2 - Theories of Development

Question 1

Granville Stanley Hall

Answer 1

Began formal studies of child development with notes and questionnaires to document children’s feelings, attitudes, activities. Biased as he had negative ideas of only children and pre-adolesence

Question 2

Emergence of theories

Answer 2

Tried to provide over-arching grand ideas. Strongly influenced by pre-existing prejudices. Not really successful now, but have been influential over time.

Question 3

Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory

Answer 3

Psychological/personality development due to unconscious biological instincts such as sex, hunger, aggression; this modified by environment. Personality consists of id (max pleasure), ego (satisfies needs thru socially constructive behavior), superego (child accepts parental and social mores -> moral conscious). Developmental stages which affect later development - oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital. Untestable predictions.

Question 4

Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages

Answer 4

8 stages; at each one, certain tasks to be completed; potential negative outcomes if not. Early development shapes later behavior. Parents and family key. Development is lifelong. Untestable predictions.

Question 5

Watson’s Behaviorism

Answer 5

Prediction and control of behavior via stimulus and classical condition. Little Albert. Believed he could shape anybody to anything. Ethical issues.

Question 6

B.F. Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism

Answer 6

Behavior learned thru operant conditioning, when behavior is followed by rewards or punishments. Criticized for applying theories too universally; attempting to explain all behavior by simple learning rules that do not vary over course of development.

Question 7

Piaget’s Cognitive Structural Theory

Answer 7

Focused on cognitive development: children make sense of events and not passive in how they are exposed. Children accommodate and assimilate new info. 4 stages - sensorimotor (object permanence), preoperational (egocentralism/symbolism), concrete operational, formal operational (logical and moral reasoning).

Question 8

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

Answer 8

Learning not individual but occurs in dyadic interactions. Zone of proximal development (not too easy, not too hard). Main accomplishment: children have capacity to be functional but require assistance from social partners. Scaffolding. Did not discuss how these interactions might develop however.

Question 9

Bandura’s Cognitive Social Learning Theory

Answer 9

Likelihood of social learning influenced by 4 factors - attention, retention, reproduction, motivation. Bobo doll experiment. Reciprocal determination - learn from role models but also alter own development thru influencing behavior. Self-efficacy - children determine perceived social competence -> how likely to try solving social problems.

Question 10

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory

Answer 10

Numerous variables influencing development. Variables such as family, peer group, school, neighborhood, religious organization interact with one another and influence child.

Question 11

Ethology

Answer 11

4 things to consider about behavior - function, development, phylogeny/evolution, mechanism. Learning vs. instinct, critical periods. Mother-infant attachment. Social dominance.

Question 12

Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 12

Tries to explain behaviors in terms of adaptive value. Criticisms: interpreting all behavior as adaptive, non-representative samples, inability to test hypotheses

Question 13

Behavioral Ecology

Answer 13

Modern term for development/phylogeny/function questions of ethology. Stress and puberty findings for example.