Chapter 2:

Theories of Development
IN THIS CHAPTER

• Psychoanalytic Theories

• Learning Theories

• Cognitive Theories

• Biological and Ecological Theories

• Comparing Theories
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

2.1 What are the main ideas of Freud’s psychosexual

theory?
2.2 What is the conflict associated with each of
Erikson’s psychosocial stages?
2.3 What are the strengths and weaknesses of
psychoanalytic theory?
2.4 How did Watson condition Little Albert to fear white,
furry objects?
2.5 How does operant conditioning occur?
2.6 In what ways does social-cognitive theory differ
from other learning theories?
2.7 How do the learning theories explain development?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES (con’t)

2.8 How does cognitive development progress, according to

Piaget?
2.9 How did Vygotsky use the concepts of scaffolding and
the zone of proximal development to explain cognitive
development?
2.10 How does information-processing theory explain the
findings of developmental psychologists such as Piaget
and Vygotsky?
2.11 What are some of the important contributions of the
cognitive theories?
2.12 How do behavior geneticists explain individual
differences?
2.13 What kinds of behaviors are of interest to ethologists
and sociobiologists?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES (con’t)
2.14 What is the main idea of Bronfenbrenner’s
bioecological theory?
2.15 What assumptions do the three families of theories
make about development?
2.16 On what criteria do developmentalists compare the
usefulness of theories?
2.17 What is eclecticism?
AN OVERVIEW

Major Families of Theoretical Perspectives

 Psychoanalytic
 Learning
 Cognitive
Other Theoretical Trends
 Biological
 Ecological
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
Sigmund Freud

• Psychosexual theory: internal drives and

emotions influence behavior.
• Patient memories are used as primary
source material.
• Three personality types: id, ego, superego
• Sexual feelings are part of personality
development.
Freud proposed that hidden memories of
traumatic childhood events are often hidden or
repressed.
• Memory researchers found that some adults who
experienced childhood abuse forget memories
related to the abuse—just as Freud predicted.
• Most people do retain traumatic memories; false
memories may be created if repressed memories
are explored.
• Specific training aids therapists to recall concrete
evidence for memories.
You Decide
Decide which of these two statements you most
agree with and think about how you would defend
your position:
1. If I thought that I had recovered a repressed
memory of childhood abuse, I would prefer to
have a skeptical therapist who would educate
me about research findings showing that such
memories are rarely forgotten.
2. If I thought that I had recovered a repressed
memory of childhood abuse, I would prefer to
have a supportive therapist who would help me
search for evidence of the abuse.
FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY
Erik Erikson (Neo-Freudian)

Psychosocial theory: development is influenced

by common cultural demands and internal drives.
• Each psychosocial stage requires resolution of a
crisis.
• Healthy development requires a favorable ratio
of positive to negative experiences.
PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY
Erik Erikson (Neo-Freudian)

Stages
 The first four stages form the foundation for
the adult personality.
 Childhood–adulthood transition influential
Ages
 Adult stages are not strongly tied to age.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
LEARNING THEORIES
Ivan Pavlov

Classical Conditioning: learning process that

occurs through associations between
environmental stimulus and naturally occurring
stimulus
Reflex: stimulus–response connection
Learned: conditioned stimulus elicits conditioned
response.
ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES
Systematic Desensitization
School refusal often occurs because children feel
anxious in the school setting.
• Rawlins uses systematic desensitization by
teaching relaxation strategies to children with
school refusal. Children are then taught to
regulate this response in successive steps
leading toward school participation.
• Gradually, the child will learn to associate going
to school with the relaxation responses rather
than with anxiety.
Reflection
1. How could systematic desensitization be used to
help a child who was bitten by a dog overcome
her subsequent fear of all dogs?
2. What actions on the part of parents, teachers, or
peers might prevent a child with school refusal
from benefiting from systematic desensitization?
LEARNING THEORIES
B.F. Skinner

Operant conditioning: deals with modification of

voluntary behavior
• Behaviors dependent on reinforcement
 Positive reinforcement
 Negative reinforcement
• Punishment
• Extinction
LEARNING THEORIES

Hints for Parents and Caregivers

• Positive and negative reinforcement interact in
complex ways in real life.
• The best chance for behavioral change exists
when an appropriate consequence is
administered first after the behavior occurs.
LEARNING THEORIES
Social Cognitive Theory: Albert Bandura

Observational learning or modeling: learning

results from seeing a model reinforced or
punished for behavior.
• Dependent on four factors:
 Attention
 Memory
 Physical capabilities
 Motivation
LEARNING THEORIES
Social Cognitive Theory

Perceived self-efficacy: people’s beliefs about

their capabilities to produce effects
• Learning
 Influenced by perceived similarity to model
 Not limited to overt behavior
 Comes also from ideas, expectations, internal
standards, and self-concepts
LEARNING THEORIES
COGNITIVE THEORIES
Piaget

Piaget’s cognitive theory: development involves

processes based upon actions and later progresses
into changes in mental operations.
 Scheme
 Assimilation
 Accommodation
 Equilibration
COGNITIVE THEORIES
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Stages

The rate of development differs for individual children.

COGNITIVE THEORIES
Vygotsky

Socio-cultural theory: complex forms of thinking

have their origins in social interactions, not private
explorations.
• Children learn new cognitive skills when guided
by a more skilled partner.
 Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
 Scaffolding
COGNITIVE THEORIES
Importance of Assisted Discovery

Assisted discovery: a child integrates the results

of independent discoveries with new knowledge
taught in systematic and structured way.
What are the educational applications of this kind of
learning?
COGNITIVE THEORIES
Importance of Assisted Discovery

Educational Applications
• Supports active exploration opportunities
• Discovery of what knowledge, skills, and
understandings have not yet surfaced for the
learner, but are on edge of emergence
COGNITIVE THEORIES

Information-processing theory: the computer is

used a as model to explain how mind manages
information.
• Three-stage theory of memory
 Sensory memory
 Short-term or working memory
 Long-term memory
THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING SYSTEM
COGNITIVE THEORIES
Neo-Piagetian Theories

Piagetian Information-Processing Hybrid

• Uses IP to explain Piaget’s stages
• Expands (rather than contradicts) Piaget’s theory
• Agrees that children’s thinking reflects
developing internal mental structures
• Draws on linguistic theories about content
domain specificity of cognition
COGNITIVE THEORIES
Piaget’s Clever Research
Studying conservation: understanding that matter
does not change in quantity when its appearance
changes
Employing follow-up questions: understanding
how a child thought, rather than focusing on
whether he or she could arrive at the right answer
• Criticism
• Questions not standardized
• Later, better-conceptualized research confirmed
many Piagetian findings.
Critical Analysis
1. To what extent were Piaget’s methods influenced
by children’s language skills?
2. How might older children’s more highly
developed capacity for reflecting on and
explaining their thought processes have
influenced children’s capacity for logical
thinking?
BIOLOGICAL THEORIES
Behavioral Genetics

Behavioral genetics: examines the genetic

underpinnings of behavioral phenotypes
Can you think of questions that might be addressed
using this theoretical perspective?
Did you list twin studies in your response?

Look at these findings from several studies of Dutch twins.

What does this tell you about the influence of heredity and
age?

Figure 2.3 IQs of Fraternal and Identical Twins

OTHER BIOLOGICAL THEORIES
Ethology and Sociobiology

Ethology: examines genetically determined

mechanisms that promote survival through natural
selection
 Imprinting
Sociobiology: application of evolutionary theory to
social behavior
 “Genetic selfishness”
BIOECOLOGICAL THEORY
Urie Bronfenbrenner

Bioecological theory: explains development in

terms of relationships between people and their
environments
Contexts
 Macrosystem
 Exosystem
 Microsystem
 Mesosystem
 Biological context
PLACE YOURSELF IN THE CENTER OF THE
MODEL

Figure 2.4 Bronfenbrenner’s Contexts of Development

HOW HAS IT HELPED?

An Example
Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory has helped
researchers better understand how families
moderate the effects of potentially damaging
experiences, such as living in a refugee camp (like
the Mayukwayukwa Camp feeding center for
malnourished children in Zambia), on children’s
development.
COMPARING THEORIES
Assumptions about Development

Questions
• Active or passive?
• Nature or nurture?
• Stability or change?
HOW THEORIES ANSWER THREE QUESTIONS
ABOUT DEVELOPMENT
WHY ASKING WHICH THEORY IS RIGHT MAY
BE WRONG!

Instead of right/wrong, try useful/not useful.

• Evaluation of usefulness of each theory
 Generate predictions that can be tested.
 Heuristic value
 Practical value
 Explanation of basic developmental facts
MULTIPLE THEORETICAL APPROACHES

Eclecticism
• Interdisciplinary; builds on ideas from multiple
sources
• Avoids rigid adherence to single theory
• Contributes to development of more
comprehensive theories