Developmental Theories Flashcards
Perspectives of Development
Theoretical Longitudinal Cross-Sectional Clinical Parents Educational System Society
Theoretical
Encompassing aspects of development into a theory that will account for many factors through development
Longitudinal
Following the changes a single person from infancy through childhood to adulthood goes through
Cross-sectional
Looking at the stages many individuals at a certain age are at
Clinical
How to understand and use the aspects of development in treatment
Parents
Usually the best people to ask about the development of a child because they are raising the child
Educational System
schools are consistently trying to teach children developmental attributes including basic cognitive skills as well as attitudes
Society
There are different views that society places on certain age groups as well as how they are treated legally and ethically
Growth
Defined as physical growth, changes in size, volume, mass, height and weight
Maturation
defined as the emergence of specific skills (motor, language, etc.)
Working Definition of Development
Continuous series of interactions between the individual’s biological endowment/constitution and the environment
Developmental Theories
Preformationism
Learning theories
Maturational theories
Stage theories
Preformationism
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
learning theories
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)
Maturational Theories
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)
Maturational Theories
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)
Stage theories
Fixed stages a child goes through
Each stage is more complex than the last one
Examples of stage theories are Psychoanalytic, attachment and cognitive
Major Psychoanylitic theoreticians
Sigmund Freud: Psychosexual development
Erik Erikson: 8 stages of infancy through old age
Margaret Mahler: Separation and individualization
Freuds Psychoanalytic Stages
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
Erikson’s Stages
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
Major Attachment theoreticians
John Mowlby: combined psychoanalytic theories with primate behavior
Marry Ainsworth: measured attachment through the “strange situation” test
Major Attachment theoreticians
John Mowlby: combined psychoanalytic theories with primate behavior
Marry Ainsworth: measured attachment through the “strange situation” test
John Mowlby
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
Marry Ainsworth
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
Major Cognitive theoreticians
Jean Piaget
Lawrence Kohlberg
Jean Piaget
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)
