Section 2: Theories of Development Flashcards
Theory
framework of ideas or body of principles that can be used to guide the collection and interpretation of facts
Different theories differ in the following ways:
- Domains of development under investigation
- Research methods
- Central Issues addressed
- Periods of development studied
Domains of Development
cognitive, social, emotional, physical, or a combination
Five central issues of child psychology:
nature vs. nurture, plasticity, continuity vs. discontinuity, active role of the child, and stability of individual differences
Nativists
This theoretical perspective argues that innate understanding of concepts plays a central role in development
Empiricists
This theoretical perspecitve argues that concepts arise from basic learning mechanisms
Biological Theory
This theory posits that development is an unfolding of genetically determined sequences. Change cannot occur before the child is ready, so experience is less influential
Contributions of Biological Theory:
a. Works well for motor development
b. Gave milestones for normal development
Criticisms of Biological Theory
a. Ignores the role of learning
b. Minimizes individual difference
c. Doesn’t consider culture
Psychodynamic Theory
This theory shows how universal development processes can be understood by exploring life experiences of individuals; culture and biology shape development
Freudian theory is associated with this larger theory:
Psychodynamic theory
Freudian psychodynamic theory posits that:
i. Forces drive development and are in competition for priority.
ii. Conflict is with external social forces.
iii. Development is the internalization of social codes.
iv. The struggle of the superego and ego to control the id.
v. Development is in stages
Developed psychoanalysis
Freud
Trained as neurologist
Freud
Found problems that looked like neurological damage were actually due to unresolved trauma in childhood
Freud
Thought all biological drives ultimately served sex drive (instinct to spread genes)
Freud
Came up with psychosexual stages
Freud
Psychosexual stages posit that
- as child develops the form of their sexual gratification also changes
- Problems were associated with conflicts between the child’s desires, social prescriptions, and social expectations, and the way the child experiences the conflicts at each stage determines their personality
Psychosexual stages are:
i. Oral stage
ii. Anal stage
iii. Phallic stage
iv. Latency
v. Genital stage
In Oral Stage:
- First year
2. Mouth is the focus of pleasurable sensations as the baby sucks and bites
In Anal Stage:
- Year two
2. The anus is the focus of pleasurable sensations as the baby learns to control elimination
In Phallic Stage:
- 3rd-6th year
- Children develop sexual curiosity and obtain gratification when they masturbate. They have sexual fantasies about the parent of the opposite sex and feel guilt about their fantasies
In Latency:
- 7th year through puberty
2. Sexual urges are submerged. Children focus on mastery of skills valued by adults
In Genital Stage:
- Adolescence
2. Adolescents have adult sexual desires, and they seek to gratify them
Id:
part of personality present from birth, controls biological drives
Ego:
part of personality that emerges in early childhood, is rational component of personality
Superego:
part of personality that emerges last and assures individual behaves in morally acceptable ways
In Freudian Theory, the engine of developmental change is
the constant battle between id, ego, and superego–ego development
Contributions of Freudian Theory:
i. First to emphasize importance of early experience on later functioning
ii. Defense mechanisms can distort perceptions
Criticisms of Freudian Theory:
i. Difficult to subject to scrutiny
ii. Too much emphasis on sexuality and the unconscious
iii. Women are considered morally inferior
iv. Based on clinical pop
Eriksonian theory posits that:
i. Development consists of overcoming crises associated with particular phases of life.
ii. Focused on social competence and conscious behavior
iii. Stage theory
Trained as artist and anthropologist
Erikson
Built on Freud, but emphasized social and cultural factors rather than biological drive as force of development
Erikson
Built from Freud’s model, but saw development as continuing throughout life rather than just to adolescence
Erikson
Believed “quest” of life is to search for identity
Erikson
In Eriksonian Theory, personality is determined by:
How the person resolves the internal conflict of the stages
In Eriksonian Theory, the psychological stages are:
ii. Trust vs. mistrust:
iii. Autonomy versus shame and doubt
iv. Initiative versus guilt
v. Industry versus inferiority
vi. Identity versus role confusion
vii. Intimacy versus isolation
viii. Generativity versus stagnation
ix. Integrity versus despair
In the Eriksonian stage of Trust vs Distrust:
- 1st year
2. Infants learn to trust others to care for their basic needs, or to mistrust them
In the Eriksonian stage of Autonomy versus shame and doubt:
- 2nd year
- Children learn to exercise their will and to control themselves, or they become uncertain and doubt that they can do things by themselves
In the Eriksonian stage of Initiative versus guilt
- 3rd-6th year
- Children learn to initiate their own activities, enjoy their accomplishments, and become purposeful. If they are not allowed to follow their own initiative, they feel guilty for their attempts to become independent.
In the Eriksonian stage of industry versus inferiority
- 7th year through puberty
2. Children learn to be competent and effective at activities valued by adults and peers, or they feel inferior
In the Eriksonian stage of identity versus role confustion
- Adolescence
- Adolescents establish a sense of personal identity as part of their social group, or they become confused about who they are and what they want to do in life.
In the Eriksonian stage of intimacy versus isolation
- Early adulthood
2. Young adults find an intimate life companion, or they risk loneliness and isolation
In the Eriksonian stage of Generativity versus Stagnation
- Middle Age
2. Adults must be productive in their work and willing to raise a next generation, or they risk stagnation
In the Eriksonian stage of integrity versus despair
- Old age
- People try to make sense of their prior experience and to assure themselves that their lives have been meaningful, or they despair over their unachieved goals and ill-spent lives
Contributions of Eriksonian Theory
i. Emphasis on conscious action
ii. Evidence that early social relationships are critical
Criticisms of Eriksonian Theory:
i. Terminology is not well-operationalized
ii. Based on male development
Eriksonian Theory is associated with this larger theory
Psychodynamic Theory
Social Learning theories posit that
- Emphasizes nature’s influences
- Learning involves modifying behavior by forming an association between the observed behavior and its consequences
- Explore how rewards, punishments, and other reinforcers change the likelihood of a child engaging in particular behavior
Behaviorism is associated with this larger theory
Social learning theory
Behaviorism posits that:
Behavior is a result of classical conditioning and operant conditioning
Contributions of behaviorism
i. Showed relationship between experience and behavior
ii. Showed role for active child
Criticism of behaviorism
i. Only explains simple behavior, not complex processes
Scientist who:
i. Conducted experiments with inducing fear in infants
ii. Boasted he could use learning principles to train any infant, regardless of talents, abilities, or family history, to become whatever he wished
John Watson
John Watson is associated with what theory?
Behaviorism
Scientist who worked with:
i. Operant conditioning
ii. Compared development to the creation of a sculpture
Skinner
Skinner is associated with what theory?
Behaviorism
Social Learning Theory posits that
a. Children learn by observing and modeling parents, teachers, other children, and the media.
b. Learning and experience alter a child’s thinking and beliefs about the world
c. Reinforcement is unnecessary
d. You don’t have to experience everything to learn it
Contributions of Social Learning Theory
i. Emphasizes importance of social environment
ii. Recognizes observational learning and imitation
iii. Role for active child
Criticisms of Social Learning Theory
i. General, hard to disprove
ii. Hard to explain behaviors never witnessed or experienced before
Scientist who
i. Contributed concept of modeling
Bandura
Scientist who
ii. Proposed concept of Self-efficacy
Bandura
Bandura is associated with what theory?
Social learning theory
Modeling
process by which children observe and imitate others
Self-efficacy
people’s beliefs about their own abilities to deal effectively with their environment
Low self efficacy
avoid difficult tasks because they don’t believe they are capable of doing them well
Behavior modification
technique for breaking the association between behaviors and environmental consequences that maintain them
Social learning theory believes that behaviors…
can be unlearned
Cognitive-Development Theory posits that:
a. Children explore the environment and construct their own understanding of the world
b. Interaction with the environment results in adaptation
c. A stage theory—development is discontinuous
d. development and learning are two separate processes
e. The essence of learning is action
Cognitive-Development Theory was established by
Piaget
Contributions of Cognitive-Development Theory
i. Based on systematic observations
ii. Illustrated steps of cognitive development
Criticisms of Cognitive-Development Theory
i. Underestimated children’s capabilities
ii. Development is more continuous than this theory suggests
For Piaget, development is
a creative process of invention
as the child acts on the world and searches for a fit between new experiences and existing schemas.
For Piaget, development is NOT
a process of discovering facts or truths
Piaget’s Psychological Stages
i. Sensorimotor
ii. Preoperational
iii. Concrete Operational
iv. Formal Operational
In the sensorimotor stage:
- Birth to 2yrs
- Infants’ achievements consist largely of coordinating their sensory perceptions and simple motor behaviors.
- Development of Object permanence
a. Infants as young as 3.5mo. recognize impossible events—shown with violation of expectations
b. A-not-B
In the preoperational stage:
- 2-6yrs
- Yong children can represent reality to themselves through the use of symbols, including mental images, words, and gestures. Still, children often fail to distinguish their point of view from that of others, become easily captured by surface appearances, and are often confused about causal relations
In the concrete operational stage
- 6-12yrs
- As they enter middle childhood, children become capable of mental operations, internalized actions that fit into a logical system. Operational thinking allows children to mentally combine, separate, order, and transform objects and actions. Such operations are considered concrete because they are carried out in the presence of the objects and events being thought about.
In the formal operational development stage
- 12-19yrs
- In adolescence, the developing person acquires the ability to think systematically about all logical relations within a problem. Adolescents display keen interest in abstract ideas and in the process of thinking itself.
Theory that believes development can be sped up or down by variations in the environment, but assumes processes of development are the same in all human groups
Cognitive-Development Theory
Schema
most basic mental structure that provides model and organization for understanding and interacting with the world
Schemas are modified through
adaptation
Assimilation is when
individuals incorporate new experiences into existing schemas
Accomodation is when
individuals modify schema so it can be applied to old and new experiences
Affordances are
properties objects have
Equilibration is
the back and forth process of child’s search for fit between existing schemas and new experiences that creates a new balance in child’s understanding
Information Processing theory is associated with this larger theory
cognitive theory
Information Processesing theory posits that
a. Description of development and thinking is given in computer science terms
b. Focuses on the encoding, storage, retrieval, and manipulation of information (memory)
c. Emphasizes continuity
d. Concerned with how information flows through the child’s developing mental system, and how the child comes to process, store, organize, retrieve, and manipulate information
e. “Hardware” vs “Software”
Contribution of Information Processing theory
i. Useful for framework for explaining developmental differences
Criticisms of Information Processing theory:
i. Cognitions are not directly observable
ii. Ignores situational determinants of behavior (heavy on nature)
David Klahr is associated with this theory
Information Processing Theory
Core-Knowledge Theory posits that
a. Children are active learners, a well-equipped product of evolution
b. You are primed to understand certain concepts
Core-Knowledge Theory is categorized with this larger theory
Cognitive Theory
Contributions of Core-Knowledge Theory
i. Combination of specialized abilities
ii. General learning abilities
Criticisms of Core-Knowledge Theory
i. Emphasis on very early development
ii. Little discussion of environment
Some scientists associated with Core-Knowledge Theory are
Carey, Spelke, Wellman, Gopnik
Socio-cultural theory posits that
a. Belief that nature and nurture shape development by interacting indirectly through culture
b. Children and adults socially engage in dyadic interaction to promote child’s development
c. Cultural variation in development
d. Thought biological, social, AND cultural factors influence development
Contributions of Socio-cultural theory
a. Emphasized the importance of social interaction (nurture)
b. Importance of the role of adults
Criticisms of Socio-cultural theory
a. Little discussion of biological contributions
Socio-cultural theory suggests that development occurs primarily through
social interaction
Systems Theory posits that
Theory that envisions development in terms of complex wholes made up of parts; explores how these wholes and their parts are organized and interact and change over time.
Dynamic Systems Theory Posits that
a. Addresses how new, complex systems of behavior develop from interaction of less complex patterns
b. E.g. how reaching and grasping results from the development of visual and motor systems
c. Interested in what sparks the beginnings of new systems and how these systems develop
Some scientists associated with Socio-Cultural theory are
Vygotsky and Tomasello
Socio-cultural theory is associated with this larger theory
cognitive theory
Evolutionary theories posit that
- Explain behavior in terms of how it contributed to survival of species and addresses ways the evolutionary past continues to influence individual development
- Contributions to development stem from evolutionary pressures
- More emphasis on individual differences
- Thinks about how we are built
Contributions of evolutionary theory
a. Emphasized the role of gene perpetuation
b. Play is an important part of learning
Criticisms of evolutionary theory
a. Hard to trace the evolutionary origins
b. Doesn’t explain the process of development, just the environment and biology of development
Ethology is
a. Study of animal behavior and its evolutionary bases
b. Like Zurich primate center
The Ecological Systems theory posits that
a. Focuses on organization of the multiple environmental contexts within which children develop
b. Development is a process of child-environment interaction including the immediate and indirect influences
Contributions of Ecological Systems Theory
i. Emphasized importance of reciprocal interactions between the child and others/settings
ii. Focus on larger context
Criticisms of Ecological Systems theory
i. General, hard to disprove
ii. Really more of a framework for thinking about development than a theory of development
Who came up with an Ecological systems model?
Uri Bronfenbrenner
this system considers how things change over time
chronosystem
Parts of the Ecological systems model
- Individual
- Microsystem
- Mesosystem
- Exosystem
- Macrosystem
In the Ecological systems model, the microsystem is
a. Includes all settings the child inhabits on a daily basis
b. Child participates directly
c. E.g. home, school
In the Ecological systems model, the Mesosystem is
a. Connective tissue that links Microsystems to one another
b. E.g. parents’ involvement in child’s school
In the Ecological systems model, the Exosystem is
a. Settings that affect but don’t usually include the child
b. Set of environment that the child is not directly part of, but influences the child’s development
c. E.g. parent’s workplace
In the Ecological systems model, the macrosystem is
a. Values, customs, hazards, and resources of larger culture that shape what happens in all settings of systems nested within
b. Assumptions and ideologies
A critical theory does what?
Criticizes cultural biases that may be present in traditional developmental theories. Examine power relations between groups, and consider the influence these relations may have on development of gender and race.
