For me your examples fall a bit flat because they don’t sufficiently address the internal experience of the subjects and how they are relating to the world. Just to deconstruct one of them:
A father who turns down his daughter’s request to play on the Xbox because he’s filing taxes, which is “more important”.
Well this behavior could be evidence of different stages on the father’s part depend on what it means to him that filing taxes are more important:
If he thinks taxes are simply a more important thing than playing Xbox that’s more indicative of 2.
If he thinks he has a responsibility (implicitly to society, his family, or something else) to do taxes and the source of that responsibility values doing taxes over playing Xbox then that’s more indicative of 3.
If he is aware of his daughter’s desire to play Xbox but weights this against his own desire to do the taxes and decides doing the taxes is more what he wants, that’s more indicative of 4.
If he considers his daughter’s desire to play Xbox, his own desire to do the taxes, considers the consequences of choosing one over the other for himself and for his daughter (and maybe for his family and society more generally), and decides that the consequences for his daughter, himself, and others of his doing the taxes rather than playing Xbox suggest that he can most get the world to look like he wants it to if he does the taxes and the best way to make this legible to other is to say that the taxes are “more important”, that’s more indicative of 5.
(extra details in the 5 example since it’s the area you expressed most confusion over)
The point is that developmental psychology often addresses behaviors that cannot be easily observed externally because the behaviors being changed are patterns of thought rather than actions in individual cases. To put it another way, if faced with a trolly problem being at a higher developmental stage won’t necessarily change your choice, but it will change how you make the choice.
For me your examples fall a bit flat because they don’t sufficiently address the internal experience of the subjects and how they are relating to the world. Just to deconstruct one of them:
Well this behavior could be evidence of different stages on the father’s part depend on what it means to him that filing taxes are more important:
If he thinks taxes are simply a more important thing than playing Xbox that’s more indicative of 2.
If he thinks he has a responsibility (implicitly to society, his family, or something else) to do taxes and the source of that responsibility values doing taxes over playing Xbox then that’s more indicative of 3.
If he is aware of his daughter’s desire to play Xbox but weights this against his own desire to do the taxes and decides doing the taxes is more what he wants, that’s more indicative of 4.
If he considers his daughter’s desire to play Xbox, his own desire to do the taxes, considers the consequences of choosing one over the other for himself and for his daughter (and maybe for his family and society more generally), and decides that the consequences for his daughter, himself, and others of his doing the taxes rather than playing Xbox suggest that he can most get the world to look like he wants it to if he does the taxes and the best way to make this legible to other is to say that the taxes are “more important”, that’s more indicative of 5.
(extra details in the 5 example since it’s the area you expressed most confusion over)
The point is that developmental psychology often addresses behaviors that cannot be easily observed externally because the behaviors being changed are patterns of thought rather than actions in individual cases. To put it another way, if faced with a trolly problem being at a higher developmental stage won’t necessarily change your choice, but it will change how you make the choice.
Ah yes, you’re correct about how the internal experiences differ. I don’t think I did a good job of pointing out how that is the thing that differs.
Thanks for the additional exposition on stage 5!