Transcript SR6e Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2
THEORIES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Learning Objectives
• What are the main issues addressed by
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developmental theories?
Where does each major theorist – Freud,
Erikson, Skinner, Bandura, Piaget, and
Gottlieb – stand on each of these issues?
Theories of Human Development
• Developmental theory
– Ideas proposed to describe/explain
phenomena
– Provides means to organize, interpret,
explain facts or observations
– Guides collection of new data
Five Key Developmental Issues
• Goodness-badness of human nature
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– Evidence of biologically-based tendencies
for good and bad
Nature-nurture issue
– Biological forces or environmental forces
Activity-passivity issue
– Are humans active agents in their own
development or passively shaped by forces
beyond their control?
Five Key Developmental Issues, continued
• Continuity-discontinuity issue
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– Are changes over the lifespan gradual or
abrupt (like stair steps)?
– Are changes quantitative (a matter of
degree) or qualitative (changes in kind)?
Universality-context-specificity issue
– Are developmental changes common to all
humans or different across cultures,
subcultures, contexts, and individuals?
Learning Objectives
• What are the features of Freud’s
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psychoanalytic theory of personality?
What are the features of Freud’s
psychoanalytic theory of psychosexual
development?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of
psychoanalytic theory?
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of
Personality
• Central notion: humans have instincts that
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motivate behavior
– Unconscious motivation
Humans possess psychic energy that is
divided among three components of the
personality
– Id – impulsive, selfish part of personality
– Ego – rational aspect that seeks to gratify
instincts
– Superego – internalized moral standards
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Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual
Development
As a child biologically matures, libido seeks to
gratify different biological needs
– Libido – psychic energy of the sex instinct
• Child moves through five stages
– Oral – infancy
– Anal – toddlerhood
– Phallic –3 to 6 years of age
– Latent – 6 to 12 years of age
– Genital - adolescence
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Concepts in Freud’s Theory of
Psychosexual Development
Fixation – arrested development; the libido is tied to
an earlier stage of development
Oedipus complex – a young boy loves his mother and
fears his father will retaliate by castrating him
– Resolves this conflict by identification – taking on
or internalizing the attitudes and behaviors of the
other person
Electra complex – a young girl desires her father,
views her mother as a rival
– Resolves the conflict by identifying with her mother
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Concepts in Freud’s Theory – Defense
Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms – unconscious coping
devices that the ego adopts to defend itself
against anxiety
– Repression
– Regression
– Projection
– Reaction formation
Strengths and Weaknesses of Freud’s Theory
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Weaknesses
– Theory said to be ambiguous, internally
inconsistent, not testable, and therefore not
falsifiable
Strengths
– Many insights have held up and been influential
• Called attention to unconscious processes
• Emphasized importance of early experience
• Emphasized importance of emotions and
emotional conflicts
Learning Objectives
• How does Erikson’s psychoanalytic theory
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compare to Freud’s theory?
What crisis characterizes each of Erikson’s
psychosocial stages?
Erik Erikson
• Most influential neo-Freudian
• Some differences with Freud
– Less emphasis on sexual urges
– More emphasis on rational ego
– More positive, adaptive view of human
nature
– Development continues through adulthood
Erikson’s Stages: Approximate Ages
• Trust vs. mistrust: infancy
• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt: toddlerhood
• Initiative vs. guilt: preschool
• Industry vs. inferiority: school-age childhood
• Identity vs. role confusion: adolescence
• Intimacy vs. isolation: young adulthood
• Generativity vs. stagnation: middle age
• Integrity vs. despair: Late life
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Strengths and Weaknesses of Erikson’s
Psychosocial Theory
Strengths
– Emphasis on rational and adaptive nature
– Emphasis on interaction of biological and
social influences
– Influenced research into adolescence and
adulthood
Weaknesses
– Sometimes vague and difficult to test
– Describes human personality development but
does not explain how development occurs
Learning Objectives
• What are the distinct features of the learning
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theories covered in this chapter: Watson’s
classical conditioning, Skinner’s operant
conditioning, and Bandura’s social-cognitive
theory?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of
the learning theories in our understanding of
lifespan development?
Learning Theories: Classical Conditioning
• Behaviorism: conclusions should be based
only upon observable behavior
• Principles of classical conditioning and
learning by association
– UCS: automatic, unlearned stimulus
– UCR: automatic, unlearned response
– CS: learned stimulus
– CR: learned response
• Caption: The three phases of
classical conditioning
Learning Theories: Operant Conditioning
• Learner’s behavior is more/less probable
depending upon the consequences it
produces
– People tend to repeat behaviors that have
desirable consequences and reduce
behaviors that have undesirable
consequences
– We learn new skills and good and bad
habits
Learning Theories: Operant Conditioning
– Reinforcement occurs when a
consequence strengthens a response or
makes it more likely to occur
– Two forms of reinforcement
• Positive – something pleasant or
desirable is added
• Negative – something unpleasant or
undesirable is removed, escaped, or
avoided
Learning Theories: Operant Conditioning
– Punishment decreases the strength of a
behavior or weakens it
– Two forms of punishment
• Positive – occurs when an unpleasant
stimulus is applied or added to the
situation following the behavior
• Negative – occurs when a desirable
stimulus is removed following the
behavior
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Caption: Possible consequences of whining behavior. Moosie comes into the TV room and
sees his father talking and joking with his sister, Lulu, as the two watch a football game.
Soon Moosie begins to whine, louder and louder, that he wants them to turn off the
television so he can play Nintendo games. If you were Moosie’s father, how would you
react? Above are four possible consequences of Moosie’s behavior. Consider both the
type of consequence – whether it is a pleasant or aversive stimulus – and whether it is
administered (“added”) or withdrawn. Notice that reinforcement strengthens whining
behavior, or makes it more likely in the future, whereas punishment weakens it.
Learning Theories: Operant Conditioning
Spanking: A Form of Punishment
– Best to use more positive approaches before
resorting to spanking, but . . .
– Spanking can have short-term effect if it
• Is administered immediately after the act
• Is administered consistently
• Is not overly harsh
• Is accompanied by explanation
• Is administered by an otherwise affectionate
person
• Is used sparingly and combined with efforts
to reinforce desirable behavior
Bandura’s Social-Cognitive Theory
• Formerly called social-learning theory
• Emphasizes the motivating, self-regulating
role of cognition in human behavior
• Includes observational learning – the most
important mechanism through which human
behavior changes
Bandura’s Social-Cognitive Theory
• Observational learning
– Accomplished by observing the behavior of
others (models)
– Learners pay attention, construct and
remember mental representations, retrieve
the representations from memory, and use
them to guide behavior
• Famous Bobo doll study
• Includes the processes of latent learning
and vicarious reinforcement
Bandura’s Social-Cognitive Theory
• Additional aspects of social-cognitive theory
– Human agency – ways in which people
deliberately exercise cognitive control
– Self-efficacy – a high or low sense that one
can effectively produce desired outcomes
in a particular activity
– Reciprocal determinism – mutual
influences among the person, the person’s
behavior, and the environment
• Caption: Bandura’s reciprocal determinism
involves mutual influences of the person, the
person’s behavior, and the environment
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Learning Theories: Strengths and
Weaknesses
Strengths
– Theories are precise and testable
– Can test via carefully controlled experiments
– Principles apply across the lifespan
– Practical applications are possible
Weaknesses
– Inadequate accounts of developmental
changes
– Too little consideration of genetic and
maturational processes
Learning Objectives
• What is Piaget’s perspective on cognitive
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development?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of
Piaget’s theory?
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Concepts in Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Intelligence: process that helps a person
adapt to the environment
• Constructivism: children construct new
understandings of the world based on their
experiences
• Interaction between biological maturation and
experiences is responsible for children’s
developmental progress from one stage to
the next, qualitatively different, stage
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Stages of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Sensorimotor stage
– Infants deal with the world through their
senses and their motor skills
• Properational stage
– Preschoolers can use symbolic thought but
cannot yet use logical problem-solving
• Cannot demonstrate conservation
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Stages of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Concrete operations stage
– School-age children are more logical and
can use trial-and-error approach to
problem-solving
• Formal operations stage
– Adolescents are able to think abstractly
and hypothetically
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
• Strengths
– Well-accepted by developmentalists
– Well-researched, mostly supported
– Influenced education and parenting
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
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Weaknesses
– Too little consideration of influences of
motivation and emotion upon thought
processes
– Questionable that the stages constitute a
coherent, general mode of thinking
– Perhaps underestimated cognitive abilities of
young children
– Too little emphasis upon parents and
caregivers
– Stages may not be universal
Challenges to Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
• Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective
– View that cognitive development is shaped
by its sociocultural context and children’s
interactions with members of their culture
• Information-processing approach
– Examines fundamental processes of
attention, memory, decision-making, etc.
Learning Objectives
• How do systems theories conceptualize
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development?
What have evolutionary theory and ethology
contributed to our understanding of human
development?
Systems Theories
• Systems theories attribute changes over the
lifespan to ongoing, reciprocal transactions
between a changing organism and a
changing environment
– Examples
• Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model
• Gottlieb’s epigenetic psychobiological
systems perspective
Evolutionary Theory and Ethology
• Evolutionary theory considers how human
characteristics and behaviors observed today
may have been adaptive for our ancestors
and thus become part of human genetics
• Darwin inspired the field of ethology
– Study of evolved behavior of species in
their natural environments
– Ethologists suggest that human behaviors
are the products of evolution and help
humans adapt to their environment
Learning Objectives
• What are the essential elements of Gottlieb’s
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epigenetic psychobiological systems
perspective of development?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of
the systems theories of development?
Gottlieb’s Epigenetic Psychobiological
Systems Perspective
• Development is the product of interacting
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biological and environmental influences that
form a larger system
Evolution endowed humans with genetic
makeup
Genes and environment interact because
humans actively change their environments
– Occurs at the species level
– Biological and cultural evolution contribute
to change over time in the human species
Gottlieb: Epigenesis
• Epigenesis: “over and above” genes
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– Nature and nurture, genes and
environment, co-act to yield developmental
outcomes
Epigenetic process
– Activity of genes
– Activity of neurons
– Organism’s behavior
– Environmental influences
Strengths and Weaknesses of Systems
Theories of Development
• Strengths
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– Call attention to ongoing transactions
between the individual and the
environment
Weaknesses
– Only partially formulated and tested
– No coherent developmental theory
Learning Objective
• How can we categorize theories of human
development?
Categories of Human Development Theories
• Freud, Erikson, and Piaget
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– Stage theorists
– Development guided in universal directions
by biological-maturational forces
– Parents are supporters of development
Watson, Skinner, and Bandura
– Learning theorists
– Emphasize environment more than biology
– Parents are their children’s trainers
Categories of Human Development Theories
• Systems and contextual theorists
– View biology and environment as
inseparable components of a larger system
– Humans are active contributors to
development, but environment also is an
active participant.
– Parents view themselves as partners with
their children in the development process