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Psychology 102 Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology is a branch of psychology focusing on the growth and

development of individuals from conception to death. It groups people into various stages and

focuses on experiences of change, responses and behaviours of an individual in areas such as

cognitive, biological and social processes (Amir et al. 430-444). A large proportion of stages and

theories focuses on childhood and adolescence since this is the period where several changes

occur. Developmental psychology is very useful in understanding the growth of individuals in

relation to their age and maturation. For instance, studies reveal that most adolescents tend to

argue with their parents and experience a hard time finding friends who can match their situation.

In this paper, I will discuss Vesca who faces the same challenges, which I will explain through

the psychological concepts of punishment and analyze it with the pre-conventional and identity

vs. role confusion stages.

My friend’s sister Vesca is an eighteen-year-old living with her father, mother, brother

and younger sister. She is currently schooling at a local high school situated within her home.

Vesca is associated with two groups, one in which her mother refers to as a “good” which is

quiet, less-known, and disciplined and another which her mother refers to as “bad” which is
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extravagant, popular, and more concerned with seeking their own pleasures. She tries to hang out

with both groups to see which one pleases her more. Her parents are concerned about her

affiliation with the “bad “group, nevertheless, Vesca disobeys her parents most times and go

partying with her friends, as a result, this forces her parents to take action of not allowing her to

go outside other than attending school. Following this action, Vesca quit her outgoing habits with

the “bad “group.

Punishment refers to event or changes that occur following a certain behaviour that

decreases the likelihood of it occurring again in the future. Punishment is focused on reducing or

eliminating unwanted behaviours. According to Canton, there are two kinds of punishments one

being positive and another is negative punishment. Vesca’s situation above is certainly a

negative punishment in that this kind of punishment reduces the probability of a response or a

behaviour occurrence by eliminating a rewarding and a desirable stimulus (Canton, Rob). Her

parents are applying negative punishment to exterminate her outgoing behaviours with the “bad

“group. They achieve this by grounding her and not allowing her to leave the compound unless

for academic purposes, this implies that they are taking away her freedom and an opportunity to

do what she would like to do. In responding to this punishment, we see Vesca obeying her

parents and quitting her association with the “bad” group.

The first level of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development and reasoning is the pre-

conventional stage; it involves a kind of thinking that is considering what is wrong and right. The

stage describes children below the age of nine whose interpretation of morality and following

rules is solely meant to avoid punishment and to be rewarded. This stage is labelled pre-

conventional because of the restricted association that children have with the outlined principles
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(Zulkifli et al 886-899). Based on her situation, Vesca can be considered to be still in the pre-

conventional stage though she is not within the age bracket. This can be explained by the fact

that Vesca quitted her association with the group that was bringing her down to avoid the

consequences when her parents punished her. This means she was only apprehensive with the

punishment when considering undertaking some behaviour; undoubtedly, her condition places

her in the pre-conventional stage.

The fifth stage of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is identity vs. role

confusion, at this period of life, many changes ranging from academic, societal, biological, and

social changes occur among the adolescents, which would lead an individual to become an adult.

In the process of attaining maturity, this stage poses a predicament of probing for an identity and

finding a sense of self (Syed, Moin, and Kate C. McLean). In our case basing on her age and

experiences, Vesca falls under the identity vs. role confusion stage. She is trying different roles

in a pursuit to find her sense of self, she tries different group of friends to see if she can find the

one she can identify herself with. This shows that Vesca is facing the challenge of finding a

sense of who she is and who she wants to be thus placing her in the identity vs. role confusion

stage.

Basing on the paragraphs above we can infer that if Vesca was twelve years old some of

the theories described above would be applied differently. Her parents would still have applied

the same punishment to curb her behaviour and as a result, she would have quitted her habits

considering she quitted in her eighteens. In addition, her reasoning on her obedience toward the

parents would still be the reward given or punishment. Nevertheless, the slight difference would

be on Erikson’s stages, in her twelve she would be placed between industry vs. inferiority and
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identity vs. role confusion stages. In this case, she would leave the stage of industry vs.

inferiority having a sense of competence, encouraged and able to do tasks successfully. With the

success from the first, she would go into the other and start attempting to find her identity.

Generally, developmental psychology plays an important role in explaining what an individual

goes through during certain periods of their lifespans. Vesca’s described situation reflects her

struggle with identity and thus, reflects her placement into Erikson’s psychosocial stage of

identity vs. role confusion as she tries to find her sense of self through different friendships. Her

parents use operant conditioning, and specifically punishment, to attempt to decrease her

behaviour of hanging out with certain groups. In response, she obeys them for the sole reason of

avoiding the punishment and consequence.

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Works cited

Amir, Dorsa, and Katherine McAuliffe. "Cross-cultural, developmental psychology: Integrating

approaches and key insights." Evolution and Human Behavior 41.5 (2020): 430-444.

Canton, Rob. Why Punish?: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Punishment. Macmillan

International Higher Education, 2017.

Syed, Moin, and Kate C. McLean. "Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development." (2017).

Zulkifli, Hafizhah, and Rosnani Hashim. "Moral Reasoning Stages through Hikmah (Wisdom)

Pedagogy in Moral Education." International Journal of Academic Research in

Progressive Education and Development 8.4 (2019): 886-899.