Human Development and Theories (ch 1 and 2) Flashcards
What is development
Systematic changes and continuities in an individual
- From womb to tomb
Changes and continuities occur in 3 major domains
- Physical
- Cognitive
- Psychosocial
What is development?
Involves gains, losses, neutral changes, and continuities in each phase of the life span
- Growth: Physical changes
- Stability
- Aging: Range of positive and negative physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes
Period of life and Age range: Prenatal period
Conception to birth
Period of life and Age range: Infancy
First 2 years of life
- first month is neonatal or newborn period
Period of life and Age range: Preschool period
2 to 5 or 6 years
- some prefer to describe as toddlers - children who have begun to walk and are ages 1 to 3
Period of life and Age range: Middle childhood
6-12
Or until the onset of puberty
Period of life and Age range: Adolescence
12-20
Or when individual becomes relatively independent of parents and begins to assume adult roles
Period of life and Age range: Early adulthood
20-40 years
Some distinguish emerging adulthood period from 18-29
Period of life and Age range: Middle adulthood
40-65 years
Period of life and Age range: Late adulthood
65+
Some break out subcategories eg young-old, old-old based on differences in functioning
Age grade
Socially defined age group in a society
- Confers statuses, roles, privileges, responsibilities
- Rites of passage mark transitions
Age norms
behavioral expectations by age
(What is normal by this age?)
-Sense of when things “Should” be
- Adjustment to life transitions
Urie Bronfenbrenner
Proposed a bioecological model to explain how biology and the environment interact in development
- Microsystem
- Mesosystem
- Exosystem
- Macrosystem
- Chronosystem
Microsystem
Bronfenbrenner
- Immediate environment
Mesosystem
bronfenbrenner
- Linkages b/w microsystems
Exosystem
Bronfenbrenner
- Linkages of social systems
Macrosystem
Bronfenbrenner
- Larger cultural context
Chronosystem
Bronfenbrenner
- Changes occur in a time frame
Developmental theory
Ideas proposed to describe/explain phenomena
- Provides a means to organize, interpret, explain facts or observations
- Guides collection of new data
Five Key Developmental issues
- Goodness-badness of human nature
- Nature-nurture
- Activity-passivity issue
- Continuity-discontinuity issue
- Universality-context-specificity issue
Goodness-badness of human nature
Evidence of biologically based tendencies for good and bad
Nature-nurture
Biological or environmental forces
Activity-passivity issue
Are humans active agents in their own development?
Or passively shaped by forces beyond their control?
Continuity-discontinuity issue
Are changes over the lifespan gradual or abrupt?
-Are changes quantitative or qualitative?
Universality-context-specificity issue
Are developmental changes common to all humans?
- Or different across cultures, subcultures, contexts, and individuals
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Central notion: Humans have instincts that motivate bx
- Humans possess psychic energy that is divided among 3 components of personality:
1. Id (Impulsive selfish)
2. Ego (Rational, seeks to gratify instincts)
3. Superego (moral)
Freud - 5 stages of psychosexual development
- Oral (infancy)
- Anal (toddler)
- Phallic (3-6)
- Latent (6-12)
- Genital (adolescence)
Freud - defense mechanisms
Unconscious coping devices that the ego adopts to defend itself against anxiety
- Repression
- Regression
- Reaction formation
- Projection
Weakness of Freud’s theory
- Ambiguous
- Internally inconsistent
- not testable
- Not falsifiable
Strengths of Freud’s Theory
- called attn to unconscious processes
- emphasized importance of early experience
- Emphasized importance of emotions and emotional conflicts
Erikson’s theory
Most influential neo-Freudian
- Less emphasis on sexual urges
- More emphasis on rational ego
- More positive, adaptive view of human emotions
- Development continues through adulthood
Erikson’s psychosocial stages
- Trust vs mistrust (infancy)
- Autonomy vs shame/doubt (toddler)
- Initiative vs guilt (preschool)
- Industry vs inferiority (school-age)
- identity vs role confusion (adolescence)
- Intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood)
- Generativity vs stagnation (middle age)
- Integrity vs despair (Late life)
Erikson - strengths
Emphasis on rational and adaptive nature
Interaction of biological and social infl
Infl research into adolescence and adulthood
Erikson - weaknesses
Sometimes vague and difficult to test
Does not explain how development occurs
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development - stages
- Sensorimotor
- Preoperational
- Concrete operations
- Formal operations
Sensorimotor stage
Piaget
- Infants deal w the world thru their senses and their motor skills
- Begin with innate reflexes, develop increasing intelligent actions
- By the end, capable of symbolic thought using images or words and can therefore plan solutions to problems mentally
Preoperational stage
Piaget
- Preschoolers can use symbolic thought but cannot use logical problem-solving
- Cannot demonstrate conservation
- Easily fooled by perceptions
- Egocentric
Concrete operations stage
Piaget
- School-age children are more logical and can use trial-and-error approach to problem-solving
- Mentally classify, add, and otherwise act on concrete objects in their head
- Difficulty with hypothetical and abstract problems
Formal operations stage
Piaget
- Adolescents are able to think abstractly and hypothetically
- Trace long-term consequences to their actions
- With age and experience, can form hypothesis and systematically test them using scientific method
Piaget - strengths
- Well-accepted by developmentalists
- Well-researched, mostly supported
- Infl education and parenting
Piaget - weaknesses
- Too little consideration of influences of motivation and emotion upon thought processes
- Questionable that the stages constitute a coherent, general mode of thinking
- Underestimated cognitive abilities
- Too little emphasis on parents/caregivers
- Stages may not be universal
Challenges to Piaget’s Theory
- Vigotsky’s sociocultural perspective
2. Information processing approach
Vgotsky’s sociocultural perspective
View that cognitive development = shaped by its sociocultural context and children’s interactions with members in their culture
Information processing approach
Examines fundamental processes of attention, memory, decision-making, etc. - computer
Systems theories
Attribute changes over the lifespan to ongoing, reciprocal transactions b/w a changing organism and a changing environment
Eg Bronfenbrenner and Gottlieb
Gottlieb’s Epigenetic Psychobiological Systems Perspecitve
Development is the product of interacting biological and environmental influences that form a larger system
- Evolution endowed humans w genetic makeup
- Genes and environment interact bc humans actively change their environment
- Occurs at a species level
- Biological and cultural evolution contribute to change over time in the human species
Epigenesis
Gottlieb
- “Over and above” genes
- Nature and nurture, genes and environment, co-act to yield developmental outcomes
Epigenetic process
- activity of genes
- activity of neurons
- organism’s bx
- environmental influences
Systems theories - strengths
- Called attn to ongoing transactions b/w the individual and environment
Systems theories - weaknesses
- Only partially formulated and tested
- No coherent developmental theory
Categories of human development theories - Freud, Erikson, and Piaget
- STAGE theorists
- Development guided in UNIVERSAL directions by BIOLOGICAL-MATURATIONAL forces
- Parents = supportive of development
Categories of human development theories - Watson, Skinner, Bandura
- LEARNING theorists
- Emphasize ENVIRON over biology
- Parents = child’s TRAINERS
Categories of human development theories - Systems and contextual theorists
- View biology and environment as INSEPARABLE components of a larger system
- Humans = ACTIVE contributors to development but environment is also an active participant
- Parents = view themselves as PARTNERS w their children
Trust vs. Mistrust
Erikson
- 0-1 year
- infants must learn to trust their caregivers to meet their needs
Autonomy vs. Shame
Erikson
- 1-3 years
- Children must learn to be autonomous – to assert their wills and do things for themselves – or they will doubt their abilities
Initiative vs. Guilt
Erikson
- 3-6 years
- Preschoolers develop initiative by devising and carrying out bold plans but they must learn not to impinge on the rights of others
Industry vs. Inferiority
Erikson
- 6-12 years
- Children must master important social and academic skills and keep up with their peers otherwise they will feel inferior
Identity vs. Role confusion
Erikson
- 12-20 years
- Adolescents ask who they are and must establish social and vocational identities otherwise will remain confused about the roles they should play as adults
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Erikson
- 20-40 years
- Young adults seek to form a shared identity with another person but may fear intimacy and experience loneliness and isolation
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Erikson
- 40-65 years
- Middle-aged adults must feel that they are producing something that will outlive them, either as parents or as workers otherwise will become stagnant and self-centered
Integrity vs. Despair
Erikson
- 65+ years
- Older adults must come to view with their lives as meaningful to face death without worries and regrets
