Developmental Psychology Uark

Doug Behrend

Views on childhood

Western perspective
• Medieval (6th to 15th Centuries)
– Children treated as miniature adults?
• “pre-formationism”
– Childhood recognized as unique phase of life
• “Self-help” guides by the 14th century
• Reformation
– The Puritans…belief in original sin
– Children were evil or amoral
– Harsh, strict discipline practices

John Locke

– Empiricist
– All things must be learned
– newborns are a tabula rasa (blank slate)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

– Children are born innocent, innately good
– Les sauvages nobles (noble savages)
– We must nurture these tendencies

Influence of Charles Darwin

– Natural selection
– Adaptive significance of behavior or physical
characteristics

“Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny”
– Or…Development Repeats Evolution

G. Stanley Hall

– “Father” of Developmental Psychology
– Founder of the American Psychological Association
– Was fond of ORP, applied it to moral development
in childhood and adolescence
– Since we have only recently in our history become “moral creatures”, we should wait until late in development to begin moral education

What is development?

• Development is change, specifically change
over time
• Not all change is development!

For change to be development it must be

– Systematic: orderly and predictable
– Organized: systems working together
– Successive in character: later developments build
upon earlier ones

Basic Themes in theories of development

• Continuity vs. Discontinuity
• Nature vs. Nurture
• One developmental path vs. many
• Nature of the child

Continuity vs. Discontinuity

Continuity: Development occurs steadily and gradually, developmental change is quantitative

Discontinuity: Development occurs in discrete stages; developmental change is qualitative

One Path:

Proscribed, universal
pattern followed by all
typical members of
the species

Many paths:

Start and endpoints may be
defined, but multiple
ways to get there

Nature:

Biological factors—i.e. genetics--
are the most important determinants of
developmental outcomes

Nurture:

Environmental and experiential
factors are the most important
determinants of development—family,
schools, peers, etc.

Theories of Development “Legacy” Theories

– Psychodynamic Theories
– Learning Theories
– Piaget’s Theory

Theories of Development “Newer” Theories

– Vygotsky’s Theory
– Systems Theories
– Ethology and Evolutionary Theories

Psychodynamic, Theoretical viewpoint of Sigmund Freud:

• Three main aspects of his theory
– Structure of Personality
• id, ego, superego
– Topography of Personality
• Conscious/Unconscious thought
– Development of Personality
• Psychosexual Stages

Development of Personality, Psychosexual Stages:

– Oral—1st year of life
• Attachment
– Anal—1-3 years
• Toilet training
– Phallic—3-5 years
• Sex Typing
– Latency—5-puberty
• Quiet period
– Genital—puberty and onward
• Adult personality

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory, Two major deviations from Freud:

– Turn focus away from internal, sexual urges
to external, social issues
– Lifespan theory:
• 8 Psychosocial stages extend into and through
adulthood
• Each characterized by the major psychosocial
issue that needs to be resolved during that stage

Problems with Freud’s Theory

– Based on studies of mentally troubled adults!
– Never studied children!
– Gender biased/sexist
– Too occupied with sex
– Too much focus on early years of life
– MAJOR STRENGTH: Importance of early
experience for later development

The Psychosocial Stages

Infancy: Basic trust vs. Mistrust
• Toddler: Autonomy vs. Shame and
Doubt
• Early Childhood: Initiative vs. Guilt
• Middle Childhood: Industry vs.
Inferiority
• Adolescence: Identity vs. Identity
Confusion
• Early Adult: Intimacy vs. Isolation
• Middle Adult: Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Late Adult: Integrity vs. Despair

Three types of Learning Theories

– Classical conditioning
– Operant Conditioning
– Social Learning Theory

John B. Watson (1914): Behaviorism:

– If psychology really wants to be a science, then it should focus on only what is directly observable— behaviors

Classical Conditioning

• Very basic form of learning (Pavlov’s dogs)
• Always dependent on the prior existence of a reflex or automatic response
• What happens after the response?
– Behaviors do not occur in a vacuum
– Behaviors have consequences

Operant Conditioning, B.F. Skinner:

• Consequences can influence the likelihood
that a response will occur again
• Two basic types of consequences:
– Reinforcement: Any consequence that makes
the preceding response more likely to occur
again
– Punishment: Any consequence that makes
the preceding response less likely to occur
again

Reinforcement:

Makes preceding behavior more likely to occur again.
– Positive (+) reinforcement: Presentation of a
desirable stimulus following the response
– Negative (-) reinforcement: Removal of an
aversive or undesirable stimulus following the
response. NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT IS
NOT PUNISHMENT!!
– Reinforcement traps: positive and negative
reinforcement working together

Bandura’s famous Bobo Doll Studies showed that children can also learn how:

Vicarious reinforcement
– Children had to REMEMBER what happened
– Opened way for cognition to re-enter the picture

Schemes—

Basic unit of knowledge

Adaptation is a mental structure that:

changes to fit the demands of the environment

Assimilation:

– Fitting new information/problems/etc. into existing cognitive structures

Accommodation:

– Modifying cognitive structures in response to new information/problems/etc

Piaget’s Stages, Four stages of Cognitive Development:

– Sensorimotor Stage (0-2)
– Preoperational Stage (2-6)
– Concrete Operations Stage (6-12)
– Formal Operations Stage (12→)

Sensorimotor Stage (0-2)

Knowledge = perception and action
– A child knows about things only when they are
actively involved with object/activity/etc..
• Gradual movement away from this
– Object Permanence tasks
– A Not B Error

Preoperational Stage (2-6)

Child has symbolic representation
• Child CAN’T operate logically on those symbols
– Lack of logical problem solving
• e.g., the conservation task
– Egocentrism
• Inability to take another’s perspective
• Believe everyone shares their own point of view

Concrete Operational Stage (6-12)

• Child can now operate logically on mental
representations
• Can only do so for concrete, real, tangible
problems and situations
• Has problems with abstract concepts and
abstract reasoning

Formal Operations Stage (12→)

• Fully formed adult logical abilities
• Logical operations are mental structures
that can be applied to any content
• Scientific reasoning
• Abstract reasoning