Psychological,

Anthropological,
And Sociological
Foundations
Of Education

Written By:
Alicia S. Bustos, Ed. D.
Socorro C. Espiritu, Ph.D.
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Part I

Chapter I: The Learner

Introduction
Teaching has come a long way in establishing itself as a profession. In the Philippines,
teachers are being recognized as professionals in their own respect. Like other professions, the
status of teaching hinges, in large measure, on the professionalism of its members. Hence, for
society to recognize and acknowledge the significance and dignity of the teaching profession,
teachers have to continually improve themselves with the teaching competencies with which to
guide student learning.

Understanding Growth and Development

The term growth and development have been continually used in most readings in
psychology. Many times, these terms are used interchangeably; although in certain respects
both terms, though parallel, imply different definitions.

Growth essentially refers to the quantitative changes in an individual as he progresses in

chronological age. It may refer to increases in size, height, or weight.

Development, on the other hand, refers to the progressive series of changes of an

orderly and coherent type leading to the individual’s maturation. This definition implies that for
development to be progressive there is a direction in the manner which changes occur.

From these definitions, one can see that although both growth and development imply
contrasting types of changes in the individual, both are, nonetheless, related and
complementary processes.

Importance of studying The Stages of Development

In many, instances, people meet children of varying ages and wonder why each of them
displays different characteristics. The focus of the study of development precisely points to
these observations. A teacher, who expects to meet the needs of his /her learners, must be
aware of the various developmental differences among his/her learners.

Factors in Growth and Development

Two general factors influence human development;

1. Maturation or natural growth resulting from heredity
2. Environmental influences in and through which the growing takes place.

These two factors are so thoroughly interrelated that it is impossible to isolate their
specific influences.
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Basic Principles of Growth and Development

From numerous studies conducted on growth and development, developmental
psychologists have established some basic principles of developmental change that occur over
the life cycle.

1. Development follows an orderly sequence which is predictable

The first basic principle relates to the orderly sequence of developmental change.
The developmental process, guided by the inter action of maturation and learning, follows a
predictable pattern. It is a continuous process that proceeds according to a definite
direction and uniform pattern throughout life cycle.
This predictable sequence is also observable in the phylogenetic skills – those skills
which are universally true of the human race. Thus, regardless of the culture, all babies
proceed from supported sitting to unsupported sitting to creeping, crawling and, finally
walking. Similarly, babies produce unrecognizable sounds to blabbing before producing
understandable speech.

2. The rate of development is unique to each individual.

The second basic principle relates to the rate of development changes as unique to
each individual. Although developmental changes follow a predictable pattern, the rate at
which changes may occur may be different from one individual to another. Such
differences in rate of change are determined by the interaction of heredity and
environmental factors. As an example, some children will change faster than others in
almost all areas of development while some will be much slower than others. Or, some
children will have faster rates of development in the physical and social aspecs while ate
same time be slower in the mental aspect of development.
This second principle stresses the fact that it is futile to try to accelerate an
individual’s development if he is not ready to develop or experience change. This means;
for instance, that any new ability will emerge only if the essential physical or mental
foundations are already existing. Training can produce results only if the individual has
reached the level of maturation necessary for an activity. Such readiness for an activity is
determined by his rate of development.

3. Development involves change.

This principle implies that the human being is always evolving based on theories by
developmental psychologists. As stated earlier, children undergo physical, emotional, and
mental changes.

4. Early development is more critical than later development.

These studies of Freud, Erickson, and Piaget on early patterns of behaviour led to
the conclusions that early development is very important. It is at this stage of development
where individuals develop the foundations for social relatedness, emotional well-being,
and personal adjustments. It has been widely accepted that the first 2 years of life, often
called the “formative years”, greatly dictate the course of an individual’s growth and
development. This principle is also the rationale behind early childhood education.
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5. Development is the product of maturation and learning

As discussed previously, development is an outcome of both maturation and
environmental influences. Although people are genetically endowed with certain
characteristics, learning allows individuals to develop these innate potentialities. Through
exercise and effort, people can act on their environments and develop their competencies.
In most cases, individuals learn through imitation and observation of other role models.

6. There are individual differences in development.

Although children follow a predictable pattern of development, a step-by-step
progression, all children do not reach these development stages all at the same time or all
at the same age. These differences in development are often ascribed to both genetic and
environmental influences, where each individual is either born or exposed to varying
factors.
For instance, physical development depends largely on inherited characteristics,
such that children will grow in height differently from other. Similarly, intellectual growth is
contingent upon one’s educational exposure or family environment.

7. There are social expectations for every developmental period which are often referred to as
developmental task.
This principle clearly states that any point in the individual’s development, each one
is expected to fulfil certain social expectations. As will be seen in a later discussion, these
social expectation vary from one stage to the next
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The learner’s stages of development

There are eight stages of development usually ascribed to the life span of human beings.
These stages which are based on chronological age are listed below.

Development stage Characteristics

Age when heredity endowments and sex are fixed and

1. Pre-natal
all body features, both external and internal are
(Conception to Birth)
developed.

2. Infancy Foundation age when basic behaviour patterns are

(Birth to 2 years) organized and many ontogenic maturation skills emerge.

Pre-gang, exploratory, and questioning, when language

3. Early Childhood
and elementary reasoning are acquired and initial
(2 to 6 years)
socialization is experienced.

4. Late Childhood Gang and creativity age when selfhelp skills, social skills,
(6 to 12 years) school skills, and play skills are developed.

Transition age from childhood to adulthood when sex

5. Adolescence maturation and rapid physical development occur
(Puberty to 18 years) resulting to changes in ways of feeling, thinking and
acting.

6. Early Adulthood Age of adjustments to new patterns of life and new roles
(18 to 40 years) such as spouse, parent, and breadwinner.

7. Middle Age Transition age when adjustments to initial physical and

(40 years to retirement) mental decline are experienced.

8. Old Age Retirement age when increasingly rapid physical and

(Retirement to Death) mental decline are experienced.
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Theories of Development
In the study of human development and behaviour, developmental psychologists have
come up with a variety of theories. These theories which have served as tools in testing their
ideas and concepts have helped them in understanding the organization and course of human
development.
To gain further insight into the behavioural changes at various stages of development,
four theories of development which have influenced contemporary concepts about the nature
of individual development are presented in this section. These are Sigmund Freud’s
psychoanalytical theory, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory, Jean Piaget’s Theory
of cognitive development and Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.

Stages of Infancy to Early

Late Childhood Adolescence Early Adulthood
Development Childhood

Learning to walk
Learning to talk Accepting changes
Learning to take solid Learning physical Maintaining
in one’s physique
Physically skills foods skills necessary for physical health
Learning to control and using the
games and well being
elimination of body body effectively
wastes

Developing Preparing for an

fundamental skills in economic career
reading, writing, and
Getting ready to with knowledge Getting started in
Intellectual skills calculating
read Developing concepts gained from an occupation
necessary for daily academic
living exposure
Achieving new and Learning to live with a
Learning to get along
mature social relations marriage partner or
with age mates
with age mates of both independently
Learning sex Beginning to develop
sexes
appropriate masculine Selecting a mate
Social Skills differences and or feminine social roles
Achieving a masculine or
Taking on civic
feminine social role
sexual modesty Developing attitudes responsibility
Desiring, accepting, and
towards social groups Finding a congenial
achieving socially
and institutions
responsible behaviour social group
Building a wholesome Achieving emotional
Learning to attitude towards oneself independence from
distinguish right as a growing individual parents and other adults
Developing a Preparing for marriage Starting a family
and wrong and
Emotional Skills conscience, a sense of and family life Rearing children
beginning to morality, and a scale of Acquiring a set of values
Managing a home
develop a values and an ethical systems
Achieving personal as a guide to behaviour
conscience
independence – depending on ideology

Summary of Categories for Developmental Tasks

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Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud’s theory views personality development according to stages experienced in the
growing years of infancy and adolescence. These stages are:
(1) Oral stage (0 to 2 years)
(2) Anal stage (2 to 4 years)
(3) Phallic stage (4 to 6 years)
(4) Latency stage (6 to 12 years)
(5) Genital stage (12 years and up)

Referring to these stages as psychosexual development, Freud gave prominence to

sexual feelings or emotions in describing the stages of development.

Oral Stage
The first stage is the oral stage. An infant is in this stage from birth to eighteen months
of age. The main focus in the oral stage is pleasure seeking through the infant’s mouth. During
this stage the need for tasting and sucking becomes prominent in producing pleasure. Oral
stimulation is crucial during this stage; if the infant’s needs are not met during this time frame
he or she will be fixated in the oral stage. Fixation in this stage can lead to adult habits such as
thumb-sucking, smoking, over-eating, and nail-biting. Personality traits can also develop during
adulthood that is linked to oral fixation; these traits can include optimism and independence or
pessimism and hostility.

Anal Stage
The second stage is the anal stage which lasts from eighteen months to three years of
age. During this stage the infant’s pleasure seeking centers are located in the bowels and
bladder. Parents stress toilet training and bowel control during this time period. Fixation in the
anal stage can lead to anal-retention or anal-expulsion. Anal retentive characteristics include
being overly neat, precise, and orderly while being anal expulsive involves being disorganized,
messy, and destructive.

Phallic Stage
In the Phallic stage of psychosexual development, a boy's decisive experience is the
Oedipus complex describing his son–father competition for sexual possession of mother. This
psychological complex indirectly derives its name from the Greek mythologic character
Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father and sexually possessed his mother. Initially, Freud
applied the Oedipus complex to the development of boys and girls alike; he then developed the
female aspect of phallic-stage psychosexual development as the feminine Oedipus attitude and
the negative Oedipus complex; but his student–collaborator Carl Jung proposed the "Electra
complex", derived from Greek mythologic character Electra, who plotted matricidal revenge
against her mother for the murder of her father, to describe a girl's psychosexual competition
with her mother for possession of her father.
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Oedipus
Despite mother being the parent who primarily gratifies the child's desires, the
child begins forming a discrete sexual identity — "boy", "girl" — that alters the dynamics
of the parent and child relationship; the parents become the focus of infantile libidinal
energy. The boy focuses his libido (sexual desire) upon his mother, and focuses jealousy
and emotional rivalry against his father — because it is he who sleeps with the mother.
To facilitate uniting him with the mother, the boy's id wants to kill his father (as did
Oedipus), but the ego, pragmatically based upon the reality principle, knows that his
father is the stronger of the two males competing to psychosexually possess the one
female. Nonetheless, the fearful boy remains ambivalent about his father's place in the
family, which is manifested as fear of castration by the physically greater father; the fear
is an irrational, subconscious manifestation of the infantile Id.

Electra
In developing a discrete psychosexual identity, boys develop castration anxiety
and girls develop penis envy towards all males. The girl's envy is rooted in the biologic
fact that, without a penis, she cannot sexually possess mother, as the infantile id
demands, resultantly, the girl redirects her desire for sexual union upon father. She thus
psychosexually progresses to heterosexual femininity (which culminates in bearing a
child) derived from earlier, infantile desires; her child replaces the absent penis.
Moreover, after the phallic stage, the girl's psychosexual development includes
transferring her primary erogenous zone from the infantile clitoris to the adult vagina.
Freud thus considered a girl's Oedipal conflict to be more emotionally intense than that
of a boy, resulting, potentially, in a woman of submissive, less confident personality.

Latency Stage
The fourth stage is the latency stage which begins at the age of six and continues until
the age of eleven. During this stage there is no pleasure seeking region of the body; instead all
sexual feelings are repressed. Thus, children are able to develop social skills, and find comfort
through peer and family interaction.

Genital Stage
The final stage of psychosexual development is the genital stage. This stage starts from
eleven onwards, lasts through puberty, and ends when one reaches adulthood at the age of
eighteen. The onset of puberty reflects a strong interest from one person to another of the
opposite sex. If one does not experience fixation in any of the psychosexual stages, once he or
she has reached the genital stage, he or she will grow into a well-balanced human being.
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Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

as articulated in the second half of the 20th century by Erik Erikson in collaboration with
Joan Erikson, is a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory that identifies a series of eight stages
that a healthy developing individual should pass through from infancy to late adulthood.
Erikson's stage theory characterizes an individual advancing through the eight life stages as a
function of negotiating his or her biological and sociocultural forces. Each stage is characterized
by a psychosocial crisis of these two conflicting forces. If an individual does indeed successfully
reconcile these forces (favoring the first mentioned attribute in the crisis), they emerge from
the stage with the corresponding virtue. For example, if an infant enters into the toddler stage
(autonomy vs. shame and doubt) with more trust than mistrust, they carry the virtue of hope
into the remaining life stages. The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be
expected to return 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.

Approximate Psychosocial Significant Existential

Virtues Examples
Age crisis relationship question
Infancy Trust vs. Can I trust the Feeding,
Hope Mother
Under 2 years Mistrust world? abandonment
Toilet training,
Toddlerhood Autonomy vs. Is it okay to be
Will Parents clothing
2–4 years Shame/Doubt me?
themselves
Early Is it okay for me Exploring, using
Initiative vs.
childhood Purpose Family to do, move, and tools or making
Guilt
5–8 years act? art
Can I make it in
Middle
Competenc Industry vs. Neighbors, the world of
Childhood School, sports
e Inferiority School people and
9–12 years
things?
Adolescence Identity vs. Role Peers, Role Who am I? Who Social
Fidelity
13–19 years Confusion Model can I be? relationships
Early
Intimacy vs. Friends, Romantic
adulthood Love Can I love?
Isolation Partners relationships
20–39 years
Middle
Generativity vs. Household, Can I make my Work,
Adulthood Care
Stagnation Workmates life count? parenthood
40–59 years
Late
Ego Integrity vs. Mankind, My Is it okay to have
Adulthood Wisdom Reflection on life
Despair kind been me?
60 and above

Stages of Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

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Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

Cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes resulting
from biological maturation and environmental experience. He believed that children construct
an understanding of the world around them, experience discrepancies between what they
already know and what they discover in their environment, and then adjust their ideas
accordingly. Moreover, Piaget claimed that cognitive development is at the center of the
human organism, and language is contingent on knowledge and understanding acquired
through cognitive development. Piaget's earlier work received the greatest attention.
The two processes involved in achieving equilibration or in adapting to the environment
are assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the process by which an individual
acquires information or knowledge or by which experiences are integrated into an existing
scheme. Accommodation is the process of creating a new scheme by modifying an existing
scheme after an individual’s interaction with the environment. An infant, for instance, sees a
rattle and reaches to grasp it; he is assimilating. When he changes the way he holds out his
hand to be able to grasp, he is accommodating. Assimilation and accommodation are
complementary processes.

Piaget categories cognitive development in four stages: (1) Sensorimotor (0-2 years);
(2) Preoperational stage (2-7 years); (3) concrete operations (7-11 years); and, (4) formal
operation (11-16 years).

Sensorimotor stage
In this stage, infants progressively construct knowledge and understanding of the world
by coordinating experiences (such as vision and hearing) from physical interactions with objects
(such as grasping, sucking, and stepping). Infants gain knowledge of the world from the physical
actions they perform within it. They progress from reflexive, instinctual action at birth to the
beginning of symbolic thought toward the end of the stage.

Pre-operational stage
By observing sequences of play, Piaget was able to demonstrate that, towards the end
of the second year, a qualitatively new kind of psychological functioning occurs, known as the
pre-operational stage, the second of Piaget's four developmental stages. It starts when the
child begins to learn to speak at age two and lasts up until the age of seven. During the pre-
operational stage of cognitive development, Piaget noted that children do not yet understand
concrete logic and cannot mentally manipulate information. Children's increase in playing and
pretending takes place in this stage. However, the child still has trouble seeing things from
different points of view. The children's play is mainly categorized by symbolic play and
manipulating symbols. Such play is demonstrated by the idea of checkers being snacks, pieces
of paper being plates, and a box being a table. Their observation of symbols exemplifies the
idea of play with the absence of the actual objects involved.
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Concrete operational stage

Is the third stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. This stage, which follows
the preoperational stage, occurs between the ages of 7 and 11 (preadolescence) years, and is
characterized by the appropriate use of logic. During this stage, a child's thought processes
become more mature and "adult like". They start solving problems in a more logical fashion.
Abstract, hypothetical thinking is not yet developed in the child, and children can only solve
problems that apply to concrete events or objects. At this stage, the children undergo a
transition where the child learns rules such as conservation. Piaget determined that children
are able to incorporate inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning involves drawing inferences
from observations in order to make a generalization. In contrast, children struggle with
deductive reasoning, which involves using a generalized principle in order to try to predict the
outcome of an event. Children in this stage commonly experience difficulties with figuring out
logic in their heads. For example, a child will understand that "A is more than B" and "B is more
than C". However, when asked "is A more than C?” the child might not be able to logically figure
the question out mentally.

Formal operational stage

The final stage is known as the formal operational stage (adolescence and into
adulthood, roughly ages 11 to approximately 15–20): Intelligence is demonstrated through the
logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. This form of thought includes "assumptions
that have no necessary relation to reality”. At this point, the person is capable of hypothetical
and deductive reasoning. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract
concepts.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

The theory holds that moral reasoning, the basis for ethical behavior, has six
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 life, a notion that led to dialogue on the philosophical implications of such research.

Kohlberg's six stages 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.
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Kohlberg's Model 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/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)

Significance of Developmental Theories to Education

It is worthwhile to note that the developmental theories just presented have had broad
impact on educational practices. They have not only provided a variety of concepts in explaining
and understanding human development, but they have generated further researches and
theorizing in the field of developmental psychology.
Awareness of parents and teachers on the role of experiences during early stages of the
life cycle may be considered as the most outstanding contribution of Freud’s theory to
understanding the concept of personality development. Despite its being controversial, it has
generated much interest in the study of developmental processes. The importance given by
Freud to mother-child relationship in arousing both pleasurable and unpleasurable sensations
during infancy has generated a number of various cross-cultural researches on child-rearing
practices, results of which have much significance to parents and to early childhood education.

Individual Differences
Studies conducted on various stages of human development have shown that there are
no two individuals exactly alike in their resulting development and adjustments. Such
differences become more notable and observable during the school-age years. As explained by
the various developmental theories, unique characteristics and traits emerge as children pass
from one stage to another.
In view of these individual differences, the problem of meeting adequately all the needs
of a learner in education becomes the task of the teacher. For this task to be effectively
accomplished, the teacher has to be aware of the nature and extent of school learners’
differences, how they affect teaching and learning; and the factors which account for such
wide-spread differences among them. The teacher has to discover the various strengths and
weaknesses of each individual learner. He has to adopt learning materials and teaching
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techniques that will help the learner attain the maximum success in any learning situations
within the limits of his potentialities.

Specific Factors Influencing Differences among Learners

Aside from a number of factors that cause variations among individuals, the following
specific factors are considered significant in school learning: age, sex, and family and
community backgrounds.

Aspects of personality in which Learners Show Wide Variations

Whatever the cause of differences, any unselected group of learners of any
chronological age will show wide variations in four aspects: (1) physical conditions; (2)
emotional responses and attitudes; (3) mental ability and special aptitudes; and (4) social
adjustment.