Cognitive structure stage nine (from 10 or 12 to about 18 years.)

Full functionality is built.

This in a sense is the last stage of development where a child is becoming an adult, and mentally a fully functioning being. It is also the stage where each personal map of reality gradually becomes an integrated fully functioning tool for predicting. Although growth in the brain is never fully complete and cannot be, during this stage it becomes complete enough to accomplish almost anything humans can accomplish. Greenspan and Shanker in their book "The First Idea" see this stage mostly in the form of building an internal standard against which everything can be measured and judged and of course a map or model of reality is a standard. It is important to be clear, however, that although approaching completion during this stage, neither map or standard is actually complete until the end of this stage. Greenspan and Shanker say:   

"By puberty and early adolescence, more complex emotional interactions and thinking build a ninth level - an internal standard based on a growing internal sense of self. This process, which builds during the adolescent and adult years, can begin as early as ten or twelve years as children gradually create a more defined sense of self."

Full reflective ability is built.

Greenspan and Shanker remind us that although a complete ability to reflect on the world is normally built in our brains during this stage, it has been difficult for psychological science to understand how it is normally built. They explain that this is because philosophy, psychology etc. have always separated emotion from cognitive processes while they believe emotion is an essential ingredient in all cognitive processes. They say:

"Cognitive, educational, and learning theory has not been able to develop an adequate model to figure out or explain how to promote the highest levels of reflective thinking because it is not focused on the role of emotion. In other words, the highest levels of thinking require combined emotional and cognitive development because they involve comparing frames of reference, which have to be based on ongoing emotional experiences and a complex internal sense of self."

Inferences from comparing two frames of reference. 

During this stage as the internal standard or map of reality is becoming more and more perfect the ability to infer outcomes, meanings etc. become both more prolific and and more accurate. This happens as the tools of language and logic are put to work to create frames of reference which can be compared, and a standard that provides more and more accurate information to thread through those frames. Greenspan and Shanker explain this expansion in logic and creativity:

At this stage, children become more able to make more inferences. Inferences mean thinking in more than one frame of reference at the same time, or creating a new idea from existing ones. To use more than one frame of reference one needs to have an 'agency' that can do the looking and relating. One of the two frames of reference that are being compared must be based on an organized sense of self that is the product of meaningful experience. Intelligent inferences involve all the developmental levels we have been describing as well as emotionally meaningful experience in the sphere of knowledge where the inference is being made. Both are required. Experience and knowledge in the area where the inference is made are necessary for sophisticated inferences rather than naive ones."

"The new ability to think in two perspectives - objective reality and personal opinion - at the same time separates individuals who remain somewhat more concrete (they haven't mastered this level) from those who have. For those who have, the door is now open to the higher levels of intelligence and reflectiveness that will be characteristic of adolescent and adult thinking."

Weening us from testing theories. 

"During the early adolescent years, the ability to consider the future as well as the past and present broadens the sense of self, an internal standard based on it, and the hypothesis-making abilities that lead to inference and other types of creative thinking. Probabilistic thinking about the future, however, can be more readily applied to areas such as math and science than others, such as personal plans. Emotional investing in the future comes at the next stage."

The construction of values and ideals.

From a social point of view, values and ideals can now be constructed, debated and argued. To be sure, there will be all kinds of trial balloons as teenagers experiment and argue for cultural norms that are different from those of their parents. Nonetheless, such debates signal a whole new level of social and cultural understanding. It creates the foundations not only for understanding values and ideas and pursuing them but also for investing institutions with stable personal beliefs that can sustain whole societies; for example, concepts and institutions that support justice.

The adolescent/adult sense of self. 

During this stage of development the sense of self should completely solidify into not only what a self is, but into what a self could be if the child has managed to satisfy his/her basic needs and is able to turn outwards to be inclusive of others into that self. The self can expand to envelop parents, friends, relatives, clans, and culture. In this way the child develops values and judgments of how relationships should be. Ideals of truth, justice, fairness are no longer about what is good for one's self within one's skin but rather becomes about the welfare of lovers, friends, humanity and even other animals. Values at this stage can be accommodated from others who are not caregivers. There is a far greater awareness of other role models at this stage and many of them become highly influential. Greenspan and Shanker explain:

"That sense of self, in turn constitutes an inner standard by which to judge experience. For example they can say for the first time, 'I shouldn't be so angry because the insult wasn't that great.' Similarly, they can look at peers who are doing something naughty and say, 'I shouldn't do that because it isn't the right thing for me to do. It may be okay for them.' A child aged from ten to twelve and beyond can have a hard time on the playground and still feel like a good person. In contrast, an eight-year-old might feel like a bad person instead of being able to apply her inner standard. Using that internal standard a child can now look at history and say, 'I agree with the North (or the South) for the following reasons.' Or, 'In the First World War I think that that when people behaved that way they were exercising bad judgment.'"

"The sense of self now embraces a new agency as values and ideals gradually become an integral part of the self. The self has also expanded to include the two dimensions we've been discussing  - the one that operates in the emotions of the day-to-day events, and the one that can now evaluate how they feel, what they've done, and plan to change and improve. They can also use this new level of reflective awareness for self directed criticism and anger as well as to praise or invigorate themselves."

Democracy and the investment in social values.

The development and investment in social values, that is part of this stage of development, is essential for producing what we might term moral adults, which in turn are necessary to produce a society where democracy is possible. Greenspan and Shanker make this clear:

The ability to reflect an internal sense of self and standard may be viewed as one of the basic capacities required to support values and in situations commonly associated with representative democracies. Such forms of government require a certain percent of the population to invest in abstract principles such as justice and the institutions that support it ('the consent of the governed.' according to Jefferson). Only individuals who can think from an internal standard and a sense of self can invest in abstract principles and institutions. Individuals unable to do this are more likely to adhere to a specific leader or a concrete belief.

The turning point or choice in becoming an adult.

The former gray areas of thinking typical of the previous stage tends to harden again into all or nothing thinking. The extent to which this happens is largely dependent on the amount of personal testing the child manages to accomplish which keeps the child grounded in reality and concreteness. Ideally the rather black and white values that develop at the beginning of this stage should tend to mellow with further experience into tentative gray area thinking again. Greenspan and Shanker put it like this:

"If children remain mired in all-or-nothing thinking, they are likely to take extreme positions about themselves. On the other hand, if they've progressed adaptively through the different stages, through gray-area thinking, they can use this new self-observing ability to take a honest look at their behavior and then plan accordingly. Because this process is just beginning (as are values and cultural norms), there will be lots of experimentation. We will see a mixture of harsh or extreme attitudes alongside what appear to be very reasonable ones. Nonetheless, an entirely new level of self-reflection and, therefore, conscious awareness of the world is now possible."   

The false sense of certainty.

During this stage each personal map each child has been building of reality, becomes a genius machine that can predict the world about effortlessly. It's predictions are right often enough for people to start accepting it's predictions as sure. This seeming perfection gives humans a false sense of certainty that can lead to regression in the adult stages of development.