Chapter 2
Theories of Development
 Basic Principles and Applications
 Theories of Child and Adolescent
Development
 Psychoanalytic Theory
 Behaviorism and Social Cognitive
Theory
 Theories of Cognitive Development
 Evolutionary Theories
 Ecological Theory
 Biological Approaches to Understanding
Child Development
 Culture and Developmental Theory
Why are theories important?
 Organize
 Understand
 Predict
How do developmental theories differ?
 How does development happen?
 Quantitative versus qualitative change
 Why does development happen?
 Biological forces
 Environmental factors
Psychoanalytic theory:
Sigmund Freud
3 parts of the personality:
 Id – pleasure principle
 Ego – reality principle
 Superego – conscience, morality
Psychosexual stages of development
 Oral – 0-2 years
focus of pleasure is on the mouth, taking in
 Anal – 2-3 years
focus of pleasure is on the anus, potty
training
 Phallic – 3-6 years
focus of pleasure is on the penis for boys,
clitoris for girls, Oedipus and Electra crisis
 Latency – 6-12 years olds
sexual drive goes underground and gives
energy to learning to be an adult,
schooling
 Genital – 12 and older
adult sexuality
Psychoanalytic theory:
Erik Erikson
 Psychosocial stages of development
trust vs. mistrust
autonomy vs. shame and doubt
 Eight stages from birth to old age
A comparison of Freud’s and Erikson’s
stages
Freud
 Oral stage
 Anal stage
 Phallic stage
 Latency stage
 Genital stage
Erikson
 Trust vs. mistrust
 Autonomy vs. shame/doubt
 Initiative vs. guilt
 Industry vs. inferiority
 Identity vs. role confusion
 Intimacy vs. isolation
 Generativity vs. stagnation
 Integrity vs. despair
Behaviorism
 John B. Watson and classical conditioning
We are born a “tabula rasa” (blank slate).
Our environment determines our behavior.
Classical conditioning
 Classical conditioning: pairing of stimuli
Pavlov’s dogs
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/behs
ys/classcnd.html
John Watson and Little Albert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxKfpKQzow
8
B.F. Skinner and operant conditioning
Operant conditioning: a voluntary response is
strengthened by its association with positive
consequences.
Reinforcement: a stimulus that increases the
likelihood that a behavior will be repeated.
Negative reinforcement: removal of a stimulus
increases the likelihood that a behavior will
be repeated.
Punishment: a negative consequence reduces
the likelihood of a behavior happening again.
Extinction: ignoring a behavior makes it stop
Skinner’s pigeons and schedules of
reinforcement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA
Albert Bandura and Social-Cognitive
theory
 Learning through imitation (modeling)
 Differs from behaviorism in looking at inner
mental processes
Bandura’s classic experiment
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4586465813762682933&q=bandura+experi
ment&total=5&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=
search&plindex=1
Piaget’s theory of cognitive
development
 How does development occur?
 Schemes
how we organize the world in
our minds
 Assimilation
changing the world to fit what we already
know
 Accommodation
changing our schemes to fit the world
Piaget’s stages of cognitive
development
 Sensorimotor Birth–2 years
Infants take in information through their
senses and their action upon the world.
 Preoperational
2–7 years
Young children do not yet think logically,
and their thinking is egocentric
 Concrete operations 7–12 years
Children now think logically, but their thinking
is concrete and not abstract.
Formal operations 12 years and older
Adolescents can think both logically and
abstractly.
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
 All learning is social.
 Zone of proximal development (ZPD): the
distance between the child’s independent
abilities and what the child can do with a
little help
 Scaffolding: adults help the “construction” of
the child’s understanding by providing
guidance and support at the ZPD.
Information processing
 Cognitive theory that likens the mind to a
computer
Two models of information processing
 Stores model
 Sensory memory
 Short-term or working memory
 Long-term memory
 Connectionist or network model
a neural network that consists of concept nodes
that are interconnected by links
Evolutionary perspective
 Darwin’s theory of evolution: adaptation to
the environment in order to pass on genes
 Ethology
 Konrad Lorenz: Imprinting
 http://video.google.com/videosearch?so
urceid=navclient&ie=UTF8&rlz=1T4ADB
R_enUS246US262&q=konrad%20loren
z&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv#
 Bonding vs. attachment
 Sociobiology: Edward O. Wilson
 The role of genes in social behavior and
culture
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological theory
 Individuals grow and develop
within a nested set of influences:
 Microsystem
 Mesosystem
 Exosystem
 Macrosystem
 Chronosystem
Biological approaches
 Maturational theory: Arnold Gesell
 Dynamic systems theory: Esther Thelen
 Neuropsychology
 Behavioral genomics