Chapter 2 - Developmental Theories Flashcards
When did childhood become a concept?
The 17th century
Who wrote a book in 1960 that sparked the field of studying childhood?
Philippe Aries wrote Centuries of Childhood, a book that claimed childhood is a social construct and not a biological given.
Children were considered ___ ____ ____ in the middle ages.
Weaker Insignificant Adults
What is a theory from a human development perspective?
Guidelines for investigation and practice that gain credibility through research.
A theory is a simplified explanation of the world that attempts to explain how variables interact with each other.
A theory is a well-developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for observed phenomena that can be used to make predictions about future observations.
What is a hypothesis?
A hypothesis is a testable prediction that is arrived at logically from a theory.
What are 3 majorly contested areas of interest in Developmental Psychology?
Passive vs. Active issue (pertaining to early experiences)
Developmental discontinuity vs developmental continuity
Nature vs. Nurture
What was one of the earliest appearances of developmental psychology?
William Shakespeare’s character “Jacques” articulated the 7 ages of man” in his play As You Like It.
Who were 3 major players in early developmental psychology?
John Locke - Environmental perspective of childhood development (tabula-rasa; child’s mind is a blank slate that is written on with experience)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Nativistic model (Writer of novel Emile, showcasing infancy, childhood and adolescence)
Charles Darwin - Evolutionary development
Who were 6 major players after the big 3?
G. Stanley Hall - First president of APA, believed that children develop like species evolve.
James Mark Baldwin - Influenced Lawrence Kohlberg and Jean Piaget. Studied infant development.
John B. Watson - Behaviorism, little albert vs. white rat study.
Sigmund Freud - Psychosexual development
Arnold Gesell - student of G. Stanley Hall. Studied child behavior. Studied developmental stages in children.
Jean Piaget - [ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PSYCHOLOGISTS IN 20TH CENTURY]. Developed stage theory of cognitive development.
Who fathered the psychodynamic perspective of development?
Sigmund Freud.
What are the three components of Freud’s personality theory?
id - basic primal part of self/ Instincts and drives. Immediate gratification. Pleasure principle.
ego - The rational part of our personality. It operates on the reality principle.
superego - Conscience, morality, moral compass.
What is neurosis according to Freud?
A tendency to experience negative emotions when there is an imbalance in the id ego and superego
What are the 7 defense mechanisms?
Denial - refusing to accept real events because they are unpleasant.
Displacement - Transferring inappropriate urges or behaviors onto a more acceptable or less threatening target.
Projection - Attributing unacceptable desires to others.
Rationalization - Justifying behaviors by substituting acceptable reasons for less-acceptable real reason.
Reaction formation - Reducing anxiety by adopting beliefs contrary to your own beliefs.
Regression - Returning to coping strategies that belong to less mature stages of development.
Sublimation - Redirecting unacceptable desires through socially acceptable channels.
What are some criticisms of Freud’s psychodynamic perspective?
One is that it is very difficult to test scientifically.
Because psychodynamic theories are difficult to prove wrong, evaluating those theories, in general, is difficult in that we cannot make definite predictions about a given individual’s behavior using the theories.
The theory is also considered to be sexist in suggesting that women who do not accept an inferior position in society are somehow psychologically flawed.
Others make the criticism that the psychodynamic approach is too deterministic, relating to the idea that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will, thereby leaving little room for the idea of free will.[3]
When he suggested in 1905 that we humans have strong sexual feelings from a very early age and that some of these sexual feelings are directed toward our parents, people were more than displeased—they were outraged (Freud, 1905/1953b). Few theories in psychology have evoked such strong reactions from other professionals and members of the public.
If some of his theories and claims are wack, why do we study freud?
As mentioned above, despite the criticisms, Freud’s assumptions about the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our psychological selves have found their way into child development, education, and parenting practices. Freud’s theory has heuristic value in providing a framework from which to elaborate and modify subsequent theories of development. Many later theories, particularly behaviorism and humanism, were challenges to Freud’s views. Controversy notwithstanding, no competent psychologist, or student of psychology, can ignore psychodynamic theory. It is simply too important for psychological science and practice and continues to play an important role in a wide variety of disciplines within and outside psychology (for example, developmental psychology, social psychology.
Who is the father of developmental psychology?
Erik Erikson, a student of Sigmund Freud.
What is the epigenetic principle?
The notion that we develop through an unfolding of our personality in predetermined stages, and that our environment and surrounding culture influence how we progress through these stages.
What are Erikson’s 8 developmental stages?
- 0-12 months. Trust vs. mistrust (hope) Infants learn to trust or not trust caregivers.
- 1-3 years. Autonomy vs. Shame (Will) Sense of independence in many tasks develops.
- 3-6 years. Initiative vs. Guilt (Purpose) Take initiative on some activities, may develop guilt when success not met or boundaries overstepped.
- 7-11 years. Industry vs. Inferiority (Competence) Develop self-confidence in abilities when competent or sense of inferiority when not.
- 12-18 years. Identity vs. Role Confusion (Fidelity) Experiment with and develop identity and roles.
- 19-39 years. Intimacy vs. Isolation (Love) Establish intimacy and relationships with others.
- 40-64 years. Generativity vs. Stagnation (Care) Contribute to society and be part of a family.
- 65+ years. Integrity vs. Despair (Wisdom) Assess and make sense of life and meaning of contributions.
Strengths and weaknesses of Erikson’s theory:
Eriksons view of development is continuous; each stage depends on the previous. This is not always accounted for in real life, because people can experience the same stage multiples times in life, or different stages in different orders.
What is the behavioral perspective?
A developmental perspective that suggests the key to understanding development is understanding observable behavior and external stimuli in the environment.
What are three offshoots of behavioral perspective of development?
-Classical Conditioning: An unconditioned stimulus (such as food) is paired with a neutral stimulus (such as a bell). The neutral stimulus eventually becomes the conditioned stimulus, which brings about the conditioned response (salivation).
The stimulus occurs immediately before the response.
explains how we develop many of our emotional responses to people or events or our automatic reactions to situations.
Refers to how we learn associations between things and develop conditioned responses.
-Operant Conditioning: The target behavior is followed by reinforcement or punishment to either strengthen or weaken it so that the learner is more likely to exhibit the desired behavior in the future.
The stimulus (either reinforcement or punishment) occurs soon after the response.
Skinner believed that behavior is motivated by the consequences we receive for the behavior: the reinforcements and punishments. His idea that learning is the result of consequences is based on the law of effect, which was first proposed by psychologist Edward Thorndike. According to the law of effect, behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated.
A reinforcer is anything following a behavior that makes it more likely to occur again. It can be something intrinsically rewarding (called intrinsic or primary reinforcers), such as food or praise, or it can be something that is rewarding because it can be exchanged for what one really wants (such as receiving money and using it buy a cookie). Such reinforcers are referred to as secondary reinforcers.
-Behaviorism: applied classical conditioning to humans.
What was John B. Watson REALLY influential in?
Advertising. He taught companies how to make connections between their products and positive feelings. Ultimately this led to the use of sex in advertising.
What was the order of major players in Behavioral development theories?
Pavlov > Watson > Skinner
What is Reciprocal Determinism?
We are not just the product of our surroundings, rather we influence our surroundings. There is interplay between our personality and the way we interpret events and how they influence us.
SCT stands for what?
Social Cognitive Theory by Albert Bandura.
The theory proposes that learning occurs in a social context. It takes into consideration the dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment, and their own behavior.
Observational learning is a component of Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977), which posits that individuals can learn novel responses via observation of key others’ behaviors. Observational learning does not necessarily require reinforcement, but instead hinges on the presence of others, referred to as social models.
Social models are normally of higher status or authority compared to the observer, examples of which include parents, teachers, and police officers.
Bandura theorizes that the observational learning process consists of four parts. What are they?
The first is attention—one must pay attention to what they are observing in order to learn.
The second part is retention: to learn one must be able to retain the behavior they are observing in memory.
The third part of observational learning, initiation, acknowledges that the learner must be able to execute (or initiate) the learned behavior.
Lastly, the observer must possess the motivation to engage in observational learning.
