Psychology 3260: Personality

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Psychology 3260 Personality Social Development

• Don Hartmann
• Spring 2006
• Suppl. Lecture 5 Introduction to Theory

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Supplemental References Theory

• Miller, P. H. (1993). Theories of developmental
  psychology (3rd ed.). New York W. H. Freeman.
• Vasta, R. (1992). Six theories of child
  development Revised formulations and current
  issues. Philadelphia, Jessica Kingsley Publisher.

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Overview of Theory Lecture

• What are theories?
• What functions do they serve?
• Examples involving Dickie loves
  Johnnie
• Standards for evaluating theories

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What are Theories?

• Stories (explanations) of how the facts fit
  together
• Indicate which facts are important
• Which sorts of relationships among the facts are
  most important for producing understanding
• Theories give facts meaning
• Without theory, facts remain a clutter of
  disorganized specks on the canvas, unconnected
  spots that form no picture of how and why
  children grow up as they do

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Life Without Theories
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Life With Theories
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A Vignette Illustrating the Value of Theory
Little Johnnie

• Little Johnnie takes his fluffy, stuffed doll to
  bed with him, hugs and kisses it, and says
  "Dickie loves Johnnie" (the stuffed doll loves
  him).

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Piaget Dickie loves Johnnie

• Important facts? Piaget has not much to say
  about sexual behavior or affection. Would focus
  on
• the child has language
• child confuses self with object
• How do the facts inter-relate? Piaget would
  state that actions (verbal behavior) reflects
  stage of thinking -- in this case, egocentric
  thought

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Freud Dickie
loves Johnnie

• Facts of interest?
• Eros affect ional and/or sexual behaviors
• Same sex of agent and recipient
• Interrelation?
• Child distinguishes between self and others, but
  only incompletely (ego is not completely formed)
• Evidence of projection (I don't love you you
  love me), one of classic defense mechanisms
• Child has not had libido suppressed by punishment
  for affection

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Bandura Dickie Loves
Johnnie

• Facts?
• Object taken to bed
• Affectional responses
• Language use
• Agent-recipient relationship
• Inter-relate?
• What has Johnnie been observing in his home --
  affection (imitation)
• What has Johnnie been reinforced for? Acting
  affectionately.
• Johnnie perhaps thinks of himself as an
  affectionate person (self-concept)

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Evaluation of Theories Introduction

• Accurately Reflect The Facts Of The Real World Of
  Children
• Clarity
• Explain Predict
• Offer Practical Guidance
• Internal Consistency
• Economical
• Falsifiability
• Promote the Discovery of New Knowledge
• Satisfying Does it Ring True?

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Accurately Reflect The Facts Of The Real World Of
Children

• Some problems that may trip up the accuracy of
  theories
• Unrepresentative sample
• Over-generalized from one content area to another
• Inaccurate observations

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Internally Consistent

• Different parts of the theory should not be able
  to produce inconsistent predictions.

-A-B
AB
A-B
-AB
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Economical Law of Parsimony

• All other things being equal, simpler theories
  are to be preferred over more complicated
  theories. Sometimes referred to as the Law of
  Parsimony, Occams razor, or Morgans Cannon

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Falsifiability A Falsifiable Theory

• The theory can be tested, and if wrong, can be
  shown to be wrong. Example of a falsifiable
  theory. The theory states that
• The presence of Vitamin B produces constructive
  child behavior VB?CBeh.
• Corollary The absence of Vitamin B produces
  negative child behavior -VB?-CBeh.
• Furthermore, we can determine whether Vitamin B
  is present or not, and we can measure the
  positiveness of child behavior

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Falsifiability An unfalsifiable theory (a)

• Example of an untestable and hence unfalsifiable
  theory. The theory states the following
• The presence of Vitamin B produces positive child
  behavior under circumstance A and negative child
  behavior under circumstance B
• If A then VB?CBeh
• If B then VB?-CBeh

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Falsifiability Unfalsifiable (b)

• The absence of Vitamin B produces the opposite
  effect Negative children behavior under
  circumstance A and positive child behavior under
  circumstance B
• If A then -VB?-CBeh
• If B then -VB?CBeh
• Note that circumstance A is the same as in our
  earlier, testable theory.

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Falsifiability Unfalsifiable (c)

• While we
• can determine whether Vitamin B is present or
  not, and
• we can measure the positiveness of behavior, but
• we cannot determine when circumstance A or
  circumstance B is present.

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Summary

• The value of theory
• Dickie Johnnie
• The characteristics of a good theory

• Go in Peace!