Chapter 9 - Psychoanalytic Theories, Learning Theories

Freud's Theory of Psychosexual Development

- Sexual nature motivates behavior in universal developmental stages that present conflicts
- Conflict resolution affects development throughout life

Freud's Psychosexual Stages

- Oral (first year)
- Anal (1-3 yrs)
- Phallic (3-6)
- Latency (6-12)
- Genital (12+)

Oral Stage

- First year
- Primary source of satisfaction and pleasure is oral activity
- Mother established as the strongest love-object

Anal Stage

- 1-3 y/o
- Primary source of pleasure comes from defecation (pooping)

Phallic Stage

- 3-6 y/o
- Primary source of pleasure in the genitalia

Latency Stage

- 6-12 y/o
- Sexual energy channeled into socially acceptable activities
- gap; not much going on

Genital Stage

- 12 yrs+
- Sexual maturation is complete and sexual intercourse becomes a major goal

Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

- Accepted the basic elements of Freud's theory and added social factors
- Has eight age-related developmental stages with a specific crisis at each stage; crisis resolution needed for growth

Erikson's Psychosocial Stages

- Trust vs Mistrust (first yr)
- Autonomy vs Shame and doubt (1-3 ½ yrs)
- Initiative vs Guilt (4-6 yrs)
- Industry vs Inferiority (6-puberty)
- Identity vs role confusion (adolescence-early adulthood)

Trust vs Mistrust Stage

- first yr
- Developing trust in other people is the crucial issue

Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt Stage

- 1-3 1/2 y/o
- The challenge is to achieve a strong sense of autonomy while adjusting to increased social demands

Initiative vs Guilt Stage

- 4-6 y/o
- Resolved when the child develops high standards and the initiative to meet them w/o being crushed by worry about not being able to measure up

Industry vs Inferiority Stage

- 6 y/o-puberty
- The child must master cognitive and social skills, learn to work industriously, and play well with others

Identity vs Role Confusion Stage

- adolescence-early adulthood
- Adolescents must resolve the question of who they really are or live in confusion about what roles they should play as adults

Current Perspective on Frued and Erikson

On Freud's Theory: The current influence of this theory are broad psychological concepts, not theoretical specifics

Contributions to developmental psychology
- Emphasis on the importance of early experience and emotional relationships
- Recognition of the role of subjective experience and unconscious mental activity

Weaknesses of psychoanalytic theories
- Major theoretical claims too vague to be testable and many specific elements questionable

Learning Theorists

- Learning theorists emphasize the role of external factors in shaping behavior
- Reinforcement and punishment guide development
- No qualitatively different developmental stages
- Contemporary theorists: children play a role in their own development

John B. Watson's Behaviorism

- He believed that children's development is determined by their social environment
- Little Albert

Little Albert Experiment

Watson paired a white rat with a loud bang repeatedly to create an association between the two unrelated stimuli → little Albert began fearing the rat w/o the loud noise
- example of classical conditioning

classical conditioning

automatic conditioned response is paired with a specific stimulus

B.F. Skinner's Operant Conditioning

- Behavior is under environmental control
- Everything we do in life (every act) is an operant response influenced by the outcomes of past behaviors
- Intermittent reinforcement
- Behavior Modification
- For parents and teachers, attention can be a powerful reinforcer and so can time-out/temporary isolation

Intermittent Reinforcement

inconsistent response to a behavior
- Makes behaviors resistant to extinction

Examples of Intermittent Reinforcement

- random bonus points
- Sometimes punishing unacceptable behaviors and sometimes ignoring them

Behavior Modification

a form of therapy based on principles of operant conditioning in which reinforcement contingencies are changed to encourage more adaptive behaviors
- Adding and removing stimuli to increase or decrease the likelihood of a behavior happening again

Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory

- Most human learning is inherently social in nature and based on observation of the behavior of other people
- Vicarious reinforcement
- Observational Learning
- Bobo Doll Experiment
- Reciprocal Determinism

Vicarious Reinforcement

observing someone else receive a reward or punishment

Observational Learning

process of learning by watching the behaviors of other
- Target behavior is watched, memorized, and mimicked

Bobo Doll Experiment

- demonstrated that children can quickly acquire new behaviors by watching others
- Dependent on reward or punishment of observed action

Reciprocal determinism

Child-environment influences operate in both directions
- Child's behavior ←→ social environment
- Children are both affected by and influence aspects of their environment

Current Perspectives on Learning Theories

Contributions to developmental psychology
- Derived from research in socialization, parental socialization, and practices
- Led to practical applications like behavior modification

Weaknesses of learning theories
- Focus on behavior, not brain or mind
- Lack attention to biological influences
- Minimize impact of perceptual, motor, cognitive, and language development