Barriers to Emotional Development

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on the process of emotional development in the young person and, in particular, on the barriers to emotional development in school-age children. The paper looks at ways in which schools can work to remove these barriers and build self-esteem among all students, especially those who may be at special risk for emotional problems because of poverty, abuse, or other social and experiential factors. In an attempt to understand the process of emotional development as it should occur in emotionally healthy children, the paper examines the theories of three psychologists whose work continues to dominate our thinking on this issue: Piaget, Kohlberg, and Erikson.

From the Paper:

"Kohlberg, following in the footsteps of Piaget, argues that the process of developing a sense of morality is hierarchical and highly patterned one in which each step must be mastered before the next one can be essayed. Reimer (1990) summarizes Kohlberg's three stages of moral development (each of which includes sub stages), arguing that all children begin life with what he terms pre-conventional reasoning or morality. At this stage, all children decide how to act based on their assessment of their own self interest, including whether or not they are likely to be punished for an action if an adult discovers them performing it."

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