Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

416 Chapter 
12 
Development
The fact that Gilligan’s conception of morality differs greatly from Kohlberg’s 
suggests that gender plays an important role in determining what a person sees as 
moral. Although the research evidence is not defi nitive, it seems plausible that their 
differing conceptions of what constitutes moral behavior may lead men and women 
to regard the morality of a specifi c behavior in different ways (Jorgensen, 2006; 
Sherblom, 2008; Walker & Frimer, 2009).
Social Development: Finding 
One’s Self in a Social World
“Who am I?” “How do I fi t into the world?” “What is life all about?” 
Questions such as these assume special signifi cance during the teenage years, as 
adolescents seek to fi nd their place in the broader social world. As we will see, this 
quest takes adolescents along several routes.
 ERIKSON’S THEORY OF PSYCHOSOCIAL 
DEVELOPMENT: THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY 
Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development emphasizes the search for identity 
during the adolescent years. As noted earlier, psychosocial development encom-
passes the way people’s understanding of themselves, one another, and the world 
around them changes during the course of development (Erikson, 1963). 
The fi fth stage of Erikson’s theory (summarized, with the other stages, in Figure 3), 
the  identity-versus-role-confusion stage,  encompasses adolescence. During this stage, 
a time of major testing, people try to determine what is unique about themselves. They 
attempt to discover who they are, what their strengths are, and what kinds of roles 
they are best suited to play for the rest of their lives—in short, their  identity.  A person 
confused about the most appropriate role to play in life may lack a stable identity, 
identity-versus-role-confusion 
stage
According to Erikson, a time in 
adolescence of major testing to 
determine one’s unique qualities.