Justina Caldwell
FHS 2600
Theory Comparison
Erik Erikson believed that we develop personally and socially in 8 stages, the first four
relating to children. In each stage of life an individual overcomes a challenge. If one is able to
overcome the challenge, there is a balance between what could have happened. Erickson
believed that if the challenge is not overcame in a positive manner some point in their lifetime
that later problems would happen in their life. Stage one happens from birth to 18 months and
children are to acquire a sense of security and some control over their environment. At stage two
children are 18 months to three years old. They are gain awareness of growing competence and
separateness as human beings. Stage three happens from ages three to six, and children are to
exercise a growing sense of power and ability to act on own without undue risk-taking. In stage
four, which occurs for children in ages six to twelve, children are trying to find satisfaction in
school achievement and master new skills.
Abraham Maslow developed a theory called self-actualization theory, which tells of a
hierarchy of needs. These needs motivate people’s behavior and goals that are necessary for
health personality development. The bottom two layers represent the basic physical needs that
we need to sustain life and the fundamental needs to be safe and secure. Unless these needs are
met, an individual will not be able to move up in the pyramid to achieve the next goals or growth
needs which are love and a sense of belonging, and then self esteem. The top of the pyramid is
self-actualization. This is the achievement of many life goals, which not many people are able to
achieve, but are doing their best to get to this point.
Jean Piaget developed the cognitive-developmental theory, which can be broken down
into several parts. The first part is constructivism, which is a theory of how children learn.
Children are constantly hypothesizing about how the world works, and continually testing and
refining their own theories. Piaget believed in scheme or schema which is that children had the
ability to organize and make sense of their experiences. Children then go through adaptation
which is the process of changing schemes in response to experience. Piaget believed that there
are three different kinds of knowledge which are physical, logico-mathematical knowledge, and
social conventional knowledge. He also believed that biology plays a key role in cognitive
development with specific cognitive abilities changing as the children get older. The
Sensorimotor stage happens from birth to 2 years old and the children learn through senses and
physical movement, gradually moving from reflexes to conscious activity. The next stage,
Preoperational, happens from age two to seven and the children in this stage develop the ability
to learn through language and mental representations of thought, and thinking is controlled more
by perceptions than logic. From ages seven to eleven in the concrete operational stage children
are able to think and solve problems more logically, through concrete experiences. In the final
stage, formal operational, which happens from ages 11 and up, they are able to think abstractly.
Lev Vygotsky had the sociocultural theory, which is the belief that children learn from
social interaction within a cultural context. What children learn is based off of the culture in
which they grow up in. Development is a continuous process driven by learning. Babies learn
through their senses from manipulating objects. Babies relationship with adults drive learning
during the first two years of life. From ages two to five children’s development is dominated by
their perceptions and reactions. During the preschool years children need to acquire cognitive
and social-emotional competencies to help with their future learning. Some of these
competencies include language, memory, focused attention, and self regulation. If these are
learned, children in the primary grades are able to learn on demand. Cognitive development
includes zone of proximal development, scaffolding, social construction of knowledge, language
and other symbol systems, self regulation, and play. Zone of proximal development is the
distance between the actual developmental level an individual has achieved and the level of
potential development that they could achieve through guidance or collaboration. Scaffolding is
the assistance, guidance, and direction teachers provide children to help them accomplish a task
or learn a skill within their zone of proximity that they could not achieve on their own. Self
regulation is the ability to adapt, or control behavior, emotions, and thinking. With play,
Vygotsky believed that make-believe play is the leading activity in children’s development when
they are younger.
B. F. Skinner believed in behaviorism or behavioral learning. He believed that learning
is a change in behavior that is controlled by the consequence, either positive or negative, that
follow the behavior. Using pleasant or unpleasant consequences to control behavior is called
operant conditioning. Positive consequences strengthen the frequency of a behavior, while
unpleasant consequences decrease its frequency. Reinforcers are consequences that increase or
strengthen a behavior. Positive reinforcement is where a pleasant consequence follows a
behavior that causes the behavior to happen again, while negative reinforcement is where an
unpleasant consequence is avoided if the person performs a desired behavior more frequently.
Albert Bandura developed the social cognitive theory, which is a behavioral and
cognitive theory; states that people can learn effectively form observing the consequences of
another person’s behavior. He believed that observational learning depends on learners having
an image in their mind of the behavior they observed and its consequences. Children learn by
modeling, that is imitating others, and learn vicariously, which is learning by observing the
effects of other people’s behavior, rather than experiencing rewards or punishments directly.
With self-regulated learning, Bandura believed that people not only learn by modeling the
behavior of others, but by observing and evaluation their own.
The theories of both Erikson and Maslow apply primarily to social and personality
development and the motivation to learn. The theories of Piaget and Vygotsky give information
on the processes of cognitive development. Skinner’s behaviorism does not affect essential
processes of thinking, concept development, and problem solving, as seen in Vygotsky and
Piaget’s theories. Skinner’s work emphasized that a person’s behavior needs to be directly
reinforced to change, while Bandura’s demonstrated that people can learn more effectively from
observing the consequences of another person’s behavior. I had a hard time believing Skinner
because I know that learning is not just controlled by the consequences, but also what they
observe in others, as stated in Bandura’s theory. Maslow’s theory helps me understand children
better because of the fact of how you will not be able to have the child happy and comfortable
until you are able to meet their basic needs.
Write a comparison paper on the 6 theorists discussed in Chapter 4 of our text (Erikson, Maslow, Skinner, Bandura,
Piaget, and Vygotsky). Address how each theory views child development (physical, cognitive, social, emotional),
and how the theories differ. Which theorists help you to understand children better and why? Which theorists do you
have a hard time understanding or “buying in to” and why? Note: This assignment is worth double points (6) and
should be a minimum of 2 pages. This paper also needs to be included in your Professional Portfolio.