Middle Childhood, Late Childhood, and Adolescence Stages

Solution Preview

---

Let's take a closer look at these interesting questions to help with your final paper.

RESPONSE:

1. Select two issues that impact development during the middle childhood, late childhood, and adolescence stages. (e.g. choice of toys, impact of peers, moral development, impact of divorce of their parents, physiological concerns, educational concerns).

Have you given some thought to which two issues that you would like to focus. How about focusing on moral development and the impact of peers on development?

(a) How does moral development impact development during the middle childhood, late childhood, and adolescence stages? Kohlberg's and Gilligan's theories apply.
(b) How do peers impact development during the middle childhood, late childhood, and adolescence stages?

2, Prepare a response in which you describe the impact that your selected issues have on the physical, cognitive, or sociological development in the middle childhood, late childhood, and adolescence stages. In your description be sure to also analyze how the occurrence of these issues might influence an individual's future development. Be sure to use developmental theories and research to support your opinions.

One approach to help you with an assignment like this one is to provide a tentative outline, and then look at information from various sources that you can consider for your final copy. This is the approach this response takes.

Your tentative outline might be written this way:

I. Introduction (e.g. introduce topic; include a purpose statement: The purpose of this study is to...)

II. Impact of Moral Development

a. Impact of moral development on physical, cognitive or social development in middle childhood
b. Impact of moral development on physical, cognitive or social development in late childhood
c. Impact of moral development on physical, cognitive or social development in adolescents

III. Impact of Peers

a. Impact of peers on physical, cognitive or social development in middle childhood
b. Impact of peers on physical, cognitive or social development in late childhood
c. Impact of peers on physical, cognitive or social development in adolescents

IV. Conclusions (sum up main points)

Now let's look at some information for each section.

IMPACT OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Impact of moral development on physical, cognitive or social development in middle and late childhood; and adolescents:

Moral reasoning correlates with cognitive development and social development. In middle childhood (6-8 years), the child develops a stronger sense of right and wrong (4) alongside cognitive development. During this period there is also a rapid development of mental skills, greater ability to describe experiences and talk about thoughts and feelings and less focus on one's self and more concern for others. (4) This is also reflected in moral decisions.

For example, Piaget's moral theory has only two stages. In middle and late childhood (younger than 10 or 11) and older childhood (older than 10 or 11), Piaget studied many aspects of moral judgment, but most of his findings fit into a two-stage theory. Children younger than 10 or 11 years think about moral dilemmas one way; older children consider them differently. According to Piaget's findings, the younger children regard ...