Developmental Theories

Question 1

Perspectives of Development

Answer 1

Theoretical
Longitudinal
Cross-Sectional
Clinical
Parents
Educational System
Society

Question 2

Theoretical

Answer 2

Encompassing aspects of development into a theory that will account for many factors through development

Question 3

Longitudinal

Answer 3

Following the changes a single person from infancy through childhood to adulthood goes through

Question 4

Cross-sectional

Answer 4

Looking at the stages many individuals at a certain age are at

Question 5

Clinical

Answer 5

How to understand and use the aspects of development in treatment

Question 6

Parents

Answer 6

Usually the best people to ask about the development of a child because they are raising the child

Question 7

Educational System

Answer 7

schools are consistently trying to teach children developmental attributes including basic cognitive skills as well as attitudes

Question 8

Society

Answer 8

There are different views that society places on certain age groups as well as how they are treated legally and ethically

Question 9

Growth

Answer 9

Defined as physical growth, changes in size, volume, mass, height and weight

Question 10

Maturation

Answer 10

defined as the emergence of specific skills (motor, language, etc.)

Question 11

Working Definition of Development

Answer 11

Continuous series of interactions between the individual’s biological endowment/constitution and the environment

Question 12

Developmental Theories

Answer 12

Preformationism
Learning theories
Maturational theories
Stage theories

Question 13

Preformationism

Answer 13

Children are “little adults” in the sense that they have the same characteristics that are just getting larger and more defined
Not really accepted anymore

Question 14

learning theories

Answer 14

Most important aspect of development is what a child learns from their environment, from adults or experiences
**John Locke, “tabula rosa”
**Ivan Pavlov
B.F. Skinner (operant conditioning based on rewards and punishments)

Question 15

Maturational Theories

Answer 15

Fixed sequences of development and several major lines (motor, language, etc.)
**Arnold Geswell (observed children at Yale, compiled data for when they achieved certain abilities)

Question 16

Maturational Theories

Answer 16

Fixed sequences of development and several major lines (motor, language, etc.)
**Arnold Geswell (observed children at Yale, compiled data for when they achieved certain abilities)

Question 17

Stage theories

Answer 17

Fixed stages a child goes through
Each stage is more complex than the last one
Examples of stage theories are Psychoanalytic, attachment and cognitive

Question 18

Major Psychoanylitic theoreticians

Answer 18

Sigmund Freud: Psychosexual development
Erik Erikson: 8 stages of infancy through old age
Margaret Mahler: Separation and individualization

Question 19

Freuds Psychoanalytic Stages

Answer 19

Oral, Anal, Phallic/Oedipal, and genital phases
Based on the interpretation of his own development
Believed that people were unconsciously reconstructing one of the stages they were “stuck” in

Question 20

Erikson’s Stages

Answer 20

Trust vs Mistrust: birth - 1 year
Autonomy vs Shame/doubt: 1-3 years
Initiative vs Guilt: 3-6 years
Industry vs. Inferiority: 6-11 years
Identity vs Role confusions: Adolescence
Intimacy vs Isolation: Young adulthood
Generativity vs Self-absorption: adulthood
Ego-integrity vs Despair: old age
Used dichotomies, generally matched up with Freud’s stages
Carried stages into adulthood
Individuals should have a balance of the two
Ex. of Alzheimer’s, someone is conscious of their declining cognitive functions and is struggling with their ego-integrity and despair

Question 21

Major Attachment theoreticians

Answer 21

John Mowlby: combined psychoanalytic theories with primate behavior
Marry Ainsworth: measured attachment through the “strange situation” test

Question 22

Major Attachment theoreticians

Answer 22

John Mowlby: combined psychoanalytic theories with primate behavior
Marry Ainsworth: measured attachment through the “strange situation” test

Question 23

John Mowlby

Answer 23

Studied primates and ducks with attachment to their mothers and extrapolated that with psychoanalytic theory
Someone with multiple short relationships may have a problem with attachment because of some attachment issues in their childhood

Question 24

Marry Ainsworth

Answer 24

put a mother and child in a room and have them play; in a series of steps, the mother would leave, then return, then leave again, and then a stranger would return, and then finally the mother again
observed how the child reacted to each new scenario and came up with a system of measurement for the reactions

Question 25

Major Cognitive theoreticians

Answer 25

Jean Piaget

Lawrence Kohlberg

Question 26

Jean Piaget

Answer 26

Studied his own children in their ability to reason and come to conclusions
had stages like Freud and Erikson
Children have sensory input that they are learning to couple with motor output
Stages included: Sensory-Motor (infancy - 2 years), preoperational thought (2 - 7 years), Concrete operations (7 - 11 years), formal operations (11 - adulthood)