MPsy605- Applied Child and Adolescent Development

DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES

I. Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

A. Background of Psychosexual Theory

 Freud formulated this theory of human development from his analyses of
emotionally disturbed patients’ life histories.
 He relief heavily on methods such as hypnosis, free association, free association,
and dream analysis.
 Freud concluded that human development is a conflictual process.

B. Components of Personality

1. Id
 present at birth
 its sole function is to satisfy inborn biological instincts

2. Ego
 the conscious rational component of the personality that
 reflects the child’s emerging abilities to perceive, learn, remember, and reason.
 Its function is to find socially approved means of gratifying instincts.
 As ego matures, children become better at controlling their ids and find
socially appropriate ways to gratify their needs.

3. Superego
 the seat of conscience
 It develops between the ages of 3 and 6 as children internalize the moral values
of their parents.
 This allows them to be aware of their won transgressions.

C. Psychosexual Stages of Development

1. Oral Stage(Birth to 1 year)

 The infant’s primary interaction with the world is through the mouth.
 Infants derive pleasure from oral activities such as sucking, chewing, and biting.
 The infant is in the state of dependence on the mother or caregiver— who
becomes the infant’s primary object of libido.
 Two ways of behaving during this stage: oral incorporative behavior or oral
sadistic behavior

Oral Incorporative Oral Aggressive/Sadistic

Behavior Fixation Fixation
 Unusual optimism  Excessive pessimism
 Dependency  Hostility
 Gullibility  Aggressiveness
 Argumentative
 Sarcastic

2. Anal Stage (1 to 3 years)

 With the development of new cells and the control they provide
(sphincters), the focus shifts to the controlling the bladder and bowel
movements
 Voluntary urination and defecation become the primary methods of
gratifying the sex instinct.
 Toilet-training produces major conflicts between children and parents because
the act of urination and defecation produces erotic pleasure for the child, but the
child must learn to postpone or delay this pleasure.

Anal Aggressive Anal Retentive

  Hostile or sadistic  Stubborn
behavior (i.e. cruelty,  Stingy
destructiveness, and  Rigid
temper tantrums)  Compulsively neat
 Obstinate
 Overly conscientious

3. Phallic (3 to 6 years)

 This stage is the last of the pre-genital stage or childhood stages, and
phallic conflicts are the most complex to resolve.
 Pleasure is derived from genital stimulation (their own and those of their
playmates).
 Children develop incestuous desire for the parent of the opposite sex (i.e.
Oedipus and Elektra complex)
 Children also adopt the values and characteristics of the same-sex parent and
form the superego.

4. Latency (6 to 11 years)

 Traumas of the phallic stage care repressed and sexual urges are rechanneled to
schoolwork and vigorous play.
 The ego and superego continue to develop as the child gains more
problem-solving abilities at school and internalize societal values.
 The id, ego, and superego have been formed and the relationships among them
are being solidified.
 The sex instinct is dormant, temporarily sublimated in school activities, hobbies,
sports and in developing friendships with members of the same sex.

5. Genital (12 onwards)

 The body is becoming physiologically mature.
 Conflict in this stage is less intense
 Puberty triggers a reawakening of sexual urges.
 Adolescents must now learn how to express these urges in socially acceptable
ways.

D. Contributions and Criticisms

 The concept of unconscious motivation was considered Freud’s greatest
contribution.
 Focusing attention on the influence of early experience on later development
 Initiated the study of the emotional side of human development- loves, fears,
anxieties, and other emotions.
 The propositions of his theory are difficult to falsify

II. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

A. Features of Psychosocial Theory

 Children are active, curious explorers who seek to adapt to their environments ,
rather than passive reactors to biological urges who are modeled by their parents.
 Less emphasis on sexual urges and emphasis on social and cultural influences.

B. Eight Life Crises

1. The Oral-Seonsory Stage (Birth to 1 year)

 The first year or life is a period of great helplessness. The infant is totally
dependent on the mother or other primary caregiver for survival, security, and
affection.
 The infant’s interaction with the mother determines whether an attitude of trust
 or mistrust for future dealings for future dealings.
 The basic strength of hope is associated wit the successful resolution of the crisis
during this stage.

2. Muscular-Anal Stage (Ages 2 to 3 years old)

 In this stage, children rapidly develop a variety of physical ad mental abilities
and are able to do many things for themselves.
 Erikson believed the most important abilities involved holding on and letting go.
 The important point is that children are able to exercise some degree of choice,
to experience power of their autonomous will.
 The major crisis between parent and child at this stage typically involves toilet
training , seen as the first instance when society attempts to regulate an
instinctual need. The child is taught to hold on and let go only at appropriate
times and places.
 The basic strength that develops from autonomy is will, which involves
determination to exercises freedom of choice and self-restraint in the face of
society’s demands.

3. Locomotor-Genital Stage (Ages 3 to 5 years old)

 Motor and mental abilities are continuing to develop, and children can
accomplish ore on their own.
 If parents punish the child and otherwise inhibit these displays of initiative, the
child may develop persistent guilt feelings that will affect self0directed activities
throughout his or her life.
 The basic strength called purpose arises from initiative. Purpose involves the
courage to envision and pursue goals.

4. Latency Stage (Ages 6 to 11 years old)

 In this stage, the child begins school and is exposed to new social influences.
Ideally, he learns good work and study habits primarily become means of
attaining praise and obtaining satisfaction from the successful completion of
task.
 If children are scolded, ridicules, or rejected, they are likely to develop feelings
of inferiority and inadequacy. On the other hand, praise and reinforcement foster
feelings of competence and encourage continued striving.
 The basic strength that emerges from industriousness during the latency stage is
competence. It involves the exertion of skill and intelligence in pursuing and
completing tasks.

5. Adolescence (Between ages 12 to 18 years old)

 At this stage, people must meet and resolve the crisis of their basic ego identity.
This is in the form of their self-image, the integration or their ideas about
themselves and about what others think of them.
 People who emerged from this stage with a strong sense of self-identity are
equipped to face adulthood with certainty and confidence. Those who fail to
achieve a cohesive identity (identity crisis) will exhibit a confusion of roles.
They do not seem to know who or what they are, where they belong, or where
they want to go. They withdraw from the normal life sequence (education, job,
marriage) or seek negative identity in crime or drugs.

6. Young Adulthood (End of adolescence to about the age of 35)

 Individuals during this period establish their sense of independence from parents
and quasi-parental institutions and begin to function as mature, responsible
adults.
 Intimacy was not restricted to sexual relationships but also encompassed feelings
of caring and commitment.
 People who are unable to develop such intimacies in young adulthood will
develop feelings of isolation.
  The basic strength that emerges from the intimacy of the young adult years is
love. Erikson described it as a mutual devotion in a shared identity, the fusing of
oneself with another person.

7. Adulthood (Approximately 35-55 years old)

 At this stage of maturity, individuals need to be actively involved in teaching

and guiding the next generation.
 Erikson believed that all institutions provide opportunities for us to express
generativity.
 When middle-aged people cannot or will not seek an outlet for generativity, they
may become overwhelmed by “stagnation, boredom, and interpersonal
impoverishment”
 Care is the basic strength that emerges from generativity in adulthood. Erikson
defined care as a broad concern for others and believed it was manifested in the
need to teach, not only to help others but also to fulfill one’s identity.

8. Maturity and old age

 At this stage, people examine and reflect on our life, taking its final measure.
They may look at it with a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, believing they
have adequately coped with life’s victories and failures. On the other hand, they
may review their life with a sense of frustration, angry about missed
opportunities and regretful of mistakes that cannot be rectified and feel despair.
 The basic strength associated with this final developmental stage is wisdom. It is
expressed in a detached concern with the whole of life. It is conveyed to
succeeding generations in an integration of experience best described by the
word heritage.

C. Contributions and Criticisms

 Erikson’s theory is easier to accept because it stresses people’s rational and
adaptive nature.
 His theory emphasizes social conflicts and dilemmas that people remember,
are currently experiencing, and can easily anticipate or observe in people they
know.
 However,his theory had also been criticized for being vague about the causes of
development.
 His theory is also descriptive than explanatory.

III. Piaget’s Cognitive Development

A. Background of Cognitive Development Theory

 While in testing mental ability, scientist were interested in the number of
questions the child answers correctly, Piaget were interested in incorrect answers.
He noticed that children of the same age produced the same kinds of errors.
 He realized that young children are not less intelligent that older children, it’s
just that their thought processes are completely different.
 He defined intelligence as a basic life process that helps an organism adapt to its
environment.
 As children mature they acquire more complex “cognitive structures” that help
them in adapting to their environment.
 Cognitive structure or scheme is an organized pattern of thought or action that a
child constructs to make sense of some aspect of his or her experience.
 Assimilation is the process by which children interpret new experiences by
incorporating them into their existing schemes.
 Disequilibrium is an imbalance or contradictions between one’s thought
processes and environmental events.
 Accommodation is the process by which children modify their existing schemes
in order to incorporate or adapt to new experiences.
 Piaget believed that people continually rely on the complementary process of
assimilation and accommodation to adapt to our environments.
 Biological maturation also plays an important role: as the brain and nervous
 systems mature, children become capable of increasingly complex cognitive
schemes that help them to construct better understandings of what they have
experienced.

B. Stage of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years old)

 Infants use sensory and motor capabilities to explore and gain information
understanding of the environment
 Infants acquire a sense of “self” and “others”
 Infants learn the concept of object permanence− that objects continue exist
even when they are out of sight.
 Infants begin to internalize schemes and produce images or mental schema.

2. Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years old)

 Children use symbolism (images and language) to represent and understand
various aspects of the environment.
 Thought is egocentric, meaning that children think everyone sees the world
in much the same way that they do.
 Children become imaginative in their play activities.

3. Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 12 years old)

 Children acquire and use cognitive operations
 Children are no longer fooled by appearances
 They understand properties and relations among object in the everyday
world.
 The are becoming more proficient in inferring motive by observing others'
behavior and circumstances in which it occur.
4. Formal Operational Stage (11 to 12 years old)
 Adolescents’ cognitive operations are reorganized in a way that permits them
to operate on operations.
 Thought is systematic and abstract.
 Logical thinking is no longer limited to the concrete and observable.
 Adolescents enjoy pondering hypothetical issues and may become idealistic.
 They are capable of deductive reasoning which allows them to consider
many possible solutions to a problem.

C. Contributions and Criticisms

 Piaget dared to study an unobserved concept which is cognition.
 His study legitimized the study of children’s thinking influenced other
theorists like Lawrence Kohlberg and Robert Selman.
 However, to some it seems that Piaget underestimated the intellectual
capabilities.

Sociocultural Theory

A. Background of Sociocultural Theory

 Vygotsky focused on how beliefs, values, traditions, and skills of social group is
transmitted from generation to generation.
 Instead of picturing children as independent explorers, he viewed cognitive
growth as a socially mediated activity.
 He rejected Piaget’s idea of invariant developmental sequence－ that all
children progress in exact order. According to Vygotsky, the skills children learn
are culture specific rather than universal.

IV. Ecological Systems Theory

A. Key Features of Brofenbrenner’s Theory

  Brofenbrenner’s model emphasizes that the developing person is embedded in a
series of environmental systems that interact with one another and with the
person to influence development.
 This approach also concerns that a person’s biologically influenced
characteristics interact with environmental forces to shape development.

B. Ecological System’s Theory

1. Microsystem
 The microsystem refers to the individual’s immediate surrounding and his
interaction with them.
 It includes the family, peer groups, neighborhood, and school life.
 It is where most direct interactions with social agents occur. The individual
is not merely a passive recipient of experiences in these settings but
someone who actually helps to construct social settings.

2. Mesosystem
 This connects the structure of the microsystem.

3. Exosystem
 This is made up of social settings that do not contain the developing person
but nevertheless affect experiences in his or her immediate settings.
 It may include people and places that the child may not interact with often
but still have a large effect on the child.

4. Macrosystem
 It refers to the cultural, subcultural, or social class context in which
microsystems, mesosystems, and exosystems are embedded.
 It dictates how children should be treated, what should be taught, and the
goals for which they should strive.

5. Chronosystem
 It refers to the changes in the child or in any of the ecological contexts of
development that can affect the direction that development is likely to take.

C. Contributions and Criticisms

 The ecological perspectives provide a much richer description of
environment than anything offered by learning theorists.
 Though is is also called a bioecological model, it has very little to say about
specific biological contributions to development.

References

Crain, W.C. (1985). Theories of Development. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Shaffer, D.R and Kipp, K. (2010). Developmental Psychology: Childhood and

Adolescence. Cengage Learning. USA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Schultz, D.P., Schultz, S.E. (2005). Theories of Personality. US: Wadsworth, Thomson
Learning, Inc.

Wong, D.W., Hall, K.R., Justice, C.A., and Hernandez, L.W. (2015). Counseling
Individuals Through the Lifespan. CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.