Theories for Exam 1

• Psychodynamic
• Behavioral
• Cognitive
• Humanistic
• Contextual
• Evolutionary

• Psychosocial Theory
• Psychoanalytic Theory 

Erikson

Focus on social interaction with others

Development occurs through changes in interactions with and understanding of others and in self knowledge and understanding of members of society

• Psychosocial development involves eight distinct, fixed, universal stages. 
• Each stage presents crisis/conflict to be resolved; growth and change are lifelong

Freud

Focus on inner person, unconscious forces acts to determine personality and behavior

Behavior motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts

Personality as 3 aspects- id, ego, and superego

Psychosexual development involves series of stages- oral, anal, phallic, genital

• Freud: Notion of unconscious influences accepted by many
• Erikson: Notion of development throughout lifespan receives considerable support

• Freud: 
• Effects of childhood stages on later development not validated
• Generalizability to broader, multicultural populations not supported
• Primary focus on male development criticized
• Erikson:
• More focus on men than women
• Vague and difficult to test rigorously in some parts

• John B. Watson
• B. F. Skinner
• Albert Bandura 

focus on observable behavior and outside environmental stimuli

behavior is result of continuing exposure to specific environmental factors; developmental change is quantitive

classical conditioning

focus on observable behavior and outside environmental stimuli

Voluntary response is strengthened or weakened by association with negative or positive consequences

Operant conditioning

Focus on learning through imitation

Behavior is learned through observation

Social-cognitive learning occurs through four steps: attend/perceive, recall, accurately reproduce, motivated to carry out behavior 

• Based on observable behaviors that are easier to quantify in research
• Contributions to educational techniques for children with severe mental retardation

• Social learning theorists suggest oversimplification
• Behaviorism does not account for free will, internal influences (moods, thoughts, feelings), or other types of learning

• Jean Piaget
• Information-processing approach
• Cognitive Neuroscience Approach 

focus on processes that allow people to know, understand, and think about the world

human thinking is arranged in organized mental patterns that represent behaviors and actions; understanding of world improves through assimilation and accommodation

Classical conditioning

• Theory profoundly influenced understanding of cognition?
• Broad view of sequence of cognitive development is accurate

• Some specifics questions about changes in cognitive capabilities over time (timing of emerging skills)
• Universality of stages has been disputed
• Cultural differences in emergence of particular cognitive skills suggested
• Growth is more continuous than proposed 

Focus is primarily on memory

information is thought to be processed in serial, discontinuous manner as it moves from stage to stage (stage theory model); information is stored in multiple locations throughout brain by means of networks of connections 

Cognitive development proceeds quickly in certain areas and more slowly in others; experience plays greater role in cognition

Theory may currently be central part of understanding of development

Theory does not offer complete explanation for behavior or address social context in which development takes place

focus on cognitive development through lens of brain

Approach considers internal, mental processes, but focuses specifically on the neurological activity that underlies thinking, problem solving, and other cognitive behavior

Associations between specific genes and wide range of disorders are identified

• Carl Rogers
• Abraham Maslow

focus on each individual's ability and motivation to reach more advanced levels of maturity; people naturally seek to reach full potential 

free of supernaturalism, approach recognizes human beings as a part of nature and holds that values (religious, ethical, social, political) have their source in human experience and culture

All people have need for positive regard resulting from underlying wish to be loved and respected; positive regard comes from others

• Some concepts help describe important aspects of human behavior
• Humanistic influences seen in wide range of areas from health care to business

No clear, major impact on field of lifespan development due to lack of identification of broad developmental change that is the result of increasing age or experience

Urie Bronfenbrenner

focus relationship between individuals and their physical, cognitive, personality, and social worlds

Development is unique and intimately tied to person's social and cultural context; four levels of environment simultaneously influence individuals

Each system contains roles, norms, and rules that can powerfully shape development

perspective helped generate much research

suggestion of mutual accommodation between the developing individual and the environment affects children's develop is of considerable importance to child development

• Some argue that perspective pays insufficient attention to biological factors
• Difficult to text for "neighborhood" effects

Lev Vygotsky

As children play and cooperate with others, they learn what is important in their society and advanced cognitively in their understanding of world

approach emphasizes how cognitive development proceeds as a result of social interactions between members

Development is a reciprocal transaction between people in the child's environment and the child

One of the first developmentalists to recognized importance of culture

Perspective becoming increasingly influential with growing acknowledgement of central importance of cultural factors in development 

Some argue that emphasis on role of culture and social experience presented at expense of focus on effects of biological factors on development

Approach minimizes role individuals play in shaping own environment

Charles Darwin/Konrad Lorenz

through a process of natural selection traits in a species that are adaptive to its environment are creative

Behavior is result of genetic inheritance from ancestors

Ethological influence (examines ways in which biological makeup affects behavior)

Evolutionary approach is increasingly visible in field of lifespan development 

Some argue that perspective pays insufficient attention to environmental ad social factors involved in producing children's and adults behavior

Experimental testing of theory is difficult