Chapter 1: theories of child development

Question 1

Psychoanalytic Theories

Answer 1

Behavior may be the result of a long and unconscious discussion about how one should behave

Freud

Question 2

Sigmund Freud’s Topographical
Model of the Mind

Answer 2

The Conscious: awareness

The Preconscious: memory; outside
conscious, but can be brought into the conscious mind in a moment

The Unconscious: outside of conscious awareness

Question 3

Structural Model of the Mind

Answer 3

ID: “The hedonist”; basic drives, motives, and instincts (sexual and aggressive), irrational, unrealistic, immediate gratification of needs

EGO: “The mediator”; one’s sense of self, rational, realistic, and AMORAL, capable of delayed gratification of needs

SUPEREGO: “The morality police”; one’s conscience and “ego ideal”, moral, ethical, idealistic

Question 4

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of
Development

Answer 4

Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital

Question 5

Behavioral and Social Learning Theories

Answer 5

Psychology can be scientific only if it restricts research to observable events (behaviors)

Classical (conditioned responses) and operant conditioning (behavior modified by consequences)

Question 6

Cognitive Theories

Answer 6

Children have mental schemes that represent their knowledge and
understanding about the world

As children grow and have new experiences, the existing scheme is challenged and eventually modified

Piaget

Question 7

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

Answer 7

How language and culture influence cognitive development in children

Question 8

Ethological (Biological) Theories

Answer 8

Based on theory of evolution and “natural selection”

Focus on biological causes of development

Question 9

Ecological (Environmental) Theories

Answer 9

Emphasizes environmental influences on development

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory: Child development is influenced by the systems that surround the child (five systems)