Introduction to Understanding Human Development Flashcards
Why do we study child development?
Raising children effectively: anger (and other negative emotions) management;
Choosing social policies: detection and prevention of developmental problems vs treatment; child testimony;
Understanding human nature: effects of early deprivation.
What did Plato and Aristotle both believe?
Plato & Aristotle both believed that long-term welfare of society depended on raising children appropriately
What specifically did Plato believe?
Plato emphasised self-control and discipline; believed child born with innate knowledge.
What specifically did Aristotle believe?
Aristotle was more concerned with fitting child rearing to the needs of individual child. He believed knowledge came from experience.
John Locke
Locke believed that a child is a blank slate (tabula rasa).
Parents set good example of honesty, stability & gentleness.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau believed that children should be given maximum freedom from the beginning. They learn from spontaneous interactions with objects and people.
Social reform movements
Earl of Shaftesbury – children under 10 should not work in mines.
What are the five perspectives of development
Psychoanalytic Behavioural / Social Learning Cognitive Biological Systems
What are the two psychoanalytic theories?
- Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development.
2. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development.
What are the three learning theories?
- Behaviourism
- Operant Conditioning
- Social Learning Theory
What are the three theories of cognitive development?
- Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory
- Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
- Information processing perspectives
What are the two ecological theories of development?
- Ethological and Evolutionary Theories
2. The Bioecological Model.
What are the four developmental themes?
- Continuity/Discontinuity
- Individual Differences
- Nature and Nurture
- The Active Child
Psychoanalytic/ psychodynamic theory
Focus on personality development
Frued: effects of conscious and unconscious processes on development
Behaviour is motivated by the need to satisfy basic drives
Id (basic drives)
Ego (reality)
Superego (conscience)
What were Frued’s lasting contributions to developmental psychology?
Role of early experience;
Importance of subjective experience;
Discovery of the unconscious;
Emphasis on the role of emotional relationships in development.
Id
The earliest and most primitive of the personality structures, ruled by the pleasure principle (to obtain maximal pleasure as quickly as possible). Stands for “untamed passions.”
Ego
The mind’s link to the external world of reality. Stands for “reason and good sense.”
Superego
The conscience that enables a child to control behaviour and develop morally. The superego develops through internalization of parents’ standards.
What are the five stages of psychosexual development?
- Oral: 0 - 18 months
- Anal: 18 - 36 months
- Phallic: 3 – 6 years
- Latency: 6 years - puberty
- Genital: puberty →
Frued’s Oral Stage
Oral stage, birth to 1 year: Primary source of satisfaction is oral pleasure, such as sucking and eating. The id controls.
Frued’s Anal Stage
Anal stage, 1 to 3 years: Primary source of pleasure is defecation. The ego begins to develop.
Frued’s Phallic Stage
Phallic stage, 3 to 6 years: Children become interested in their own genitalia and curious about parents’ and playmates’. The superego emerges.
Freud’s Latency Stage
Latency stage, 6 to 12 years: Sexual desires are hidden away in the unconscious; psychic energy is channeled into intellectual and social pursuits. Ego and superego continue to develop.
Frued’s Genital Stage
Genital stage, at puberty: Sexual energy is directed toward opposite-sex peers. Ideally, a strong ego and a superego that is neither too weak nor too strong have developed.
Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development
Erikson (1902–1994) had enormous influence on developmental psychology.
Proposed eight age-related development stages that span infancy to old age. (epigenetic model)
Each stage is characterized by a crisis, or task, that the individual must resolve.
An unresolved task will impede progress to the next stage.
Erikson’s Stages: basic trust vs. mistrust
Basic trust vs. Mistrust, birth to 1 year: (corresponds to Freud’s oral stage)
The task is to develop an essential trustfulness of others as well as a sense of one’s own trustworthiness.
Development of basic trust requires warm, consistent, reliable care-giving that leads the infant to trust the mother or caregiver.
Erikson’s Stages: autonomy vs. shame and doubt
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, 1 to 3 years: (corresponds to Freud’s anal stage)
Children gain motor skills, cognitive abilities, and language, which enable them to make choices and decisions for themselves.
Children need a supportive atmosphere that allows them to gain a sense of self-control that enhances self-esteem.
Severe punishment, shame, or ridicule will impede achievement of autonomy.
Erikson’s Stages: initiative vs. guilt
Initiative vs. Guilt, 4 to 6 years: Children identify with and learn from their parents.
Corresponds with Freud’s phallic stage.
Children set goals and learn to achieve them.
Children internalize parents’ rules and standards and develop a conscience.
Children need to achieve a healthy balance between initiative and guilt.
Erikson’s Stages: industry vs. inferiority
Industry vs. Inferiority, 6 years to puberty: Corresponds with Freud’s latency period; crucial for ego development.
Erikson’s Stages: identity vs. role confusion
Identity vs. Role Confusion, adolescence to early adulthood: The critical stage for achievement of core sense of identity.
Adolescents must resolve the question of who they are or they will be confused as adults.
Current perspectives on psychoanalytic theories
Freud’s emphasis was on the importance of early experiences and emotional relationships.
Erikson’s emphasis was on the identity task of adolescence.
The weakness of both theories is that they are not testable and not verifiable.
Behavioural/ Social Learning
Focus: Observable conditions and influences on behaviour
Skinner: Changes and development in behaviour in response to environmental contingencies of reinforcement
Bandura: Children learn by observation, imitation and modelling; vicarious reinforcement
Watson believed that children’s development is determined by their social environment, especially their parents.
What do Behavioural/ Social learning theories emphasise?
Emphasize the role of external factors in shaping personality and social behaviour.
The primary developmental question is that of continuity/discontinuity.
Learning theories also focus on the role of specific mechanisms of change.
Watson’s behaviourism
Watson believed that children’s development is determined by their social environment, especially their parents.
Ignored mental states and emphasized conditioning.
Proved with his famous “Little Albert” experiment that fear could be conditioned.
Skinner’s operant conditioning
Skinner believed that behaviour was under environmental control.
Changes and development in behaviour in response to environmental contingencies of reinforcement
to gain rewards
to avoid punishment
What are Skinner’s contributions to child rearing?
A major tenet is that we tend to repeat behaviours that lead to favourable outcomes (reinforcement) and suppress those that result in unfavourable outcomes (punishment).
Skinner showed that attention is a powerful reinforcer.
The behaviour-management strategy of “time-out” focuses on the withdrawal of attention.
Skinner showed the difficulty of extinguishing behaviour that has been intermittently reinforced (that is, sometimes rewarded and sometimes not).
Skinner’s work led to behaviour-modification therapy, which is useful for changing undesirable behaviours.
Social cognitive learning theory
Places the emphasis on the observation and imitation of others, as well as on the cognitive processes of attention, encoding, storing, and retrieval of information to reproduce the behaviour observed.
Bandura emphasized reciprocal determinism between children and their social environment, which emphasizes the active role children have in their own development.
What are the perspectives on social/ cognitive theories?
They are important for their emphasis on cognitive processes.
They have a strong emphasis on children as active seekers of information about the social realm.
They provide the insight that the effect of children’s social experience depends on their interpretation of experiences.
They have little to say about biological factors.
