Theories of Development: Interpreting the Lifespan

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Theories of DevelopmentInterpreting the Lifespan

• Psychoanalytic Approach - Sigmund Freud
• Psychosocial Crises Approach - Erik Erikson
• Humanities Approach - Abraham Maslow
• Cognitive Development Approach - Jean Piaget
• Cultural Framework Approach - Lev Vygotsky
• Behavioral Approach - B. F. Skinner
• Social Cognitive Learning - Albert Bandura

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Psychoanalytic ApproachSigmund Freud

• Structure of the Mind
• Id - only one present at birth
• All of our basic instincts
• Operates only in pursuit of bodily pleasures
• Ego - central part of personality
• Rational part that does all the planning
• Keeps us in touch with reality
• Freud believes stronger the ego becomes, the more
  realistic and usually more successful a person is
  likely to become
• Superego
• parents begin to teach us what they believe is
  right and wrong

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Development means movingthrough 5 stages

• Oral Stage - birth - 1 1/2 years
• Oral cavity is the pleasure center
• Anal Stage - 1 1/2 - 3 years
• Function here is toilet training
• Phallic Stage - 3 - 5 years
• Glans of penis and clitoris are pleasure centers
• Major function of this stage is healthy
  development of sexual interest
• Oedipal conflict - males desire for mother
• Electra conflict - females desire for father
• goal of this stage is to resolve the conflict

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5 stages continued

• Latency stage - 5 - 12 years
• Sexual desire becomes dormant
• Boys refuse to kiss/hug mothers
• Genital stage - 12 years
• Surge of sexual hormones
• Set about establishing relationships with members
  of the opposite sex

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• Freud also believes people use defense mechanisms
  to resolve issues between id, ego and superego

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Psychosocial Crises ApproachErik Erikson
Series of 8 stages

• Basic trust vs. mistrust - birth - 1 1/2 years
• To the infant the world is an orderly,
  predictable place
• Infants learn about cause effect
• Trust flourishes with warmth, care and discipline
• Autonomy vs. shame doubt - 1 1/2 - 3 years
• Gain control over bodies
• Toilet training begins

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• Initiative vs. guilt - 3 - 5 years
• Learn to have influence over others in the
  family successfully manipulate surroundings
• Dont just react - initiate actions
• If parents others make them feel incompetent,
  they develop a generalized feeling of guilt
• Industry vs. inferiority - 5 - 12 years
• Elementary years
• Expand beyond family explore neighborhood
• Play becomes purposeful
• See knowledge to complete tasks
• A sense of accomplishment should prevail or they
  may develop a lasting sense of inferiority

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• Identity repudiation vs. identity confusion -
  12 - 18 years
• main task is to achieve state of identity
• Erikson originated the term - identity crisis
• If you are in a state of identity, the various
  aspects of your self- image would be in agreement
  with each other they would be identical
• Intimacy solidarity vs. isolation - 18 - 25
  years
• Intimacy with others should develop
• Essential ability to relate ones deepest hopes
  fears to another person to accept in turn their
  need for intimacy

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• Generativity vs. stagnation - 25 - 65 years
• Ability to be useful to society
• Be productive and creative
• Trying to make world better place for young
• Become mentors to younger individuals
• If fail at this, become stagnate
• Bored and self-indulged
• Unable to contribute to society
• Act as if they are their own children
• Integrity vs. despair - 65 years
• If look back at life feel made wrong decisions
  or no decision at all, they see life as lacking
  integration
• Feel despair at impossibility of having 1 more
  chance to make things right

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Humanistic ApproachAbraham Maslow

• Self-actualization - we use our abilities to the
  limit of our potential
• If people are convinced that they should and can
  fulfill their promise, they are on a path to
  self-actualization

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Hierarchy of Needs

• Physiological needs
• Hunger, sleep
• Basis of motivation
• Safety needs
• Importance of security
• Protection, stability, freedom from fear
  anxiety and need for structure and limits
• Love and belongingness needs
• Need for family and friends
• Healthy motivated people wish to avoid feelings
  of lonliness and isolation

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• Esteem needs
• Reactions of others to us as individuals and to
  our opinion of ourselves
• Self-actualization needs
• Tendency, in spite of lower needs being
  satisfied,to feel unfulfilled unless we are doing
  what we think we are capable of doing

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Cognitive Development ApproachJean Piaget

• Sensorimotor stage - birth - 2 years
• Use body to form cognitive structures
• Preoperational stage - 2 - 7 years
• Use of symbols
• Rapid language growth
• Concrete operational stage - 7 - 11 years
• Can reason about physical objects
• Formal operational - 11 years
• Abstract thnking leads to reasoning with symbols

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Functional Invariants

• Adaptation
• Assimilation - incorporate or take in
• Accomodation - we change what we take in we are
  also changed by it
• Try to strike a balance between assimilation and
  accomodation - equilibrium
• Organization
• Mental life does not occur randomly
• It is organized
• Schemes
• Organized patterns of thought and action
• Help us adapt to our environment

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• Piaget also believes
• Babies know only what they can touch, taste or
  see
• Our ability to use symbols and think abstractly
  increase with each stage

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Piaget summarized

• Environment
• (filtered through)
• The Functional Variants
• (produce)
• Cognitive Structures
• (which combine with behavior to form)
• Schemes

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Cultural Framework ApproachLev Vygotsky

• Concept of Development
• Elementary biological processes are transformed
  into higher psychological functioning by
  developmental processes
• We need to concentrate not on the product of
  development, but on the very processes by which
  higher forms are established
• Social cultural process
• Childs cultural development appears in 2 phases
• Interpsychological - social exchanges with others
• Intrapsychological - use inner speech to guide
  behavior
• Speech is the most powerful tool used to progress
  developmentally

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Zone of Proximal Development

• Vygotskys most famous idea
• The distance between a childs actual
  developmental level, as determined by independent
  problem solving, and the higher level of
  potential development as determined by problem
  solving under adult guidance or in collaboration
  with more capable peers.
• Difference between what children can do
  independently and what they can do with help

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• Another of Vygotskys ideas
• Scaffolding
• way of helping children move from initial
  difficulties with a topic to a point where, with
  help, they perform the task independently
• Provide support (scaffold) that will eventually
  be withdrawn

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Behavioral Approach

• Operant Conditioning
• B. F. Skinner
• Social Cognitive Learning
• Albert Bandura

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Operant ConditioningB. F. Skinner

• Environment has much greater influence on
  learning behavior than previously realized
• Positive reinforcement
• Any event that, when it occurs after a response,
  makes the response more likely to happen
• Giving candy to someone for doing the right thing
• Negative reinforcement
• Ceasing to twist your brothers arm when he gives
  you back your pen

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B. F. Skinner believes

• Human development is the result of continuous
  flow of learning that comes from the operant
  conditioning we receive from the environment
  every day
• Development is a continuous, incremental sequence
  of conditioned acts that fulfill childrens needs
  quickly and completely as possible

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Social Cognitive LearningAlbert Bandura

• Learning occurs through observing others even
  when the observers do not imitate the models
  responses at that time and get no reinforcement
• Modeling
• Observational learning

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The importance of models is seen in what happens
as a result of observing others

• Children may acquire new responses, including
  socially appropriate behaviors
• May strengthen or weaken existing responses
• May cause the reappearance of responses that were
  apparently forgotten
• If children witness undesirable behavior that is
  either rewarded or goes unpunished, undesirable
  behavior may result. The reverse is also true.