Cognitive developmental theories help in the description of how humans sensualise their

experiences. William Perry discovered that students have certain mentalities towards
lecturers, course coordinators, assignments and their own input in learning (LF Zhang). After
carrying out his research at Havard University and with women from Radcliffe, Perry found
out that students, particularly undergraduates, go through four stages. These stages are
duality, multiplicity, relativism and commitment. These four can be broken down further into
nine positions. Students usually start as dualists and end college as relativists. It can be
noticed that students may be in the commitment phase in one course like Calculus and may
also be in the dualism phase in another like Mechanics. Perry’s original study was a bit
gender biased and also small (Pascarella and Terenzini,1991). However, over the years more
research has been done to provide more accurate conclusions from the theory. For example, it
was discovered by Belenky and her associates that the cognitive process was different for
females rather than that of Perry (Belenky et al. 1986). This was because Perry’s study was
on similar students mostly males from advantaged backgrounds.

The first stage of William Perry’s theory of cognitive development is Dualism. At this stage,
students have a black and white view of the world. They believe in the existance of only right
or wrong answers. Dualism can be further categorised into some of the nine positions which
are Basic dualism and Full Dualism. In the first position, student’ beliefs are that the
authorities have answers to every problem that arises. There are no alternatives, all problems
can be solved and the lecturer knows the answers. At this position, the students will have an
idea that their role is to find the right answers and memorise them (Brooks and Gordon
1998). Students may start in this position because of a culturally homogeneous or narrow
environment, but they will quickly lose their innocence at a university (Wankat and
Oreovicz, 1993). Students will eventually begin to accommodate new ideas of multiplism and
will at this stage have both ideas of dualism and those of multiplism. Thus students will have
gained this skill of accepting other students’ perspective. Wankat and Oreovicz,( 1993) also
indicated that the shift from position one to position two may look so small but however the
student has made great adjustments by acknowledging the possibility of uncertainty and
complexity.

The second stage of William Perry’s theory is called Multiplism. At this stage students realise
that there are conflicting answers and they should trust their “inner voices”. The young adults
categorise problems into two. They believe there are problems whose solutions we know and
also those whose solutions we do not know yet. Perry (1999) stressed that these students’
goals are learning how to find the correct solutions. It’s a bit dualistic in the early
multiplicity. Although they acknowledge the existence of problems with unknown solutions,
Perry () found out that the students do believe that their solutions sorely exist. From the
students’ perspective, the professor clearly explains the methods used to find the right answer
even he or she does not temporarily know the right answer. The transition phase into
positions which follow is due to the increase in acceptance of uncertainty by students that
these uncertainties are real and not created by instructors for teaching purposes. Students
reach late multiplicity or advanced multiplicity as they progress where they believe everyone
has a right to their own opinion. They realise that having individualistic thinking will make
them score high marks in their work. Men at this stage fight authority openly while women
fight internaly as “hidden multiplists” (Belenky et al., 1986).

The third stage of William Perry’s development is Relativism. This stage starts as contextual
relativism and as the students progress, they end up in pre-commitment. Under contextual
relativism, all solutions to problems are backed by solid reasons. Students at this stage
believe that some solutions are preferable than others and they select the better one,
depending on context. Some which are deemed not preferable may also be referred to as
useless. Furthermore, the aim of the student at this stage is to learn how to evaluate the
solutions. Perry (1970) also noticed that at this stage, theories are viewed as frameworks to
make sense of information rather than the truth. Correspondingly, authorities’ opinions are
viewed as being based on great experience rather than on truth.

According to Barker (2011), this stage brings feelings of insecurity, self-doubt and occasional
anger. The students desire to understand, yet at the same time wish to escape from the
intellectual work involved.

There are problems which are noticed at this stage. With so much opportunities in this world,
students at this stage look for a distinct way to make choices and they begin doubting
previous decisions.

As the brains develop, students reach commitment near the end of relativism. The
commitment may be a decision already made but the commitment is intense Wankat( ). It is
at this stage where the student chooses his or her own identity and values. According to the
Cambridge Dictionary, a commitment is a willingness to give time and energy to a job,
activity or something that you believe in.