Theories and
Theorists
Jamie Clem and Shelby King
Psychodynamic Theory
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Psychodynamic theory is about personality
development and emotional problems.
Psychodynamic theories look at development in
terms of internal drives that are often unconscious.
These motives are the underlying forces that
influence human behavior and provide the
foundation for universal stages of development.
Psychodynamic Theorist: Sigmund
Freud
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May 6 1856-September 23 1939
Austrian
Sigmund Freud began his career as a medical doctor.
Became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis
According to Freud, people possess three basic drives: the sexual drive,
survival instincts, and a drive for destructiveness.
Believed that all people have an ID, ego, and superego
o Id-The personality component made up of unconscious psychic
energy that works to satisfy basic urges, needs, and desires.
o Ego- The organized, realistic part that mediates between the Id and
the ego
o Superego- Plays the critical moralizing role; can control your urges
that you receive from your id
Psychodynamic Theorist: Erik Erikson
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Born June 15, 1902
German born American developmental psychologist
He proposes 8 stages of psychosocial development. The stages are: 1)
The newborn- Trust vs. Mistrust; 2) Toddlers- Autonomy vs. Shame and
Doubt; 3) Childhood- Initiative vs. Guilt; 4) School- Competence vs.
Inferiority; 5) Adolescence- Search for Identity vs. Role Confusion; 6)
Young adulthood- Intimacy vs. Isolation; 7) Grown-Ups- Generativity vs.
Stagnation; 8) Old age- Integrity vs. Despair
A key point of Erikson’s theory is balance. Balancing a child's wishes and
the demands of the environment with a mentally healthy dose of each
emotion is essential for personality strength.
Behaviorist Theory
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An approach to psychology that combines elements of
philosophy, methodology and theory
The most pragmatic and functional of the modern
psychological ideologies
Developed during the 1920’s and is continually modified
According to behaviorists three types of learning occur
o Classical Conditioning
o Operant Conditioning
o Observational Learning
Learning is mostly a developmental habit
Behaviorist Theorist: Ivan Pavlov
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September 26 1849-February 27 1936
Russian psychologist
Main focus of study was animals
Used the experiment of “Pavlov’s dogs to found classical
conditioning
o Classical Conditioning- A learning process that occurs when
two stimuli are repeatedly paired, a response that is at first
elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first
stimulus alone
This became a cornerstone of behaviorist theory
Behaviorist Theorist: John B. Watson
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January 8 1878- September 25 1958
American theorist who studied Pavlov’s animal experiments
Converted Ivan Pavlov’s ideas into human terms
One of his ideas was to discourage emotional ties between parents and
their children because they interfered with the child’s direct learning from
the environment
He gave scientific validity to the idea that teachers should set conditions
for learning and reward proper responses
Behaviorist Theorist: Edward L. Thorndike
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August 31, 1874- August 9, 1949
Studied the conditions of learning. Known as the “godfather of
standardized testing”
Helped to develop scales to measure student achievement and usher the
era of standardized educational testing
Set forth the famous “stimulus-response” technique. A stimulus will recall a
response in a person; this forms learned habits
Attention should be focused on the consequences of behavior and the
various kinds of reinforcement
Behaviorist Theorist: B. F. Skinner
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Born March 20, 1904
Took the idea of “tabula rasa” one step further to create the doctrine of the
“empty organism”. That is, a person is like a vessel to be filled by carefully
designed experiences
Skinner maintained that there is no behavior that cannot be modified
Some people argue that Skinnerian concepts tend to depersonalize the
learning process and treat people as puppets. Others say that behaviorist
psychology has made us develop new ways to help people learn and cope
effectively with the world
Behaviorist Theorist: Albert Bandura
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Born December 4, 1925
Developed another type of learning theory, called social learning
As behaviorists began to accept that what people said about their feelings
and internal state was valid, they looked at how children became
socialized
Socialization is the process of learning to conform to social rules. Sociallearning theorists watch how children learn these rules and use them in
groups. They study the patterns of reinforcement and reward in socially
appropriate and unacceptable behavior
Cognitive Theory
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The 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.
Studies how children learn to think and what to think
about
Jean Jacques Piaget’s theory forms the cornerstone of
early childhood educational concepts
Cognitive Theorist: Jean Jacques Piaget
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1896-1980
Studied thought processes and how they change with age
While recording children’s abilities to answer questions correctly, he became fascinated with
children’s incorrect responses. He noticed that children tended to give similar kinds of wrong
answers at certain ages
Developed the psychiatric method of question and response
Piaget did not believe the development of thinking was either intrinsic or extrinsic
Regardless of their age, all people develop schemas
We use three basic processes to think: these are known as the adaptive processes of
assimilation and accommodation and the balancing process of equilibration
He identified four major stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor stage, preoperational
stage, concrete operational stage, formal operational stage
Constructivist Theory
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Developed from the cognitive theory.
Concerns the best method of teaching children
Based on experiential learning through real life experience to construct and
conditionalize knowledge
It is problem based, adaptive learning, that challenges faulty schema,
integrates new knowledge with existing knowledge, and allows for creation
of original work or innovative procedures
Constructivism is a theory of learning which states that individuals learn
through adaptation
Sociocultural Theory
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The sociocultural theory focuses on the child as a while and incorporates ideas of culture and values into child development,
particularly the areas of language and self-identity
In this view, children’s development is more than just a response to personal experience . Rather, children are influenced by their
family, community, and socioeconomic status
Culture plays a deep role in learning
Sociocultural Theorist: Lev Vygotsky
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November 17 1896-June 1934
Graduated from Moscow university with a degree in literature in 1917
Vygotsky focused on how how values, beliefs, skills and traditions are
transmitted to the next generation
Believed in the connection between culture and development
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o Particularly the connection between the child and other important
people
Considered the child as a whole
o Taking a humanistic- more quantitative approach to studying children
Ecological Theory
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Based on the premise that development is greatly influenced by the forces outside the child
Bronfenbrenner’s model describes four systems that influence human development; these four are the settings in 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 systems operate
The values of the community can influence social conditions
Everything in the environment of the child’s life indirectly or directly affects the child
Multiple Intelligences Theory: Howard Gardner
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Born in Pennsylvania
His theory of multiple intelligences asserts that there is strong evidence, both from the brain-based research and from the study of
genius, that there are at least eight basic intelligences
Intelligence becomes the ability to solve a problem or to create a product that is in a culture
The intelligences are musical intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, linguistic intelligence, spatial
intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, and naturalist intelligence
Maturation Theory: Arnold Gesell
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Maturation is the process of physical and mental growth that is determined
by heredity
The maturation sequence occurs in relatively stable and orderly ways
Maturation theory holds that much growth is genetically determined from
conception
Maturation and growth are interrelated
Arnold Gessell was a physician intrigued with the notion that children’s
internal clock governed their growth and behavior
Gessell established norms for several areas of growth and behaviors that
accompany such development
Humanistic Theory
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The humanist theory has a place in early childhood education because it attempts to explain how people are motivated
Centered on people’s needs, goals, and successes
This was a change from the study of mental illness
Self-actualization is what gives a person satisfaction in life