Memorize the Development Theories of Piaget, Freud, Erikson and Kohlberg in 55 Flashcards
Study guide for the Development Theories deck (VG7626): every stage of Piaget, Freud, Erikson and Kohlberg with ages, virtues and key terms, plus two tricks to keep them straight.
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Four theorists, four sets of stages, one exam question that always shows up: which stage, whose theory, what age? The Development Theories: Piaget, Freud, Erikson & Kohlberg deck (code VG7626) on Flip It compresses the four classic stage models into 55 flashcards — every stage, its age range, its key concept and its vocabulary, plus the modern debates (constructivism, evolutionary developmental psychology, nature vs. nurture) that frame them in an intro psychology course.
Study this deck: Development Theories: Piaget, Freud, Erikson & Kohlberg
1 / 10Developmental psychology
Tap the card for the answer · swipe right if you knew it, left if not
Sample cards
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| Piaget's second stage of cognitive development | Pre-operational stage (~2-7 years) |
| Conservation in Piaget's theory | The understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance, typically mastered in the concrete operational stage |
| Centration | The tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation while neglecting other important features, typical in pre-operational thinking |
| Freud's three personality structures | Id (primitive, pleasure principle), ego (organized, realistic mediator), and superego (critical, moralizing role) |
| Latency stage in Freud's theory | Age 5 until puberty, when sexual interests are repressed |
| Erikson's fifth stage and its positive virtue | Identity vs. Role Confusion (adolescence) — the virtue is fidelity |
| Erikson's seventh stage and its positive virtue | Generativity vs. Stagnation (adulthood) — the virtue is care |
| Post-conventional moral reasoning | Moral reasoning based on abstract principles, seeing society's rules as relative and subjective |
| Heinz Dilemma | A scenario used by Kohlberg involving Heinz's wife dying from cancer and Heinz stealing a drug, used to apply stages of moral development |
| What did Piaget call the developmental process of resolving contradictions? | Equilibration |
Everything the 55 cards cover
- Piaget (cognitive) — sensorimotor (birth-2), pre-operational (2-7), concrete operational (7-11), formal operational (11+); object permanence, egocentrism, animism, centration, reversibility, conservation, equilibration, children as active constructors of knowledge
- Freud (psychosexual) — oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital; the Oedipus/Electra complex; id, ego, superego; the pleasure-seeking premise
- Erikson (psychosocial) — all eight crises with their virtues: trust vs. mistrust (hope), autonomy vs. shame (will), initiative vs. guilt (purpose), industry vs. inferiority (competency), identity vs. role confusion (fidelity), intimacy vs. isolation (love), generativity vs. stagnation (care), ego integrity vs. despair (wisdom)
- Kohlberg (moral) — pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional; the Heinz dilemma; infants' innate pre-moral capacities
- Framing concepts — physical / cognitive / social-emotional dimensions, Rousseau's Emile, Michael Commons' Model of Hierarchical Complexity, individual vs. social constructivism, evolutionary developmental psychology and adaptive plasticity, continuous vs. discontinuous development, stability
Two tricks that make the stages stick
Line the four theories up on one age axis. The deck gives you the ages; put them side by side and the overlaps become memorable anchors. Age 2 is a triple boundary: Piaget's sensorimotor ends, Freud's oral has just ended, Erikson's trust vs. mistrust closes. Puberty is another: Freud's genital stage, Erikson's identity vs. role confusion and Piaget's formal operations all start around 11-13. Memorize the boundaries, and the stages fall into place on either side.
Recite Erikson as crisis → virtue, always in that order. Exams love asking for the virtue (fidelity, generativity's care, integrity's wisdom) rather than the crisis name. The deck's Erikson cards pair both on one card, so say the full pair aloud every time you flip: “industry vs. inferiority — competency”. After a few sessions the virtue arrives automatically.
Study it on Flip It
The 55 cards are short enough to clear in a single 20-minute session, then keep in rotation with spaced reviews before your exam. Sign in at Flip It, search the library for Development Theories: Piaget, Freud, Erikson & Kohlberg or the code VG7626, and add it to your decks.
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