L., & Kohn, M. (2009). Social class, occupation, and parental values: A cross-national study. In A. Grey (Ed.),

Class and personality in society (pp. 161-184). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Rodriguez, M. L., & Walden, N. J. (2010). Socializing relationships. In D. P. Swanson, C. M. Edwards, & M. B. Spencer

(Eds.), Adolescence: Development during a global era (pp. 299-340). Burlington, MA: Academic Press.

Thelen, E., & Smith, L. (1998). Dynamic systems theories. In R. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (6th ed.).

New York, NY: Wiley.

Warikoo, N. (2010). Balancing act: Youth culture in the global city. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

ADDITIONAL READING

Credible Articles on the Internet

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Boemmel, J., & Briscoe, J. (2001). Web Quest project theory fact sheet on Urie Bronfenbrenner. Retrieved from

http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/twimberley/EnviroPol/EnviroPhilo/FactSheet.pdf

Bronfenbrenner, U. (2007). The bioecological model of human development. Retrieved from

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470147658.chpsy0114/abstract

Bronfenbrenner, U. (n.d.). Ecological models of human development. Retrieved from:

http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/35bronfebrenner94.pdf

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977.) Toward an experimental ecology of human development. Retrieved from

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.458.7039&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Brendtro, L. K. (2006). The vision of Urie Bronfenbrenner: Adults who are crazy about kids. Reclaiming Children and

Youth, 15(3), 162-166.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32, 513-

530. Retrieved from http://www2.humboldt.edu/cdblog/CD350-Hansen/wp-

content/uploads/sites/28/2014/08/Bronfenbrenner.pdf

Guhn, M., & Goelman, H. (2011). Bioecological theory, early child development and the validation of the population

level early development instrument. Social Indicators Research, 103(2), 193-217.

Lang, S. S. (2005). Renowned bioecologist addresses the future of human development. Human Ecology, 32(3), 24-24.

Rosa, E. M., & Tudge, J. (2013). Urie Bronfenbrenner’s theory of human development: Its evolution from ecology to

bioecology. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 5(4), 243-258.

Stolzer, J. (2005). ADHD in America: A bioecological analysis. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 7(1), 65-75,

103.

Taylor, E. (2003). Practice methods for working with children who have biologically based mental disorders: A

bioecological model. Families in Society, 84(1), 39-50.

Wertsch, J. V. (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. The British

Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23, 143-151.

Books at Dalton State College Library

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press.

Friedman, S. L., & Wachs, T. D. (1999). Measuring environment across the life span: Emerging methods and concepts.

Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Videos and Tutorials

History of parenting practices: Child development theories. (2006). Retrieved from Films on Demand database.

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CHAPTER 8

Psychosocial Theory of Identity Development

INTRODUCTION

Erik H. Erikson (1902-1994), born in Germany in 1902, was a world-renowned scholar of the behavioral sciences. His

contributions ranged from psychology to anthropology. Moreover, his two biographies, one of Ghandi, the other a Pulitzer-

Prize study of Martin Luther, earned him distinction in literature. Curiously, however, he was not a hero in his own house.

Serious students of personality theory underscored his seminal contribution: linking individual development to external

forces (structured as the “Life Cycle,” the stages ranging from infancy to adulthood). Rather than the negations of pathology,

Erikson welcomed the affirmation of human strength, stressing always the potential of constructive societal input in

personality development. Erikson’s dual concepts of an (individual) ego and group identity have become an integral part of

group psychology, with terms such as adolescent “identity diffusion,” or adolescent “moratorium,” having been

mainstreamed into everyday language.

In 1933, when the Nazi power was gaining power in Germany, Erikson and his wife and young son left for the US. The

Eriksons settled first in Boston. Erikson began teaching at Harvard’s medical school, in addition to his work under Henry

A. Murray at the university’s Psychology Clinic. It was here he met Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, Ruth Benedict as

well as Kurt Lewin. In 1936, Erikson moved to Yale University where he was attached to both the medical school and to

the Yale Institute of Human Relations. His first field study of the Sioux Indians in South Dakota was launched from New

Haven. The subsequent work with the Yurok Indians, commenced after he had gone to the University of California in 1939

to join Jean MacFarlane’s longitudinal study of personality development. During World War II, Erikson did research for the

U.S. Government, including an original study of “Submarine Psychology.” In 1950, the same year in which Childhood and

Society, his most steady-selling book was published, Erikson resigned from the University of California. Though not a

Communist, he refused to sign the loyalty contract stating, that “…my conscience did not permit me,” to collaborate with

witch hunters. He returned to Harvard in the 1960s as a professor of human development and remained there until his

retirement in 1970. In 1973 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Erikson for the Jefferson Lecture, the

United States’ highest honor for achievement in the humanities.

REQUIRED READING

Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, as articulated by Erik Erikson, in collaboration with Joan Erikson (Thomas,

1997), is a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory that identifies a series of eight stages, in which a healthy developing

individual should pass through from infancy to late adulthood. All stages are present at birth but only begin to unfold

according to both a natural scheme and one’s ecological and cultural upbringing. In each stage, the person confronts, and

hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds upon the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of

stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future.

However, mastery of a stage is not required to advance to the next stage. The outcome of one stage is not permanent and

can be modified by later experiences. Erikson’s stage theory characterizes an individual advancing through the eight life

stages as a function of negotiating his or her biological forces and sociocultural forces. Each stage is characterized by a

psychosocial crisis of these two conflicting forces (Figure 8.1). If an individual does indeed successfully reconcile these

forces (favoring the first mentioned attribute in the crisis), he or she emerges from the stage with the corresponding virtue

(Figure 8.1). For example, if an infant enters into the toddler stage (autonomy vs. shame and doubt) with more trust than

mistrust, he or she carries the virtue of hope into the remaining life stages (Crain, 2011).

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Figure 8.1 Psychosocial Identity Development Stages, Virtues, and Crisis

Stage:

Approximate Age
Virtues Psychosocial Crisis

Significant

Relationship
Existential Question Examples

Infancy

0-2 Years
Hope

Trust

vs.

Mistrust

Mother Can I trust the world?
Feeding;

Abandonment

Early Childhood

2-4 Years
Will

Autonomy

vs.

Shame and Doubt

Parents Is it okay to be me?

Toilet Training;

Clothing

Themselves

Preschool Age

4-5 Years
Purpose Initiative vs. Guilt Family

Is it okay for me to do,

move, and act?

Exploring; Using

Tools or Making

Art

School Age

5-12 Years
Competence

Industry

vs.

Inferiority

Neighbors

School

Can I make it in the

world of people and

things?

School; Sports

Adolescence

13-19 Years
Fidelity

Identity

vs.

Role Confusion

Peers

Role Model

Who am I?

Who can I be?

Social

Relationships

Early Adulthood

20-39 Years
Love

Intimacy

vs.

Isolation

Friends

Partners
Can I love?

Romantic

Relationships

Adulthood

40-64 Years
Care

Generativity

vs.

Stagnation

Household

Workmates

Can I make my life

count?

Work;

Parenthood

Maturity

65-Death
Wisdom

Ego Integrity

vs.

Despair

Mankind

My kind

Is it okay to have been

me?
Reflection on Life

Figure 8.1. The figure above was adapted from the website Introduction to Erikson’s 8 Stages (n.d.), and Macnow’s

(2014) book MCAT Behavioral Science Review (p. 220).

Stages of Psychosocial Identity Development

Hope: Trust vs. Mistrust (Infancy, 0-2 years)

Existential Question: Can I Trust the World?

The first stage of Erik Erikson’s theory centers around the infant’s basic needs being met by the parents and this interaction

leading to trust or mistrust. Trust as defined by Erikson is an essential trustfulness of others as well as a fundamental sense

of one’s own trustworthiness (Sharkey, 1997). The infant depends on the parents, especially the mother, for sustenance and

comfort. The child’s relative understanding of world and society come from the parents and their interaction with the child.

A child’s first trust is always with the parent or caregiver; whomever that might be; however, even the caregiver is secondary

whereas the parents are primary in the eyes of the child. If the parents expose the child to warmth, regularity, and dependable

affection, the infant’s view of the world will be one of trust. Should the parents fail to provide a secure environment and to

meet the child’s basic needs; a sense of mistrust will result (Bee & Boyd, 2009). Development of mistrust can lead to feelings

of frustration, suspicion, withdrawal, and a lack of confidence (Sharkey, 1997).

According to Erik Erikson, the major developmental task in infancy is to learn whether or not other people, especially

primary caregivers, regularly satisfy basic needs. If caregivers are consistent sources of food, comfort, and affection, an

infant learns trust-that others are dependable and reliable. If they are neglectful, or perhaps even abusive, the infant instead

learns mistrust-that the world is an undependable, unpredictable, and possibly a dangerous place. While negative, having

some experience with mistrust allows the infant to gain an understanding of what constitutes dangerous situations later in

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life; yet being at the stage of infant or toddler, it is a good idea not to put them in situations of mistrust: the child’s number

one needs are to feel safe, comforted, and well cared for (Bee & Boyd, 2009).

Will: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Early Childhood, 2-4 years)
Existential Question: Is It Okay to Be Me?

As the child gains control over eliminative functions and motor abilities, they begin to explore their surroundings. The

parents still provide a strong base of security from which the child can venture out to assert their will. The parents’ patience

and encouragement helps foster autonomy in the child. Children at this age like to explore the world around them and they

are constantly learning about their environment. Caution must be taken at this age while children may explore things that

are dangerous to their health and safety.

At this age children develop their first interests. For example, a child who enjoys music may like to play with the radio.

Children who enjoy the outdoors may be interested in animals and plants. Highly restrictive parents, however, are more

likely to instill in the child a sense of doubt, and reluctance to attempt new challenges. As they gain increased muscular

coordination and mobility, toddlers become capable of satisfying some of their own needs. They begin to feed themselves,

wash and dress themselves, and use the bathroom.

If caregivers encourage self-sufficient behavior, toddlers develop a sense of autonomy-a sense of being able to handle many

problems on their own. But if caregivers demand too much too soon, refuse to let children perform tasks of which they are

capable, or ridicule early attempts at self-sufficiency, children may instead develop shame and doubt about their ability to

handle problems.

Purpose: Initiative vs. Guilt (Preschool, 4-5 years)

Existential Question: Is it Okay for Me to Do, Move, and Act?

Initiative adds to autonomy the quality of undertaking, planning and attacking a task for the sake of just being active and on

the move. The child is learning to master the world around them, learning basic skills and principles of physics. Things fall

down, not up. Round things roll. They learn how to zip and tie, count and speak with ease. At this stage, the child wants to

begin and complete their own actions for a purpose. Guilt is a confusing new emotion. They may feel guilty over things that

logically should not cause guilt. They may feel guilt when this initiative does not produce desired results.

The development of courage and independence are what set preschoolers, ages three to six years of age, apart from other

age groups. Young children in this category face the challenge of initiative versus guilt. As described in Bee and Boyd

(2009), the child during this stage faces the complexities of planning and developing a sense of judgment. During this stage,

the child learns to take initiative and prepare for leadership and goal achievement roles. Activities sought out by a child in

this stage may include risk-taking behaviors, such as crossing a street alone or riding a bike without a helmet; both these

examples involve self-limits.

Within instances requiring initiative, the child may also develop negative behaviors. These behaviors are a result of the

child developing a sense of frustration for not being able to achieve a goal as planned and may engage in behaviors that

seem aggressive, ruthless, and overly assertive to parents. Aggressive behaviors, such as throwing objects, hitting, or yelling,

are examples of observable behaviors during this stage.

Preschoolers are increasingly able to accomplish tasks on their own, and can start new things. With this growing

independence comes many choices about activities to be pursued. Sometimes children take on projects they can readily

accomplish, but at other times they undertake projects that are beyond their capabilities or that interfere with other people’s

plans and activities. If parents and preschool teachers encourage and support children’s efforts, while also helping them

make realistic and appropriate choices, children develop initiative-independence in planning and undertaking activities. But

if, instead, adults discourage the pursuit of independent activities or dismiss them as silly and bothersome, children develop

guilt about their needs and desires (Rao, 2012).

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Competence: Industry vs. Inferiority (School Age, 5-12 Years)

Existential Question: Can I Make it in the World of People and Things?

The aim to bring a productive situation to completion gradually supersedes the whims and wishes of play. The fundamentals

of technology are developed. The failure to master trust, autonomy, and industrious skills may cause the child to doubt his

or her future, leading to shame, guilt, and the experience of defeat and inferiority (Erik Erikson’s Stages of Social-Emotional

Development, n.d.). The child must deal with demands to learn new skills or risk a sense of inferiority, failure, and

incompetence.

Children at this age are becoming more aware of themselves as “individuals.” They work hard at “being responsible, being

good and doing it right.” They are now more reasonable to share and cooperate. Allen and Marotz (2003) also list some

perceptual cognitive developmental traits specific for this age group. Children grasp the concepts of space and time in more

logical, practical ways. They gain a better understanding of cause and effect, and of calendar time. At this stage, children

are eager to learn and accomplish more complex skills: reading, writing, telling time. They also get to form moral values,

recognize cultural and individual differences and are able to manage most of their personal needs and grooming with

minimal assistance (Allen & Marotz, 2003). At this stage, children might express their independence by talking back and

being disobedient and rebellious.

Erikson viewed the elementary school years as critical for the development of self-confidence. Ideally, elementary school

provides many opportunities to achieve the recognition of teachers, parents and peers by producing things-drawing pictures,

solving addition problems, writing sentences, and so on. If children are encouraged to make and do things and are then

praised for their accomplishments, they begin to demonstrate industry by being diligent, persevering at tasks until

completed, and putting work before pleasure. If children are instead ridiculed or punished for their efforts or if they find

they are incapable of meeting their teachers’ and parents’ expectations, they develop feelings of inferiority about their

capabilities (Crain, 2011).

At this age, children start recognizing their special talents and continue to discover interests as their education improves.

They may begin to choose to do more activities to pursue that interest, such as joining a sport if they know they have athletic

ability, or joining the band if they are good at music. If not allowed to discover their own talents in their own time, they will

develop a sense of lack of motivation, low self-esteem, and lethargy. They may become “couch potatoes” if they are not

allowed to develop interests.

Fidelity: Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence, 13-19 Years)

Existential Question: Who Am I and What Can I Be?

The adolescent is newly concerned with how they appear to others. Superego identity is the accrued confidence that the

outer sameness and continuity prepared in the future are matched by the sameness and continuity of one’s meaning for

oneself, as evidenced in the promise of a career. The ability to settle on a school or occupational identity is pleasant. In later

stages of adolescence, the child develops a sense of sexual identity. As they make the transition from childhood to adulthood,

adolescents ponder the roles they will play in the adult world. Initially, they are apt to experience some role confusion-

mixed ideas and feelings about the specific ways in which they will fit into society-and may experiment with a variety of

behaviors and activities (e.g. tinkering with cars, baby-sitting for neighbors, affiliating with certain political or religious

groups). Eventually, Erikson proposed, most adolescents achieve a sense of identity regarding who they are and where their

lives are headed. The teenager must achieve identity in occupation, gender roles, politics, and, in some cultures, religion.

Erikson is credited with coining the term “identity crisis” (Gross, 1987, p. 47). Each stage that came before and that follows

has its own “crisis” but even more so now, for this marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. This passage is

necessary because “Throughout infancy and childhood, a person forms many identifications. But the need for identity in

youth is not met by these” (Wright, 1982, p. 73). This turning point in human development seems to be the reconciliation

between “the person one has come to be” and “the person society expects one to become.” This emerging sense of self will

be established by “forging” past experiences with anticipations of the future. In relation to the eight life stages as a whole,

the fifth stage corresponds to the crossroads.

What is unique about the stage of Identity is that it is a special sort of synthesis of earlier stages and a special sort of

anticipation of later ones. Youth has a certain unique quality in a person’s life; it is a bridge between childhood and

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adulthood. Youth is a time of radical change-the great body changes accompanying puberty, the ability of the mind to search

one’s own intentions and the intentions of others, the suddenly sharpened awareness of the roles society has offered for later

life (Gross,1987).

Adolescents “are confronted by the need to re-establish [boundaries] for themselves and to do this in the face of an often

potentially hostile world” (Stevens, 1983, pp. 48-50). This is often challenging since commitments are being asked for

before particular identity roles have formed. At this point, one is in a state of “identity confusion” but society normally

makes allowances for youth to “find themselves” and this state is called “the moratorium.”

The problem of adolescence is one of role confusion-a reluctance to commit which may haunt a person into his mature

years. Given the right conditions-and Erikson believes these are essentially having enough space and time, a psychosocial

moratorium, when a person can freely experiment and explore-what may emerge is a firm sense of identity, an emotional

and deep awareness of who he or she is (Stevens, 1983, pp. 48-50).

As in other stages, bio-psycho-social forces are at work. No matter how one has been raised, one’s personal ideologies are

now chosen for oneself. Often, this leads to conflict with adults over religious and political orientations. Another area where

teenagers are deciding for themselves is their career choice, and often parents want to have a decisive say in that role. If

society is too insistent, the teenager will acquiesce to external wishes, effectively forcing him or her to ‘foreclose’ on

experimentation and, therefore, true self-discovery. Once someone settles on a worldview and vocation, will he or she be

able to integrate this aspect of self-definition into a diverse society? According to Erikson, when an adolescent has balanced

both perspectives of “What have I got?” and “What am I going to do with it?” he or she has established their identity (Gross,

1987). Dependent on this stage is the ego quality of fidelity-the ability to sustain loyalties freely pledged in spite of the

inevitable contradictions and confusions of value systems (Stevens, 1983).

Given that the next stage (Intimacy) is often characterized by marriage, many are tempted to cap off the fifth stage at 20

years of age. However, these age ranges are actually quite fluid, especially for the achievement of identity, since it may take

many years to become grounded, to identify the object of one’s fidelity, to feel that one has “come of age”. In the biographies

Young Man Luther and Gandhi’s Truth, Erikson determined that their crises ended at ages 25 and 30, respectively.

Erikson does note that the time of Identity crisis for persons of genius is frequently prolonged. He further notes that in our

industrial society, identity formation tends to be long, because it takes us so long to gain the skills needed for adulthood’s

tasks in our technological world. So… we do not have an exact time span in which to find ourselves. It doesn’t happen

automatically at eighteen or at twenty-one. A very approximate rule of thumb for our society would put the end somewhere

in one’s twenties (Gross, 1987).

Love: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Early Adulthood, 20-39 years)
Existential Question: Can I Love?

The Intimacy vs. Isolation conflict is emphasized around the age of 30. At the start of this stage, identity vs. role confusion

is coming to an end, though it still lingers at the foundation of the stage (Erikson, 1950). Young adults are still eager to

blend their identities with friends. They want to fit in. Erikson believes we are sometimes isolated due to intimacy. We are

afraid of rejections such as being turned down or our partners breaking up with us. We are familiar with pain and to some

of us rejection is so painful that our egos cannot bear it. Erikson also argues that “Intimacy has a counterpart: Distantiation:

the readiness to isolate and if necessary, to destroy those forces and people whose essence seems dangerous to our own, and

whose territory seems to encroach on the extent of one’s intimate relations” (Erikson, 1950, p. 237).

Once people have established their identities, they are ready to make long-term commitments to others. They become

capable of forming intimate, reciprocal relationships (e.g. through close friendships or marriage) and willingly make the

sacrifices and compromises that such relationships require. If people cannot form these intimate relationships-perhaps

because of their own needs-a sense of isolation may result; arousing feelings of darkness and angst.

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Care: Generativity vs. Stagnation (Adulthood, 40-64 years)
Existential Question: Can I Make My Life Count?

Generativity is the concern of guiding the next generation. Socially-valued work and disciplines are expressions of

generativity. The adult stage of generativity has broad application to family, relationships, work, and society. “Generativity,

then is primarily the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation… the concept is meant to include… productivity

and creativity” (Erikson, 1950, p. 240).

During middle age the primary developmental task is one of contributing to society and helping to guide future generations.

When a person makes a contribution during this period, perhaps by raising a family or working toward the betterment of

society, a sense of generativity-a sense of productivity and accomplishment-results. In contrast, a person who is self-centered

and unable or unwilling to help society move forward develops a feeling of stagnation-a dissatisfaction with the relative

lack of productivity. Central tasks of middle adulthood are to:

 Express love through more than sexual contacts.

 Maintain healthy life patterns.

 Develop a sense of unity with mate.

 Help growing and grown children to be responsible adults.

 Relinquish central role in lives of grown children.

 Accept children’s mates and friends.

 Create a comfortable home.

 Be proud of accomplishments of self and mate/spouse.

 Reverse roles with aging parents.

 Achieve mature, civic and social responsibility.

 Adjust to physical changes of middle age.

 Use leisure time creatively.

Wisdom: Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Maturity, 65-Death)

Existential Question: Is it Okay to Have Been Me?

As we grow older and become senior citizens we tend to slow down our productivity and explore life as a retired person. It

is during this time that we contemplate our accomplishments and are able to develop integrity if we see ourselves as leading

a successful life. If we see our life as unproductive, or feel that we did not accomplish our life goals, we become dissatisfied

with life and develop despair, often leading to depression and hopelessness.

The final developmental task is retrospection: people look back on their lives and accomplishments. They develop feelings

of contentment and integrity if they believe that they have led a happy, productive life. They may instead develop a sense

of despair if they look back on a life of disappointments and unachieved goals. This stage can occur out of the sequence

when an individual feels they are near the end of their life (such as when receiving a terminal disease diagnosis).

Ninth Stage

Joan M. Erikson, who married and collaborated with Erik Erikson, added a ninth stage in The Life Cycle Completed:

Extended Version (Erikson & Erikson, 1998). Living in the ninth stage, she wrote, “old age in one’s eighties and nineties

brings with it new demands, reevaluations, and daily difficulties” (Erikson & Erikson, 1998, p. 4). Addressing these new

challenges requires “designating a new ninth stage”. Erikson was ninety-three years old when she wrote about the ninth

stage (Erikson & Erikson, 1998, p. 105).

Joan Erikson showed that all the eight stages “are relevant and recurring in the ninth stage” (Mooney, 2007, p. 78). In the

ninth stage, the psychosocial crises of the eight stages are faced again, but with the quotient order reversed. For example, in

the first stage (infancy), the psychosocial crisis was “Trust vs. Mistrust” with Trust being the “syntonic quotient” and

Mistrust being the “diatonic” (Erikson & Erikson, 1998, p. 106). Joan Erikson applies the earlier psychosocial crises to the

ninth stage as follows:

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 Basic Mistrust vs. Trust: Hope

In the ninth stage, “elders are forced to mistrust their own capabilities” because one’s “body inevitably weakens.”

Yet, Joan Erikson asserts that “while there is light, there is “hope” for a “bright light and revelation” (Erikson &

Erikson, 1998, pp. 106-107).

 Shame and Doubt vs. Autonomy: Will

Ninth stage elders face the “shame of lost control” and doubt “their autonomy over their own bodies.” So it is that

“shame and doubt challenge cherished autonomy” (Erikson & Erikson, 1998, pp. 107-108).

 Inferiority vs. Industry: Competence

Industry as a “driving force” that elders once had is gone in the ninth stage. Being incompetent “because of aging

is belittling” and makes elders “like unhappy small children of great age” (Erikson & Erikson, 1998, p. 109).

 Identity Confusion vs. Identity: Fidelity

Elders experience confusion about their “existential identity” in the ninth stage and “a real uncertainty about status

and role” (Erikson & Erikson, 1998, pp. 109-110).

 Isolation vs. Intimacy: Love

In the ninth stage, the “years of intimacy and love” are often replaced by “isolation and deprivation.” Relationships

become “overshadowed by new incapacities and dependencies” (Erikson & Erikson, 1998, pp. 110-111).

 Stagnation vs. Generativity: Care

The generativity in the seventh stage of “work and family relationships” if it goes satisfactorily, is “a wonderful

time to be alive.” In one’s eighties and nineties, there is less energy for generativity or caretaking. Thus, “a sense of

stagnation may well take over” (Erikson & Erikson, 1998, pp. 111-112).

 Despair and Disgust vs. Integrity: Wisdom

Integrity imposes “a serious demand on the senses of elders.” Wisdom requires capacities that ninth stage elders

“do not usually have.” The eighth stage includes retrospection that can evoke a “degree of disgust and despair.” In

the ninth stage, introspection is replaced by the attention demanded to one’s “loss of capacities and disintegration”

(Erikson & Erikson, 1998, pp. 112-113).

Living in the ninth stage, Joan Erikson expressed confidence that the psychosocial crisis of the ninth stage can be met as in

the first stage with the “basic trust” with which “we are blessed” (Erikson & Erikson, 1998, pp. 112-113). Erikson saw a

dynamic at work throughout life, one that did not stop at adolescence. He also viewed the life stages as a cycle: the end of

one generation was the beginning of the next. Seen in its social context, the life stages were linear for an individual but

circular for societal development (Erikson, 1950). Erik Erikson believed that development continues throughout life.

Erikson took the foundation laid by Freud and extended it through adulthood and into late life (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2004).

Criticism of the Psychosocial Theory of Identity Development

Erikson’s theory may be questioned as to whether his stages must be regarded as sequential, and only occurring within the

age ranges he suggests. There is debate as to whether people only search for identity during the adolescent years or if one

stage needs to happen before other stages can be completed. However, Erikson states that each of these processes occur

throughout the lifetime in one form or another, and he emphasizes these “phases” only because it is at these times that the

conflicts become most prominent (Erikson, 1956).

Most empirical research into Erikson has related to his views on adolescence and attempts to establish identity. His

theoretical approach was studied and supported, particularly regarding adolescence, by James E. Marcia. Marcia’s work

(1966) has distinguished different forms of identity, and there is some empirical evidence that those people who form the

most coherent self-concept in adolescence are those who are most able to make intimate attachments in early adulthood.

This supports Eriksonian theory in that it suggests that those best equipped to resolve the crisis of early adulthood are those

who have most successfully resolved the crisis of adolescence.

Educational Implications

Teachers who apply psychosocial development in the classroom create an environment where each child feels appreciated

and is comfortable with learning new things and building relationships with peers without fear (Hooser, 2010). Teaching

Erikson’s theory at the different grade levels is important to ensure that students will attain mastery of each stage in Erikson’s

theory without conflict. There are specific classroom activities that teachers can incorporate into their classroom during the

three stages that include school age children. The activities listed below are just a few suggested examples that apply

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psychosocial development.

At the preschool level, teachers want to focus on developing a hardy personality. Classroom examples that can be

incorporated at the Preschool Level are as follows:

1. Find out what students are interested in and create projects that incorporate their area of interest.
2. Let the children be in charge of the learning process when participating in a classroom project. This will exhibit

teacher appreciation for the areas of interest of the students as well as confidence in their ability.
3. Make sure to point out and praise students for good choices.
4. Offer continuous feedback on work that has been completed.
5. Do not ridicule or criticize students openly. Find a private place to talk with a child about a poor choice or

behavior. Help students formulate their own alternate choices by guiding them to a positive solution and

outcome.
6. When children experiment, they should not be punished for trying something that may turn out differently than

the teacher planned.
7. Utilize physical activity to teach fairness and sportsmanship (Bianca, 2010).

Teachers should focus on achievement and peer relationships at the Elementary Level. Classroom examples that can be

incorporated at the Elementary Level are as follows:

1. Create a list of classroom duties that needed to be completed on a scheduled basis. Ask students for their input

when creating the list as well as who will be in charge of what.
2. Discuss and post classroom rules. Make sure to include students in the decision-making process when

discussing rules.
3. Encourage students to think outside of their day-to-day routine by role playing different situations.
4. Let students know that striving for perfection is not as important as learning from mistakes. Teach them to hold

their head high and move forward.
5. Encourage children to help students who may be having trouble socially and/or academically. Never allow any

child to make fun of or bully another child.
6. Build confidence by recognizing success in what children do best.
7. Provide a variety of choices when making an assignment so that students can express themselves with a focus

on their strengths.
8. Utilize physical activity to build social development and to help students appreciate their own abilities as well

as the abilities of others (Bianca, 2010).

During the middle and high school years, building identity and self-esteem should be part of a teacher’s focus. Classroom

examples that can be incorporated at the Middle School and High School Level are as follows:

1. Treat all students equally. Do not show favoratism to a certain group of students based on gender, race, academic

ability or socioeconimic status.
2. Incorporate guest speakers and curriculum activities from as many areas as possible so as to expose students to

many career choices.
3. Encourage students to focus on their strengths and acknowledge them when they exhibit work that incorporates

these strengths.
4. Encourage students to develop confidence by trying different approaches to solving problems.
5. Incorporate life skills into lesson planning to increase confidence and self-sufficiency.
6. Utilize physical activity to help relieve stress, negative feelings and improve moods (Bianca, 2010).

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REFERENCES

Allen, E., & Marotz, L. (2003). Developmental profiles pre-Birth through twelve (4th ed.). Albany, NY: Thomson Delmar

Learning.

Bee, H., & Boyd, D. (2009, March). The developing child (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Bianca, A. (2010, June 4). Psychosocial development in physical activity. Retrieved from

http://www.ehow.com/about_6587070_psychosocial-development-physical-activity.htm

Crain, W. (2011). Theories of development: Concepts and applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Education, Inc.

Erik Erikson’s stages of social-emotional development. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-

development/erickson/#ixzz3ZaBI7RQf

Erik Erikson’s 8 stages of psychosocial development. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/ERIK/stageint.HTML

Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

Erikson, E. H. (1956). The problem of ego identity. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 4, 56-121.

doi:10.1177/000306515600400104.

Erikson, E. H., & Erikson, J. M. (1998). The life cycle completed: Extended version. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

Gross, F. L. (1987). Introducing Erik Erikson: An invitation to his thinking. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Hooser, T. C. V. (2010, November 28). How to apply psychosocial development in the classroom. Retrieved from

http://www.ehow.com/how_7566430_apply-psychosocial-development-classroom.html

Kail, R. V., & Cavanaugh, J. C. (2004). Human development: A life-span view (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA:

Thomson/Wadsworth.

Macnow, A. S. (Ed.). (2014). MCAT behavioral science review. New York, NY: Kaplan Publishing.

Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3,

551-558. doi:10.1037/h0023281

Mooney, J. (2007). Erik Erikson. In Joe L. Kincheloe & Raymond A. Horn (Eds.), The praeger handbook of education

and psychology (Vol. 1, p. 78). Retrieved from

https://books.google.com/books?id=O1ugEIEid6YC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Praeger+Handbook+of+Education+a

nd+Psychology&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWnfK7i_DWAhWDwiYKHdrjAooQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=The%20

Praeger%20Handbook%20of%20Education%20and%20Psychology&f=false

Rao, A. (Ed.). (2012, July). Principles and practice of pedodontics (3rd ed.). Retrieved from

https://books.google.com/books?id=Ynaeb6CC8wAC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=discourage+the+pursuit+of+independe

nt+activities+or+dismiss+them+as+silly+and+bothersome,+children+develop+guilt+about+their+needs+and+desires&so

urce=bl&ots=R-A9YrkvAH&sig=DNUdrJg-

ZsnT96jXA8FipC64eDQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnstb0je_WAhWHQyYKHfkpCXUQ6AEINjAD#v=onepage&q

=discourage%20the%20pursuit%20of%20independent%20activities%20or%20dismiss%20them%20as%20silly%20and%

20bothersome%2C%20children%20develop%20guilt%20about%20their%20needs%20and%20desires&f=false

Sharkey, W. (1997, May). Erik Erikson. Retrieved from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/erikson.htm

Stevens, R. (1983). Erik Erikson: An introduction. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

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Thomas, R. M. (1997, August 8). Joan Erikson is dead at 95: Shaped thought on life cycles. New York Times. Retrieved

from https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/08/us/joan-erikson-is-dead-at-95-shaped-thought-on-life-cycles.html.

Wright, J. E. (1982). Erikson: Identity and religion. New York, NY: Seabury Press.

ADDITIONAL READING

Credible Articles on the Internet

Davis, D., & Clifton, A. (1999). Psychosocial theory: Erikson. Retrieved from

http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/p109g/erikson.stages.html

Erikson, R. (2010). ULM Classroom Management. Retrieved from

https://ulmclassroommanagement.wikispaces.com/Erik+Erikson

Krebs-Carter, M. (2008). Ages in stages: An exploration of the life cycle based on Erik Erikson’s eight stages of human

development. Retrieved from http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1980/1/80.01.04.x.html

McLeod. S. (2017). Erik Erikson. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

Ramkumar, S. (2002). Erik Erikson’s theory of development: A teacher’s observations. Retrieved from

http://www.journal.kfionline.org/issue-6/erik-eriksons-theory-of-development-a-teachers-observations

Sharkey, W. (1997). Erik Erikson. Retrieved from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/erikson.htm

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Capps, D. (2004). The decades of life: Relocating Erikson’s stages. Pastoral Psychology, 53(1), 3-32.

Christiansen, S. L., & Palkovitz, R. (1998). Exploring Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development: Generativity and its

relationship to paternal identity, intimacy, and involvement in childcare. Journal of Men’s Studies, 7(1), 133-156.

Coughlan, F., & Welsh-Breetzke, A. (2002). The circle of courage and Erikson’s psychosocial stages. Reclaiming

Children and Youth, 10(4), 222-226.

Domino, G., & Affonso, D. D. (1990). A personality measure of Erikson’s life stages: The inventory of psychosocial

balance. Journal of Personality Assessment, 54, (3&4), 576-588.

Kidwell, J. S., Dunham, R. M., Bacho, R. A., Pastorino, E., & Portes, P. R. (1995). Adolescent identity exploration: A test

of Erikson’s theory of transitional crisis. Adolescence, 30(120), 785-793.

Books in Dalton State College Library

Sheehy, N. (2004). Fifty key thinkers in psychology. New York, NY: Routledge.

Videos and Tutorials

Khan Academy. (n.d.) Erikson’s psychosocial development. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/test-

prep/mcat/individuals-and-society/self-identity/v/eriksons-psychosocial-development

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CHAPTER 9

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

INTRODUCTION

Howard Gardner (1943- ) currently serves as the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition of Education at

the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also holds positions as Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Harvard

University and Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero. Among numerous honors, Gardner received a MacArthur Prize

Fellowship in 1981 and the University of Louisville’s Grawemeyer Award in Education in 2000. He has received honorary

degrees from twenty-nine colleges and universities, including institutions in Bulgaria, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy,

South Korea and Spain. He has twice been selected by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as one of the 100 most

influential public intellectuals in the world. In 2011, Gardner received the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences.

Gardner is best known in educational for his theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a

single human intelligence that can be adequately assessed by standard psychometric instruments.

REQUIRED READING

Multiple Intelligences Scenario

Ms. Cunningham, a seventh grade American History teacher, is preparing a unit on the American Civil Rights Movement

of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The teacher has created a succession of lessons to be completed over a two-week period to enhance

her students’ understanding of the events, organizations, and individuals that were crucial to the movement. When the unit

is over, Ms. Cunningham wants her students to have a complete picture of the historical period. She designs a variety of

activities that give the students the opportunity to explore historical and cultural aspects of the 1950’s and 1960’s, and to

fully identify with those who were involved in the Movement. In order to reach her instructional goals, the students will

read selected excerpts from the textbook and listen to various lecturers about the Movement. In addition to the

aforementioned, the students will complete several exploratory tasks about the Civil Rights Movement as well.

To begin the unit the teacher uses a KWL chart on the overhead to spur discussion and start the students’ “juices” flowing.

A KWL chart is a visual representation of what students already know, what they want to know, and what they learned at

the end of a lesson. This activity is completed as a class. The students take turns sharing the tidbits of information that they

already know about the Civil Rights movement. This information is on major figures, events and places involved in the

Civil Rights movement. Upon establishing what basic prior knowledge the students possess, it is now time to begin

discovering new information and confirming previously held information about the Civil Rights movement. Ms.

Cunningham then lectures on the basic events, people, and places involved in the majority of the Civil Rights movement in

order to provide students some framework within which to begin placing their new information.

She closes the first lesson by asking the students to create a timeline using the dates of events she has provided. This will

be a working outline to be used throughout the unit. During a subsequent lesson, students are asked to share their outlines

with their classmates in small groups. They should make corrections and comments on the outlines as needed. Ms.

Cunningham gains class consensus of the proper order for their working outline as she places an enlarged version on the

classroom wall.

The culmination of this unit will be a final project in which students create a portfolio containing work on three mini-

projects. All students will listen to the same guest lecturers, view the same video-taped footage and participate in the same

class discussions during the first half of each class. The remainder of each class period will be reserved for work on personal

exploration pertaining to their portfolio pieces. Ms. Cunningham has provided a list of possible activities and a rubric for

each suggested activity in order to support and to guide the student’s work. She has also arranged her room so that “art”

materials are in a central location. Mapping and graphing information is grouped together and there is a section with reading

and research materials.

Mrs. Cunningham’s students will have many options for creating something chat can be included in their portfolios. Students

will have the option to write letters to members of the community who were teenagers during the Civil Rights Movement,

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asking them to share their memories and experiences about life during the time period. Students may work in teams to

prepare speeches based on period issues for their fellow classmates. Students may consult with the school’s Media Specialist

or more knowledgeable other to find resources for the class, including popular music from the time period. They may also

learn and share dances that were popular during the 1950’s and 1960’s. If they choose, students may include music in the

plays they write and act out for their classmates. With the assistance of the Art instructor, students may opt to work together

to create a mural that represents key figures of the Civil Rights Movement such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.,

with accompanying biographical information about each leader. Students may also create a map representing key events.

Students may also work in groups to prepare short plays to enact for the class based on the readings and what they learn

from the guest speakers. Afterwards, Mrs. Cunningham will moderate discussion sessions about the plays. All students will

keep a record of their thoughts and feelings about the mini-lessons they completed. This journaling process will provide a

synthesis of the materials with which they dealt. As one final measure, students present their portfolios to their classmates.

James, a student whose proclivities lean towards creative visual projects expresses interest in working on the mural of Civil

Rights leaders. Mrs. Cunningham feels that James needs to shift gears and concentrate on other activities in the classroom.

The teacher suggests that James work on creating the map and/or timeline. At the teacher’s encouragement, James begins to

work on the other projects, but his attention continues to drift towards the students painting the mural. He contributes some

excellent ideas and shows so much interest in the details and creation of the mural, that the teacher allows him to shift his

focus back towards the visual project.

In another seventh grade classroom, Mr. Smith taught a unit on the Civil Rights Movement by assigning textbook readings

and lecturing the students on the historical events surrounding the Movement. Students were given sentence completion pop

quizzes throughout the course of the lesson. The teacher showed videotaped programs to the class and each student wrote a

short research paper about a Civil Rights leader or prominent figure. At the end of the unit, students were given a multiple

choice and essay test.

What Is the Theory of Multiple Intelligences?

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences utilizes aspects of cognitive and developmental psychology,

anthropology, and sociology to explain the human intellect. Although Gardner had been working towards the concept of

Multiple Intelligences for many years prior, the theory was not introduced until his book Gardner (1983) Frames of Mind

was published. Gardner’s research consisted of brain research and interviews with stroke victims, prodigies, and individuals

with autism. Based on his findings, Gardner established eight criteria for identifying the seven separate intelligences. The

eight criteria used by Gardner to identify the intelligences are listed below:

 Isolation by brain damage/neurological evidence;

 The existence of prodigies, idiot savants, and exceptional individuals;

 Distinguishable set of core operations;

 Developmental stages with an expert end state;

 Evolutionary history and plausibility;

 Susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system;

 Support from experimental psychological tasks; and

 Support from psychometric research

Originally, the theory accounted for seven separate intelligences. Subsequently, with the publishing of Gardner’s (1999)

book Intelligence Reframed, two more intelligences were added to the list. The nine intelligences are Verbal/Linguistic,

Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalistic, and

Existential. Gardner’s theory challenges traditional, narrower views of intelligence. Previously accepted ideas of human

intellectual capacity contend that an individual’s intelligence is a fixed entity throughout his lifetime and that intelligence

can be measured through an individual’s logical and language abilities. According to Gardner’s theory, an intelligence

encompasses the ability to create and solve problems, create products or provide services that are valued within a culture or

society. Listed below are key points of Gardner’s theory:

 All human beings possess all nine intelligences in varying degrees.

 Each individual has a different intelligence profile.

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 Education can be improved by assessment of students’ intelligence profiles and designing activities

accordingly.

 Each intelligence occupies a different area of the brain.

 The nine intelligences may operate in consort or independently from one another.

 These nine intelligences may define the human species.

The Nine Multiple Intelligences

Verbal/Linguistic. Verbal/Linguistic intelligence refers to an individual’s ability to understand and manipulate words and

languages. Everyone is thought to possess this intelligence at some level. This includes reading, writing, speaking, and other

forms of verbal and written communication. Teachers can enhance their students’ verbal/linguistic intelligence by having

them keep journals, play word games, and by encouraging discussion. People with strong rhetorical and oratory skills such

as poets, authors, and attorneys exhibit strong linguistic intelligence. Some examples are T.S. Elliot, Maya Angelou, and

Martin Luther King Jr. Traditionally, linguistic intelligence and logical/mathematical intelligence have been highly valued

in education and learning environments.

Logical/Mathematical. Logical/Mathematical intelligence refers to an individual’s ability to do things with data: collect,

and organize, analyze and interpret, conclude and predict. Individuals strong in this intelligence see patterns and

relationships. These individuals are oriented toward thinking: inductive and deductive logic, numeration, and abstract

patterns. They would be a contemplative problem solver-one who likes to play strategy games and to solve mathematical

problems. Being strong in this intelligence often implies great scientific ability. This is the kind of intelligence studied and

documented by Piaget. Teachers can strengthen this intelligence by encouraging the use of computer programming

languages, critical-thinking activities, linear outlining, Piagetian cognitive stretching exercises, science-fiction scenarios,

logic puzzles, and through the use of logical/sequential presentation of subject matter. Some real life examples people who

are gifted with this intelligence are Albert Einstein, Niehls Bohr, and John Dewey.

Visual/Spatial. Visual/Spatial intelligence refers to the ability to form and manipulate a mental model. Individuals with

strength in this area depend on visual thinking and are very imaginative. People with this kind of intelligence tend to learn

most readily from visual presentations such as movies, pictures, videos, and demonstrations using models and props. They

like to draw, paint, or sculpt their ideas and often express their feelings and moods through art. These individuals often

daydream, imagine and pretend. They are good at reading diagrams and maps and enjoy solving mazes and jigsaw puzzles.

Teachers can foster this intelligence by utilizing charts, graphs, diagrams, graphic organizers, videotapes, color, art

activities, doodling, microscopes and computer graphics software. It could be characterized as right-brain activity. Pablo

Picasso, Bobby Fischer, and Georgia O’Keefe are some examples of people gifted with this intelligence.

Bodily/Kinesthetic. Bodily/Kinesthetic intelligence refers to people who process information through the sensations they

feel in their bodies. These people like to move around, touch the people they are talking to and act things out. They are good

at small and large muscle skills; they enjoy all types of sports and physical activities. They often express themselves through

dance. Teachers may encourage growth in this area of intelligence through the use of touching, feeling, movement,

improvisation, “hands-on” activities, permission to squirm and wiggle, facial expressions and physical relaxation exercises.

Some examples of people who are gifted with this intelligence are Michael Jordan, Martina Navratilova, and Jim Carrey.

Musical. Musical intelligence refers to the ability to understand, create, and interpret musical pitches, timbre, rhythm, and

tones and the capability to compose music. Teachers can integrate activities into their lessons that encourage students’

musical intelligence by playing music for the class and assigning tasks that involve students creating lyrics about the material

being taught. Composers and instrumentalists are individuals with strength in this area. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and

Louis Armstrong are examples.

Interpersonal. Although Gardner classifies interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences separately, there is a lot of interplay

between the two and they are often grouped together. Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to interpret and respond to the

moods, emotions, motivations, and actions of others. Interpersonal intelligence also requires good communication and

interaction skills, and the ability show empathy towards the feelings of other individuals. Teachers can encourage the growth

of interpersonal intelligence by designing lessons that include group work and by planning cooperative learning activities.

Counselors and social workers are professions that require strength in this area. Some examples of people with this

intelligence include Gandhi, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

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Intrapersonal. Intrapersonal intelligence, simply put, is the ability to know oneself. It is an internalized version of

Interpersonal Intelligence. To exhibit strength in Intrapersonal Intelligence, an individual must be able to understand their

own emotions, motivations, and be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. Teachers can assign reflective activities,

such as journaling to awaken students’ intrapersonal intelligence. It’s important to note that this intelligence involves the

use of all others. An individual should tap into their other intelligences to completely express their intrapersonal intelligence.

Those who are often associated with this intelligence are Sigmund Freud, Plato, or Virginia Woolf.

Figure 9.1 Summary of the Eight Accepted Multiple Intelligences

Intelligence Strengths Preferences Learns Best Through Needs

Verbal /

Linguistic

Writing, reading,

memorizing dates,

thinking in words, telling

stories

Write, read, tell

stories, talk,

memorize, work at

solving puzzles

Hearing and seeing

words, speaking,

reading, writing,

discussing and debating

Books, tapes, paper diaries,

writing tools, dialogue,

discussion, debated, stories,

etc.

Mathematical/

Logical

Math, logic, problem-

solving, reasoning,

patterns

Question, work

with numbers,

experiment, solve

problems

Working with

relationships and

patterns, classifying,

categorizing, working

with the abstract

Things to think about and

explore, science materials,

manipulative, trips to the

planetarium and science

museum, etc.

Visual/Spatial

Maps, reading charts,

drawing, mazes, puzzles,

imagining things,

visualization

Draw, build,

design, create,

daydream, look at

pictures

Working with pictures

and colors, visualizing,

using the mind’s eye,

drawing

LEGOs, video, movies,

slides, art, imagination games,

mazes, puzzles, illustrated

book, trips to art museums,

etc.

Bodily /

Kinesthetic

Athletics, dancing, crafts,

using tools, acting

Move around,

touch and talk,

body language

Touching, moving,

knowledge through

bodily sensations,

processing

Role-play, drama, things to

build, movement, sports and

physical games, tactile

experiences, hands-on

learning, etc.

Musical

Picking up sounds,

remembering melodies,

rhythms, singing

Sing, play an

instrument, listen

to music, hum

Rhythm, singing,

melody, listening to

music and melodies

Sing-along time, trips to

concerts, music playing at

home and school, musical

instruments, etc.

Interpersonal

Leading, organizing,

understanding people,

communicating, resolving

conflicts, selling

Talk to people,

have friends, join

groups

Comparing, relating,

sharing, interviewing,

cooperating

Friends, group games, social

gatherings, community

events, clubs, mentors/

apprenticeships, etc.

Intrapersonal

Recognizing strengths

and weaknesses, setting

goals, understanding self

Work alone,

reflect pursue

interests

Working alone, having

space, reflecting, doing

self-paced projects

Secret places, time alone,

self-paced projects, choices,

etc.

Naturalistic

Understanding nature,

making distinctions,

identifying flora and

fauna

Be involved with

nature, make

distinctions

Working in nature,

exploring living things,

learning about plants

and natural events

Order, same/different,

connections to real life and

science issues, patterns

Figure 9.1. The figure above summarizes the strengths, learning preferences, and needs that correspond to the

intelligences.

Naturalistic. Naturalistic intelligence is seen in someone who recognizes and classifies plants, animals, and minerals

including a mastery of taxonomies. They are holistic thinkers who recognize specimens and value the unusual. They are

aware of species such as the flora and fauna around them. They notice natural and artificial taxonomies such as dinosaurs

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to algae and cars to clothes. Teachers can best foster this intelligence by using relationships among systems of species, and

classification activities. Encourage the study of relationships such as patterns and order, and compare-and-contrast sets of

groups or look at connections to real life and science issues. Charles Darwin and John Muir are examples of people gifted

in this way.

Existential Intelligence. There is a ninth intelligence that has yet to experience full acceptance by educators in the

classroom. That is existential intelligence, which encompasses the ability to pose and ponder questions regarding the

existence-including life and death. This would be in the domain of philosophers and religious leaders.

Educational Implications

Although the theory was not originally designed for use in a classroom application, it has been widely embraced by educators

and enjoyed numerous adaptations in a variety of educational settings. Teachers have always known that students had

different strengths and weaknesses in the classroom. Gardner’s research was able to articulate that and provide direction as

to how to improve a student’s ability in any given intelligence. Teachers were encouraged to begin to think of lesson planning

in terms of meeting the needs of a variety of the intelligences. From this new thinking, schools such the Ross School in New

York, an independent educational institution, and the Key Learning Community, a public magnet school in Indianapolis

emerged to try teaching using a Multiple Intelligences curriculum. The focus of this part of the chapter will be on lesson

design using the theory of Multiple Intelligences, and providing various resources that educators may use to implement the

theory into their classroom activities.

Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

There are many ways to incorporate Multiple Intelligences theory into the curriculum, and there is no set method by which

to incorporate the theory. Some teachers set up learning centers with resources and materials that promote involving the

different intelligences. For example, in the above scenario, Ms. Cunningham creates an area with art supplies in her

classroom. Other instructors design simulations that immerse students into real life situations. Careful planning during the

lesson design process will help to ensure quality instruction and valuable student experiences in the classroom.

Other instructional models, such as project-based and collaborative learning may be easily integrated into lessons with

Multiple Intelligences. Collaborative learning allows students to explore their interpersonal intelligence, while project-based

learning may help structure activities designed to cultivate the nine intelligences. For instance, Ms. Cunningham uses aspects

of project-based learning in her classroom by allowing students to plan, create, and process (through reflection) information

throughout the Civil Rights unit, while also integrating activities that teach to the intelligences. This particular instructional

model allows students to work together to explore a topic and to create something as the end product. This works well with

Multiple Intelligences theory, which places value on the ability to create products. By collaborating with the Media

Specialist to give students the opportunity to choose from a variety of resources to complete their assignments, Ms.

Cunningham uses aspects of resource-based learning, an instructional model that places the ultimate responsibility of

choosing resources on the student. It is important for teachers to carefully select activities that not only teach to the

intelligences, but also realistically mesh with the subject matter of the lesson or unit. Multiple Intelligences theory should

enhance, not detract from what is being taught.

Disney’s website entitled Tapping into Multiple Intelligences suggests two approaches for implementing Multiple

Intelligences theory in the classroom. One is a teacher-centered approach, in which the instructor incorporates materials,

resources, and activities into the lesson that teach to the different intelligences. The other is a student-centered approach in

which students actually create a variety of different materials that demonstrate their understanding of the subject matter.

The student-centered approach allows students to actively use their varied forms of intelligence. In a teacher-centered lesson,

the number of intelligences explored should be limited to two or three. To teach less than two is nearly impossible since the

use of speech will always require the use of one’s verbal/linguistic intelligence. In a student-centered lesson, the instructor

may incorporate aspects of project-based learning, collaborative learning, or other inquiry-based models. In such a case,

activities involving all nine intelligences may be presented as options for the class, but each student participates in only one

or two of the tasks.

Ms. Cunningham incorporates both student-centered and teacher-centered activities into her unit on the Civil Rights

Movement. The teacher-led lecture is a standard example of a teacher-centered activity. The lecture teaches to students’

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verbal/linguistic intelligence. The viewing of the videotape is another example of a teacher-centered activity. This activity

incorporates visual/spatial intelligence into how the unit is learned. It is important to note that many activities, although

designed to target a particular intelligence, may also utilize other intelligences as well. For example, in Ms. Cunningham’s

classroom the students may work together on creating a mural of Civil Rights leaders. This is a student-centered activity

that directly involves visual/spatial intelligence, but also gives students a chance to exercise their Interpersonal intelligence.

The journal assignment, also a student-centered activity, is designed to enhance students’ Intrapersonal intelligence by

prompting them to reflect on their feelings and experiences in relation to the Civil Rights Movement.

This activity also taps into verbal/linguistic intelligence. The timeline and map assignments are student-centered activities

that are designed to enhance students’ logical/mathematical intelligence, but they also delve into Visual/Spatial intelligence.

Students must collect and organize information for both the timeline and the map therefore using their logical/mathematical

intelligence. In creating these items, students must think visually as well. By incorporating dance into one lesson, Ms.

Cunningham is able to promote awareness of her students’ bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. By showing videos of popular

dances from the time period, or inviting an expert from the community to talk about the social aspects of dance, Ms.

Cunningham might incorporate a teacher-centered activity. Having students learn and perform dances is a student-centered

way of teaching through bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. The short plays that students prepare involve bodily-kinesthetic

intelligence, as well as interpersonal and verbal/linguistic intelligences. Class discussions provide an opportunity for

students to exercise both areas of their personal intelligences, as well as to reinforce the subject matter.

Planning and Implementing Student-Centered Lessons

This type of lesson revolves around student created materials. The types of activities and assignments that support student-

centered lessons can be easily designed in concert with many of the inquiry-based models. One of the most important aspects

of student-centered lessons is allowing students to make choices (Figure 9.2). Teachers should encourage students to

exercise their weaker intelligences, but allow them to explore their stronger areas as well. In Ms. Cunningham’s class, the

student named James is very strong in visual/spatial intelligence and always leans towards this type of project. The teacher

encourages James to participate in other activities, but when it is obvious that his interest lies in working on the mural, Ms.

Cunningham allows him to work on the project. Listed below are steps to implement a student-centered lesson or unit:

 Carefully identify instructional goals, objectives, and instructional outcomes.

 Consider activities that you can integrate into the lesson or unit that teach to the different intelligences. Teachers

need not incorporate all nine intelligences into one lesson.

 When gathering resources and materials, consider those which will allow students to explore their multiple

intelligences.

 Specify a timeframe for the lesson or unit.

 Allow for considerable element of student choice when designing activities and tasks for the intelligences.

 Design activities that are student-centered, using inquiry-based models of instruction.

 Provide a rubric for student activities. You might consider having students help create rubrics.

 Incorporate assessment into the learning process.

In an effort to maximize students’ interest in both the subject matter and their own learning proclivities, teachers may wish

to teach their students a little bit about Multiple Intelligences. Teachers can brief the class about each type of intelligence

and then follow up with a self-assessment for each student. In this way, students will be able to capitalize on their strengths

and work on their weaker areas. Disney’s Tapping Into Multiple Intelligences website includes a self-assessment.

Planning and Implementing a Teacher-Centered Lesson

Structured, teacher-centered activities provide an opportunity for teachers to introduce material and establish prior

knowledge and student conceptions. Teachers may lecture students, show informational videos and posters, perform drills,

pose problem-solving exercises, arrange museum visits, and plan outings to concerts. There are all examples of teacher-

centered activities. All of these activities integrate the Multiple Intelligences into the subject matter being taught. Teacher-

centered lessons should be limited to a few activities that provide a foundation for students to later complete more

exploratory tasks in which they can demonstrate understanding of the material. A teacher may choose to start an instructional

unit or lesson with teacher-centered activities and then follow up with subsequent student-centered lessons (Figure 9.2).

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Figure 9.2 Teacher-Centered and Student-Centered Classroom Activities

Intelligence Teacher-Centered Student-Centered

Verbal/Linguistic

 Present content verbally

 Ask questions aloud and look for

student feedback

 Interviews

 Student presents material

 Students read content and prepare a

presentation for his/her classmates

 Students debate over an issue

Logical/Mathematical

 Provide brain teasers or challenging

questions to begin lessons.

 Make logical connections between the

subject matter and authentic situations

to answer the question “why?”

 Students categorize information in

logical sequences for organization

 Students create graphs or charts to

explain written info

 Students participate in webquests

associated with the content

Bodily/Kinesthetic

 Use props during lecture

 Provide tangible items pertaining to

content for students to examine

 Review using sports related examples

(throw a ball to someone to answer a

question)

 Students use computers to research

subject matter

 Students create props of their own

explaining subject matter (shadow

boxes, mobiles, etc…)

 Students create review games

Visual/Spatial

 When presenting the information, use

visuals to explain content

 PowerPoint slides, charts, graphs,

cartoons, videos, overheads,

smartboards

 Have students work individually or in

groups to create visuals pertaining to

the information

 Posters, timelines, models, PowerPoint

slides, maps, illustrations, charts,

concept mapping

Musical

 Play music in the classroom during

reflection periods

 Show examples or create musical

rhythms for students to remember

things

 Create a song or melody with the

content embedded for memory

 Use well known songs to memorize

formulas, skills, or test content

Interpersonal

 Be aware of body language and facial

expressions

 Offer assistance whenever needed

 Encourage classroom discussion

 Encourage collaboration among peers

 Group work strengthens interpersonal

connections

 Peer feedback and peer tutoring

 Students present to the class

 Encourage group editing

Intrapersonal

 Encourage journaling as a positive

outlet for expression

 Introduce web logging (blogs)

 Make individual questions welcome

 Create a positive environment

 Journaling

 Individual research on content

 Students create personal portfolios of

work

Naturalistic

 Take students outside to enjoy nature

while in learning process (lecture)

 Compare authentic subject matter to

natural occurrences

 Relate subject matter to stages that

occur in nature (plants, weather, etc.)

 Students organize thoughts using

natural cycles

 Students make relationships among

content and the natural environment

(how has nature had an impact?)

 Students perform community service

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Figure 9.2. The figure above was added by Brandy Bellamy and Camille Baker (2005).

Teachers may follow these steps when designing and implementing a teacher-centered lesson:

 Identify instructional goals and objectives.

 Consider teacher-centered activities that teach to students’ Multiple Intelligences. In a teacher-centered lesson,

limit the number of activities to two or three.

 Consider what resources and materials you will need to implement the lesson. For example, will you need to

schedule a museum visit or to consult the Media Specialist for videos or other media?

 Specify a timeframe for the lesson or unit.

 Provide an opportunity for reflection by students.

 Provide a rubric to scaffold student activities.

 Integrate assessment into the learning process.

Assessment is one of the biggest challenges in incorporating Multiple Intelligences in the classroom. Ms. Cunningham’s

students are given the option of working on several mini-projects during the course of the Civil Rights unit. At the end of

the unit, their performance is assessed through a portfolio that represents their work on these projects. It is very important

for assessment to be integrated into the learning process. Assessment should give students the opportunity to demonstrate

their understanding of the subject matter. One of the main goals of acknowledging and using Multiple Intelligences in the

classroom is to increase student understanding of material by allowing them to demonstrate the ways in which they

understand the material. Teachers need to make their expectations clear, and may do so in the form of a detailed rubric.

Benefits of Using Multiple Intelligences Theory in the Classroom

Using Multiple Intelligences theory in the classroom has many benefits:

 As a teacher and learner you realize that there are many ways to be “smart.”

 All forms of intelligence are equally celebrated.

 By having students create work that is displayed to parents and other members of the community, your school

could see more parent and community involvement.

 A sense of increased self-worth may be seen as students build on their strengths and work towards becoming

an expert in certain areas.

 Students may develop strong problem-solving skills that they can use in real life situations.

Criticisms of Theory of Multiple Intelligences

One of the most widely held criticisms is that there is little, if any, empirical evidence to support it. Most of these critics are

of the psychometric testing community (Armstrong, 2009). They argue that rather than eight unique and autonomous

intelligences, there is really only one intelligence that you can test for, the “Spearman g-factor,” or one’s general intelligence.

According to Linda Gottfredson (2004) of the University of Delaware, “The g factor was discovered by the first mental

testers, who found that people who scored well on one type of mental test tended to score well on all of them. This common

factor, g, can be distilled from scores on any broad set of cognitive tests, and it takes the same form among individuals of

every age, race, sex, and nation yet studied” (p. 35). As a matter of fact, three scientists put together a comprehensive, 16-

part test, 2-test relating to each of the 8 intelligences, and found that people generally scored about the same on each of

them. Gardner counters this by saying that he agrees that there is a g-factor, but sees the g-factor as a mere manifestation of

the mathematical logical intelligence. Furthermore, MI Theory, Gardner argues, is solidly grounded in research showing

the existence of savants and how brain damage can affect an isolated skill set, or intelligence.

A second common criticism is that MI Theory is a pc mind frame, a way to simply tell “dumb” children’s parents that there

is hope for their kid. They argue that it is simply used to make everyone feel good about him or herself. However, there is

nothing in MI Theory stating that anyone has to be good at a particular intelligence, let alone all of them. There are humans

who for whatever reason are not capable or learning or understanding or being intelligent in the way that other people are.

MI does not deny their existence; it only gives psychology and education a different lens to view intelligence and smarts to

get a fuller picture of each person’s abilities. Below are some quotes from MI critics:

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To date there have been no published studies that offer evidence of the validity of the multiple intelligences. In 1994,

Sternberg (1994) reported finding no empirical studies. In 2000, Allix (2000) reported finding no empirical validating

studies, and at that time Gardner and Connell (2000) conceded that there was “little hard evidence for MI theory” (p.

292). In 2004, Sternberg and Grigerenko (2004) stated that there were no validating studies for multiple intelligences,

and in 2004, Gardner (2004) asserted that he would be “delighted were such evidence to accrue” (p. 214), and he

admitted that “MI theory has few enthusiasts among psychometricians or others of a traditional psychological

background” because they require “psychometric or experimental evidence that allows one to prove the existence of

the several intelligences” (p. 214). (Waterhouse, 2006, p. 208)

The human brain is unlikely to function via Gardner’s multiple intelligences. Taken together the evidence for the

intercorrelations of subskills of IQ measures, the evidence for a shared set of genes associated with mathematics,

reading, and g, and the evidence for shared and overlapping “what is it?” and “where is it?” neural processing

pathways, and shared neural pathways for language, music, motor skills, and emotions suggest that it is unlikely that

that each of Gardner’s intelligences could operate “via a different set of neural mechanisms” (Gardner, 1999, p. 99).

Equally important, the evidence for the “what is it?” and “where is it?” processing pathways, for Kahneman’s two

decision-making systems, and for adapted cognition modules suggests that these cognitive brain specializations have

evolved to address very specific problems in our environment. Because Gardner claimed that that the intelligences are

innate potentialities related to a general content area, MI theory lacks a rationale for the phylogenetic emergence of

the intelligences. (Waterhouse, 2006, p. 213)

REFERENCES

Allix, N. M. (2000). The theory of multiple intelligences: A case of missing cognitive matter. Australian Journal of

Education, 44(3), 272-293.

Armstrong, T. (2009). Multiple intelligences in the classroom (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st century. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Gardner, H. (2004). Changing minds. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Gardner, H., & Connell, M. (2000). Response to Nicholas Allix. Australian Journal of Education, 44, 288-292.

Gottfredson, L. (2004). Schools and the g factor. Wilson Quarterly (Summer), 4, 35-45. Retrieved from

http://www1.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/2004schools&g.pdf

Sternberg, R. J. (1994). Thinking styles: Theory and assessment at the interface between intelligence and personality. In

R. J. Sternberg & P. Ruzgis (Eds.), Personality and intelligence (pp. 105-127). New York, NY: Cambridge University

Press.

Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2004). Intelligence and culture: How culture shapes what intelligence means, and

the implications for a science of well-being. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, 359(1449), 1427-1434. doi:

10.1098/rstb.2004.1514

Waterhouse, L. (2006). Multiple intelligences, the Mozart effect, and emotional intelligence: A critical review.

Educational Psychologist, 41(4), 247-255. doi:10.1207/s15326985ep4104_1

ADDITIONAL READING

Credible Articles on the Internet

Big thinkers: Howard Gardner on multiple intelligences. (2009, April). Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-

intelligences-howard-gardner-video

Bixler, B. (n.d.). A multiple intelligences primer. Retrieved from http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/b/x/bxb11/MI/

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Concept to classroom: Tapping into multiple intelligences. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/mi/index.html

Gardner’s eight criteria for identifying multiple intelligences. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://surfaquarium.com/MI/criteria.pdf

Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.niu.edu/facdev/_pdf/guide/learning/howard_gardner_theory_multiple_intelligences.pdf

Huitt, W. (2002). Intelligence. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved

from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/intell.html

Multiple intelligences. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html

Multiple intelligences: A theory for everyone. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.svsd.net/cms/lib5/PA01001234/Centricity/Domain/725/Multiple%20Intelligences%20Article%20TWO%20-

%20Advanced%2013-14.pdf

Wilson, L. (1998). What’s the big attraction? Why teachers are drawn to using multiple intelligence theory in their

classrooms. Retrieved from

http://www.edtech1.com/documents/Multiple%20Intelligences/Why%20teachers%20are%20drawn%20to%20using%20

MI.pdf

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Brualdi, A. (1998). Gardner’s theory. Teacher Librarian, 26(2), 26-28.

Gardner, H. (1999). Multiple intelligences. Atlantic Monthly, 11, 5-99.

Henshon, S. E. (2006). An evolving field: The evolution of creativity, giftedness, and multiple intelligences: An interview

with Ellen winner and Howard Gardner. Roeper Review, 28(4), 191-194.

Klein, P. (1997). Multiplying the problems of intelligence by eight: A critique of Gardner’s theory. Canadian Journal of

Education, 22(4), 377.

Takahashi, J. (2013). Multiple intelligence theory can help promote inclusive education for children with intellectual

disabilities and developmental disorders: Historical reviews of intelligence theory, measurement methods, and suggestions

for inclusive education. Creative Education, 4(9), 605-610.

Vardin, P. A. (2003). Montessori and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. Montessori Life, 15(1), 40.

Books at Dalton State College

Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Gardner, H. (2000). The disciplined mind: Beyond facts and standardized tests, the K-12 education that every child

deserves (New ed.). New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Gardner, H. (2007). Five minds for the future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Videos and Tutorials

EQ and the Emotional Curriculum. (2000). Retrieved from Films on Demand database.

89
CHAPER 10

Bloom’s Taxonomy

INTRODUCTION

Benjamin Samuel Bloom (1913-1999) was born on February 21, 1913 in Lansford, Pennsylvania. Bloom received both a

bachelor’s and master’s degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1935. He went on to earn a doctorate’s degree from

the University of Chicago in 1942, where he acted as first a staff member of the Board of Examinations (1940-1943), then

a University Examiner (1943-1959), as well as an instructor in the Department of Education, beginning in 1944.

Bloom’s most recognized and highly regarded initial work spawned from his collaboration with his mentor and fellow

examiner Ralph W. Tyler and came to be known as Bloom’s Taxonomy. These ideas are highlighted in his third publication,

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook I, The Cognitive Domain. He later wrote a second handbook for the

taxonomy in 1964, which focuses on the affective domain. Bloom’s research in early childhood education, published in his

1964 Stability and Change in Human Characteristics sparked widespread interest in children and learning and eventually

and directly led to the formation of the Head Start program in America. Aside from his scholarly contributions to the field

of education, Benjamin Bloom was an international activist and educational consultant. In 1957, he traveled to India to

conduct workshops on evaluation, which led to great changes in the Indian educational system. He helped create the

International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, the IEA, and organized the International Seminar

for Advanced Training in Curriculum Development. He developed the Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis

(MESA) program at the University of Chicago. Benjamin Bloom died in his home in Chicago on September 13, 1999.

REQUIRED READING

Bloom’s Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Bloom in order to

promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and

principles, rather than just remembering facts (rote learning). It is most often used when designing lesson objectives, learning

goals, and instructional activities. Bloom et al. (1956) identified three domains of educational activities or learning:

 Cognitive Domain: mental skills (knowledge)

 Psychomotor Domain: manual or physical skills (skills)

 Affective Domain: growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude)

Since the work was produced by higher education, the words tend to be a little bigger than what would be normally used.

Domains may be thought of as categories. Instructional designers, trainers, and educators often refer to these three categories

as KSA (Knowledge [cognitive], Skills [psychomotor], and Attitudes [affective]). This taxonomy of learning behaviors may

be thought of as “the goals of the learning process.” That is, after a learning episode, the learner should have acquired a new

skill, knowledge, and/or attitude.

While Bloom et al. (1956) produced an elaborate compilation for the cognitive and affective domains, they omitted the

psychomotor domain. Their explanation for this oversight was that they have little experience in teaching manual skills

within the college level. However, there have been at least three psychomotor models created by other researchers. Their

compilation divides the three domains into subdivisions, starting from the simplest cognitive process or behavior to the most

complex. The divisions outlined are not absolutes and there are other systems or hierarchies that have been devised, such as

the Structure of Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO). However, Bloom’s Taxonomy is easily understood and is probably

the most widely applied one in use today.

The Cognitive Domain (Clarka, 2015a)

The cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills (Bloom, 1956). This includes the recall

or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and

skills. There are six major levels of cognitive processes, starting from the simplest to the most complex: Knowledge,

Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The levels can be thought of as degrees of difficulties.

That is, the first ones must normally be mastered before the next one can take place.

90
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom, and David Krathwohl revisited the cognitive domain in the mid-nineties and

made some changes, with perhaps the three most prominent ones being:

 Changing the names in the six levels from noun to verb forms;

 Rearranging them as shown in Figure 10.1 and Figure 10.2; and

 Creating a cognitive processes and knowledge dimension matrix (Anderson et al., 2000; Figure 10.5, Figure 10.6,

& Figure 10.7).

Figure 10.1 Revised Cognitive Domain

Figure 10.2 Original and Revised Cognitive Domain

Figure 10.2. The chart shown above compares the original taxonomy with the revised one.

Creating

Evaluating

Analyzing

Applying

Understanding

Remembering

91
This new taxonomy reflects a more active form of thinking and is perhaps more accurate. The new version of Bloom’s

Taxonomy with examples and keywords is shown in Figure 10.3.

Figure 10.3 Levels of Original and Revised Cognitive Domain with Examples and Key Words

Old (Original) Cognitive Domain

New (Revised) Cognitive Domain

Levels

Examples, Key Words (Verbs),

and Learning Activities and

Technologies

Levels

Examples, Key Words (Verbs), and

Learning Activities and

Technologies

Knowledge: Recall

data or information.

Examples: Recite a policy. Quote

prices from memory to a

customer. Know the safety rules.

Define a term.

Key Words: arranges, defines,

describes, identifies, knows,

labels, lists, matches, names,

outlines, recalls, recognizes,

reproduces, selects, states

Technologies: bookmarking,

flash cards, Internet search,

reading

Remembering:

Recall or retrieve

previous learned

information.

Examples: Recite a policy. Quote

prices from memory to a customer.

Recite the safety rules.

Key Words: defines, describes,

identifies, knows, labels, lists,

matches, names, outlines, recalls,

recognizes, reproduces, selects, states

Technologies: book marking, flash

cards, rote learning based on

repetition, reading

Comprehension:

Understand the

meaning,

translation,

interpolation, and

interpretation of

instructions and

problems. State a

problem in one’s

own words.

Examples: Rewrites the

principles of test writing. Explain

in one’s own words the steps for

performing a complex task.

Translates an equation into a

computer spreadsheet.

Key Words: comprehends,

converts, diagrams, defends,

distinguishes, estimates, explains,

extends, generalizes, gives an

example, infers, interprets,

paraphrases, predicts, rewrites,

summarizes, translates

Technologies: create an analogy,

participating in cooperative

learning, taking notes, story

telling

Understanding:

Comprehending

the meaning,

translation,

interpolation, and

interpretation of

instructions and

problems. State a

problem in one’s

own words.

Examples: Rewrite the principles of

test writing. Explain in one’s own

words the steps for performing a

complex task. Translate an equation

into a computer spreadsheet.

Key Words: comprehends, converts,

defends, distinguishes, estimates,

explains, extends, generalizes, gives

an example, infers, interprets,

paraphrases, predicts, rewrites,

summarizes, translates

Technologies: create an analogy,

participating in cooperative learning,

taking notes, storytelling, Internet

search

Application: Use a

concept in a new

situation or

unprompted use of

an abstraction.

Apply what was

learned in the

classroom into novel

situations in the

work place.

Examples: Use a manual to

calculate an employee’s vacation

time. Apply laws of statistics to

evaluate the reliability of a

written test.

Key Words: applies, changes,

computes, constructs,

demonstrates, discovers,

manipulates, modifies, operates,

predicts, prepares, produces,

relates, shows, solves, uses

Technologies: collaborative

learning, create a process, blog,

practice

Applying: Use a

concept in a new

situation or

unprompted use of

an abstraction.

Apply what was

learned in the

classroom into

novel situations in

the work place.

Examples: Use a manual to calculate

an employee’s vacation time. Apply

laws of statistics to evaluate the

reliability of a written test.

Key Words: applies, changes,

computes, constructs, demonstrates,

discovers, manipulates, modifies,

operates, predicts, prepares, produces,

relates, shows, solves, uses

Technologies: collaborative learning,

create a process, blog, practice

92

Analysis: Separate

material or concepts

into component

parts so that its

organizational

structure may be

understood.

Distinguish between

facts and inferences.

Examples: Troubleshoot a piece

of equipment by using logical

deduction. Recognize logical

fallacies in reasoning. Gathers

information from a department

and selects the required tasks for

training.

Key Words: analyzes, breaks

down, compares,

contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs,

differentiates, discriminates,

distinguishes, identifies,

illustrates, infers, outlines, relates,

selects, separates

Technologies: fishbowls,

debating, questioning what

happened, run a test

Analyzing:

Separate material

or concepts into

component parts

so that its

organizational

structure may be

understood.

Distinguish

between facts and

inferences.

Examples: Troubleshoot a piece of

equipment by using logical deduction.

Recognize logical fallacies in

reasoning. Gathers information from a

department and selects the required

tasks for training.

Key Words: analyzes, breaks down,

compares, contrasts, diagrams,

deconstructs, differentiates,

discriminates, distinguishes,

identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines,

relates, selects, separates

Technologies: fishbowls, debating,

questioning what happened, run a test

Synthesis: Build a

structure or pattern

from diverse

elements. Put parts

together to form a

whole, with

emphasis on

creating a new

meaning or

structure.

Examples: Write a company

operations or process manual.

Design a machine to perform a

specific task. Integrates training

from several sources to solve a

problem. Revises and process to

improve the outcome.

Key Words: categorizes,

combines, compiles, composes,

creates, devises, designs,

explains, generates, modifies,

organizes, plans, rearranges,

reconstructs, relates, reorganizes,

revises, rewrites, summarizes,

tells, writes

Technologies: essay, networking

Evaluating: Make

judgments about

the value of ideas

or materials.

Examples: Select the most effective

solution. Hire the most qualified

candidate. Explain and justify a new

budget.

Key Words: appraises, compares,

concludes, contrasts, criticizes,

critiques, defends, describes,

discriminates, evaluates, explains,

interprets, justifies, relates,

summarizes, supports

Technologies: survey, blogging

Evaluation: Make

judgments about the

value of ideas or

materials.

Examples: Select the most

effective solution. Hire the most

qualified candidate. Explain and

justify a new budget.

Key Words: appraises, compares,

concludes, contrasts, criticizes,

critiques, defends, describes,

discriminates, evaluates, explains,

interprets, justifies, relates,

summarizes, supports

Technologies: survey, blogging

Creating: Build a

structure or pattern

from diverse

elements. Put parts

together to form a

whole, with

emphasis on

creating a new

meaning or

structure.

Examples: Write a company

operations or process manual. Design

a machine to perform a specific task.

Integrate training from several

sources to solve a problem. Revise

and process to improve the outcome.

Key Words: categorizes, combines,

compiles, composes, creates, devises,

designs, explains, generates, modifies,

organizes, plans, rearranges,

reconstructs, relates, reorganizes,

revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells,

writes

Technologies: create a new model,

write an essay, network with others

93
Cognitive Processes and Levels of Knowledge Matrix

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy not only improved the usability of it by using action words, but added a Cognitive Process

Dimension and Knowledge Dimension Matrix (Figure 10.4). While Bloom’s original cognitive taxonomy did mention three

levels of knowledge or products that could be processed, they were not discussed very much and remained one-dimensional:

 Factual: The basic elements students must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems.

 Conceptual: The interrelationships among the basic elements within a larger structure that enable them to

function together.

 Procedural: How to do something, methods of inquiry, and criteria for using skills, algorithms, techniques, and

methods.

In Krathwohl and Anderson’s (2001) revised version, the authors combine the cognitive processes with the above three

levels of knowledge to form a matrix. In addition, they added another level of knowledge-metacognition:

 Metacognitive: Knowledge of cognition in general, as well as awareness and knowledge of one’s own cognition.

When the cognitive and knowledge dimensions are arranged in a matrix, as shown below, it makes a nice performance aid

for creating performance objectives (Figure 10.4).

Figure 10.4 Cognitive Process Dimension and Knowledge Dimension Matrix

The Cognitive Process Dimension

The Knowledge Dimension Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create

Factual

Conceptual

Procedural

Metacognitive

However, others have also identified five contents or artifacts (Clark & Chopeta, 2004; Clark & Mayer, 2007) for the

knowledge dimension (Figure 10.5):

 Facts: Specific and unique data or instance.

 Concepts: A class of items, words, or ideas that are known by a common name, includes multiple specific examples,

shares common features. There are two types of concepts: concrete and abstract.

 Processes: A flow of events or activities that describe how things work rather than how to do things. There are

normally two types: business processes that describe work flows and technical processes that describe how things

work in equipment or nature. They may be thought of as the big picture, of how something works.

 Procedures: A series of step-by-step actions and decisions that result in the achievement of a task. There are two

types of actions: linear and branched.

 Principles: Guidelines, rules, and parameters that govern. It includes not only what should be done, but also what

should not be done. Principles allow one to make predictions and draw implications. Given an effect, one can infer

the cause of a phenomena. Principles are the basic building blocks of causal models or theoretical models (theories).

Thus, the new Cognitive Process Dimension and Knowledge Dimension Matrix would look as shown in Figure 10.5.

94
Figure 10.5 Revised Cognitive Process Dimension and Knowledge Dimension Matrix

The Cognitive Process Dimension

The Knowledge Dimension Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create

Facts

Concepts

Processes

Procedures

Principles

Metacognitive

An example matrix that has been filled in will look like Figure 10.6:

Figure 10.6 Filled in Cognitive Process Dimension and Knowledge Dimension Matrix

The Cognitive Process Dimension

The Knowledge Dimension Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create

Facts list paraphrase classify outline rank categorize

Concepts recall explain show contrast criticize modify

Processes outline estimate produce diagram defend design

Procedures reproduce give an example relate identify critique plan

Principles state convert solve differentiate conclude revise

Metacognitive proper use interpret discover infer predict actualize

The Psychomotor Domain (Clark, 2015b)

The psychomotor domain (Simpson, 1972) (Figure 10.7) includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-

skill areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures,

or techniques in execution. Thus, psychomotor skills rage from manual tasks, such as digging a ditch or washing a car, to

more complex tasks, such as operating a complex piece of machinery or dancing.

Figure 10.7 Levels of Psychomotor Domain

Origination

Adaptation

Complex Overt Response

Mechanism

Guided Response

Set

Perception

95
The seven major levels (Figure 10.8) are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex (Simpson, 1972):

Figure 10.8 Levels of Psychomotor Domain with Examples and Key Words by Simpson (1972)

Levels Examples and Key Words (Verbs)

Perception (awareness): The ability to use

sensory cues to guide motor activity. This ranges

from sensory stimulation, through cue selection,

to translation.

Examples: Detect non-verbal communication cues. Estimate where

a ball will land after it is thrown and then moving to the correct

location to catch the ball. Adjust heat of stove to correct

temperature by smell and taste of food. Adjust the height of the

forks on a forklift by comparing where the forks are in relation to

the pallet.

Key Words: chooses, describes, detects, differentiates,

distinguishes, identifies, isolates, relates, selects

Set: Readiness to act. It includes mental, physical,

and emotional sets. These three sets are

dispositions that predetermine a person’s response

to different situations (sometimes called

mindsets).

Examples: Know and act upon a sequence of steps in a

manufacturing process. Recognize one’s abilities and limitations.

Show desire to learn a new process (motivation). NOTE: This

subdivision of Psychomotor is closely related with the “Responding

to phenomena” subdivision of the Affective domain.

Key Words: begins, displays, explains, moves, proceeds, reacts,

shows, states, volunteers

Guided Response: The early stages in learning a

complex skill that include imitation, trial, and

error. Adequacy of performance is achieved by

practicing.

Examples: Perform a mathematical equation as demonstrated.

Follow instructions to build a model. Respond hand-signals of

instructor while learning to operate a forklift.

Key Words: copies, traces, follows, reacts, reproduces, responds

Mechanism (basic proficiency): This is the

intermediate stage in learning a complex

skill. Learned responses have become habitual

and the movements can be performed with some

confidence and proficiency.

Examples: Use a personal computer. Repair a leaking faucet. Drive

a car.

Key Words: assembles, calibrates, constructs, dismantles, displays,

fastens, fixes, grinds, heats, manipulates, measures, mends, mixes,

organizes, sketches

Complex Overt Response (Expert): The skillful

performance of motor acts that involve complex

movement patterns. Proficiency is indicated by a

quick, accurate, and highly coordinated

performance, requiring a minimum of

energy. This category includes performing

without hesitation, and automatic

performance. For example, players are often utter

sounds of satisfaction as soon as they hit a tennis

ball or throw a football, because they can tell by

the feel of the act what the result will produce.

Examples: Maneuver a car into a tight parallel parking spot.

Operate a computer quickly and accurately. Display competence

while playing the piano.

Key Words: assembles, builds, calibrates, constructs, dismantles,

displays, fastens, fixes, grinds, heats, manipulates, measures,

mends, mixes, organizes, sketches

NOTE: The Key Words are the same as Mechanism, but will have

adverbs or adjectives that indicate that the performance is quicker,

better, more accurate, etc.

Adaptation: Skills are well-developed and the

individual can modify movement patterns to fit

special requirements.

Examples: Respond effectively to unexpected experiences. Modify

instruction to meet the needs of the learners. Perform a task with a

machine, which was not originally intended to do (machine is not

damaged and there is no danger in performing the new task).

Key Words: adapts, alters, changes, rearranges, reorganizes,

revises, varies

Origination: The creating of new movement

patterns to fit a particular situation or specific

problem. Learning outcomes emphasize creativity

based upon highly developed skills.

Examples: Construct a new theory. Develop a new and

comprehensive training programming. Create a new gymnastic

routine.

Key Words: arranges, builds, combines, composes, constructs,

creates, designs, initiate, makes, originates

96
Other Psychomotor Domain Taxonomies

Bloom et al. (1956) did not produce a compilation for the psychomotor domain model, but others have. The one discussed

above is by Simpson (1972) (Figure 10.8). There are two other popular versions by Dave (1970) (Figure 10.9) and Harrow

(1972) (Figure 10.10):

Figure 10.9 Levels of Psychomotor Domain with Examples and Key Words by Dave (1970)

Levels Examples and Key Words (Verbs)

Imitation: Observing and patterning behavior

after someone else. Performance may be of low

quality.

Examples: Copying a work of art. Performing a skill while

observing a demonstrator.

Key Words: copy, follow, mimic, repeat, replicate, reproduce,

trace

Manipulation: Being able to perform certain

actions by memory or following instructions.

Examples: Being able to perform a skill on one’s own after taking

lessons or reading about it. Following instructions to build a

model.

Key Words: act, build, execute, perform

Precision: Refining, becoming more exact.

Performing a skill within a high degree of

precision.

Examples: Working and reworking something, so it will be “just

right.” Performing a skill or task without assistance.

Demonstrating a task to a beginner.

Key Words: calibrate, demonstrate, master, perfection

Articulation: Coordinating and adapting a series

of actions to achieve harmony and internal

consistency.

Examples: Combining a series of skills to produce a video that

involves music, drama, color, sound, etc. Combining a series of

skills or activities to meet a novel requirement.

Key Words: adapt, constructs, combine, creates, customize,

modifies, formulate

Naturalization: Mastering a high level of

performance until it become second-nature or

natural, without needing to think much about it.

Examples: Maneuvering a car into a tight parallel parking spot.

Operating a computer quickly and accurately. Displaying

competence while playing the piano. Michael Jordan playing

basketball or Nancy Lopez hitting a golf ball.

Key Words: create, design, develop, invent, manage, naturally

Figure 10.10 Levels of Psychomotor Domain with Examples and Key Words by Harrow (1972)

Levels Examples and Key Words (Verbs)

Reflex Movements: Reactions that are not

learned, such as an involuntary reaction.

Examples: instinctive response

Key Words: react, respond

Fundamental Movements: Basic movements

such as walking, or grasping.

Examples: performing a simple task

Key Words: grasp an object, throw a ball, walk

Perceptual Abilities: Response to stimuli such as

visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or tactile

discrimination.

Examples: tracking a moving object, recognizing a pattern

Key Words: catch a ball, draw or write

Physical Abilities (fitness): Stamina that must be

developed for further development such as

strength and agility.

Examples: gaining strength, running a marathon

Key Words: agility, endurance, strength

Skilled Movements: Advanced learned

movements as one would find in sports or acting.

Examples: Using an advanced series of integrated movements,

performing a role in a stage play or play in a set of series in a sports

game.

Key Words: adapt, constructs, creates, modifies

Non-discursive Communication: Effective use

body language, such as gestures and facial

expressions.

Examples: Expressing one’s self by using movements and gestures

Key Words: arrange, compose, interpretation

97
The Affective Domain (Clark, 2015c)

The affective domain is one of three domains in Bloom’s Taxonomy, with the other two being the cognitive and psychomotor

(Bloom, et al., 1956). The affective domain (Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia, 1973) includes the manner in which we deal

with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. The five major

levels are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex (Figure 10.11 & Figure 10.12):

Figure 10.11 Levels of Affective Domain

Figure 10.12 Levels of Affective Domain with Examples and Key Words

Levels Examples and Key Words (Verbs)

Receiving Phenomena: Awareness, willingness

to hear, selected attention.

Examples: Listen to others with respect. Listen for and remember

the name of newly introduced people.

Key Words: acknowledges, asks, follows, gives, listens,

understands

Responding to Phenomena: Active participation

on the part of the learners. Attend and react to a

particular phenomenon. Learning outcomes may

emphasize compliance in responding, willingness

to respond, or satisfaction in responding

(motivation).

Examples: Participate in class discussions. Give a presentation.

Question new ideals, concepts, models, etc. in order to fully

understand them. Know the safety rules and practice them.

Key Words: answers, assists, aids, complies, conforms, discusses,

greets, helps, labels, performs, presents, tells

Valuing: The worth or value a person attaches to

a particular object, phenomenon, or behavior. This

ranges from simple acceptance to the more

complex state of commitment. Valuing is based

on the internalization of a set of specified values,

while clues to these values are expressed in the

learner’s overt behavior and are often identifiable.

Examples: Demonstrate belief in the democratic process. Is

sensitive towards individual and cultural differences (value

diversity). Show the ability to solve problems. Propose a plan to

social improvement and follows through with commitment. Inform

management on matters that one feels strongly about.

Key Words: appreciates, cherishes, treasures, demonstrates,

initiates, invites, joins, justifies, proposes, respects, shares

Organizing: The organizing of values into

priorities by contrasting different values,

resolving conflicts between them, and creating a

unique value system. The emphasis is on

comparing, relating, and synthesizing values.

Examples: Recognize the need for balance between freedom and

responsible behavior. Explain the role of systematic planning in

solving problems. Accept professional ethical standards. Create a

life plan in harmony with abilities, interests, and beliefs. Prioritize

time effectively to meet the needs of the organization, family, and

self.

Key Words: compares, relates, synthesizes

Internalizing Values

Organizing

Valuing

Responding to Phenomena

Receiving Phenomena

98

Internalizing Values (characterization): Having a

value system that controls their behavior. The

behavior is pervasive, consistent, predictable, and

most important characteristic of the learner.

Instructional objectives are concerned with the

student’s general patterns of adjustment (personal,

social, emotional).

Examples: Show self-reliance when working independently.

Cooperate in group activities (display teamwork). Use an objective

approach in problem solving. Display a professional commitment

to ethical practice on a daily basis. Revise judgments and change

behavior in light of new evidence. Value people for what they are,

not how they look.

Key Words: acts, discriminates, displays, influences, modifies,

performs, qualifies, questions, revises, serves, solves, verifies

Educational Implications (Clark, 2015d)

Learning or instructional strategies determine the approach for achieving the learning objectives and are included in the pre-

instructional activities, information presentation, learner activities, testing, and follow-through. The strategies are usually

tied to the needs and interests of students to enhance learning and are based on many types of learning styles (Ekwensi,

Moranski, &Townsend-Sweet, 2006). Thus the learning objectives point you towards the instructional strategies, while the

instructional strategies will point you to the medium that will deliver or assist the delivery of the instruction, such as

elearning, self-study, classroom learning and instructional activities, etc.

The Instructional Strategy Selection Chart (Figure 10.13) shown below is a general guideline for selecting the teaching and

learning strategy. It is based on Bloom’s Taxonomy (Learning Domains). The matrix generally runs from the passive

learning methods (top rows) to the more active participation methods (bottom rows). Bloom’s Taxonomy (the right three

columns) runs from top to bottom, with the lower level behaviors being on top and the higher behaviors being on the bottom.

That is, there is a direct correlation in learning:

 Lower levels of performance can normally be taught using the more passive learning methods.

 Higher levels of performance usually require some sort of action or involvement by the learners.

Figure 10.13 Instructional Strategy Selection Chart

Instructional Strategy
Cognitive

Domain
(Bloom, 1956)

Psychomotor

Domain
(Simpson, 1972)

Affective

Domain
(Krathwohl, Bloom,

& Masia, 1973)

Lecture, reading, audio/visual,

demonstration, or guided observations,

question and answer period.

1. Knowledge
(Remembering)

1. Perception
2. Set

1. Receiving

Phenomena

Discussions, multimedia, Socratic

didactic method, reflection. Activities

such as surveys, role playing, case

studies, fishbowls, etc.

2. Comprehension
(Understanding)

3. Application

(Applying)

3. Guided Response

4. Mechanism
2. Responding to

Phenomena

Practice by doing (some direction or

coaching is required), to simulated

learning settings.

4. Analysis

(Analyzing)
5. Complex Response 3. Valuing

Use in real situations. May use several

high-level activities.
5. Synthesis

(Evaluating)
6. Adaptation 4. Organizing Values

into Priorities

Normally developed on own (informal

learning) through self-study or learning

through mistakes, but mentoring and

coaching can speed the process.

6. Evaluation

(Creating)
7. Origination 5. Internalizing Values

Figure 10.13. The chart above does not cover all possibilities, but most activities should fit in. For example, self-study

could fall under reading, audio visual, and/or activities, depending upon the type of learning environment and activities

teachers design.

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Criticisms of Bloom’s Taxonomy

As Morshead (1965) pointed out on the publication of the second volume, the classification was not a properly constructed

taxonomy, as it lacked a systemic rationale of construction. This was subsequently acknowledged in the discussion of the

original taxonomy in its 2000 revision (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), and the taxonomy was reestablished on more

systematic lines. It is generally considered that the role the taxonomy played in systematizing a field was more important

than any perceived lack of rigor in its construction.

Some critiques of the taxonomy’s cognitive domain admit the existence of six categories of cognitive domain but question

the existence of a sequential, hierarchical link (Paul, 1993). Often, educators view the taxonomy as a hierarchy and may

mistakenly dismiss the lowest levels as unworthy of teaching (Flannery, 2007; Lawler, 2016). The learning of the lower

levels enables the building of skills in the higher levels of the taxonomy, and in some fields, the most important skills are

in the lower levels, such as identification of species of plants and animals in the field of natural history (Flannery, 2007;

Lawler, 2016). Instructional scaffolding of higher-level skills from lower-level skills is an application of Vygotskian

constructivism (Keene, Colvin, & Sissons, 2010; Vygotsky, 1978).

Some consider the three lowest levels as hierarchically ordered, but the three higher levels as parallel (Anderson &

Krathwohl, 2001). Others say that it is sometimes better to move to Application before introducing concepts (Tomei, 2010,

p.66). The idea is to create a learning environment where the real world context comes first and the theory second to promote

the student’s grasp of the phenomenon, concept or event. This thinking would seem to relate to the method of problem-

based learning.

Furthermore, the distinction between the categories can be seen as artificial since any given cognitive task may entail a

number of processes. It could even be argued that any attempt to nicely categorize cognitive processes into clean, cut-and-

dried classifications undermines the holistic, highly connective and interrelated nature of cognition (Fadul, 2009). This is a

criticism that can be directed at taxonomies of mental processes in general.

REFERENCES

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of

Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P. W., Cruikshank, K. A., Mayer, R. E., Pintrich, P. R., … Wittrock, M. C.

(2000). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives, Handbook I: The cognitive domain. New York, NY: David

McKay Co Inc.

Bloom, B.S. (Ed.). Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational

objectives, Handbook I: The cognitive domain. New York, NY: David McKay Co., Inc.

Clark, D. R. (2015, January 12). Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains. Retrieved from

http://nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#three_domains

Clark, D. R. (2015a, January 12). Bloom’s Taxonomy: The original cognitive domain. Retrieved from

http://nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/Bloom/original_cognitive_version.html

Clark, D. R. (2015b, January 12). Bloom’s taxonomy: The psychomotor domain. Retrieved from

http://nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/Bloom/psychomotor_domain.html

Clark, D. R. (2015c, January 12). Bloom’s taxonomy: The affective domain. Retrieved from

http://nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/Bloom/affective_domain.html

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Clark, D. R. (2015d, January 12). Learning strategies or instructional strategies. Retrieved from

http://nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/strategy.html

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2007). E-Learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and

designers of multimedia learning (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Clark, R., & Chopeta, L. (2004). Graphics for learning: Proven guidelines for planning, designing, and evaluating visuals

in training materials. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.

Dave, R. H. (1970). Psychomotor levels. In R. J. Armstrong (Ed.), Developing and writing behavioral objectives (pp. 20-

21). Tucson, AZ: Educational Innovators Press.

Ekwensi, F., Moranski, J., & Townsend-Sweet, M., (2006). E-Learning concepts and techniques. Bloomsburg University

of Pennsylvania’s Department of Instructional Technology. Retrieved from

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4ccf/02a87d6044fd181f1efcc0e2f819ef826486.pdf

Fadul, J. A. (2009). Collective learning: Applying distributed cognition for collective intelligence. The International

Journal of Learning, 16(4), 211-220.

Flannery, M. C. (2007, November). Observations on biology. The American Biology Teacher, 69(9), 561-564.

doi:10.1662/0002-7685(2007)69[561:OOB]2.0.CO;2

Harrow, A. (1972). A taxonomy of psychomotor domain: A guide for developing behavioral objectives. New York, NY:

David McKay Co., Inc.

Keene, J., Colvin, J., & Sissons, J. (2010, June). Mapping student information literacy activity against Bloom’s taxonomy

of cognitive skills. Journal of Information Literacy, 4(1), 6-21. doi:10.11645/4.1.189

Krathwohl, D. R., Bloom, B. S., & Masia, B. B. (1973). Taxonomy of educational objectives, the classification of

educational goals. Handbook II: Affective domain. New York, NY: David McKay Co., Inc.

Lawler, S. (2016, February 26). Identification of animals and plants is an essential skill set. Retrieved from

http://theconversation.com/identification-of-animals-and-plants-is-an-essential-skill-set-55450

Morshead, R. W. (1965). On Taxonomy of educational objectives Handbook II: Affective domain. Studies in Philosophy

and Education, 4(1), 164-170. doi:10.1007/bf00373956

Paul, R. (1993). Critical thinking: What every person needs to survive in a rapidly changing world (3rd ed.). Rohnert

Park, CA: Sonoma State University Press.

Simpson, E. J. (1972). The classification of educational objectives in the psychomotor domain. Washington, DC: Gryphon

House.

Tomei, L. A. (2010). Designing instruction for the traditional, adult, and distance learner: A new engine for technology-

based learning. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press.

ADDITIONAL READING

Credible Articles on the Internet

Armstrong, P. (n.d.). Bloom’s taxonomy. Retrieved from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

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Bloom’s taxonomy of education objectives. (2016). Retrieved from

https://teaching.uncc.edu/services-programs/teaching-guides/course-design/blooms-educational-objectives

Bloom’s taxonomy revised: A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing. (2016). Retrieved from

https://www.ccri.edu/ctc/pdf/Blooms_Revised_Taxonomy.pdf

Eisner, E. W. (2000). Benjamin Bloom. Prospects: The quarterly review of comparative education, xxx (3). Retrieved

from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001231/123140eb.pdf

Eisner, E. W. (2002). Benjamin Bloom 1913-99. Retrieved from

http://www.ibe.unesco.org/International/Publications/Thinkers/ThinkersPdf/bloome.pdf

Forehand, M. (2005). Bloom’s taxonomy: Original and revised. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning,

teaching, and technology. Athens, GA: University of Georgia. Retrieved from

http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Bloom%27s_Taxonomy

Hess, K. K., Jones, B. S., Carlock, D., & Walkup, J. R. (2009). Cognitive rigor: Blending the strengths of Bloom’s

taxonomy and webb’s depth of knowledge to enhance classroom-level processes. Retrieved from

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED517804.pdf

Honan, W. H. (1999). Benjamin Bloom, 86, a leader in the creation of head start. Retrieved from

Huitt, W. (2004). Bloom et al.’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA:

Valdosta State University. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/bloom.html

Illinois Online Network. (n.d.). Objectives. Retrieved from

http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/id/developObjectives.asp#top

Overbaugh, R. C., & Schultz, L. (n.d.). Bloom’s taxonomy. Retrieved from

http://www.fitnyc.edu/files/pdfs/CET_TL_BloomsTaxonomy.pdf

Shabatura, J. (2013). Using Bloom’s taxonomy to write effective learning objectives.

Retrieved from https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/

Wilson, L. (2016). Anderson and Krathwohl-Bloom’s taxonomy revised. Retrieved from

http://thesecondprinciple.com/teaching-essentials/beyond-bloom-cognitive-taxonomy-revised/

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Athanassiou, N., McNett, J. M., & Harvey, C. (2003). Critical thinking in the management classroom: Bloom’s taxonomy

as a learning tool. Journal of Management Education, 27(5), 533-555.

Halawi, L. A., Pires, S., & McCarthy, R. V. (2009). An evaluation of E-learning on the basis of bloom’s taxonomy: An

exploratory study. Journal of Education for Business, 84(6), 374-380.

Hogsett, C. (1993). Women’s ways of knowing bloom’s taxonomy. Feminist Teacher, 7(3), 27.

Kastberg, S. E. (2003). Using bloom’s taxonomy as a framework for classroom assessment. The Mathematics Teacher,

96(6), 402-405.

Seaman, M. (2011). Bloom’s taxonomy: Its evolution, revision, and use in the field of education. Curriculum and

Teaching Dialogue, 13(1), 29-131A.

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Books from Dalton State College Library

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s

taxonomy of educational objectives (Complete ed.). New York, NY: Longman.

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals (1st ed.). New York,

NY: Longmans & Green.

Videos and Tutorials

The critics: Stories from the inside pages. (2006). Retrieved from Films on Demand database.

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CHAPTER 11

Theory of Human Motivation

INTRODUCTION

Abraham Harold Maslow (1908-1970) was born on April 1, 1908, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Jewish

immigrants from Russia who were rather uneducated. Maslow was the sole Jewish boy in his neighborhood; therefore, he

was unhappy and lonesome throughout the majority of his childhood. Maslow also had problems within his home. His father

continually degraded him and pushed him to excel in areas that were of no interest to him. His mother also treated him

poorly. Because of this Maslow wanted no interaction with his parents. Maslow perceived his mother as being entirely

insensitive and unloving.

After a difficulty childhood, Maslow was able to obtain a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1934. After he received

his Ph.D. in 1934, he continued to teach at the University of Wisconsin. Maslow theorized that humans have several inborn

needs that were the basis for his theory of motivation on the hierarchy of needs. Furthermore, he believed that the needs are

ranked in terms of a hierarchy. Nonhumans can possess the lower, more basic needs also, but only humans may possess the

higher needs. First, physiological needs are related to survival. These necessities include food, water, elimination, sex, and

sleep. If one of these needs is not achieved, it will rule the individual’s life. Maslow believed that most humans achieve

these needs easily. After one need is met, the individual moves onto the next level. However, Maslow stressed that a person

can experience periodic times of hunger or thirst and still move onto higher levels, but the individual’s life cannot be

dominated by just one need.

Safety needs appear when physiological needs are fulfilled. These are the needs for structure, order, security, and

predictability. Reducing uncertainty is the chief objective at this stage. Individuals are free from danger, fear, and chaos

when the safety needs are adequately met. Affiliation is the next level after the physiological and safety needs are attained.

This level includes the need for friends, family, identification with a group, and a personally intimate relationship. A person

may experience feelings of solitude and emptiness if these needs are not quenched. The esteem needs will follow only if

one has achieved the physiological, safety, and belongingness needs. In this stage, approval must come from earned respect

and not from fame or social status. Acceptance and self-esteem originate from engaging in activities that are deemed as

being socially constructive. An individual may possess feelings of inferiority if the esteem needs are not reached.

If the previous needs are sufficiently met, a person now has the opportunity to become self-actualized. However, self-

actualization is an exceptional feat since it so rarely occurs. A person who reaches this stage strives for growth and self-

improvement. According to Maslow, the majority of people advance through the hierarchy of needs from the bottom up, in

an orderly fashion.

REQUIRED READING

In Maslow (1943a), various propositions were presented which would have to be included in any theory of human

motivation that could lay claim to being definitive. These conclusions may be briefly summarized as follows:

1. The integrated wholeness of the organism must be one of the foundation stones of motivation theory.
2. The hunger drive (or any other physiological drive) was rejected as a centering point or model for a definitive

theory of motivation. Any drive that is somatically based and localizable was shown to be atypical rather than

typical in human motivation.

3. Such a theory should stress and center itself upon ultimate or basic goals rather than partial or superficial ones,
upon ends rather than means to these ends. Such a stress would imply a more central place for unconscious than

for conscious motivations.

4. There are usually available various cultural paths to the same goal. Therefore conscious, specific, local-cultural
desires are not as fundamental in motivation theory as the more basic, unconscious goals.

5. Any motivated behavior, either preparatory or consummatory, must be understood to be a channel through
which many basic needs may be simultaneously expressed or satisfied. Typically, an act has more than one

motivation.

6. Practically all organismic states are to be understood as motivated and as motivating.

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7. Human needs arrange themselves in hierarchies of pre-potency. That is to say, the appearance of one need

usually rests on the prior satisfaction of another, more pre-potent need. Man is a perpetually wanting animal.

Also no need or drive can be treated as if it were isolated or discrete; every drive is related to the state of

satisfaction or dissatisfaction of other drives.

8. Lists of drives will get us nowhere for various theoretical and practical reasons. Furthermore any classification
of motivations must deal with the problem of levels of specificity or generalization the motives to be classified.

9. Classifications of motivations must be based upon goals rather than upon instigating drives or motivated
behavior.

10. Motivation theory should be human-centered rather than animal-centered.
11. The situation or the field in which the organism reacts must be taken into account but the field alone can rarely

serve as an exclusive explanation for behavior. Furthermore the field itself must be interpreted in terms of the

organism. Field theory cannot be a substitute for motivation theory.

12. Not only the integration of the organism must be taken into account, but also the possibility of isolated, specific,
partial or segmental reactions. It has since become necessary to add to these another affirmation.

13. Motivation theory is not synonymous with behavior theory. The motivations are only one class of determinants
of behavior. While behavior is almost always motivated, it is also almost always biologically, culturally and

situationally determined as well.

This paper is an attempt to formulate a positive theory of motivation which will satisfy these theoretical demands and at the

same time conform to the known facts, clinical and observational as well as experimental. It derives most directly, however,

from clinical experience. This theory is, I think, in the functionalist tradition of James and Dewey, and is fused with the

holism of Wertheimer (n.d.), Goldstein (1939), and Gestalt Psychology, and with the dynamicism of Freud (1933) and Adler

(1938). This fusion or synthesis may arbitrarily be called a ‘general-dynamic’ theory.

It is far easier to perceive and to criticize the aspects in motivation theory than to remedy them. Mostly this is because of

the very serious lack of sound data in this area. I conceive this lack of sound facts to be due primarily to the absence of a

valid theory of motivation. The present theory then must be considered to be a suggested program or framework for future

research and must stand or fall, not so much on facts available or evidence presented, as upon researches to be done, research

suggested perhaps, by the questions raised in this paper.

The Basic Needs

The ‘physiological’ needs. The needs that are usually taken as the starting point for motivation theory are the so-called

physiological drives. Two recent lines of research make it necessary to revise our customary notions about these needs, first,

the development of the concept of homeostasis, and second, the finding that appetites (preferential choices among foods)

are a fairly efficient indication of actual needs or lacks in the body.

Homeostasis refers to the body’s automatic efforts to maintain a constant, normal state of the blood stream. Cannon (1932)

has described this process for (1) the water content of the blood, (2) salt content, (3) sugar content, (4) protein content, (5)

fat content, (6) calcium content, (7) oxygen content, (8) constant hydrogen-ion level (acid-base balance) and (9) constant

temperature of the blood. Obviously this list can be extended to include other minerals, the hormones, vitamins, etc.

Young (1936) in a recent article has summarized the work on appetite in its relation to body needs. If the body lacks some

chemical, the individual will tend to develop a specific appetite or partial hunger for that food element.

Thus it seems impossible as well as useless to make any list of fundamental physiological needs for they can come to almost

any number one might wish, depending on the degree of specificity of description. We cannot identify all physiological

needs as homeostatic. That sexual desire, sleepiness, sheer activity and maternal behavior in animals, are homeostatic, has

not yet been demonstrated. Furthermore, this list would not include the various sensory pleasures (tastes, smells, tickling,

stroking) which are probably physiological and which may become the goals of motivated behavior.

In a previous paper (Maslow, 1943a), it has been pointed out that these physiological drives or needs are to be considered

unusual rather than typical because they are isolable, and because they are localizable somatically. That is to say, they are

relatively independent of each other, of other motivations and of the organism as a whole, and secondly, in many cases, it

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is possible to demonstrate a localized, underlying somatic base for the drive. This is true less generally than has been thought

(exceptions are fatigue, sleepiness, maternal responses) but it is still true in the classic instances of hunger, sex, and thirst.

It should be pointed out again that any of the physiological needs and the consummatory behavior involved with them serve

as channels for all sorts of other needs as well. That is to say, the person who thinks he is hungry may actually be seeking

more for comfort, or dependence, than for vitamins or proteins. Conversely, it is possible to satisfy the hunger need in part

by other activities such as drinking water or smoking cigarettes. In other words, relatively isolable as these physiological

needs are, they are not completely so.

Undoubtedly these physiological needs are the most pre-potent of all needs. What this means specifically is, that in the

human being who is missing everything in life in an extreme fashion, it is most likely that the major motivation would be

the physiological needs rather than any others. A person who is lacking food, safety, love, and esteem would most probably

hunger for food more strongly than for anything else.

If all the needs are unsatisfied, and the organism is then dominated by the physiological needs, all other needs may become

simply non-existent or be pushed into the background. It is then fair to characterize the whole organism by saying simply

that it is hungry, for consciousness is almost completely preempted by hunger. All capacities are put into the service of

hunger-satisfaction, and the organization of these capacities is almost entirely determined by the one purpose of satisfying

hunger. The receptors and effectors, the intelligence, memory, habits, all may now be defined simply as hunger-gratifying

tools. Capacities that are not useful for this purpose lie dormant, or are pushed into the background. The urge to write poetry,

the desire to acquire an automobile, the interest in American history, the desire for a new pair of shoes are, in the extreme

case, forgotten or become of secondary importance. For the man who is extremely and dangerously hungry, no other

interests exist but food. He dreams food, he remembers food, he thinks about food, he emotes only about food, he perceives

only food, and he wants only food. The more subtle determinants that ordinarily fuse with the physiological drives in

organizing even feeding, drinking or sexual behavior, may now be so completely overwhelmed as to allow us to speak at

this time (but only at this time) of pure hunger drive and behavior, with the one unqualified aim of relief.

Another peculiar characteristic of the human organism when it is dominated by a certain need is that the whole philosophy

of the future tends also to change. For our chronically and extremely hungry man, Utopia can be defined very simply as a

place where there is plenty of food. He tends to think that, if only he is guaranteed food for the rest of his life, he will be

perfectly happy and will never want anything more. Life itself tends to be defined in terms of eating. Anything else will be

defined as unimportant. Freedom, love, community feeling, respect, philosophy, may all be waved aside as fripperies which

are useless since they fail to fill the stomach. Such a man may fairly be said to live by bread alone.

It cannot possibly be denied that such things are true but their generality can be denied. Emergency conditions are, almost

by definition, rare in the normally functioning peaceful society. That this truism can be forgotten is due mainly to two

reasons. First, rats have few motivations other than physiological ones, and since so much of the research upon motivation

has been made with these animals, it is easy to carry the rat-picture over to the human being. Secondly, it is too often not

realized that culture itself is an adaptive tool, one of whose main functions is to make the physiological emergencies come

less and less often. In most of the known societies, chronic extreme hunger of the emergency type is rare, rather than

common. In any case, this is still true in the United States. The average American citizen is experiencing appetite rather

than hunger when he says “I am hungry.” He is apt to experience sheer life-and-death hunger only by accident and then only

a few times through his entire life.

Obviously a good way to obscure the ‘higher’ motivations, and to get a lopsided view of human capacities and human nature,

is to make the organism extremely and chronically hungry or thirsty. Anyone who attempts to make an emergency picture

into a typical one, and who will measure all of man’s goals and desires by his behavior during extreme physiological

deprivation is certainly being blind to many things. It is quite true that man lives by bread alone-when there is no bread. But

what happens to man’s desires when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is chronically filled?

At once other (and ‘higher’) needs emerge and these, rather than physiological hungers, dominate the organism. And when

these in turn are satisfied, again new (and still ‘higher’) needs emerge and so on. This is what we mean by saying that the

basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency.

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One main implication of this phrasing is that gratification becomes as important a concept as deprivation in motivation

theory, for it releases the organism from the domination of a relatively more physiological need, permitting thereby the

emergence of other more social goals. The physiological needs, along with their partial goals, when chronically gratified

cease to exist as active determinants or organizers of behavior. They now exist only in a potential fashion in the sense that

they may emerge again to dominate the organism if they are thwarted. But a want that is satisfied is no longer a want. The

organism is dominated and its behavior organized only by unsatisfied needs. If hunger is satisfied, it becomes unimportant

in the current dynamics of the individual.

This statement is somewhat qualified by a hypothesis to be discussed more fully later, namely that it is precisely those

individuals in whom a certain need has always been satisfied who are best equipped to tolerate deprivation of that need in

the future, and that furthermore, those who have been deprived in the past will react differently to current satisfactions than

the one who has never been deprived.

The safety needs. If the physiological needs are relatively well gratified, there then emerges a new set of needs, which we

may categorize roughly as the safety needs. All that has been said of the physiological needs is equally true, although in

lesser degree, of these desires. The organism may equally well be wholly dominated by them. They may serve as the almost

exclusive organizers of behavior, recruiting all the capacities of the organism in their service, and we may then fairly

describe the whole organism as a safety-seeking mechanism. Again, we may say of the receptors, the effectors, of the

intellect and the other capacities that they are primarily safety-seeking tools. Again, as in the hungry man, we find that the

dominating goal is a strong determinant not only of his current world-outlook and philosophy but also of his philosophy of

the future. Practically everything looks less important than safety, (even sometimes the physiological needs which being

satisfied, are now underestimated). A man, in this state, if it is extreme enough and chronic enough, may be characterized

as living almost for safety alone.

Although in this paper we are interested primarily in the needs of the adult, we can approach an understanding of his safety

needs perhaps more efficiently by observation of infants and children, in whom these needs are much more simple and

obvious. One reason for the clearer appearance of the threat or danger reaction in infants, is that they do not inhibit this

reaction at all, whereas adults in our society have been taught to inhibit it at all costs. Thus even when adults do feel their

safety to be threatened we may not be able to see this on the surface. Infants will react in a total fashion and as if they were

endangered, if they are disturbed or dropped suddenly, startled by loud noises, flashing light, or other unusual sensory

stimulation, by rough handling, by general loss of support in the mother’s arms, or by inadequate support.

In infants we can also see a much more direct reaction to bodily illnesses of various kinds. Sometimes these illnesses seem

to be immediately and per se threatening and seem to make the child feel unsafe. For instance, vomiting, colic or other sharp

pains seem to make the child look at the whole world in a different way. At such a moment of pain, it may be postulated

that, for the child, the appearance of the whole world suddenly changes from sunniness to darkness, so to speak, and becomes

a place in which anything at all might happen, in which previously stable things have suddenly become unstable. Thus a

child who because of some bad food is taken ill may, for a day or two, develop fear, nightmares, and a need for protection

and reassurance never seen in him before his illness.

Another indication of the child’s need for safety is his preference for some kind of undisrupted routine or rhythm. He seems

to want a predictable, orderly world. For instance, injustice, unfairness, or inconsistency in the parents seems to make a

child feel anxious and unsafe. This attitude may be not so much because of the injustice per se or any particular pains

involved, but rather because this treatment threatens to make the world look unreliable, or unsafe, or unpredictable. Young

children seem to thrive better under a system which has at least a skeletal outline of rigidity, in which there is a schedule of

a kind, some sort of routine, something that can be counted upon, not only for the present but also far into the future. Perhaps

one could express this more accurately by saying that the child needs an organized world rather than an unorganized or

unstructured one.

The central role of the parents and the normal family setup are indisputable. Quarreling, physical assault, separation, divorce

or death within the family may be particularly terrifying. Also parental outbursts of rage or threats of punishment directed

to the child, calling him names, speaking to him harshly, shaking him, handling him roughly, or actual physical punishment

sometimes elicit such total panic and terror in the child that we must assume more is involved than the physical pain alone.

While it is true that in some children this terror may represent also a fear of loss of parental love, it can also occur in

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completely rejected children, who seem to cling to the hating parents more for sheer safety and protection than because of

hope of love.

Confronting the average child with new, unfamiliar, strange, unmanageable stimuli or situations will too frequently elicit

the danger or terror reaction, as for example, getting lost or even being separated from the parents for a short time, being

confronted with new faces, new situations or new tasks, the sight of strange, unfamiliar or uncontrollable objects, illness or

death. Particularly at such times, the child’s frantic clinging to his parents is eloquent testimony to their role as protectors

(quite apart from their roles as food-givers and love-givers).

From these and similar observations, we may generalize and say that the average child in our society generally prefers a

safe, orderly, predictable, organized world, which he can count, on, and in which unexpected, unmanageable or other

dangerous things do not happen, and in which, in any case, he has all-powerful parents who protect and shield him from

harm.

That these reactions may so easily be observed in children is in a way a proof of the fact that children in our society, feel

too unsafe (or, in a word, are badly brought up). Children who are reared in an unthreatening, loving family do not ordinarily

react as we have described above (Shirley, 1942). In such children the danger reactions are apt to come mostly to objects or

situations that adults too would consider dangerous.

The healthy, normal, fortunate adult in our culture is largely satisfied in his safety needs. The peaceful, smoothly running,

‘good’ society ordinarily makes its members feel safe enough from wild animals, extremes of temperature, criminals, assault

and murder, tyranny, etc. Therefore, in a very real sense, he no longer has any safety needs as active motivators. Just as a

sated man no longer feels hungry, a safe man no longer feels endangered. If we wish to see these needs directly and clearly

we must turn to neurotic or near-neurotic individuals, and to the economic and social underdogs. In between these extremes,

we can perceive the expressions of safety needs only in such phenomena as, for instance, the common preference for a job

with tenure and protection, the desire for a savings account, and for insurance of various kinds (medical, dental,

unemployment, disability, old age).

Other broader aspects of the attempt to seek safety and stability in the world are seen in the very common preference for

familiar rather than unfamiliar things, or for the known rather than the unknown. The tendency to have some religion or

world-philosophy that organizes the universe and the men in it into some sort of satisfactorily coherent, meaningful whole

is also in part motivated by safety-seeking. Here too we may list science and philosophy in general as partially motivated

by the safety needs (we shall see later that there are also other motivations to scientific, philosophical or religious endeavor).

Otherwise the need for safety is seen as an active and dominant mobilizer of the organism’s resources only in emergencies,

e.g. war, disease, natural catastrophes, crime waves, societal disorganization, neurosis, brain injury, chronically bad

situation.

Some neurotic adults in our society are, in many ways, like the unsafe child in their desire for safety, although in the former

it takes on a somewhat special appearance. Their reaction is often to unknown, psychological dangers in a world that is

perceived to be hostile, overwhelming and threatening. Such a person behaves as if a great catastrophe were almost always

impending, i.e., he is usually responding as if to an emergency. His safety needs often find specific expression in a search

for a protector, or a stronger person on whom he may depend, or perhaps, a Fuehrer.

The neurotic individual may be described in a slightly different way with some usefulness as a grown-up person who retains

his childish attitudes toward the world. That is to say, a neurotic adult may be said to behave ‘as if’ he were actually afraid

of a spanking, or of his mother’s disapproval, or of being abandoned by his parents, or having his food taken away from

him. It is as if his childish attitudes of fear and threat reaction to a dangerous world had gone underground, and untouched

by the growing up and learning processes, were now ready to be called out by any stimulus that would make a child feel

endangered and threatened.

The neurosis in which the search for safety takes its dearest form is in the compulsive-obsessive neurosis. Compulsive-

obsessives try frantically to order and stabilize the world so that no unmanageable, unexpected or unfamiliar dangers will

ever appear (Maslow & Mittelemann, 1941); they hedge themselves about with all sorts of ceremonials, rules and formulas

so that every possible contingency may be provided for and so that no new contingencies may appear. They are much like

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the brain injured cases, described by Goldstein (1939), who manage to maintain their equilibrium by avoiding everything

unfamiliar and strange and by ordering their restricted world in such a neat, disciplined, orderly fashion that everything in

the world can be counted upon. They try to arrange the world so that anything unexpected (dangers) cannot possibly occur.

If, through no fault of their own, something unexpected does occur, they go into a panic reaction as if this unexpected

occurrence constituted a grave danger. What we can see only as a none-too-strong preference in the healthy person, e.g.,

preference for the familiar, becomes a life-and-death necessity in abnormal cases.

The love needs. If both the physiological and the safety needs are fairly well gratified, then there will emerge the love and

affection and belongingness needs, and the whole cycle already described will repeat itself with this new center. Now the

person will feel keenly, as never before, the absence of friends, or a sweetheart, or a wife, or children. He will hunger for

affectionate relations with people in general, namely, for a place in his group, and he will strive with great intensity to

achieve this goal. He will want to attain such a place more than anything else in the world and may even forget that once,

when he was hungry, he sneered at love.

In our society the thwarting of these needs is the most commonly found core in cases of maladjustment and more severe

psychopathology. Love and affection, as well as their possible expression in sexuality, are generally looked upon with

ambivalence and are customarily hedged about with many restrictions and inhibitions. Practically all theorists of

psychopathology have stressed thwarting of the love needs as basic in the picture of maladjustment. Many clinical studies

have therefore been made of this need and we know more about it perhaps than any of the other needs except the

physiological ones (Maslow & Mittelemann, 1941).

One thing that must be stressed at this point is that love is not synonymous with sex. Sex may be studied as a purely

physiological need. Ordinarily sexual behavior is multi-determined, that is to say, determined not only by sexual but also

by other needs, chief among which are the love and affection needs. Also not to be overlooked is the fact that the love needs

involve both giving and receiving love (Maslow, 1942; Plant, 1937).

The esteem needs. All people in our society (with a few pathological exceptions) have a need or desire for a stable, firmly

based, (usually) high evaluation of themselves, for self-respect, or self-esteem, and for the esteem of others. By firmly based

self-esteem, we mean that which is soundly based upon real capacity, achievement and respect from others. These needs

may be classified into two subsidiary sets. These are, first, the desire for strength, for achievement, for adequacy, for

confidence in the face of the world, and for independence and freedom (Fromm, 1941) Secondly, we have what we may

call the desire for reputation or prestige (defining it as respect or esteem from other people), recognition, attention,

importance or appreciation. These needs have been relatively stressed by Alfred Adler and his followers, and have been

relatively neglected by Freud and the psychoanalysts. More and more today however there is appearing widespread

appreciation of their central importance.

Satisfaction of the self-esteem need leads to feelings of self-confidence, worth, strength, capability and adequacy of being

useful and necessary in the world. But thwarting of these needs produces feelings of inferiority, of weakness and of

helplessness. These feelings in turn give rise to either basic discouragement or else compensatory or neurotic trends. An

appreciation of the necessity of basic self-confidence and an understanding of how helpless people are without it, can be

easily gained from a study of severe traumatic neurosis (Kardiner, 1941; Maslow, 1939).

The need for self-actualization. Even if all these needs are satisfied, we may still often (if not always) expect that a new

discontent and restlessness will soon develop, unless the individual is doing what he is fitted for. A musician must make

music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be, he must be. This need we

may call self-actualization.

This term, first coined by Kurt Goldstein, is being used in this paper in a much more specific and limited fashion. It refers

to the desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. This

tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of

becoming. The specific form that these needs will take will of course vary greatly from person to person. In one individual

it may take the form of the desire to be an ideal mother, in another it may be expressed athletically, and in still another it

may be expressed in painting pictures or in inventions. It is not necessarily a creative urge although in people who have any

capacities for creation it will take this form.

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The clear emergence of these needs rests upon prior satisfaction of the physiological, safety, love and esteem needs. We

shall call people who are satisfied in these needs, basically satisfied people, and it is from these that we may expect the

fullest (and healthiest) creativenes. Since, in our society, basically satisfied people are the exception, we do not know much

about self-actualization, either experimentally or clinically. It remains a challenging problem for research.

The preconditions for the basic need satisfactions. There are certain conditions which are immediate prerequisites for the

basic need satisfactions. Danger to these is reacted to almost as if it were a direct danger to the basic needs themselves. Such

conditions as freedom to speak, freedom to do what one wishes so long as no harm is done to others, freedom to express

one’s self, freedom to investigate and seek for information, freedom to defend one’s self, justice, fairness, honesty,

orderliness in the group are examples of such preconditions for basic need satisfactions. Thwarting in these freedoms will

be reacted to with a threat or emergency response. These conditions are not ends in themselves but they are almost so since

they are so closely related to the basic needs, which are apparently the only ends in themselves. These conditions are

defended because without them the basic satisfactions are quite impossible, or at least, very severely endangered.

If we remember that the cognitive capacities (perceptual, intellectual, learning) are a set of adjustive tools, which have,

among other functions, that of satisfaction of our basic needs, then it is clear that any danger to them, any deprivation or

blocking of their free use, must also be indirectly threatening to the basic needs themselves. Such a statement is a partial

solution of the general problems of curiosity, the search for knowledge, truth and wisdom, and the ever-persistent urge to

solve the cosmic mysteries.

We must therefore introduce another hypothesis and speak of degrees of closeness to the basic needs, for we have already

pointed out that any conscious desires (partial goals) are more or less important as they are more or less close to the basic

needs. The same statement may be made for various behavior acts. An act is psychologically important if it contributes

directly to satisfaction of basic needs. The less directly it so contributes, or the weaker this contribution is, the less important

this act must be conceived to be from the point of view of dynamic psychology. A similar statement may be made for the

various defense or coping mechanisms. Some are very directly related to the protection or attainment of the basic needs,

others are only weakly and distantly related. Indeed if we wished, we could speak of more basic and less basic defense

mechanisms, and then affirm that danger to the more basic defenses is more threatening than danger to less basic defenses

(always remembering that this is so only because of their relationship to the basic needs).

The desires to know and to understand. So far, we have mentioned the cognitive needs only in passing. Acquiring knowledge

and systematizing the universe have been considered as, in part, techniques for the achievement of basic safety in the world,

or, for the intelligent man, expressions of self-actualization. Also freedom of inquiry and expression has been discussed as

preconditions of satisfactions of the basic needs. True though these formulations may be, they do not constitute definitive

answers to the question as to the motivation role of curiosity, learning, philosophizing, experimenting, etc. They are, at best,

no more than partial answers.

This question is especially difficult because we know so little about the facts. Curiosity, exploration, desire for the facts,

desire to know may certainly be observed easily enough. The fact that they often are pursued even at great cost to the

individual’s safety is an earnest of the partial character of our previous discussion. In addition, the writer must admit that,

though he has sufficient clinical evidence to postulate the desire to know as a very strong drive in intelligent people, no data

are available for unintelligent people. It may then be largely a function of relatively high intelligence. Rather tentatively,

then, and largely in the hope of stimulating discussion and research, we shall postulate a basic desire to know, to be aware

of reality, to get the facts, to satisfy curiosity, or as Wertheimer phrases it, to see rather than to be blind.

This postulation, however, is not enough. Even after we know, we are impelled to know more and more minutely and

microscopically on the one hand, and on the other, more and more extensively in the direction of a world philosophy,

religion, etc. The facts that we acquire, if they are isolated or atomistic, inevitably get theorized about, and either analyzed

or organized or both. This process has been phrased by some as the search for ‘meaning.’ We shall then postulate a desire to

understand, to systematize, to organize, to analyze, to look for relations and meanings.

Once these desires are accepted for discussion, we see that they too form themselves into a small hierarchy in which the

desire to know is prepotent over the desire to understand. All the characteristics of a hierarchy of prepotency that we have

described above, seem to hold for this one as well.

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We must guard ourselves against the too easy tendency to separate these desires from the basic needs we have discussed

above, i.e., to make a sharp dichotomy between ‘cognitive’ and ‘conative’ needs. The desire to know and to understand are

themselves conative, i.e., have a striving character, and are as much personality needs as the ‘basic needs’ we have already

discussed (Wertheimer, n.d., p. 386).

Future Characteristics of the Basic Needs

The degree of fixity of the hierarchy of basic needs. We have spoken so far as if this hierarchy were a fixed order but actually

it is not nearly as rigid as we may have implied. It is true that most of the people with whom we have worked have seemed

to have these basic needs in about the order that has been indicated. However, there have been a number of exceptions:

1. There are some people in whom, for instance, self-esteem seems to be more important than love. This most
common reversal in the hierarchy is usually due to the development of the notion that the person who is most

likely to be loved is a strong or powerful person, one who inspires respect or fear, and who is self-confident or

aggressive. Therefore such people who lack love and seek it, may try hard to put on a front of aggressive,

confident behavior. But essentially they seek high self-esteem and its behavior expressions more as a means-

to-an-end than for its own sake; they seek self-assertion for the sake of love rather than for self-esteem itself.

2. There are other, apparently innately creative people in whom the drive to creativeness seems to be more
important than any other counter-determinant. Their creativeness might appear not as self-actualization released

by basic satisfaction, but in spite of lack of basic satisfaction.

3. In certain people the level of aspiration may be permanently deadened or lowered. That is to say, the less pre-
potent goals may simply be lost, and may disappear forever, so that the person who has experienced life at a

very low level, i.e., chronic unemployment, may continue to be satisfied for the rest of his life if only he can

get enough food.

4. The so-called ‘psychopathic personality’ is another example of permanent loss of the love needs. These are
people who, according to the best data available (Levy, 1937), have been starved for love in the earliest months

of their lives and have simply lost forever the desire and the ability to give and to receive affection (as animals

lose sucking or pecking reflexes that are not exercised soon enough after birth).

5. Another cause of reversal of the hierarchy is that when a need has been satisfied for a long time, this need may
be under-evaluated. People who have never experienced chronic hunger are apt to underestimate its effects and

to look upon food as a rather unimportant thing. If they are dominated by a higher need, this higher need will

seem to be the most important of all. It then becomes possible, and indeed does actually happen, that they may,

for the sake of this higher need, put themselves into the position of being deprived in a more basic need. We

may expect that after a long-time deprivation of the more basic need there will be a tendency to reevaluate both

needs so that the more pre-potent need will actually become consciously prepotent for the individual who may

have given it up very lightly. Thus, a man who has given up his job rather than lose his self-respect, and who

then starves for six months or so, may be willing to take his job back even at the price of losing his self-respect.

6. Another partial explanation of apparent reversals is seen in the fact that we have been talking about the hierarchy
of prepotency in terms of consciously felt wants or desires rather than of behavior. Looking at behavior itself

may give us the wrong impression. What we have claimed is that the person will want the more basic of two

needs when deprived in both. There is no necessary implication here that he will act upon his desires. Let us

say again that there are many determinants of behavior other than the needs and desires.

7. Perhaps more important than all these exceptions are the ones that involve ideals, high social standards, high
values and the like. With such values people become martyrs; they give up everything for the sake of a particular

ideal, or value. These people may be understood, at least in part, by reference to one basic concept (or

hypothesis) which may be called ‘increased frustration-tolerance through early gratification.’ People who have

been satisfied in their basic needs throughout their lives, particularly in their earlier years, seem to develop

exceptional power to withstand present or future thwarting of these needs simply because they have strong,

healthy character structure as a result of basic satisfaction. They are the ‘strong’ people who can easily weather

disagreement or opposition, who can swim against the stream of public opinion and who can stand up for the

truth at great personal cost. It is just the ones who have loved and been well loved, and who have had many

deep friendships who can hold out against hatred, rejection or persecution.

I say all this in spite of the fact that there is a certain amount of sheer habituation which is also involved in any full discussion

of frustration tolerance. For instance, it is likely that those persons who have been accustomed to relative starvation for a

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long time, are partially enabled thereby to withstand food deprivation. What sort of balance must be made between these

two tendencies, of habituation on the one hand, and of past satisfaction breeding present frustration tolerance on the other

hand, remains to be worked out by further research. Meanwhile we may assume that they are both operative, side by side,

since they do not contradict each other. In respect to this phenomenon of increased frustration tolerance, it seems probable

that the most important gratifications come in the first two years of life. That is to say, people who have been made secure

and strong in the earliest years, tend to remain secure and strong thereafter in the face of whatever threatens.

Degree of relative satisfaction. So far, our theoretical discussion may have given the impression that these five sets of needs

are somehow in a step-wise, all-or-none relationships to each other. We have spoken in such terms as the following: “If one

need is satisfied, then another emerges.” This statement might give the false impression that a need must be satisfied 100

per cent before the next need emerges. In actual fact, most members of our society who are normal, are partially satisfied in

all their basic needs and partially unsatisfied in all their basic needs at the same time. A more realistic description of the

hierarchy would be in terms of decreasing percentages of satisfaction as we go up the hierarchy of prepotency, For instance,

if I may assign arbitrary figures for the sake of illustration, it is as if the average citizen is satisfied perhaps 85 per cent in

his physiological needs, 70 per cent in his safety needs, 50 per cent in his love needs, 40 per cent in his self-esteem needs,

and 10 per cent in his self-actualization needs.

As for the concept of emergence of a new need after satisfaction of the prepotent need, this emergence is not a sudden,

saltatory phenomenon but rather a gradual emergence by slow degrees from nothingness. For instance, if prepotent need A

is satisfied only 10 per cent: then need B may not be visible at all. However, as this need A becomes satisfied 25 per cent,

need B may emerge 5 per cent, as need A becomes satisfied 75 per cent need B may emerge go per cent, and so on.

Unconscious character of needs. These needs are neither necessarily conscious nor unconscious. On the whole, however,

in the average person, they are more often unconscious rather than conscious. It is not necessary at this point to overhaul

the tremendous mass of evidence which indicates the crucial importance of unconscious motivation. It would by now be

expected, on a priori grounds alone, that unconscious motivations would on the whole be rather more important than the

conscious motivations. What we have called the basic needs are very often largely unconscious although they may, with

suitable techniques, and with sophisticated people become conscious.

Cultural specificity and generality of needs. This classification of basic needs makes some attempt to take account of the

relative unity behind the superficial differences in specific desires from one culture to another. Certainly, in any particular

culture an individual’s conscious motivational content will usually be extremely different from the conscious motivational

content of an individual in another society. However, it is the common experience of anthropologists that people, even in

different societies, are much more alike than we would think from our first contact with them, and that as we know them

better we seem to find more and more of this commonness, we then recognize the most startling differences to be superficial

rather than basic, e. g., differences in style of hair-dress, clothes, tastes in food, etc. Our classification of basic needs is in

part an attempt to account for this unity behind the apparent diversity from culture to culture. No claim is made that it is

ultimate or universal for all cultures. The claim is made only that it is relatively more ultimate, more universal, more basic,

than the superficial conscious desires from culture to culture, and makes a somewhat closer approach to common-human

characteristics, Basic needs are more common-human than superficial desires or behaviors.

Multiple motivations of behavior. These needs must be understood not to be exclusive or single determiners of certain kinds

of behavior. An example may be found in any behavior that seems to be physiologically motivated, such as eating, or sexual

play or the like. The clinical psychologists have long since found that any behavior may be a channel through which flow

various determinants. Or to say it in another way, most behavior is multi-motivated. Within the sphere of motivational

determinants any behavior tends to be determined by several or all of the basic needs simultaneously rather than by only

one of them. The latter would be more an exception than the former. Eating may be partially for the sake of filling the

stomach, and partially for the sake of comfort and amelioration of other needs. One may make love not only for pure sexual

release, but also to convince one’s self of one’s masculinity, or to make a conquest, to feel powerful, or to win more basic

affection. As an illustration, I may point out that it would be possible (theoretically if not practically) to analyze a single act

of an individual and see in it the expression of his physiological needs, his safety needs, his love needs, his esteem needs

and self-actualization. This contrasts sharply with the more naive brand of trait psychology in which one trait or one motive

accounts for a certain kind of act, i.e., an aggressive act is traced solely to a trait of aggressiveness.

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Multiple determinants of behavior. Not all behavior is determined by the basic needs. We might even say that not all

behavior is motivated. There are many determinants of behavior other than motives. For instance, one other important class

of determinants is the so-called ‘field’ determinants. Theoretically, at least, behavior may be determined completely by the

field, or even by specific isolated external stimuli, as in association of ideas, or certain conditioned reflexes. If in response

to the stimulus word ‘table’ I immediately perceive a memory image of a table, this response certainly has nothing to do

with my basic needs.

Secondly, we may call attention again to the concept of ‘degree of closeness to the basic needs’ or ‘degree of motivation.’

Some behavior is highly motivated, other behavior is only weakly motivated. Some is not motivated at all (but all behavior

is determined).

Another important point is that there is a basic difference between expressive behavior and coping behavior (functional

striving, purposive goal seeking). An expressive behavior does not try to do anything; it is simply a reflection of the

personality. A stupid man behaves stupidly, not because he wants to, or tries to, or is motivated to, but simply because he

is what he is. The same is true when I speak in a bass voice rather than tenor or soprano. The random movements of a

healthy child, the smile on the face of a happy man even when he is alone, the springiness of the healthy man’s walk, and

the erectness of his carriage are other examples of expressive, non-functional behavior. Also the style in which a man carries

out almost all his behavior, motivated as well as unmotivated, is often expressive.

We may then ask, is all behavior expressive or reflective of the character structure? The answer is ‘No.’ Rote, habitual,

automatized, or conventional behavior may or may not be expressive. The same is true for most ‘stimulus-bound’ behaviors.

It is finally necessary to stress that expressiveness of behavior, and goal-directedness of behavior are not mutually exclusive

categories. Average behavior is usually both.

Goals as centering principle in motivation theory. It will be observed that the basic principle in our classification has been

neither the instigation nor the motivated behavior but rather the functions, effects, purposes, or goals of the behavior. It has

been proven sufficiently by various people that this is the most suitable point for centering in any motivation theory (Murray,

1938).

Animal- and human-centering. This theory starts with the human being rather than any lower and presumably ‘simpler’

animal. Too many of the findings that have been made in animals have been proven to be true for animals but not for the

human being. There is no reason whatsoever why we should start with animals in order to study human motivation. The

logic or rather illogic behind this general fallacy of ‘pseudo-simplicity’ has been exposed often enough by philosophers and

logicians as well as by scientists in each of the various fields. It is no more necessary to study animals before one can study

man than it is to study mathematics before one can study geology or psychology or biology.

We may also reject the old, naive, behaviorism which assumed that it was somehow necessary, or at least more ‘scientific’

to judge human beings by animal standards. One consequence of this belief was that the whole notion of purpose and goal

was excluded from motivational psychology simply because one could not ask a white rat about his purposes. Tolman

(1932) has long since proven in animal studies themselves that this exclusion was not necessary.

Motivation and the theory of psychopathogenesis. The conscious motivational content of everyday life has, according to the

foregoing, been conceived to be relatively important or unimportant accordingly as it is more or less closely related to the

basic goals. A desire for an ice cream cone might actually be an indirect expression of a desire for love. If it is, then this

desire for the ice cream cone becomes extremely important motivation. If however the ice cream is simply something to

cool the mouth with, or a casual appetitive reaction, then the desire is relatively unimportant. Everyday conscious desires

are to be regarded as symptoms, as surface indicators of more basic needs. If we were to take these superficial desires at

their face value we would find ourselves in a state of complete confusion which could never be resolved, since we would

be dealing seriously with symptoms rather than with what lay behind the symptoms.

Thwarting of unimportant desires produces no psychopathological results; thwarting of a basically important need does

produce such results. Any theory of psychopathogenesis must then be based on a sound theory of motivation. A conflict or

a frustration is not necessarily pathogenic. It becomes so only when it threatens or thwarts the basic needs, or partial needs

that are closely related to the basic needs (Maslow, 1943b).