Theories of Development Flashcards
Every ______ is an explanation of facts and observations, a set of concepts and ideas that organize the confusing mass of experiences that each of us encounters every minute.
theory
- A __________ theory is a systemic statement of general principles that provides a framework for understanding how and why people change as they grow older.
- ________ theories provide insights that are both broad and deep, and they are therefore more comprehensive than the many observations and ideas from which they arise.
developmental
Why do theories have a major role in psychology?
Because theories provide an explanation to psychological concepts that are abstract.
Ex: How do we measure self-esteem?
What are three things that theories do?
1) Theories produce _______
2) Theories generate _________
3) Theories offer ________ ________ (_________)
hypotheses
discoveries
practical guidance (implications)
What are the three grand theories?
PBC…
1) Psychoanalytic theory
2) Behaviorism
3) Cognitive psychology
What are the the three newer theories?
SHE…
1) Socio-cultural theory
2) Humanism
3) Evolutionary theory
In the first half of the century, two opposing theories– _________ theory and _______ (also called learning theory)– began as general theories of psychology, each with applications in the study of development.
psychoanalytic theory
behaviorism
Inner drives, deep motives, and unconscious needs are rooted in childhood are the foundation of ____________ theory.
psychoanalytic theory
Who originated psychoanalytic theory?
Sigmund Freud
According to Freud, development in the first ___ years of life occurs in three stages, each characterized by ______ interest and pleasure arising from a particular part of the body.
six
sexual
Freud maintained that _______ satisfaction is linked to major developmental stages, needs and challenges.
sensual
One of Freud’s most influential ideas was that each stage includes its own potential ________.
conflicts
Psychoanalytic theory contends that childhood fantasies and memories remain powerful _______.
lifelong
Erik Erikson described eight _________ stages.
developmental
Erik Erikson described eight developmental stages, each characterized by a particular challenge, or ___________ _____.
developmental crisis
Erikson, like Freud, believed that problems of adult life echo unresolved _________ _______.
childhood conflicts.
Ex: An adult who has difficulty establishing a secure, mutual relationship with a life partner may never have resolved the first crisis of early infancy, trust versus mistrust.
What are the two crucial aspects of Erikson’s stages that differ significantly from Freud’s?
1) Erikson’s stages emphasize family and culture, not sexual urges.
2) Erikson recognizes adult development, with three stages after adolescence.
According to John B. Watson, if psychologists focus on _______, they will realize that everything can be learned.
behavior
__________ is a grand theory of human development that studies observable behavior. It is also called ‘learning’ theory because it describes the laws and processes by which behavior is learned.
Behaviorism
Behaviorism is also called _______ theory because it describes how people learn– by developing habits, bit by bit.
learning
Behaviorists study the laws of _________, the processes by which responses link to particular stimuli.
conditioning
What are the two types of conditioning?
Classical and operant
Pavlov’s dogs are an example of ________ conditioning.
classical
In _________ conditioning, a person or animal learns to associate a neutral stimulus with a meaningful stimulus, gradually responding to the neutral stimulus in the same way as to the meaningful one.
classical
The most influential North American proponent of behaviorism was __.__ _______.
B.F Skinner
B.F Skinner recognized _______ conditioning, in which animals (including people) act and then something follows the action. If the consequence that follows is enjoyable, the animal tends to repeat the behavior; if the consequence is unpleasant, the animal might not repeat the behavior.
-_______ conditioning is the learning process by which a particular action is followed by something desired (which makes the person or animal more likely to repeat the action) or by something unwanted (which makes the action less likely to be repeated).
operant
- _______ _______ _______ holds that humans sometimes learn without personal reinforcement.
- ______ ________ ______ is an extension of behaviorism that emphasizes the influence that other people have other a person’s behavior. Even without specific reinforcement, every individual learns many things through observation and imitation of other people.
social learning theory
This learning often occurs through ________, when people copy what they see others do (also called observational learning).
modeling
So what are the three types of learning?
1) classical conditioning
2) operant conditioning
3) social learning
1) Classical conditioning –> learning occurs through association –> neutral stimulus becomes _________ ________.
2) Operant conditioning –> learning occurs through ___________ and _________ –> weak or rare responses becomes strong, frequent responses–or, with punishment, become extinct.
3) Social learning –> learning occurs through _______ what others do –> observed behaviors become copied behaviors.
conditioned response
reinforcement and punishment
modeling
________ theory is a grand theory of human development that focuses on changes in how people think over time. According to this theory, our thoughts shape our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
Cognitive
The first major cognitive theorist was the Swiss scientist ____ ______.
Jean Piaget
Piaget formed the central thesis of _______ theory: How children think changes with time and experience, and their thought processes affect their biology.
cognitive
According to cognitive theory, to understand humans one must understand ________.
thinking
Piaget maintained that _______ development occurs in four age-related periods, or stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formed operational.
cognitive
Piaget describes two types of cognitive adaption:
1) ___________
2) __________
1) Assimilation
2) Adaption
__________-_________ theory is a perspective that compares human thinking processes, by analogy, to computer analysis of data, including sensory input, connections, stored memories, and output.
Information-processing theory
Instead of merely interpreting responses by infants and children, as Piaget did, this cognitive theory (IPT) focuses on the ________ of thought– that is, how minds work before a response and then the many ways a response might occur.
processes
Until these grand theories were developed, few imagined that childhood experiences or the unconscious exert such power (____________), or that adult behavior arises from prior reinforcement (__________) or that children have quite different ways of thinking– not just less knowledge– than adults (_________).
psychoanalytic
behaviorist
cognitive
__________ theory is a newer theory that holds that development results from the dynamic interaction of each person with the surrounding social and cultural forces.
sociocultural theory
The central thesis of ____________ theory is that human development results from the dynamic interaction between developing persons and their surrounding society.
sociocultural
The pioneer of the sociocultural perspective was ___ ________.
Lev Vygotsky
Vygotsky was a leader in describing the interaction between _______ and ________.
culture and education
In Vygotsky’s view, each person, schooled or not, develops with the guidance of more skilled members of his or her society, who are tutors or mentors in an __________ __ ________.
apprenticeship in thinking
___________ __ ________ is Vygotsky’s term for how cognition is stimulated and developed in people by more skilled members of society.
apprenticeship in thinking
To describe this process, Vygotsky developed the concept of ______ _________, the method used by parents, teachers, and entire societies to teach novices the skills and habits expected within their culture.
guided participation
Active apprenticeship is a central concept of _________ theory because each person depends on others to learn. This process of guided participation is informal, pervasive, and social.
sociocultural
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers founded a theory called ________ that become prominent after WWII, as millions read Maslow’s ‘Toward a Psychology of Being’ and Roger’s ‘On Becoming a Person.’
humanism
Maslow believed that all people – no mater what their culture, gender, or background– have the same _____ _____.
basic needs
________ is a theory that stresses the potential of all humans for good and the belief that all people have the same basic needs, regardless of culture, gender, or background.
Humanism
At the highest level of Maslow’s pyramid, when basic needs have been met, people can be fully __________ – creative, spiritual, curious, appreciative of nature, able to respect everyone else.
themselves
____-__________ is the top of Maslow’s pyramid of the hierarchy of needs. It is becoming truly oneself, fulfilling one’s unique potential while appreciating all of humanity.
self-actualization
Given the stresses and deprivations of modern life, humanists believe that relatively few people reach the self-actualization of level 5. But everyone ___, and that is the universality of humanism.
can
What are the two most prominent theories in the universal perspective?
Humanism and evolutionary theory
Carl Rogers stressed the need to accept and respect one’s own personhood as well as everyone else. He thought that people should give each other __________ _______ ______, which means that they should see (regard) each other with appreciation (positive) without conditions (unconditional).
unconditional postive regard
As you can see, ________ emphasize what all people have in common, not their national, ethnic, or cultural differences.
Maslow contended that everyone must satisfy each lower level of the hierarchy of need before moving ______.
humanists
higher
To understand human development, __________ theory contends that humans should acknowledge the lives of our early ancestors.
evolutionary
According to evolutionary theory, every species has two long-standing, biologically-based drives: ________ and __________. Understanding these two perspectives provides insight into protective parenthood, the death of newborns, infant dependency, child immaturity, the onset of puberty, and much more.
survival and reproduction
- A basic idea from evolutionary theory – _______ ________ – proposes that humans today react in ways that helped promote survival and reproduction long ago.
- _________ ________ is the process by which living creatures (including people) adjust to their environment. Genes that enhance survival and reproductive ability are selected, over the generations, to become more prevalent.
selective adaptation
The process of selective adaptation works as follows: If one person happens to have a gene that makes survival more likely, that gene is likely to be passed on to the next generation because that person survives long enough to _______. Such a beneficial gene might have arisen as a mutation, or it might simply be a genetic combination that results in one end of the natural variation in height, body type, anxiety, or any other characteristic. Anyone who inherits such genes has an increased chance of growing up, finding a mate, and bearing children – half of whom would inherit that desirable gene.
reproduce
For groups as well as individuals, the interaction of _____ and ________ affects survival and reproduction, the two basic drives recognized by evolutionary theory.
genes and environment
Summing it up…
- Newer theories of development are more multicultural, expansive, and multidisciplinary than the earlier, grand theories.
- __________ theory emphasizes the varied cultural contexts of development. Learning occurs within the zone of proximal development, as the result of sensitive collaboration between a teacher (who could be a parent or a peer) and a learner who is ready for the next step.
- ________ theories include humanism and evolutionary theory, both of which stress that all people have the same underlying needs. Humanism holds that everyone merits respect and positive regard in order to become ____-________. Evolutionary theory contends that thousands of years of ________ _______ have led humans to experience emotions and impulses that have satisfied two universal needs of every species: to survive and reproduce.
Sociocultural
Universal
self-actualized
selective adaptation
- __________ theories make us aware of the impact of early-childhood experiences, remembered or not, on subsequent development.
- _________ shows the effect that immediate responses, associations, and examples have on learning, moment by moment and over time.
- _________ theories bring an understanding of intellectual processes, including that thoughts and beliefs affect every aspect of our development.
- __________ theories remind us that development is embedded in a rich and multifaceted cultural context, evident in every social interaction.
- _________ theories stress that human differences are less significant than characteristics that are shared by all humans, in every place and era.
Psychoanalytic
Behaviorism
Cognitive
Sociocultural
Universal
