DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES  It operates entirely unconsciously

(outside of conscious thought)

 The id is the biological component
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
(instinct)

SIGMUND FREUD – Father of psychiatry

 If your id walked past a
stranger eating ice cream, it
PSYCHOANALYTIC and PSYCHOANALYTICAL
would most likely take the
- Relating to the analysis of the human psyche
ice cream for itself.
 It doesn’t know, or care, that
PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORY – the theory of
it is rude to take something
personality organization and the dynamics of
belonging to someone else; it
personality development that guides psychoanalysis
would care only that you
a clinical method for treating psychopathology.
wanted the ice cream.

 PSYCHOANALYSIS – a set of theories and

 Superego
therapeutic techniques related to the study of
 The superego is concerned with
the unconscious mind which together form a
social rules and morals – similar to
method of treatment for mental health
what many people call their
disorders.
“conscience” or their “moral
 PYSCHOPATHOLOGY – the scientific study
compass.”
of mental disorders.
 It develops as a child learns what
their culture considers right and
Freud’s Structure of the Human Mind
wrong.
 The superego is the social
According to Freud, our personality develops from
component (conscience)
the interactions among what he proposed as the
 If your superego walked past
three fundamental structures of the human mind:
the same stranger, it would
 ID
not take their ice cream
 EGO
because it would know that
 SUPEREGO
would be rude.
 However, if both your id and
Since you have no understanding of right or wrong
your superego were involved,
and are not aware of the needs of others, all that
and your id was strong
exists for you is your desire for what you need or
enough to override your
want at any given moment.
superego’s concern, you
would still take the ice cream,
Most of these desires are based on pure,
but afterward you would
uncontrolled instinct.
most likely feel guilt and
shame over your actions.
In this example, your actions are controlled by the
id.
 Ego
 In contrast to the instinctual id and
Id – according to Freud, this is the biological
the moral superego, the ego is the
component of our personality which is present at
rational, pragmatic part of our
birth and is based on instinct.
personality.
 It is less primitive than the id and is
Freud’s Personality Components
partly conscious and partly
 ID– operates on pleasure principle
unconscious.
 EGO – operates on reality principle
 It’s what Freud considered to be the
 SUPEREGO – Likened to a conscience
“self”, and its job is to balance the
demands of the id and superego in
 Id
the practical context of reality.
 The id, the most primitive of the
 The ego is the psychological
three structures, is concerned with
component (conscious decision)
instant gratification of basic physical
needs and urges.
 Ego in psychoanalytic theory, that
portion of the human personality
 which is experienced as the “self” or
“I” and is in contact with the
external world” through perception.
 It is said to be the part that
remembers, evaluates, plans, and in
other ways is responsive to and acts
in the surroundings physical and
social world.
 So if you walked past the stranger
with ice cream one more time, your
ego would mediate the conflict
between your ‘id’ (“I want that ice
cream right now”) and ‘superego’
(“It’s wrong to take someone else’s
ice cream”) and decide to go buy
your own ice cream.
 While this may mean you have to
wait 10 more minutes, which would
frustrate your id, your ego decides
to make the sacrifice as part of the
compromise – satisfying your desire
for ice cream while also avoiding an
unpleasant social situation and
potential feelings of shame.
Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development
EROGENOUS ZONE – pleasure areas that become
focal points for the particular stage.
If needs are not met along the area, FIXATION
OCCURS
1. Oral Stage
- Age Range: Birth to 18 months
 Erogenous Zone: Mouth
 The mouth is vital for eating, and the
infant derives pleasure from oral
stimulation through gratifying
activities such as tasting and
sucking.
 Because the infant is entirely
dependent upon caretakers (who are
responsible for feeding the child),
the child also develops a sense of
trust and comfort through this oral
stimulation.
 The primary conflict at this stage is
the weaning process – the child must
become less dependent upon
caretakers.
 If fixation occurs at this stage, Freud
believed the individual would have
issues with dependency or
aggression.
 Oral fixation can result in problems
with drinking, eating, smoking, or
nail-biting, use curse words, gossip,
too dependent with others, easily
fooled, lack leadership skills.
2. Anal Stage
- Age Range: 18 months to 3 years
 Erogenous Zone: Anus
 The child finds satisfaction in
eliminating and retaining feces.
 Child needs to work on toilet
training.
 Fixation: anal retentive, an obsession
with cleanliness, perfection, and
control
 Anal expulsive – the person may
become messy and disorganized.
3. Phallic Stage
- Age Range: 3 – 6 years old
 Erogenous Zone: Genitals
 Pre-school age – Children become
interested in what makes them boys
and girls different
 Fondling their genitals
 Boys develop unconscious sexual
desire for their mother.
 Boys see their father as a rival for
her mother’s affection.
 Boys may fear that their father will
punish them for these feelings –
castration anxiety (Oedipus
Complex)
 Girls develop unconscious sexual
attraction towards their father –
Electra Complex.
 Fixation: result in sexual deviances
(both overindulging and avoidance)
weak or confused sexual identity.
4. Latency Stage
- Age Range: 6 years old to puberty
 Erogenous Zone: Sexual Feelings are
inactive
 Sexual urges remain repressed or
dormant
 Freud believed that it was possible
for children to become fixated or
“stuck” in this phase.
 Fixation at this stage can result in
immaturity and an inability to form
fulfilling relationships as an adult.
5. Genital Stage
- Age Range: Puberty Onwards
  Erogenous Zone: Maturing Sexual
Interests
 Adolescents focus their sexual urges
towards the opposite sex peers, with
pleasure centered on the genitals
 Freud believed that the ego and
superego were fully formed and
functioning at this point.
 Teens in the genital stage of
development are able to balance
their most basic urges against the
need to conform to the demands of
reality and social norms
JEAN PIAGET’S DEVELOPMENTAL
THEORY
PIAGETIAN TASK – Jean Piaget’s research
involved observing a small number of individuals
as they responded to cognitive tasks that he
designed.
GENETIC EPISTEMO-LOGY – The name Piaget
called his general theoretical framework because he
was interested in how knowledge developed in
human organisms.
Basic Cognitive Concepts
SCHEMA – Piaget used this term to refer to the
cognitive structures by which individuals
intellectually adapt to and organize their
environment.
- It is an individual’s way to understand
or create meaning about a things or experience.
- It is like the mind has a filing cabinet
and each drawer has folders that contain files or
things he has had an experience with.
ASSIMILATION – This is the process of fitting a
new experience into an existing or previously
created cognitive structure or schema.
ACCOMODATION – This is the process of creating
a new schema.
EQUILIBRATION – It is achieving proper balance
between assimilation and accommodation.
 COGNITIVE DISEQUILIBRIUM – This
means there is discrepancy between what is
perceived and what is understood.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
STAGE 1. SENSORIMOTOR STAGE – The first
stage corresponds from birth to infants.
- This is the
stage when a child who is initially reflexive in
grasping, sucking and reaching becomes more
organized in his movement or activity.
 OBJECT PERMANENCE – This is the ability
of the child to know that an object still exists
even when out of sight.
STAGE 2. PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGE – Covers
from about tow to seven years old, roughly
corresponding to the preschool years.
- At this
stage, the child can now make mental
representations and is able to pretend, the child is
now ever closer to the use of symbols.
 SYMBOLIC FUNCTION – This is the ability
to represent objects and events.
 EGOCENTRISM – Is the tendency of the
child to only see his point of view and to
assume that everyone else has his point of
view.
 CENTRATION – This refers to the tendency
of the child to only focus on one aspect of a
thing or event and exclude other aspects.
 IRREVERSIBILITY – Preoperational children
still have the inability to reverse their
thinking.
 ANIMISM – This is the tendency of children
to attribute human like traits or
characteristics to inanimate objects.
 TRANSDUCTIVE REASONING – This refers
to the preoperational child’s type of
reasoning that is neither inductive nor
deductive.
- Reasoning
appears to be from particular to particular.
I.e., if A causes B, then B causes A.
STAGE 3. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE –
This Stage is characterized by the ability of the
child to think logically but only in terms of concrete
objects.
- This covers approximately the ages between 8 – 11
years or the elementary years.
 DECENTERING – This refers to the ability
of the child to perceive the different features
of objects and situations.
- No longer is the child
focused or limited to one aspect or
dimension.
 REVERSIBILITY – The child can now follow
that certain operations can be done in
reverse.
 CONSERVATION – This is the ability to
know that certain properties of objects like
 number, mass, volume, or area do not
change even if there is a change in
appearance.
 SERIATION – This refers to the ability to
order or arrange things in a series based on
one dimension such as weight, volume, or
size.
STAGE 4. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE –
Covering ages between 12 and 15 years, thinking
becomes more logical.
- They can now solve abstract problems and can
hypothesize.
 HYPOTHETICAL REASONING – This is
the ability to come up with different
hypothesis about a problem and to gather
and weigh data in order to make a final
decision or judgement.
- The
individuals can now deal with “What if”
questions.
 ANALOGICAL REASONING – This is the
ability to perceive the relationship in one
instance and then use that relationship to
narrow down possible answers in another
similar situation or problem.
 DEDUCTIVE REASONING – This is the
ability to think logically by applying a
general rule to a particular instance or
situation.
ERICKSON’S PSYCHO-SOCIAL
THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT
ERIK ERIKSON – Was a German-American
developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst.
PYSCHOANALYST – A method of explaining and
treating mental and emotional problems by having
the patient talk about dreams, feelings, memories
etc.
THE PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT – The Eight Psychosocial Stages of Development
Erikson’s stage theory characterizes an individual
advancing through the eight life stages as a
function of negotiating his or her biological and
socio-cultural forces. Each stage is characterized by
a psychosocial crisis of these two conflicting forces.
If an individual does indeed successfully reconcile
this force, they emerge from the stage with
corresponding virtue. If the challenges in these
stages are not successfully completed, it is expected
to return as problems in the future.
THE EPIGENETIC PRINCIPLE – As Boeree
explains, “This principle says that we develop
through a predetermined unfolding of our
personalities in eight stages. Our progress through
each stage is in part determined by our success, or
lack of success, in all the previous stage. A little like
the unfolding of a rose bud, each petal opens up at
a certain time, in a certain order, which nature,
through each genetics, has determined. If we
interfere in the natural order of development by
pulling a petal forward prematurely or out of
order, we ruin the entire development of the entire
flower.
PSYCHOSOCIAL CRISIS – Each stage involves this
of two opposing emotional forces. A helpful term
used by Erikson for these opposing forces is
“contrary dispositions.”
VIRTUE – Psychosocial strength which will help us
through the rest of the stages of our lives.
ACHIEVING – Successfully passing through each
crisis involves this as a healthy ratio or balance
between the two opposing dispositions that
represent each crisis.
MALIGNANCY – It involves too little of the
positive and too much of the negative aspect of the
task, such as a person who can’t trust others.
MALADAPTATION – Involves too much of the
positive and too little of the negative, such as a
person who trusts too much.
MUTUALITY – Reflects the effect of generations on
each other, especially among families, and
particularly between parents and children and
grandchildren.
GENERATIVITY – Reflects the significant
relationship between adults and the best interests
of children – one’s own children, in a way everyone
else’s children – the next generation, and all
following generations.
STAGE 1. TRUST vs. MISTRUST
 Psychosocial Crisis: The goal is to develop
trust without completely eliminating the
capacity for mistrust. This stage occurs
between the ages of birth and 2 years and is
centered on developing a sense of trust in
caregivers (parents) and the world.
 Maladaptation: Parents who are overly
protective of their child, who are there the
minute the first cry comes out will lead that
 child into the maladaptive tendency Erikson
called:
 SENSORY ADJUSTMENT – Overly
trusting, even gullible, this person
cannot believe anyone would mean
harm, and will use all the defenses at
their command to find an
explanation or excuse for the person
who did him wrong.
 Malignancy: The child whose balance is
tipped away on the mistrust side, they will
develop the malignant tendency called:
 WITHDRAWAL – Characterized by
depression, paranoia, and possibly
psychosis.
 Virtue: If the proper balance is achieved, the
child will develop the virtue of hope, a
strong belief that, even when things are not
going well, they will work out well in the
end.
STAGE 2. AUTONOMY vs. SHAME and DOUBT
 Psychosocial Crisis: The second stage is
early childhood, from about eighteen
months to three to four years old. The task
is to achieve a degree of autonomy while
minimizing shame and doubt. If mom and
dad, or caregiver permits the child, now
toddler, to explore and manipulate his/her
environment, the child will develop a sense
of autonomy or independence.
 Maladaptation: Nevertheless, a little “shame
or doubt,” is not only inevitable, but
beneficial. Without it you will develop the
maladaptive tendency:
 IMPULSIVENESS – A sort of
shameless willfulness that leads you
in later childhood and even
adulthood to jump into things
without proper consideration of
your abilities.
STAGE 4. INDUSTRY vs. INFERIORITY
 Malignancy: Worse, too much shame and
doubt lead to the malignancy called:
 COMPULSIVENESS – The person
feels as if their being rides on
everything they do, and so
everything must be done perfectly.
Following all the rules precisely
keeps you from mistakes, and
mistakes must be avoided at all
costs.
 Virtue: If you get the proper, positive
balance of autonomy and shame and doubt,
you will develop the virtue of WILLPOWER
or DETERMINATION
STAGE 3. INITIATIVE vs. GUILT
 Psychosocial Crisis: Stage 3 is the early
childhood stage, from three to four to five
or sex. The task is to learn initiative without
too much guilt. Children begin to explore
their environment and exert more control
over their choices. The child is now capable,
as never before, of imagining a future
situation, one that isn’t a reality right now.
 Maladaptation: Too much initiative and too
little guilt means a maladaptive tendency
called:
 RUTHLESSNESS – It is to be
heartless or unfeeling or be “without
mercy.
 SOCIOPATHY – The extreme form
of ruthlessness.
 Malignancy: Harder on the person is the
malignancy of too much guilt which is
called:
 INHIBITION – This person will not
try things because “nothing
ventured, nothing lost” and,
particularly, nothing to feel guilty
about. They are so afraid to start and
take a lead on a project. They fear
that if it fails, they will be blamed.
 Virtue: A good balance leads to the
psychosocial strength of purpose which will
then lead to:
 COURAGE – The capacity for action
despite a clear understanding of
your limitations and past failings.
 Psychosocial Crisis: Stage 4 is the school-age
when the child is form about six to twelve.
The task is to develop a capacity for
industry while avoiding an excessive sense
of inferiority. Children must “tame the
imagination” and dedicate themselves to
education and to learning the social skills
their society requires of them.
  Maladaptation: Too much industry leads to
the maladaptive tendency called:
 NARROW VIRTUOSITY – We see
this in children who aren’t allowed
to “be children,” the ones that
parents or teachers push into one
area of competence, without
allowing the development of
broader interests. These are the kids
without life.
 Malignancy: Much more in the malignancy
is called:
 INERTIA – This includes all of us
who suffer from the “inferiority
complexes” Alfred Adler talked
about. If at first you don’t succeed,
don’t ever try again!
 Virtue: Then we have the virtue called:
 COMPETENCY – The right balance
of industry and inferiority – that is,
mostly industry with just a touch of
inferiority to keep us sensible.
STAGE 5. EGO IDENTITY vs. ROLE CONFUSION
 Psychosocial Crisis: Stage 5 is adolescence,
beginning with puberty and ending around
18 or 20 years old. The task during
adolescence is to achieve ego identity and
avoid role confusion.
 EGO IDENTITY – Means knowing
who you are and how you fit in to
the rest of society. It requires that
you take all you’ve learned about
life and yourself and mold it into a
unified self-image, one that your
community finds meaningful.
 RITES OF PASSAGE – Certain
accomplishments and rituals that
help to distinguish the adult from
the child.
 PSYCHOSOCIAL MORATORIUM –
Suggests that you take a little “time
out.”
 Maladaptation:
 FANATICISM – Too much “ego
identity,” where a person is so
involved in a particular role in a
particular society or subculture that
there is no room left for tolerance; a
fanatic believes that his way is the
only way.
 Malignancy: The lack of identity is perhaps
more difficult still, and Erikson refers to the
malignancy here as:
 REPUDIATION – Is to reject. They
reject their membership in the world
of adults and, even more, they reject
their need for an identity.
 Virtue: If you successfully negotiate this
stage, you will have the virtue Erikson
called:
 FIDELITY – Means loyalty, the
ability to live by societies standards
despite their imperfections and
incompleteness and inconsistencies.
STAGE 6. INTIMACY vs. ISOLATION
 Psychosocial Crisis: If you have made it this
far, you are in the stage of young
adulthood, which lasts from about 18 to
about 30. The task is to achieve some degree
of intimacy, as opposed to remaining in
isolation.
 INTIMACY – Is the ability to be
close to others, as a lover, a friend,
and as a participant in society.
 The “fear of commitment” some
people seem to exhibit is an example
of immaturity in this stage.
 Maladaptation: Erikson calls the
maladaptive form:
 PROMISCUITY – Referring particularly to
the tendency to become intimate too freely,
too easily, and without any depth to your
intimacy. This can be true of your
relationships with friends and neighbors
and your whole community as well as with
lovers.
 Malignancy: The malignancy he calls:
 EXCLUSION – Which refers to the
tendency to isolate oneself from love,
friendship, and community, and to develop
a certain hatefulness in compensation for
one’s loneliness.
 Virtue:
  LOVE – In the context of Erikson’s theory,
means being able to put aside differences
and antagonisms through “mutuality of
devotion.” It includes not only the love we
find in a good a marriage, but the love
between friends and the love of one’s
neighbor, co-worker, and compatriot as
well.
STAGE 7. GENERATIVITY vs. STAGNATION
 Psychosocial Crisis: The seventh stage is
that of middle adulthood. It is hard to pin a
time to it, but it would include the period
during which we are actively involved in
raising children. For most people in our
society, this would put it somewhere
between the middle twenties and the late
fifties. The task here is to cultivate the
proper balance of generativity and
stagnation.
 This is the stage of the “middle crisis.”
 GENERATIVITY – Is an extension of love
in the future. It is a concern for the next
generation and all future generations. As
such, it is considerably less “selfish” than
the intimacy of the previous stage.
 Maladaptation: It is perhaps hard to
imagine that we should have any
“stagnation” in our lives, but the
maladaptive tendency Erikson calls:
 OVEREXTENSION – Illustrates the
problem that some people try to be so
generative that they no longer allow time
for themselves, for rest and relaxation.
 Malignancy: More obvious of course, is the
malignant tendency of:
 REJECTIVITY – Too little generativity and
too much stagnation and you are no longer
participating in or contributing to society.
And much of what we call “the meaning of
life” is a matter of how we participate and
what we contribute.
 Virtue: But if you are successful at this
stage, you will have a capacity for caring
that will serve you through the rest of your
life.
STAGE 8. INTEGRITY vs. DESPAIR
 Psychosocial Crisis: referred to delicately as
late adulthood or maturity, or less delicately
as old age, begins sometime around
retirement, after the kids have gone, say
somewhere around 60. The task is to
develop ego integrity with a minimal
amount of despair.
 In response to this despair, some older
people become preoccupied with the past.
After all, that’s where things were better.
Some become preoccupied with their
failures, the bad decisions they made, and
regret that (unlike some in the previous
stage) they really don’t have the time or
energy to reverse them.
 EGO INTEGRITY – Means coming to terms
with your life, and thereby coming to terms
with the end of life. If you are able to look
back and accept the course of events, the
choices made, your life as you lived it, as
being necessary, then you needn’t fear
death.
 Maladaptation: The maladaptive tendency
in stage eight is called:
 PRESUMPTION – This is what happens
when a person “presumes” ego integrity
without actually facing the difficulties of
old age.
 Malignant: The malignant tendency is
called:
 DISDAIN – By which Erikson means a
contempt of life, one’s own or anyone’s.
The person becomes very negative and
appears to hate life.
 Virtue: Someone who approaches death
without fear has the strength Erikson calls:
 WISDOM – Erikson calls it a gift to
children, because “healthy children will not
fear life if their elders have integrity
enough no to fear death.”
KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL
DEVELOPMENT
MORAL DEVELOPMENT – The gradual
development of an individual’s concept of right
and wrong – conscious, religious, values, social
attitudes and certain behavior.
Theory of Moral Development
 Kohlberg extended Piaget’s theory; proposed
that moral development is a continual
process that occurs throughout the life-span.

 Used Piaget’s story telling technique to tell
people stories involving moral dilemmas.
 He based his theory upon research and
interviews with groups of young children.
 A series of moral dilemma were presented to
these participants and they were also
interviewed to determine the reasoning
behind their judgements of each scenario.
3 Major Levels of Moral Development
PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL
Stage 1. Punishment/Obedience
Stage 2. Mutual Benefit
CONVENTIONAL LEVEL
Stage 3. Social Approval
Stage 4. Law and Order
POST CONVENTIONAL LEVEL
Stage 5. Social Contract
Stage 6. Universal Principles
PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL – Moral reasoning
is based on the consequences/result of the act, not
on the whether the act itself is good or bad.
 Stage 1. PUNISHMENT/OBEDIENCE –
One is motivated by fear of punishment.
He will act in order to avoid punishment.
 Stage 2. MUTUAL BENEFIT – One is
motivated to act by the benefit that one
may obtain later. You scratch my back, I’ll
scratch yours.
CONVENTIONAL LEVEL – Moral reasoning is
based on the conventions or “norms” of society.
This may include approval of others, law and
order.
 Stage 3. SOCIAL APPROVAL – One is
motivated by what others expect in
behavior – good boy, good girl. The person
acts because he/she values how he/she will
appear to others. He/she gives importance
on what people will think or say.
 Stage 4. LAW & ORDER – One is motivated
to act in order to uphold law and order. The
person will follow the law because it is the
law.
POST CONVENTIONAL LEVEL – Moral reasoning
is based on enduring or consistent principles. It is
not just recognizing the law, but the principles
behind the law.
 Stage 5. SOCIAL CONTRACT – Laws that
are wronged can be changed. One will act
based on social justice and then common
good.
 Stage 6. UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES – This is
associated with the development of one’s
conscience. Having a set of standards that
drives one to possess moral responsibility to
make societal changes regardless of
consequences to oneself. Examples of
persons are Mother Teresa, Martin Luther
King, Jr.
VYGOTSKY’S SOCIO-CULTURAL
THEORY
LEV VYGOTSKY
(Nov. 5, 1896 – June 11, 1934)
• Born in Orsha, a western city in the
Russian Empire.
• A Soviet psychologist who studied
linguistics and philosophy at the
University of Moscow before
becoming involved in psychological
research.
• He became a major figure in post-
revolutionary Soviet psychology
While working at Moscow’s Institute
of Psychology. He studied the role of
social and cultural factors in the
making of human consciousness;
His works influenced psychologists
such as A.R. Luria and Jean Piaget.
VYGOTSKY’S SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY
• The key theme of Vygotsky’s theory
is that social interaction plays a very
important role in cognitive
development
• He believed that individual
development could not be
understood without looking into the
social and cultural context within
which development happens.
DIFFERENCES OF PIAGET’S AND
VYGOTSKY’S THEORY
PIAGET VYGOTSKY
 More individual in focus, believed that
there are universal stages of cognitive
development.
 Did not give much emphasis on language.
 More social in focus. Did not propose stages
but emphasized on cultural factors in
cognitive development.
  Stressed the role of language in cognitive
development.
SOCIAL INTERACTION
• An exchange between two or more
individuals and is a building block
of society.
• Can be studied between groups of
two (dyads), three (triads) or larger
social groups. By interacting with
one another, people design rules,
institutions and systems within
which they seek to live.
• Vygotsky emphasized that effective
learning happens through
participation. Parents, teachers and
other adults in the learner’s
environment all contribute to the
process.
• These adults explain, model, assist
and provide feedback while peers
cooperate, collaborate and enrich the
learning experience.
CULTURAL FACTORS
• Vygotsky believed in the crucial role
of culture being played on the
cognitive development of children.
For Piaget its Stages of cognitive
development. Vygotsky, on the
other hand, looked at the
experiences that a culture would
give to the child.
LANGUAGE
• Learners can use language to know
and understand the world and solve
problems. It helps the learners to
regulate and reflect on his own
thinking. Children talk to
themselves.
• Private speech - is a form of self-talk
that guides the child's thinking and
action.
skilled partner. Thus, the term
“proximal” refers to those skills that
the learner is “close” to mastering.
• Vygotsky believed that whe na
student is in the proximal
development for a particular task,
providing the appropriate assistance
will give the student enough of a
“boost” to achieve the task.
• When a child attempts to perform a
skill alone, he/she may not be
immediately proficient at it, we call
this the zone of actual development.
However, with the guidance of a
More Knowledgeable Other (MKO),
the child can perform at a higher
level of competency.
SCAFFOLDING
• The support or assistance that lets
the child accomplish a task he/she
cannot accomplish independently.
• When done appropriately,
scaffolding can make a learner
confident and eventually he/she can
accomplish the task without any
need for assistance.
• SCAFFOLDING
• When the MKO scaffolds, the
process moves in four levels:
1. I do, you watch
2. I do, you help
3. You do, I help
4. You do, I watch

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT (ZPD)

• “ the distance between the actual
developmental level as determined
by independent problem solving
and the level of potential
development as determined through
problem-solving under adult
guidance, or in collaboration with
more capable pairs. “
• Refers to the difference between
what a learner can do without help
and what he or she can achieve with
guidance and encouragement from a