Lecture 1 - Theories of Development

Question 1

In what two ways can development occur?

Answer 1

Continuously or in stages

Question 2

What assumptions do continuous development theories make?

Answer 2

• we develop continuously from childhood through adulthood
• children are not qualitatively different from adults - they just have less knowledge
• children as mini adults

Question 3

What assumptions do developmental stage theories make?

Answer 3

• we develop from childhood t adulthood through a succession of stages, undergoing metamorphosis
• children and adults are qualitatively different in psychological terms

Question 4

Which of these perspectives are continuous or stage theories, and do they believe that nature, nurture or both influence development?
Behaviourism, constructivism, maturation/ethology, Freudian, nativism

Answer 4

Behvaiourism = continuous, nurture
Constructivism = stage, both
Maturation/ethology = stage, nature
Freudian = stage, both
Nativism = continuous, nature

Question 5

Behaviourism relies on classical and operant conditioning, and states that development is…

Answer 5

Quantitative and continuous

Question 6

How does behaviourism explain language development?

Answer 6

According to Skinner (1954), reward and punishment act as reinforcement as parents react happily to noise, which then diminishes until it only occurs for the correct label, shaping babbling into speech.

Question 7

What are the problems with the Behaviourist explanation of language development?

Answer 7

• the principles of learning they base everything on were observed in animals and do not necessarily transfer to human behaviour or or language
• this implies that if animals had the required physiology, they could talk, but parrots have the physiology but can’t talk, only copy, and chimps cannot learn sign-language, which should follow the same principles of learning

Question 8

How does nativist theory explain language development?

Answer 8

Noam Chomsky (1928):
Infants cannot learn language through shaping.
Poverty of stimulus - spoken language isn’t grammatical.
We do not formally teach children language, but they have an innate knowledge of the deep structure of language (cross-cultural)

Question 9

According to nativism, which behaviours do we have innate faculties and modules for?

Answer 9

Language, perception, permanence and solidity of reality, the mind, abilities and temperament, intelligence, motivation and placidity

Question 10

According to nativism, what behaviours are genetically determined?

Answer 10

Innate reflexes, babble, crawling, walking, talking

Question 11

Describe the nativist theory of development

Answer 11

• children are mini adults:

• core faculties for adult behaviour are innate and exist in children
• learning comes from innate abilities
• development is quantitative and continuous (incremental)

Question 12

How do maturation and ethology theories describe development?

Answer 12

• innate capacities can be expressed through maturational unfolding in stages, meaning that children are qualitatively different from adults
• maturational capacity can unfold without learning or experience (it is steered by innate processes) and does so through biological preparedness (controlled by biological clock)
• the environment needs to be conducive for development

Question 13

Evaluate maturation and ethological theories of development

Answer 13

+ goslings imprint on the first moving object they see and form an attachment 10-30 hours after hatching, similarly to humans, who form attachments at 8-9 months
+ Bowlby and attachment in humans - separation, deprivation and monotropy
+ consequences of deprivation are cognitive, social and emotional - affectionless psychopathy (delinquency, Ainsworth’s SS oatterns of attcpachment, cycles of abuse)

Question 14

Describe Freud’s psychosexual stages of development.

Answer 14

• oral, anal, genital stages
• fixation and problems progressing from one stage to the next explains psychological disorders such as neurosis, obesity, OCD, oral and anal personalities
• people have Oedipal and Elektra complexes (castration and
anxiety and penis envy)
• sexual drives and urges are hydraulic processes and catharsis is necessary

Question 15

What is the main problem with Freud’s theory of development?

Answer 15

It has no empirical support and was based on introspection by a small sample, mostly female m/c

Question 16

How does the constructivist viewpoint describe development?

Answer 16

Piaget (1920s onwards):
• development is revolution not evolution
• children are active pts in their own development, through discovery of the physical and social world
• continuity vs discontinuity - stages of development, the value of intra- and inter-cognitive conflict and dialectic clash in causing accommodation etc in schema
• children are not mini adults, they develop through set stages through biological maturation and environmental factors, adapting to a different state of egocentrism

Question 17

What is a problem with the constructivist stage view?

Answer 17

Overlapping waves theory - children use both old and new strategies to solve problems

Question 18

Who is the main behaviourist theorist?

Answer 18

B F Skinner

Question 19

Who is the main nativist theorist?

Answer 19

Noam Chomsky

Question 20

Who is the main maturation and ethology theorist?

Answer 20

Konrad Lorenz

Question 21

Who is the main constructivist theorist?

Answer 21

Piaget