Two Basic Issues in Development

Question 1

Active (Organismic Model)

Answer 1

It sees people as active, growing organisms. They initiate events rather than passively reacting. The driving force is internal as environment does not cause development but it has the capacity to slow it down depending on the individual’s response to the stimulations it created.

Forerunner: Jean Jacques Rousseau

Question 2

Reactive (Mechanistic Model)

Answer 2

Human behavior are like machines. A passive recipient of environmental inputs. It is shaped due to the operation of the biological parts in response to external and internal stimuli. Mechanistic theorists see development as continuous.

Forerunner: John Locke’s Tabula Rasa (the human mind is a blank slate)

Question 3

Continous

Answer 3

Development is gradual and incremental.

Question 4

Quantitative Changes

Answer 4

A change in number or amount such as height, weight or vocabulary size. Measuring the same thing over time, that might be more or less of it.

Example: Cognitive and Learning theories (Piaget, Bandura and Vgotsky)

Question 5

Discontinous

Answer 5

Development is abrupt and uneven.

Question 6

Qualitative changes

Answer 6

Discontinued changes in kind, structure and organization. Development at different viewpoints in life influenced by past functioning.

Example: Stage theories (Freud)