Adult Development Theories

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Adult Development Theories

• Lecture1 Adult Development

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Developmental Issues

• Within scope of studying adult development,
  practitioners must decide which factors are
  biological, cognitive or socioemotional,
  consequence of their timely effect
• Maturation Experience - orderly sequence of
  changes dictated by genetic imprint
• Continuity Discontinuity - change which is
  gradual as contrasted by that which is in stages
• Early Late Experience - relative impact of
  early or late maturation
• Evaluating Development - relationship of all
  factors impacting Adults development

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Continuity vs. Discontinuity View of Human
Development

• Continuity of development view involves gradual,
  cumulative change from conception to death
• Discontinuity of development view involves
  distinct stages in life span
• Early-Later experience issue degree to which
  early experiences or later experiences are key
  determinants of a persons development

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Theories of Adult Development

• Psychodynamic Freud, Erikson, Loevinger
• Cognitive Piaget, Vygotsky,
• Learning-Behaviorism Watson, Skinner,
• Social Learning Bandura, Mischel
• Ethological Lorenz
• Humanistic Maslow
• Ecological Bronfenbrenner
• Moral Religious Fowler Kohlberg
• Career Ginzberg, Super, Holland
• Eclectic no one specific model - little of each

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Psychoanalytic Theories

• Believe that behavior is a surface characteristic
  and therefore we need to analyze the symbolic
  meanings of behavior and the deep inner workings
  of the mind
• Freud - believed that personality has three
  structures the id, the ego and the superego
• Individuals use defense mechanisms to distort
  reality in order to protect itself from anxiety,
  and repression to push unacceptable id impulses
  out of awareness and back into the unconscious
  mind

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Sigmund Freud

• Believed that people move through psychosexual
  stages where the adult personality is finally
  formed
• oral stage (18 months of age)
• anal stage (1-1/2 to 3 years)
• phallic stage (3 to 6 years)
• latency stage (6 years to puberty)
• genital stage (from puberty on)

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Erik Erikson

• Felt that Freud misjudged some important
  dimensions of human development believed people
  develop in psychosocial stages how they resolve
  conflicts of each stage will determine balance of
  personalities
• trust vs. mistrust (infancy)
• autonomy vs. shame and doubt (2nd year)
• initiative vs. guilt (ages 3-5)
• industry vs. inferiority (6 to puberty)
• identity vs. identity confusion (adolescence)
• intimacy vs. isolation (early adulthood)
• generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood)
• integrity vs. despair (late adulthood)

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Jane Loevinger 7 Stages of Ego Development

• Presocial infancy-self-absorbed
• Impulsive early childhood-self-interested
• Self-Protective early school-seek control
  dominance over others
• Conformist late childhood early
  adolescent-judge self by externals
• Conscientious late adolescent-personal relevancy
  societal standard
• Autonomy adulthood-respect differing convictions
  principles
• Integration adulthood-full self-acceptance

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Cognitive Theories

• Stress conscious thoughts and how the brain
  processes information
• Piaget - stressed that children actively
  construct their own cognitive worlds
• Through assimilation individuals incorporate new
  information into their existing knowledge
• Accommodation occurs when they adjust to this new
  information
• Piagets cognitive stages represent the process
  he believed all individuals undergo as they
  develop cognitively

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Stages of Cognitive Development - Jean Piaget

• 1. Sensorimotor Stage Birth to 2 years old - no
  thinking structures
• 2. Preoperational Stage 2-7 years old - develop
  language skills cognitive structures prelogical
• 3. Concrete Operational Stage 7 years to
  Adolescence - Begins to question life. Solves
  problems but haphazardly
• 4. Formal Operations Stage  Adolescence and
  onward - capable of sophisticated logical
  thought. Can think both abstract hypothetically
  and solve problems using the logic of combinations

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Lev Vygotsky

• Claimed that persons cognitive skills can be
  understood only when they are
• Developmentally analyzed interpreted
• Are mediated by words, language forms of
  discourse
• Have their origins in social relations

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Elements of Vygotskys Theory

• Zone of Proximal Development range of tasks too
  difficult to master alone-but can be learned with
  guidance
• Scaffolding changing level of support by
  adjusting amount of guidance given
• Language Thought use of language to plan,
  guide monitor behavior in self-regulatory
  fashion

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Information Processing Theory

• involves the ways in which individuals process
  information about their world
• how information enters the mind
• how it is stored and transformed
• how it is retrieved to perform such complex
  activities as problem solving and reasoning

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Behavioral and Social Learning Theories

• Behaviorists believe that we should only examine
  what can be directly observed and measured.
  Pavlovs dog and Skinners box exemplify the
  concepts of this field. Central to this theory is
  the Skinnerian process of classical and operant
  conditioning

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Social Learning Theory Albert Bandura Walter
Mischel

• Allows for the cognitive process to mediate
  between environment and behavior
• Bandura believed that people cognitively
  represent the behavior of others and then
  sometimes adopt this behavior themselves
• His model shows a reciprocal influence of
  behavior, personal and cognitive factors, and
  environment

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Banduras Model of Reciprocal Influence

• B Behavior
• P(C) Personal Cognitive Factors (such as
  intelligence, skills self-contro)
• E Environment
• The arrows reflect how relations between these
  factors are reciprocal rather than
  unidirectional.

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Ethological Theories Conrad Lorenz

• Believe that experiences at specific times in
  ones life has great influence on an individuals
  development
• Ethology stresses behavior strongly influenced by
  biology, is tied to evolution, is characterized
  by critical or sensitive periods
• Lorenz developed ethological concept of
  imprinting, rapid, innate learning within a
  limited critical period of time that involves
  attachment to the first moving object seen

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Urie Bronfenbrenner Ecological Model

• Stress strong environmental view of persons
  development
• Bronfenbrenners model depicts interaction of
  environmental factors which influence development
• His model includes 5 environmental systems
• microsystem (family, school, peers etc),
• mesosystem (connections between microsystems)
• exosystem (social systems person not directly
  involved with)
• macrosystem (culture lived in)
• chronosystem (sociohistorical circumstances
  life course)

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Abraham Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
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Self-actualized People

• Spiritually fulfilled
• Comfortable with themselves others
• Loving creative
• Realistic productive
• People with ideal healthy lives
• Realistic knowledge of self accept self
• Independent, spontaneous playful
• Establish deep intimate relationships
• Have a love for human race
• Non-conformists but highly ethical

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Lawrence Kohlbergs Theory of Moral Development 3
Stages

• Level 1 Preconventional Reasoning child shows no
  internalization of moral values is controlled
  by external rewards punishments.
• Level 2 Conventional Reasoning individual abides
  by certain standards (internal), but they are the
  standards of others (external), such as parents
  or laws of society
• Level 3 Postconventional Reasoning morality is
  completely internalized not based on others
  standards-person recognizes alternative moral
  courses, explores options, then decides on a
  moral code

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James Fowlers Religious Development

• Stage 1. Intuitive-projective faith (early
  childhood) invent images of good evil
• Stage 2. Mythical-literal faith (middle and late
  childhood) reason in more
• Stage 3. Synthetic-conventional faith (between
  childhood adolescence) coherent belief system
• Stage 4. Individuating-reflexive faith (between
  adolescence adulthood) responsibility for
  their religious beliefs
• Stage 5. Conjunctive faith (middle adulthood).
  few to this stage being more open to paradox
  opposing viewpoints
• Stage 6. Universalizing faith (middle or late
  adulthood) transcending specific belief systems
  to achieve sense of oneness with all being

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Theories of Career Development

• Three main theories describe manner in which
  people make choices about career development
• Eli Ginzbergs Developmental Theory
• Children and adolescents go through three
  career-choice stages fantasy, tentative, and
  realistic
• Until about age 11, children are in fantasy stage
  with unrealistic visions of their career
• Tentative stage is a transitional and occurs in
  the early to mid-adolescent years
• Realistic stage explores, focuses then selects
  a career

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Theories of Career Development

• Donald Supers Self-Concept Theory
• Individuals self-concepts play central roles in
  their career choices
• During adolescence individuals first construct a
  career self-concept
• Develop ideas about work
• Crystallize or narrow their choices
• Begin to initiate behavior for some type of
  career
• Begin specific training for a career
• In later life - after 35 years of age - begin to
  consolidate engage in career enhancement

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Theories of Career Development

• John Hollands Personality-Type Theory
• An effort should be made to match an individuals
  career choice with his or her personality
• Theory built upon assumption that everyone is a
  specific type will not change nor develop into
  other types
• Hollands six personality types
• Realistic conventional
• enterprising intellectual
• artistic social

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Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

• Follows no single approach, but takes factors
  from all theories
• No single theory can apply to human development