Naomi Trumbull and Sydney Diederich
Psychodynamic TheoryThis theory looks at development in terms of internal drives that are
unconscious, meaning that these unconscious drives affect a persons
behavior
-Believes childhood experiences are the root to all adult feelings and
psychological problems.
-Personality is made up of three parts
*Id- Part of the personality which contains our primitive impulses. This
includes child-like, irrational decision-making and attempts to gratify needs.
*Ego- The part of the personality which maintains a balance between
our impulses (id) and our conscience (superego). Provides rational
decision-making.
*Superego- Part of the personality that recognizes societies
expectations and contributes to neurotic feelings like guilt and shame.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)-Austrian psychiatrist, founder of the psychodynamic theory.
-Born in what is now the Czech Republic
-Attended the University of Vienna, was an outstanding student.
-Started his career out as a medical doctor, but became interested in the
irrational side of human behavior. He began doing his own studies by
asking people about their thoughts, feelings, and fantasies. He saw
patterns in what the revealed to him.
-Freud believed people possessed three basic drives: the sexual drive,
survival instincts, and a drive for destructiveness.
-Freud came up with a list of 5 psychosexual stages.
*Oral: birth to age two
-Mouth (sucking, biting) source of pleasure
-Eating and teething
*Anal: 2-3 years old
-Bowel movements source of pleasure
-Toilet learning
*Phallic: 3-6 years old
-Genitals source of pleasure
-Sex role identification and conscience development
*Latency: 6-12 years old
-Sexual forces dormant
-Energy put into schoolwork and sports
*Genital: 12-18 years old
-Genitals source of pleasure
-Stimulation and satisfaction from relationships
Erik Erikson-Expanded and refined Freud's theory of development, his ideas have
greatly affected early childhood education
-Did his schooling in Europe, studied and received clinical training in
psychoanalysis.
-Was the first child analyst in the Boston area and worked for years in
several universities in the U.S.
-Refined the stages each person passes when growing older. Each stage
is characterized by an emotional challenge.
-Used the term "identity crisis" to describe how people struggle with a pair
of contrasting issues at each stage.
-Stages:
*Stage One: The Newborn
-Challenge: Trust vs. mistrust
-Strength: Hope
*Stage Two: Toddlers
-Challenge: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
-Strength: Willpower
*Stage Three: Childhood
-Challenge: Initiative vs. guilt
-Strength: Purpose
*Stage Four: School
-Challenge: Competence (or industry) vs. inferiority
-Strength: Competence
*Stage Five: Adolescence
-Challenge: Search for identity vs. role confusion
-Strength: Fidelity
*Stage Six: Young Adulthood
-Challenge: Intimacy (love and friendships) vs. isolation (loneliness)
-Strength: Love
*Stage Seven: Grown-ups
-Challenge: Generativity (caring for the next generation) vs.
stagnation
Strength: Care
*Stage Eight: Old Age
-Challenge: Integrity vs. despair
-Strength: Wisdom
Behaviorist Theory-Most pragmatic and functional of the modern psychological ideologies
-Behaviorist theories describe both development and learning. It is
considered "the most distinctively American contribution to psychology".
Developed in the 1920's and continues to be modified today.
The Behaviorists-Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
*Russian physiologist
*While working in a laboratory, studying how dogs digest food he
noticed that dogs would anticipate they were getting food just from hearing
the workers make preparations
*The dogs were beginning to salivate not just to the sight of food, but to
a number of different stimuli associated with food
*The association of natural reflexes with other environmental conditions
became known as classical conditing, a major part of the behaviorist
theory.
-John B. Watson (1878-1958)
*An American theorist, he studied that findings of Ivan Pavlov
*He translated Pavlov's classical conditioning into human terms, and
claimed that it could shape a person's entire life by controlling exactly the
events of an infants first year
*Was able to provide scientific validity that teachers should set
conditions for learning and reward proper responses
*Created behaviorism: The school of psychology founded on the
premise that behavior is measurable and can be changed through the
application of various behavioral principles.
-Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949)
*Studied Pavlov's theory
*American psychologist
*Became known as the "godfather of standardized testing." He helped
develop scales to measure student achievement and usher in the era of
standardized educational testing.
*Set up a stimulus response (the kind of psychological learning, that
makes a connection between a response and a stimulus) theory.
*Theorized that a stimulus will recall a response in a person, which will
form learned habits. Therefore, it is wise to pay close attention to
various kinds of reinforcement.
-B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
*A humanist, philosopher, and the foremost behavioral scientist of the
20th century
*Creator of the doctrine of the "empty organism." That is, a person is like
a vessel to be filled by carefully designed experiences. All behavior is
under the control of the environment.
*Claimed that there is no behavior that cannot be modified.
*Known for operant conditioning- Learning that occurs due to the
manipulation of the possible consequences.
-Albert Bandura (1925-present)
*Graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in
Psychology.
*Developed social learning- Developmental theory arguing that
personalityis learned through the interactions with the environment
*Socialization- the process of learning to conform to social rules.
Therefore, social-learning theorists watch how children learn these rules
and use them in groups. They study the patterns of reinforcement.
*From this, a new concept was formed. Modeling- a way of learning
social behavior that involves observing a model and mimicking its
behavior, thus acquiring new behavior.
Cognitive Theory-Describes the structure and development of human thought processes
and how those processes affect the way a person understands and
perceives the world.
Jean Jacques Piaget (1896-1980)
-One of the most exciting research theorists in child development. Studied
both thought processes and how they change with age.
-Entire professional life took place in Switzerland
-Made huge impacts on child psychology, theories of learning, intellectual
development, and philosophy.
-Believed that children think in fundamentally different ways from adults.
-Developed a new method for studying thought processes. Rather than
using a standardized test, he adapted the psychiatric method of question
and response.
-Studied children's thought processes. With his wife, he observed his own
children. Looked at how closely children engaged in their own
development.
Piaget's Stages of childhood-Piaget recorded, in a systematic way, how children learn, when they learn,
and what they learn.
Stage 1.) Sensorimotor
*Birth to 18 months to two years
-Initial use of inherent reflexes (at birth)
-Out of sight, out of mind in the beginning. Object permanence is
learned
-Learns to coordinate perceptual and motor functions
-Beginning forms of symbolic behavior
Stage 2.) Preoperational
*Two to six or seven
-Gradual acquisition of language
-Egocentric (not aware of other's point of view)
-Inability to think of the whole and its parts at the same time
Stage 3.) Concrete Operational
*Six to 12
-Begins to "conserve"
-Can handle several ideas at the same time
-Starts to remove contradictions
-Can understand other's points of view
Sociocultural-Focuses on the child as a whole and incorporates ideas of culture and
values into child development, particularly the areas of language and selfidentity.
-Children's development is more than just a response to personal
experience. Rather, child are influenced in fundamental ways by their
family, community, and socioeconomic status.
-Emphasizes the deep role of culture in learning
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)-Founder of the sociocultural theory
-Born in Byelorussia and graduated from Moscow University with a degree
in literature in 1917.
-Taught literature and psychology and directed adult theatre for the next 6
years.
-His work is called sociocultural because it focuses on how values, beliefs,
skills and traditions are transmitted into the next generation.
-Vygotsky places more (and different) emphasis on the role of language in
cognitive development
-Vygotsky considers other theorists such as Piaget and Erikson, however
takes a more humanistic approach when conducting his studies.
Ecological Theory-Based on the premise that development is greatly influenced by forces
outside the child.
-Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005)
*Russian American psychologist
*Co-founder of the Head Start program in the United States for
disadvantaged preschool children
*In his view, development is a joined function of person and
environment. Human ecosystems include both physical factors (such as
climate, space, home, and school) and the social environment (family,
culture, and the larger society)
*Bronfenbrenner's model describes four systems that influence human
development, nested within each other like a circle of rings. With the
child a the center, these four are the settings in which a child spends a
significant period of time, the relationships of those settings, the societal
structures, and then the larger contexts in which these system operate.
Include diagram of chart.
Multiple Intelligence Theory-A theory of intelligence, proposed by Howard Gardner, that outlines
several different kinds of intelligence, rather than the notion of intelligence
as measured by standardized testing, such as the IQ.
-Howard Gardner (1943-present)
*Went to a nearby preparatory school in Kingston, Pennsylvania
(Wyoming Seminary). From there he went to Harvard University to study
history in readiness for a career in the law.
*Received Eric Erikson as a tutor.
*Viewed intelligence as ‘the capacity to solve problems or to fashion
products that are valued in one or more cultural setting’
*Proposed 7 types of intelligence
-Visual-Spatial
-Bodily-Kinesthetic
-Musical
-Interpersonal
-Intrapersonal
-Linguistic
-Logical-Mathmatical
Maturation Theory-Maturation- the process of physical and mental growth that is determined
by heredity.
-Maturation theory states that much growth is genetically determined from
conception.
-This theory differs from both behaviorism and cognitive theory.
-Studies have established that the maturation sequence is the same for all
children, regardless of culture, country of origin, or learning environment.
-Arnold Gesell (1880-1961)
*Physician intrigued with the notion that children's internal clock seemed
to govern their growth and behavior.
*Established norms for several areas of growth and the behaviors that
accompany such development
Humanistic Theory-Attempts to explain how people are motivated. It is centered on people's
needs, goals, and successes.
-Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
*Born in Brooklyn, New York on April 1st. Died on June 8th in California.
*Created the theory of self-actualization which is a set of ideas about
what people need to become and stay healthy.
*Asserts that every human being is motivated by a number of basic
needs, regardless of age, gender, race, culture, or geographic location.
Include chart of Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Nature vs. Nurture
-The nature vs. nurture debate is about the relative importance of an
individual's innate qualities versus personal experiences ("nurture") in
determining individual differences in physical and behavioral traits.
-Nature
*Refers to an individuals innate qualities
Ex: Nature is your genes. The physical and personality traits
determined by your genes stay the same irrespective of where you
were born and raised.
-Nurture
*In the "nature vs nurture" debate, nurture refers to personal
experiences.
Ex: Nurture refers to your childhood, or how you were brought up.
Someone could be born with genes to give them a normal height, but
be malnourished in childhood, resulting in stunted growth and a
failure to develop as expected.
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