THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT

Sigmund Freuds Psychoanalytic Theories

Theories proposing that developmental change happens because of the influence of internal drives and
emotions on behaviour

Personality

Id

Contains the libido and operates at a unconscious level.

It is a persons basic sexual and aggressive impulses, which are present at birth.

The ego

The conscious, thinking part of personality, develops in the first 2 to 3 years of life.

The thinking element of personality.

The superego

The portion of the personality that acts as a moral judge, contains the rules of society
and develops near the end of early childhood, at about age 6.

Psychosexual stages

Freuds five stages of personality development through which children move in a fixed sequence
determined by maturation

The libido is centered in a different body part in each stage.

Erik Eriksons Psychosocial Theory

He thought development resulted from the interaction between internal drives and cultural demands; thus,
his theory refers to Psychosocial stages rather than to psychosexual ones.

In his view, to achieve a healthy personality, an individual must successfully resolve a crisis at each of the
eight stages of development.

Successful resolution of a crisis results in the development of the characteristic on the positive side of the
dichotomy.

A healthy resolution, however, does not mean moving totally to the positive side.

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 For example, an infant needs to have experienced some mistrust in order to learn to identify
people who are not trustworthy.

Learning theories

Theories that assert that development results from an accumulation of experiences.

Behaviorism

The view that defines development in terms of behaviour changes caused by environmental
influences.

Classical conditioning by Ivan Pavlov

Learning that results from the association of stimuli.

Unconditioned (unlearned, natural)

Ex. Food

Unconditioned (unlearned, natural) response

Ex. Salivating

Conditioned (learned) stimuli

Food odors eventually become conditioned stimuli that elicit salivation

conditioned (learned) response

When a response occurs reliably in connection with a conditioned stimulus

B.F. Skinners Operant conditioning

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 Learning to repeat or stop behaviors because of their consequences.

Reinforcement

Anything that follows a behaviour and causes it to be repeated.

Positive reinforcement

A consequence (usually involving something pleasant) that follows a behaviour

and increases the chances that the behaviour will occur again

For example, if you buy a scratch-off lottery ticket and win $100, you will
probably be more willing to buy another ticket in the future.

Negative reinforcement

Occurs when an individual learns to perform a specific behaviour in order to

cause something unpleasant to stop.

For example, coughing is an unpleasant experience for most of us, and

taking a dose of cough medicine usually stops it.

As a result, when we begin coughing, we reach for the cough syrup.

Extinction

The gradual elimination of a behaviour through repeated nonreinforcement.

For example, if a teacher succeeds in eliminating a students undesirable

behaviour by ignoring it, the behaviour is said to have been extinguished.

Albert Banduras Social Cognitive theory

Observational learning, or modelling

Learning that results from seeing a model reinforced or punished for a behaviour.

For example, observant school children learn to distinguish between strict and lenient
teachers by observing teachers reactions to the misbehaviors of children

Cognitive Theories

Theories that emphasize mental process in development, such as logic and memory.

Jean Piagets Cognitive-Developmental theory

Scheme

An internal cognitive structure that provides an individual with a procedure to use in a

specific circumstance.

For example, when you pick up a ball, you use your picking-up scheme

Three processes

Assimilation

The process of using a scheme to make sense an event or experience.

A baby who grasps a toy is assimilating it to his grasping scheme.

Accommodation

Changing a scheme as a result of some new information.

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 When the baby grasps a square object for the first time, he will
accommodate his grasping scheme; so the next time he reaches
for a square object, his hand will be more appropriately bent to
grasp it.

Equilibration

The process of balancing assimilation and accommodation to create schemes

that fit the environment.

To illustrate, think about infants tendency to put things in their mouths

In Piagets terms they assimilate object to their mouthing scheme

As they mouth each one, their mouthing scheme changes to include the
instructions do mouth this or dont mouth this.

Lev Vygotskys Sociocultural theory

That complex forms of thinking have their origins in social interactions rather than in an
individuals private explorations.

Scaffolding

A process where childrens learning of new cognitive skills is guide by an adult (or a more
skilled child, such as an older sibling), who structures the childs learning experience.

Zone of proximal development

To create an appropriate scaffold, the adult must gain and keep the childs attention,
model the best strategy, and adapt the whole process to the childs developmental level.

For example, parents of a beginning reader provide a scaffold when they help
him sound out new words.

Information-Processing theory

A theoretical perspective that uses the computer as a model to explain how the mind manages
information.

Most memory research assumes that the human memory is made up of multiple components.

Neo-Piagetian theory

An approach that uses information-processing principles to explain the developmental

stages identified by Piaget.

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 Older children and adults can solve complex problems like those in Piagets research
because they can hold more pieces of information in their short-term memories at the
same time than younger children can

Biological and Ecological theories

Behavior Genetics

The study of the role of heredity in individual differences.

Heredity affects a broad range of traits and behaviors, including intelligence, shyness,
and aggressiveness.

The influence of heredity appears to increase with age, while that of the environment
declines

Ethology and Sociobiology

Ethology

A perspective on development that emphasizes genetically determined survival behaviors

presumed to have evolved through natural selection.

For example, nests are necessary for the survival of young birds

Imprinting

Newborns of some species learn to recognize the characteristics of a

protective organism within the first hours of life.

Sociobiology

The study of society using the methods and concepts of biology; when used by
developmentalists, an approach that emphasizes genes that aid group survival.

For example, every society has laws against murder.

Sociobiologists believe that humans are genetically programmed to create rules

based on respect for other peoples lives

Urie Bronfenbrenners Bioecological theory

Explains development in terms of relationships between individuals and their environments, or

interconnected contexts.

The contexts of development are like circles within circles.

Macrosystem (the cultural context)

The outermost circle, contains the values and beliefs of the culture in which a
child is growing up.

For example, a societys beliefs about the importance of education exist

in the cultural context

Exosystem (the socioeconomic context)

Includes the institutions of the culture that affect childrens development

indirectly.

For example, funding for education exists in the socioeconomic context

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 The ability to provide universal education may be limited by the countrys
wealth

Microsystem (the immediate context)

Includes those variables to which people are exposed directly, such as their families,
schools, religious institutions, and neighborhoods

Mesosystem

Made up of the interconnections between these components.

For example, the parents involvement in her school and the response of the
school to their involvement

Biological context

The childs genetic makeup and developmental stage.

For example, a student who hasnt mastered the skill of reading isnt likely to
benefit from an enriched literature program

Thus her culture, the socioeconomic situation, the school she attends, and her
own family may all be geared toward providing a quality education

Eclecticism

The use of multiple theoretical perspectives to explain and study human

development.

NLEE/NLEE