Theories and Theorist Flashcards
What is Stanley Hall known for?
Founder of psychology in the U.S. and the first president of the American Psychological Association. He
popularized the study of the child and child guidance. He wrote seminal works on adolescence.
Behaviorism
Who are behaviorists?
What does behaviorism teach?
Behaviorism was outlined by John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, Joseph Wolpe, and B. F. Skinner.
Initially the mind is a blank slate and the child learns to behave in a certain manner. This is basically a passive theory. The mind is like a computer that is fed information. This model relies on empiricism—John Locke’s view that knowledge is acquired by experience. All behavior is the result of learning.
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Key reminder: Newer exams often refer to behavior modification as applied behavior analysis (ABA). ABA
looks at observable behavior, rather than hypothetical constructs.
The key concept is that behavior is learned and not pathological.
John B. Watson coined the word behaviorism while Arnold Lazarus created the term behavior therapy.
Counselors who use these approaches assume that behavior is based on learning rather than insight into the
unconscious mind. The criticisms of behavior therapy are that it does not yield insight, it treats symptoms not
the root cause, and it can be manipulative and often changes behavior but not underlying feelings.
Erik Erikson’s Eight Psychosocial Stages
Erikson’s stages are delineated in his classic 1963 work Childhood and Society.
The stages are based on ego
psychology and the epigenetic principle that states that growth is orderly, universal, and systematic.
The stages are:
1) Trust versus mistrust (birth to 1.5 years)
2) Autonomy versus shame and doubt (1.5–3 years)
3) Initiative versus guilt (3–6 years);
4) Industry versus inferiority (6–11 years)
5) Identity versus role confusion (12–18 years)
6) Intimacy versus isolation (18–35 years)
7) Generativity versus stagnation (35–60 years)
8) Integrity versus despair (age 65 and beyond)
What is Jean Piaget known for?
Qualitative Four Stages of Cognitive Development (Genetic Epistemology)
Theory: sensorimotor (birth to 2 years); preoperational (2–7 years); concrete operations (7–12 years); and
formal operations (11/12–16 years).
- Patterns of thought and behavior are called schema or the plural, schemata.
- Adaptation occurs qualitatively when the individual fits information into existing ideas (also known as
assimilation) and modifies cognitive schemata to incorporate new information (this is called
accommodation). - Assimilation and accommodation are said to be complementary processes. The ages in the Piagetian
stages can vary, the order is static. - Object permanence occurs in the sensorimotor stage (an object the child can’t see still exists).
- Centration is the act of focusing on one aspect of something. It is a key factor in the preoperational
stage. - Conservation takes place in the concrete operations stage. The child knows that volume and quantity
do not change, just because the appearance of an object changes (e.g., pouring a short glass of water
into a tall skinny glass does not alter the amount of the liquid). The child comprehends that a change
in shape does not mean a change in volume. - Abstract scientific thinking takes place in the formal operations stage.
What is Lawrence Kohlberg known for?
Three Levels of Moral Development
1) Preconventional level—behavior governed by consequences
2) Conventional level—a desire to conform to socially acceptable rules
3) Postconventional level—self-accepted moral principles guide behavior.
**Each level has
two stages = 6 stages total
What is Carol Gilligan known for?
Theory of Moral Development for Women
Gilligan’s 1982 book, In a Different Voice, illuminated the fact that Kohlberg’s research was conducted on
males. Women have a sense of caring and compassion.
What is Daniel Levinson Known for?
Four Major Eras/Transitions Theory
In a 1978 classic book titled The Seasons of a Man’s Life, Levinson depicted the changes in men’s lives
throughout the life span.
The four key eras include: childhood and adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and later adulthood.
What is Lev Vygotsky known for?
Vygotsky proposed that cognitive development is not the result of innate factors, but is produced by activities
that take place in one’s culture. His zone of proximal development (ZDP) refers to the difference in the
child’s ability to solve problems on his own and his capacity to solve them with some help from others.
Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic
Five Psychosexual Stages
Freud’s stages are:
1) oral (birth to 1 year)
2) anal (1 to 3 years)
3) phallic (Oedipal/Electra complex (3–7 years)
4) latency (3–5 years until age 12)
5) genital (adolescence and adulthood).
- Libido is the drive to live and the sexual instinct that is present even at birth. It is said to be sublimated
in the latency stage as the individual has little interest in sex. This ends when puberty begins.
*Regression is the return to an earlier stage caused by stress.
*Fixation implies that the person is unable to move to the next stage.
- Freud is criticized for focusing on sex and not including the entire life span in his theory.
Keagan’s Constructive Developmental Model
Keagan’s model emphasizes the impact of interpersonal interaction and our perception of reality.
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow, a humanistic psychologist
Maslow interviewed self-actualized people. Lower-order physiological and safety needs must be fulfilled
before self-actualization can occur.
Hierarchy of needs:
1) survival
2) security
3) safety
4) love
5) self-esteem
6) self-actualization
What was William Perry Known for?
Three-Stage Theory of Intellectual and Ethical Development in Adults/College
Students
1) Dualism—in which students view the truth as either right or wrong.
2) Relativism—the notion that a perfect
answer may not exist. There is a desire to know various opinions.
3) Commitment to relativism—in this final stage the individual is willing to change his or her opinion based on novel facts and new points of view
What is James W. Fowler known for?
Prestage Plus Six-Stage Theory of Faith and Spiritual Development
According to Fowler, faith is not identical with one’s belief in religion.
“Faith can be religious faith, but
it can also be centered on a career, a country, an institution, a family, money, success, or even oneself.” Faith grows and changes throughout the life span.
- Stage 0: undifferentiated (primal) faith (infancy, birth to 4 years)
- Stage 1: intuitive-projective faith (2–7 years, early childhood)
- Stage 2: mythic-literal faith (childhood and beyond)
- Stage 3: synthetic-conventional faith
(adolescence and beyond) a stage of conformity - Stage 4: individuative-reflective faith (young adulthood and beyond)
- Stage: 5 conjunctive faith (mid-thirties and beyond) openness to other points of view, paradox, and appreciation of symbols and metaphors
- Stage 6: universalizing faith (midlife and beyond) few reach this stage of enlightenment
What is Diana Baumrind known for?
Typology of Parenting Styles
1) Authoritative: High expectations for the child, but is warm and nurturing. The child is given an explanation
of the rules. Generally produces a child who is happy, does well in school, has good emotional regulation, and
fine social skills.
2) Authoritarian: Characterized by bossy parenting which champions
“follow my orders” with no explanation. Punishment and verbal insults are used liberally. Can produce anxious, withdrawn children who
are likely to engage in antisocial behavior including alcohol and drug abuse, stealing, and gang activities.
3) Permissive Passive Indulgent: Parent has a low level of control and is easily manipulated. Rarely says “no” to a child and is nonpunitive. Very affectionate and wishes to please the child like a friend. Child can display a lack of social skills, boundaries, and can be extremely demanding. Children often use drugs and alcohol.
Explain important elements in Sigmund Freud’s Psychodynamic Psychoanalysis
It is a long-term form of treatment
often lasting three to five years or more. In classical analysis the patient (the analysand) is seen four of five
times per week. This form of therapy is said to be historic since it focuses on the past.
- Patient is asked to engage in free association, which is saying whatever comes to mind.
- Dreams are very important and generally viewed as a process for wish fulfillment. Research does not
support the Freudian wish fulfillment notion. - Unconscious material is examined.
- Freud emphasized ego defense mechanisms:
1) repression (most important)—something that is too
painful to face is totally forgotten;
2) displacement—taking your anger out on a safe target rather than the
source of your anger;
3) projection—you can’t accept a quality about yourself so you attribute it to others (i.e., you think that you are looking out a window but you are really looking in a mirror);
4) reaction formation—you deny an unacceptable unconscious impulse by acting in the opposite manner;
5) sublimation (often cited with career counseling)—you express an unacceptable impulse in a socially
acceptable manner;
6) rationalization—when a person overrates or underrates a reward or outcome;
7) identification—joining a feared person (such as a gang) to relieve your anxiety;
8) suppression or denial– (not unconscious or automatic)—occurs when you purposely don’t think of a situation.
9) Transference is also a key principle. The analysand (client) behaves as if the analyst is a parent or caretaker from the past.
10) The discharge of repressed emotions is called abreaction or catharsis.
11) According to Freud’s structural theory, the personality has three systems:
- a superego (the moral seat of
the mind housing two entities the conscience and the ego ideal);
- the ego or reality principle that
balances the id and the superego;
- and the id, which houses biological forces, especially sex and
aggression: The id operates on the pleasure principle striving for immediate gratification and tension
reduction.
12) Eros is the life instinct; thanatos the death instinct.
