Erikson, Piaget & Psychology Theories & Concepts Explained

Kohlberg’s Conventional Ethics: Why Rules Feel Like Right

A driver stops at a red light at 3am with no one else on the road. Nobody’s watching, there’s no ticket coming, and yet they wait for green. That instinct sits at the center of Kohlberg’s conventional ethics — the mid-level of his moral development model, where right and wrong get defined by social approval and law rather than self-interest...

Kohlberg’s Preconventional Stage: Why Kids Reason This Way

Picture a kid who stops hitting his younger brother not because he understands that it hurts, but because getting caught means no screen time for a week. That is Kohlberg’s preconventional stage in action — moral reasoning built entirely around consequences rather than values. It is the starting point of Lawrence Kohlberg’s three-level framework, typical for children roughly between ages...

Self-Handicapping Psychology: Why We Sabotage Ourselves Before We Even Try

Self handicapping psychology explains why people sometimes create their own obstacles before a big test, presentation, or performance, using those obstacles as a built-in excuse if things go wrong. It sounds counterproductive, and it is, but it also protects something people value even more than success: their sense of competence. Instead of risking a clear verdict on their ability, they...

Drive Reduction Theory: A Simple Idea With Major Flaws

Clark Hull built drive reduction theory to explain nearly all motivated behavior with one mechanism: organisms act to reduce internal tension and restore balance. It’s a tidy idea, and it holds up well for hunger, thirst, and sleep. But then there are the skydivers who chase tension instead of relieving it, the addicts whose “drives” didn’t exist until the addiction...

Assimilation vs Accommodation: Why Kids Call a Zebra a Horse

Ever wonder why a toddler calls every four-legged animal a dog, or insists a zebra is just a stripy horse? Piaget had an answer, and it comes down to two processes that sit at the center of assimilation vs accommodation: how children either stretch their existing mental categories to fit new information, or rebuild those categories when the old ones...

Why Egocentrism Isn’t What Most People Think It Is

A toddler who covers their eyes and shouts “You can’t see me!” is showing a mild form of egocentrism — and so is the teenager who spends an hour agonizing over a photo, convinced the whole school will notice every detail. Neither one is being selfish. What looks like self-centeredness is actually a cognitive stage tied to how the developing...