Review lecture 18 chapter 18

2. 2
1. Introduction
2. Fact or Fiction?
3. Postformal Thought
4. Morals and Religion
5. Cognitive Growth and Higher Education
6. Closing Thoughts

3. Fact or Fiction? Fiction Fact
1. Compared with adolescent thinking, adult thinking
is more practical, flexible, and integrative.
2. Faith is a not constant; it changes or
deepens after the emerging-adult-years.
3. A college education teaches students to
accept the right answers provided by their
instructors and other authorities.
4. Men and women approach moral issues in the same
way.
3

4. 4
Fifth Stage or New Level?
How do people talk (and think) about themselves?
postformal thought: Beyond Piaget’s four stages, adult thinking that is more practical, flexible, and
dialectical (that is, more capable of combining contradictory elements into a comprehensive whole).
11-15 15-20 20-30 30-45 45-60 60-70 70-85
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75Percent
Participants’ Self-Descriptions, by Category and by Age Group
Category Self-protective (lowest level) Dysregulated Complex Integrated
Age group (in years) Source: Labouvie-Vief, 2006.

5. 5
Fifth Stage or New Level?
Video:
Brain Development Animation:
Emerging Adulthood

6. Which is better: to go with your gut feelings or
consider pros and cons as objectively as you can?
subjective thought: Thinking strongly influenced by personal qualities of the
individual thinker (i.e., past experiences, cultural assumptions, future goals).
objective thought: Thinking that is not influenced by the thinker’s personal
qualities; involves facts and numbers that are universally considered true and valid.
Fifth Stage or New Level?
What is the best way to think about an important decision?
Both are necessary
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7. 7
Fifth Stage or New Level?
Video:
Interview with Kurt Fischer

8. Cognitive Development
Turn over only those cards that confirm or disconfirm this proposition: If a card
has a vowel on one side, then it always has an even number on the other side.
one card that answers this problem because an odd
number on the other side would falsify the hypothesis
8

9. one card that answers this problem
because a vowel on the other side
would falsify the hypothesis
9
Cognitive Development
Turn over only those cards that confirm or disconfirm this proposition: If a card
has a vowel on one side, then it always has an even number on the other side.

10. wrong choice; regardless of what is
on the other side, this card would
not falsify the hypothesis
10
Cognitive Development
Turn over only those cards that confirm or disconfirm this proposition: If a card
has a vowel on one side, then it always has an even number on the other side.

11. wrong choice; regardless of what is on the other side,
this card would not falsify the hypothesis
11
Cognitive Development
Turn over only those cards that confirm or disconfirm this proposition: If a card
has a vowel on one side, then it always has an even number on the other side.

12. dialectical thought: The ability to consider a thesis and its
antithesis simultaneously and thus to arrive at a synthesis.
Dialectical Thought
What are the elements of dialectical thought?
Dialectical
Thought
Antithesis
A proposition or
statement of belief
that opposes the
thesis; the second
stage of the process
of dialectical thinking
Thesis
A proposition or
statement of
belief; the first
stage of the
process of
dialectical thinking
Synthesis
A new idea that integrates the thesis and antithesis, thus
representing a new and more comprehensive level of truth;
the third stage of the process of dialectical thinking
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13. Stages of Faith
In what stages do people develop faith?
Stage
1
Stage
2
Stage
3
Stage
4
Stage
5
Stage
6
Intuitive-
projective
faith
Mythic-
literal faith
Synthetic-
conventional
faith
Individual-
reflective
faith
Conjunctive
faith
Universalizing
faith
Faith is magical, illogical, imaginative, and filled with fantasy,
especially about the power of God and the mysteries of birth and death.
Typical of children ages 3 to 7.
Individuals take the myths and stories of religion literally, believing
simplistically in the power of symbols. God is seen as rewarding those
who follow divine laws and punishing others. Typical of ages 7 to 11
(but characterizes some adults).
This is a conformist stage. Faith is conventional, reflecting concern
about other people and favoring “what feels right” over what makes
intellectual sense.
Faith is characterized by intellectual detachment from the values of
the culture and from the approval of other people. College may be the
springboard for this stage, as the young person learns to question the
authority of parents, teachers and other powerful figures and to rely
instead on his/her own understanding of the world. Faith becomes an
active commitment.
Faith incorporates both powerful emotional ideas (such as the power of
prayer or the love of God) and rational conscious values (such as the
worth of life compared with that of property). People are willing to
accept contradictions (a postformal manner of thinking). Rarely
achieved before middle age.
People at this stage have a powerful vision of universal compassion,
justice, and love that compels them to live their lives in a way that
others may think is either saintly or foolish.
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14. Are there gender differences in how people make decisions
about moral dilemmas?
Measuring Moral Growth
14
Having a
baby
Caring for
Parents

15. Measuring Moral Growth
15
Video:
Labouvie-Vief’s “John and Mary” Story

16. The Effects of College on Cognition
Do the findings in this classic 1981 apply to the college experience today?
Dualism
modified
Relativism
discovered
Commitments in
relativism developed
Authorities know, and if
we work hard, read every
word and learn right
answers, all will be well.
True authorities must be
right, the others are
frauds. We remain right.
Others must be different
and wrong. Good
authorities give us
problems so we can learn
to find the right answer
by our own independent
thought.
Then some
uncertainties and
different opinions
are real and
legitimate
temporarily, even for
authorities. They’re
working on them to
get to the truth.
But what about those others I
hear about? And different
opinions? And uncertainties? Some
of our own authorities disagree
with each other or don’t seem to
know, and some give us problems
instead of answers.
But even good authorities
admit they don’t know all
the answers yet!
But there are so many
things they don’t know
the Answers to! And they
won’t for a long time.
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17. In certain courses, authorities are
not asking for the right answer.
They want us to think about things
in a certain way, supporting
opinion with data. That’s what
they grade us on.
I see I’m going to have to
make my own decisions in an
uncertain world with no one
to tell me I’m right.
Where authorities don’t
know the right answers,
everyone has a right to
his own opinion; no one
is wrong!
Dualism
modified
Relativism
discovered
Commitments in
relativism developed
Do the findings in this classic 1981 apply to the college experience today?
But there are so many
things they don’t know
the answers to! And they
won’t for a long time.
Then what right have
they to grade us?
About what?
Then all thinking must be like this,
even for them. Everything is
relative but not equally valid. You
have to understand how each
context works. Theories are not
truth but metaphors to interpret
data with. You have to think about
your thinking.
But if everything is
relative, am I relative, too?
How can I know I’m making
the right choice?
I’m lost if I don’t. When I decide on
my career (or marriage or values),
everything will straighten out.
17
The Effects of College on Cognition

18. Dualism
modified
Relativism
discovered
Commitments in
relativism developed
Do the findings in this classic 1981 apply to the college experience today?
I’m lost if I don’t. When I decide on
my career (or marriage or values),
everything will straighten out.
Well, I’ve made my
first commitment!
Why didn’t that
settle everything?
I’ve made several
commitments. I’ve got
to balance them—how
many, how deep? How
certain, how tentative?
Things are getting contradictory.
I can’t make logical sense out of
life’s dilemmas.
This is how life will be. I must be
wholehearted while tentative, fight
for my values yet respect others,
believe my deepest values right yet
be ready to learn. I see that I shall
be retracing this whole journey over
and over - but, I hope, more wisely.
18
The Effects of College on Cognition

19. How diverse were U.S. college campuses in 2010?
Diversity of U.S. College Students, 2010
Percent of Total
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, 2010.
Women
Part time
African
American
Hispanic
Asian
Native
American
International
Over age 24 37%
3%
1%
12%
38%
7%
13%
57%
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Changes in the College Context
Photo credits: Top: Digital Vision/Getty Images; Bottom: Stewart Cohen/Getty Images

20. What traits of postformal thought do you see in
yourself and your friends?
Closing Thoughts
20Rob Melnychuk/Getty Images