Week 1: Human Development Part 1

Question 1

Erik Erikson’s Psychological Theory

Answer 1

Theory combined internal psychological and external social factors, believing there to be eight stages of development from birth to adulthood. Each stage is in a specific order and built upon one another, focusing on a specific challenge (crisis) that will need to be resolved in order to move onto the next stage of development. Failure to resolve the crisis in early stages may continue to hinder a child’s development later on in life.

Question 2

Eight Stages of Erik Erikson’s Psychological Theory

Answer 2

1 Learning basic trust versus mistrust.
2 Learning autonomy versus shame.
3 Learning initiative versus guilt.
4 Industry versus inferiority.
5 Learning identity versus identity diffusion.
6 Learning intimacy versus isolation.
7 Learning generativity versus self-absorption.
8 Learning integrity versus despair.

Question 3

The Four Core Concepts of Behaviourism

Answer 3

1. The ‘blank slate’. Children enter the world as a ‘blank slate’ but have a capacity to learn. What is
   learned depends on the environment surrounding the child.
2. The behavioural focus. In opposition to Freud’s dependence on unobservable concepts (the existence
   of the ‘id’, etc.) study is focused only on observable behaviour, aiming to discover the
   environmental stimuli that produce it.
3. Environmentalist determinism. Like Freud, Watson believes that an individual’s behaviour is not
   produced by ‘free will’ but entirely dependent on their experience. In this model, experience of their
   environment.
4. Conditioning. The main process through which we learn is ‘conditioning’. The concepts of
   ‘learning’ and ‘conditioning’ are closely associated.

Question 4

Behavioural Theory (Behaviourism)

Answer 4

John B. Watson (1913) coined the term ‘behaviourism’. This theory assumes that behaviour is
observable and can be correlated with other observable events. Behaviourism’s goal is to explain
relationships between antecedent conditions (stimuli), behaviour (responses) and consequences (rewards
and punishment).

Question 5

Ethological theory

Answer 5

Ethological theory is built around the idea that the natural environment has an effect on development.
From the ethological perspective, the selective pressures of the environment, not the individual’s genetic
makeup, are responsible for changes in behaviour.

Some of the foundations of ethological theory have stemmed from Charles Darwin’s work on natural
selection. Individuals in a species show a wide range of variation, due to differences in genes. Individuals
with characteristics most suited to the environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. The genes
that allowed the individuals to be successful are therefore passed to the offspring in the next generation

Question 6

The bioecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1974)

Answer 6

Focuses on an individual’s development with greater emphasis placed on the role of his/her social contexts.

Question 7

The bioecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1974) systems

Answer 7

Microsystem– The immediate social settings (family, school, work, church, peer group) in which an
individual is involved. This system is focused on the face-to-face interaction with others.
Mesosystem– This system links two microsystems together, directly or indirectly (e.g.,
parent–teacher conference, overtime at work).
Exosystem– Settings in which the person does not actively participate but in which significant
decisions are made, affecting the individuals who do interact directly with the person (e.g.,
neighbourhood/community structures that affect the functioning of smaller systems, such as
newspapers or television).
Macrosystem– The blueprints for defining and organising the institutional life of the society,
including overarching patterns of culture, politics or economy.

Question 8

Four Key Concepts of Life Course Theory

Answer 8

1 Human lives are situated in historical time and place. The time of birth will determine the
developmental trajectory of the child. This can happen through the cohort effect where people from
different birth cohorts are affected by different events. This can also happen through a period effect,
where a historical event exerts a relatively uniform effect across different birth cohorts.
2 Developmental studies must pay attention to the time of our lives. Social roles and events define
norms for behaviour at different ages. Consider a woman who becomes pregnant as a teenager,
compared to a woman who has children later in life. The same life event occurring at different stages
in the life course will have considerably different impacts on each of the women’s developmental
pathways.
3 Human lives are interdependent or linked with each other. Our lives are built around our relationships
with people (family, peer and romantic relationships). For example the early attachments we form
with our parents are likely to impact the attachments we form with our children.
4 Human beings have the ability to make decisions and power to change their lives. How we choose to
behave with and relate to other people serves to shape and select the environment that we actually
experience. Planning one’s decisions can act as a protective factor, whereas lack of planning can be a
risk factor with poorer outcomes.