Theories of
Social Development
How Children Develop (3rd ed.)
Siegler, DeLoache & Eisenberg
Chapter 9: Part 1
Theories of Social
Development: The Goal

Theories of social development
attempt to account for important
aspects of development:


Emotion, personality, attachment, self,
peer relationships, morality, and gender
Such theories must:


Explain how children’s development is
influenced by the people and
individuals around them
Examine the ways that human beings
affect each other
Overview

I. Psychoanalytic
Theories

II. Learning Theories

III. Theories of Social
Cognition

IV. Ecological Theories
of Development
I. Psychoanalytic
Theories
A. View of Children’s Nature
B. Central Developmental Issues
C. Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual
Development
D. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial
Development
E. Current Perspectives
Freud’sTheory

Sigmund Freud’s
psychoanalytic theory
has had greater
impact on Western
culture and on
thinking about social
and personality
development than any
other psychological
theory.
Erikson’s Theory

Erik Erikson’s
life-span
developmental
theory,
which was a
successor to
Freud’s theory,
has also been
influential.
A. View of Children’s Nature

In Freud’s theory, behavior is
motivated by the need to satisfy
basic biological drives.

Psychoanalytic theories also stress
the continuity of individual
differences, maintaining that early
experiences shape subsequent
development.
B. Central Developmental Issues

Continuity/Discontinuity: both are stage
theories that stress discontinuity in
development

Individual Differences: however, psychoanalytic
theories stress the continuity of individual
differences across development

Nature/Nurture: both emphasize the biological
underpinnings of developmental stages
interacting with the child’s experience
C. Freud’s Theory of
Psychosexual Development

Freud was a neurologist who became
interested in the origins and treatments of
mental illness.

He believed that many of his patients’
emotional problems originated in their
early childhood relationships.
1. Basic Features of Freud’s Theory

Freud’s theory is referred to as a theory of
psychosexual development because it posits
a series of universal developmental stages in
which psychic energy becomes focused
in different erogenous zones.


Psychic energy: the biologically based, instinctual
drives that energize behavior, thoughts, and feelings
Erogenous zones: areas of the body that become
erotically sensitive in successive stages
of development
2. The Developmental Process
Freud’s Personality Structure:
Id



The biological drives with which the infant is born
The earliest and most primitive personality structure
Unconscious and operates with the goal of seeking pleasure
Ego


Emerges in the first year
The rational, logical, problem-solving component of personality
Superego


Develops during the ages of 3 to 6
Based on the child’s internalization (or adoption as his or her own)
of the parents’ attributes, beliefs, and standards
Stages of
Psychosexual Development
Stage
Oral
(first year)
Description
The primary source of satisfaction and pleasure is
oral activity. During this stage, the mother is
established as the strongest love-object.
Anal
The primary source of pleasure comes from
(1-3 years) defecation.
Phallic
Characterized by the localization of pleasure in the
(3-6 years) genitalia.
Latency
Characterized by the channeling of sexual energy
(6-12 years) into socially acceptable activities.
Genital
Sexual maturation is complete and sexual
(12+ years) intercourse becomes a major goal.
If fundamental needs are not met during any stage, children may
become fixated on these needs, continually attempting to satisfy them.
Superego Development

For boys, the path to superego development is
through the resolution of the Oedipus complex, a
psychosocial conflict in which a boy experiences a
form of sexual desire for his mother and wants an
exclusive relationship with her



Freud argued that the son’s desire for his mother and hostility
toward his father is so threatening that the episode is repressed
and infantile amnesia results.
The complex is resolved through the boys’ identification with his
father.
Freud thought that girls experience a similar but less
intense conflict, the Electra complex, involving erotic
feelings toward the father, resulting in their
developing a weaker conscience than boys do.
D. Erikson’s Theory of
Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson accepted the basic
constructs of Freud’s theory, but
enlarged the theory to include
other factors such as culture and
contemporary issues.

Eight age-related stages (five
during childhood and
adolescence)
 Each stage is characterized by a
specific crisis that the individual
must resolve.
 If the dominant issue of a stage is
not successfully resolved before
the next stage begins, the person
will continue to struggle with it.
1. The Developmental Process:
Erikson’s Stages
Stage
Trust vs. Mistrust
(first year)
Autonomy vs.
Shame and doubt
(1–3½ years)
Initiative vs. Guilt
(4–6 years)
Description
Developing trust in other people is the crucial issue.
The challenge is to achieve a strong sense of
autonomy while adjusting to increased social
demands.
Resolved when the child develops high standards
and the initiative to meet them without being crushed
by worry about not being able to measure up.
The child must master cognitive and social skills,
learn to work industriously, and play well with others.
Industry vs.
Inferiority
(6–puberty)
Identity vs. Role
Adolescents must resolve the question of who they
Confusion
really are or live in confusion about what roles they
(adolescence–early should play as adults.
adulthood)
E. Current Perspectives

The most significant of Freud’s
contributions to developmental
psychology were:



His emphasis on the importance of early
experience and emotional relationships
His recognition of the role of subjective
experience and unconscious mental activity
Erikson’s emphasis on the search for
identity in adolescence has had
lasting impact.
II. Learning Theories
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
View of Children’s Nature
Central Developmental Issues
Watson’s Behaviorism
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
Social Learning Theory
Current Perspectives
A. View of Children’s Nature

Learning theorists emphasize the role of
external factors in shaping personality
and social behavior.


Reinforcement and punishment
More contemporary learning theorists
emphasize the importance of cognitive
factors and the active role children play in
their own development.
B. Central Developmental Issues

Emphasize continuity in development, proposing
that the same principles operate throughout life and
that there are no stages.

Focus on mechanisms of change (i.e., learning
principles) and argue that individual differences
arise because of different histories of reinforcement
and observation.

Relevant for research and children’s welfare in that
therapeutic approaches to treat children are based
on learning principles.
C. Watson’s Behaviorism

John Watson is the founder of behaviorism

Believed that children’s development is determined
by their social environment and that learning
through conditioning was the primary mechanism
of development.

Demonstrated the
power of classical
conditioning in a
famous experiment
with “Little Albert”
Critique

Watson’s exclusive emphasis on
conditioning is now regarded as simplistic.

However, his approach to extinguishing fear
has been widely used to rid people of
phobias.

This approach, known as systematic
desensitization, is a form of therapy based on
classical conditioning in which initially debilitating
responses to a given stimulus are gradually
deconditioned.
D. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

B. F. Skinner conducted
research on the nature
and function of
reinforcement.

His discoveries include the
importance of attention as a
powerful reinforcer, and the
difficulty of extinguishing
behavior that has been
intermittently reinforced (i.e.,
responded to inconsistently).

Skinner’s work on
reinforcement also led to a
form of therapy known as
behavior modification, in
which reinforcement
contingencies are changed to
encourage more adaptive
behavior.
E. Social Learning Theory

Emphasizes observation and imitation,
rather than reinforcement, as the primary
mechanisms of development

In a classic series of studies, Albert Bandura
and his colleagues found that preschool
children can acquire new behaviors through
observing others.

Discovered that children’s tendency to reproduce what they
learned depended on vicarious reinforcement (i.e., whether the
person whose actions they observed was rewarded or punished)
Bandura’s Research

Preschool children initially watched a short
film in which an adult model performed
highly aggressive actions on an inflatable
Bobo doll (weighted at the bottom so it
pops up when knocked down).

One group of children observed the model
rewarded with candy and soda for the
aggressive behavior.

Another group saw the model punished.

The remaining children saw the model
experience no consequences.
Bandura’s Research
Findings:

Observing someone else receive a
reward or punishment for the behavior
affects the subsequent reproduction of
the behavior.

Boys were initially more aggressive than
girls, but the girls increased their level of
imitation when offered rewards.
E. Social Learning Theory

Over time, Bandura placed more
emphasis on the cognitive aspects of
observational learning.

Unlike most learning theorists, Bandura
argued that child-environment influences
operate in both directions, a concept
referred to as reciprocal determinism.
Reciprocal Determinism
E. Social Learning Theory

In recent years, Bandura has
emphasized the importance of
perceived self-efficacy.

An individual’s beliefs about how
effectively he or she can control his or
her own behavior, thoughts, and
emotions in order to achieve a desired
goal
F. Current Perspectives

Learning theories are based on
principles derived from empirical
research.


They, in turn, have generated extensive
research and valuable practical applications
The weaknesses of the learning
approach are its limited attention to
biological factors and (with the
exception of Bandura’s theory) to the
impact of cognition.