Chapter 2 THEORIES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

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Chapter 2THEORIES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
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THE NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC THEORIES

• Theory set of concepts and propositions that
  describe and explain observations
• Parsimonious concise
• Falsifiable capable of making specific
  predictions which can be disconfirmed
• Heuristic build on existing knowledge by
  generating testable hypotheses

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• Figure 2.1 The role of theory in scientific
  investigation.

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THEMES IN THE STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

• The Nature/Nurture Theme
• Genetics versus environment
• Both interact to produce change
• The Active/Passive Theme
• Children are active, determining how society
  treats them
• Children are passive, being molded by society

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THEMES IN THE STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

• The Continuity/Discontinuity Theme
• Change occurs gradually and continuously
• Quantitative changes change in degree or amount
• Change occurs with abrupt changes or stages
  (discontinuous)
• Qualitative changes changes in form or kind

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• Figure 2.2 The course of development as described
  by continuity and discontinuity (stage) theorists.

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THEMES IN THE STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

• The Holistic Nature of Development Issue
• Are the different aspects of development
  separate, or are they interrelated and influence
  each other?

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• Figure 2.3 Psychologists attempt to tease apart
  the biological (red), cognitive (yellow), social
  (blue), and contextual (white) factors that
  influence human development. However, development
  is holistic and at a very early age the variables
  that we choose to study have already begun to
  interact. A single domain or variable never
  influences development independently of other
  factors. The chosen variables effect is modified
  and modulated by the influences of other domains
  and their variables, just as they are modified
  and modulated by it. Like the colors in this
  illustration, influences from the four domains
  interact to produce confluent effects that are
  not easily traced to a single, or even a handful,
  of variables.

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THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWPOINT

• Freuds Psychosexual Theory
• Unconscious motives are repressed
• Development is a conflictual process
• Sexual and aggressive instincts that must be
  served, yet society dictates restraint

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THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWPOINT

• Freuds Psychosexual Theory
• Three Components of Personality
• Id satisfy inborn biological instincts, now
• Ego conscious, rational, finds a realistic means
  of satisfying instincts
• Superego seat of the conscience, develops
  between ages 3-6 as morals of parents are
  internalized

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THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWPOINT

• Freuds Psychosexual Theory
• Stages of Psychosexual Development
• Sex instinct, broadly defined, was most important
• Focus of sex instinct shifts during development
  shifts stages
• Fixation arrested development due to excess or
  a lack of gratification of needs

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• Table 2.1 Freuds Stages of Psychosexual
  Development

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THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWPOINT

• Freuds Psychosexual Theory
• Contributions and Criticisms
• Little evidence that oral, anal and genital
  conflicts predict adult personality
• Contributions
• Unconscious motivation
• Impact of early experiences
• Emotional side of development

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THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWPOINT

• Ericksons Theory of Psychosocial Development
• Comparing Erickson with Freud
• Children are active explorers, not passive slaves
  to biological urges
• Emphasis on cultural influences, less on sexual
  urges

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THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWPOINT

• Ericksons Psychosocial Theory
• Eight Life Crises (Psychosocial Stages)
• Emerge at a time dictated by biological
  maturation and social demands
• Must be resolved successfully for satisfactory
  resolution at next stage
• Extend throughout life

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• Table 2.2 Ericksons and Freuds Stages of
  Development

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• Table 2.2 Ericksons and Freuds Stages of
  Development (continued)

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THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWPOINT

• Ericksons Psychosocial Theory
• Contributions and Criticisms
• Stresses rational, adaptive nature
• Emphasizes social conflicts that we can
  anticipate and observe in others
• Vague about causes of development
• Descriptive, not explanatory

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THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWPOINT

• Psychoanalytic Theory Today
• Largely rejected because propositions are
  difficult to falsify or confirm
• Most hypotheses can only be tested through
  interviews or the clinical method
• Time consuming
• Expensive
• Least objective

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THE LEARNING VIEWPOINT

• Watsons Behaviorism
• Conclusions based on observations of overt
  behavior
• Development is continuous
• Habits develop from learning experiences
• Development depends on environment

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THE LEARNING VIEWPOINT

• Skinners Operant Learning Theory
• Repeat acts if outcomes are favorable, suppress
  acts if outcomes are unfavorable
• Operant initial voluntary act
• Reinforcer increases probability of act
• Punisher decreases probability of act
• Development is passive
• Development depends on external stimuli

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THE LEARNING VIEWPOINT

• Banduras Cognitive Social Learning Theory
• People are active information processors
• Observational learning observing models
• Rejects Watsons environmental determinism
  passive recipients
• Proposed reciprocal determinism interaction
  between person, behavior, and the environment
  (bidirectional links)

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BOX 2.1 FOCUS ON RESEARCH AN EXAMPLE OF
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

• Banduras classic Bobo Doll Study
• Demonstrated importance of observational learning
• Demonstrated no-trial learning
• Distinguished learning from performance

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• Box 2.1 Average number of aggressive responses
  imitated during the performance test and the
  learning test for children who had seen a model
  rewarded, punished, or receive no consequences
  for his actions. ADAPTED FROM BANDURA, 1965.

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• Figure 2.4. Banduras model of reciprocal
  determinism. ADAPTED FROM BANDURA, 1978.

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THE LEARNING VIEWPOINT

• Contributions of Learning Theories
• Wealth of information
• Very precise and testable
• Clinical insights and practical applications
  including behavior modification

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THE LEARNING VIEWPOINT

• Criticisms of Learning Theories
• Oversimplified, ignores contribution of
  biological influences
• Children must be studied in their natural
  settings to understand how environments influence
  development
• Too little attention on cognitive influences on
  development

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COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL VIEWPOINT

• Piagets View of Intelligence
• Intelligence a process that helps an organism
  adapt to its environment
• Scheme organized pattern of thought or action
  used to cope with or explain experience
• Children actively construct understandings of the
  world through experience

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COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL VIEWPOINT

• Piagets View of Intelligence
• Disequilibrium contradictions between
  understanding and facts
• Assimilation interpretation of new experiences
  in terms of existing schemes
• Accommodation alter existing schemes to account
  for new experiences

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COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL VIEWPOINT

• Piagets View of Intelligence
• Four Stages of Cognitive Development
• Sensorimotor (0-2)
• Preoperational (2-7)
• Concrete-operational (7-11/12)
• Formal operational (11/12 beyond)
• Invariant developmental sequence

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• Table 2.3 Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development

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COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL VIEWPOINT

• Piagets Viewpoint
• Contributions
• Legitimized study of childrens thinking
• Contributed to new area of social cognition
• Strong impact on education

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COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL VIEWPOINT

• Piagets Viewpoint
• Criticisms
• Underestimated young childrens intellectual
  capacities
• Training can improve performance on tasks,
  challenging assumption that individualized
  discovery learning is best

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COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL VIEWPOINT

• Sociocultural Influences Vygotskys viewpoint
• How is culture transmitted from generation to
  generation?
• Cognitive growth is a socially mediated activity
• Not all children progress through same stages of
  cognitive growth, some are culturally specific

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COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL VIEWPOINT

• The Information-Processing Viewpoint
• The mind is like a computer, information flows
  in, is operated on, and is converted to output
  (answers etc.)
• Cognitive development
• Changes in brain and mental processes
• Due to both maturation and experience
• Is continuous, NOT stagelike

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COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL VIEWPOINT

• Information-Processing Viewpoint
• Contributions
• Insights on growth of cognitive abilities
• Filled gaps in Piagets theory
• Know how children approach problems
• Know why they make errors
• Can suggest strategies to improve performance

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COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL VIEWPOINT

• Information-Processing Perspective
• Criticisms
• May not reflect thinking in everyday life
• Computer model may underestimate the
  richness/diversity of cognition
• Both are being addressed by researchers

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THE ETHOLOGICAL (OR EVOLUTIONARY) VIEWPOINT

• Ethology scientific study of evolutionary basis
  of behavior and the contributions of evolved
  responses to survival and development
• Assumptions of Classical Ethology
• Born with biologically programmed behaviors
  (through natural selection)
• Products of evolution
• Adaptive to survival

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THE ETHOLOGICAL (OR EVOLUTIONARY) VIEWPOINT

• Assumptions of Ethology
• Focus on instinctual responses that
• All members of species share
• May steer individuals along similar developmental
  paths
• Study subjects in natural environment

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THE ETHOLOGICAL (OR EVOLUTIONARY) VIEWPOINT

• Ethology and Human Development
• Crying (for example)
• Ensures infants basic needs are met
• Ensures sufficient contact to form primary
  emotional attachments
• Critical periods limited time span when
  biologically prepared to display adaptive
  patterns of development, given right input

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THE ETHOLOGICAL (OR EVOLUTIONARY) VIEWPOINT

• Ethology and Human Development
• Sensitive periods
• Optimal time for emergence of behaviors
• Particularly sensitive to environmental
  influences
• Development can occur outside a sensitive period,
  but is more difficult

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THE ETHOLOGICAL (OR EVOLUTIONARY) VIEWPOINT

• Contributions
• Children have adaptive, genetically preprogrammed
  characteristics that influence development
• Value of studying human development in normal,
  everyday settings
• Value of comparing human development with that of
  other species

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THE ETHOLOGICAL (OR EVOLUTIONARY) VIEWPOINT

• Criticisms
• Difficult to test
• Is a retrospective explanation of development,
  little ability to predict
• Learning tends to modify most biological
  predispositions

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THE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS VIEWPOINT

• Bronfenbrenner ecological systems theory a
  detailed analysis of environmental influences
• Contexts for Development
• Natural environments are the major source of
  influence for development
• Environment is a set of nested structures

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• Figure 2.5. Bronfenbrenners ecological model of
  the environment as a series of nested structures.
  The microsystem refers to relations between the
  child and the immediate environment, the
  mesosystem to connections among the childs
  immediate settings, the exosystem to social
  settings that affect but do not contain the
  child, and the macrosystem to the overarching
  ideology of the culture. BASED ON BRONFENBRENNER,
  1979.

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THE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS VIEWPOINT

• Bronfenbrenners Contexts for Development
• Microsystem activities/interactions in the
  immediate surroundings
• Mesosystem connections between microsystems
• Exosystem contexts children are not a part of
  but which may influence development

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THE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS VIEWPOINT

• Bronfenbrenners Contexts for Development
• Macrosystem context in which other systems are
  imbedded
• Chronosystem changes in the child or any of the
  other systems can affect the direction of
  development

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THE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS VIEWPOINT

• Contributions
• Rich description of environment
• Need to study development in natural settings
• Suggests ways to optimize development
• Criticisms
• Little on specific biological contributors
• Lack of focus on normative development

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THEORIES AND WORLD VIEWS

• World View broader philosophical assumptions
• Mechanistic model people are machines
• Collections of behaviors that can be decomposed
• Passive change due to outside influences
• Change is gradual or continuous

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THEORIES AND WORLD VIEWS

• Organismic Model
• People are like other living organisms
• Whole beings who are more than a collection of
  parts
• Active in development
• Developing through discontinuous stages

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THEORIES AND WORLD VIEWS

• Contextual Model
• Development is a result of the interplay between
  person and environment
• People and the environment are active
• There are universal and unique aspects
• Change is qualitative AND quantitative
• Development can take different paths
• Today eclectic use many theories

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• Table 2.4 A summary of the Philosophies
  Underlying Seven Major Developmental Perspectives