Theories of development Flashcards
Continuous development
Occurs from childhood through to adulthood
Not quantitatively different from adults
Children are mini-adults
Development as stages
Stages are linked to specific ages/periods of time
Children are quantitatively different from adults in psychological terms
Which theory: continuous and nurture?
Behaviourism
Which theory: continuous and nature?
Nativism
Which theory: stages and nature/nurture
Freudian and constructivism
Which theory: stages and nature?
Maturation/ethology
Two main theorists of behaviourism?
Pavlov and Skinner
What is shaping?
Gradual process of pair association
Give an example of shaping
Language development
Main processes of development according to behaviourism?
Classical and operant conditioning
Main theorist of nativism?
Noam Chomsky
How is nativism different to behaviourism?
Suggests language is innate as children pick it up without being offically taught
Main theorists of maturation/ethology
Lorenz and Bowlby
What is the critical period of attchment in infants?
8-9months
Why is Freud important?
He pioneered the area of research
What are the 5 stages of psychosexual development?
Oral, anal, genital, phallic and latent
Main theorist of constructivism?
Piaget
How can a child move on to the next stage according to constructivism?
Overcome their egocentrism
What is egocentrism?
An inability to see the world from someone else’s perspective
How does the child participate in their development according to constructivism?
Actively by discovering the social/physical world
Criticism of constructivism?
Overlapping waves theory: children use both old and new strageties to solve problems
