Child Development Assessments

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Introduction

The Child Development Assessments are designed to give you a practical feel for what child developmentalists actually do in our field of study. Most people have an idea that child psychologists study children and maybe, if necessary, also treat children who have problems, but the actual ‘how’ we do that or in ‘what way’ we do that is not always general knowledge. The CDAs are developed so that you can get a realistic feel for what many developmental psychologists do on a day-to-do basis. The hope and goal is for you to find them informative, interesting, and useful towards deepening your understanding and application of the class material, and hopefully, fun to do! – as you learn more about child psychology.

Instructions

For this assessment, please watch this video clip of 3 children (ages 6 yrs, 9 yrs, and 16 yrs) responding to Heinz’s dilemma of whether he “should steal the drug.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjPfI4Xu2CU

For each of the 3 children:

  1. Briefly describe the child you’ll be assessing (e.g., the 6 year old boy)
  2. Use Kohlberg’s Six Stages of Moral ReasoningLinks to an external site.to determine which stage of moral development the child is in.
    • Stage 1: orientation toward punishment and obedience
    • Stage 2: instrumental purpose and exchange
    • Stage 3: maintaining mutual relations/approval of others
    • Stage 4: social concern and conscience/’what if everybody did it
    • Stage 5: morality of contract, of individual rights, and of democratically accepted law
    • Stage 6: morality of universal ethical principles
  3. Explain, in as much detail as possible, what led to this decision. Include an explanation of what each child said, how they reasoned their answers, and how their reasoning led you to determine the choice of stage of moral development. Also, what things did they say, or not say, that allowed you to determine they were excluded from a different stage?

Your assessment should follow these standard formatting requirements:

  • double spaced
  • 1 inch margins
  • 12 point font
  • approximately 3 pages