Theories of Development

Chapter 1: Introduction

scientific method

An approach that can be used to obtain accurate information. It includes these steps: (1) conceptualize the problem, (2) collect data, (3) draw conclusions, and (4) revise research conclusions and theory

Psychoanalytic theories

Describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion.

behavior

Psychoanalytic theorists emphasize that ______ is merely a surface characteristic.

development

a true understanding of ______ requires analyzing the symbolic meanings of behavior and the deep inner workings of the mind.

parents

early experiences with ______ extensively shape development

theory

An interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain and make predictions.

hypotheses

Specific assumptions and predictions that can be tested to determine their accuracy.

Oral Stage

Infant’s pleasure centers on the mouth (Birth to 1 1⁄2 Years)

Anal Stage

Child’s pleasure focuses on the anus (1 1⁄2 to 3 Years)

Phallic Stage

Child’s pleasure focuses on the genitals (3 to 6 Years)

Latency Stage

Child represses sexual interest and develops social and intellectual skills (6 Years to Puberty)

Genital Stage

A time of sexual reawakening; source of sexual pleasure becomes someone outside the family. (Puberty Onward)

Sigmund Freud

the pioneering architect of psychoanalytic theory.

adult

Our _____ personality, Freud claimed, is determined by the way we resolve conflicts between sources of pleasure at each stage and the demands of reality.

psychosexual stages

Because Freud emphasized sexual motivation, his stages of development are known as

fixated

In Freud’s view, if the need for pleasure at any stage is either undergratified or overgratified, an individual may become _____, or locked in, at that stage of development.

Erik Erikson

recognized Freud’s contributions but believed that Freud misjudged some important dimensions of human development.

sexual

According to Freud, the primary motivation for human behavior is _____ in nature.

social

According to Erikson, it is ____ and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people.

Sigmund Freud

According to him, our basic personality is shaped in the first five years of life.

Erik Erikson

According to him, developmental change occurs throughout the life span.

Sigmund Freud

He viewed early experience as far more important than later experiences.

Erik Erikson

He emphasized the importance of both early and later experiences.

healthier

The more successfully an individual resolves the crises, the _____ development will be.

Erikson’s theory

Includes eight stages of human development. Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.

Trust versus mistrust

Erikson’s first psychosocial stage, which is experienced in the first year of life.

Trust

_____ in infancy sets the stage for a lifelong expectation that the world will be a good and pleasant place to live.

Autonomy versus shame and doubt

Erikson’s second stage. This stage occurs in late infancy and toddlerhood (1 to 3 years).

Autonomy

After gaining trust in their caregivers, infants begin to discover that their behavior is their own. They start to assert their sense of independence or _____.

Shame and doubt

If infants and toddlers are restrained too much or punished too harshly, they are likely to develop a sense of ______.

Initiative versus guilt

Erikson’s third stage of development, occurs during the preschool years.

Guilt

As preschool children encounter a widening social world, they face new challenges that require active, purposeful, responsible behavior. Feelings of _____ may arise, though, if the child is irresponsible and is made to feel too anxious.

Industry versus inferiority

Erikson’s fourth developmental stage, occurring approximately in the elementary school years.

Inferiority

Children now need to direct their energy toward mastering knowledge and intellectual skills. The negative outcome is that the child may develop a sense of _____—feeling incompetent and unproductive.

Identity versus identity confusion

Erikson’s fifth developmental stage. During the adolescent years, individuals face finding out who they are, what they are all about, and where they are going in life.

identity; identity confusion

If adolescents explore roles in a healthy manner and arrive at a positive path to follow in life, then they achieve a positive _____; if not, then _______ reigns.

Intimacy versus isolation

Erikson’s sixth developmental stage, which individuals experience during the early adulthood years.

intimacy; isolation

At this time, individuals face the developmental task of forming intimate relationships. If young adults form healthy friendships and an intimate relationship with another, ______ will be achieved; if not, _____ will result.

Generativity versus stagnation

Erikson’s seventh developmental stage occurs during middle adulthood.

Generativity

By ______, Erikson means primarily a concern for helping the younger generation to develop and lead useful lives.

Stagnation

The feeling of having done nothing to help the next generation is

Integrity versus despair

Erikson’s eighth and final stage of development, which individuals experience in late adulthood.

integrity; despair

During this stage, a person reflects on the past. If the person’s life review reveals a life well spent, ______ will be achieved; if not, the retrospective glances likely will yield doubt or gloom—the ______ Erikson described.

Trust versus mistrust

Infancy (first year)

Autonomy versus shame and doubt

Infancy (1 to 3 years)

Initiative versus guilt

Early childhood (preschool years, 3 to 5 years)

Industry versus inferiority

Middle and late childhood (elementary school years, 6 years to puberty)

Identity versus identity confusion

Adolescence (10 to 20 years)

Intimacy versus isolation

Early adulthood (20s, 30s)

Generativity versus stagnation

Middle adulthood (40s, 50s)

Integrity versus despair

Late adulthood (60s onward)

Piaget’s theory

States that children actively construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development.

Jean Piaget

the famous Swiss developmental psychologist, changed the way we think about the development of children’s minds.

organization and adaptation

Piaget’s theory states that children go through four stages of cognitive development as they actively construct their understanding of the world. Two processes underlie this cognitive construction of the world: __________.

sensorimotor stage

lasts from birth to about 2 years of age, is the first Piagetian stage.

sensorimotor

In this stage, infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical, motoric actions—hence the term ______.

preoperational stage

lasts from approximately 2 to 7 years of age, is Piaget’s second stage.

preoperational stage

In this stage, children begin to go beyond simply connecting sensory information with physical action and represent the world with words, images, and drawings.

operations

According to Piaget, preschool children still lack the ability to perform what he calls _____, which are internalized mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they previously could only do physically.

concrete operation

For example, if you imagine putting two sticks together to see whether they would be as long as another stick, without actually moving the sticks, you are performing a _________.

concrete operational stage

lasts from approximately 7 to 11 years of age, is the third Piagetian stage.

concrete operational stage

In this stage, children can perform operations that involve objects, and they can reason logically when the reasoning can be applied to specific or concrete examples.

concrete operational

________ thinkers cannot imagine the steps necessary to complete an algebraic equation, which is too abstract for thinking at this stage of development

formal operational stage

appears between the ages of 11 and 15 and continues through adulthood, is Piaget’s fourth and final stage.

formal operational stage

In this stage, individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in abstract and more logical terms.

Lev Vygotsky

gave social interaction and culture far more important roles in cognitive development than Piaget did.

Lev Vygotsky

He maintained that cognitive development involves learning to use the inventions of society, such as language, mathematical systems, and memory strategies.

Lev Vygotsky

According to him, children’s social interaction with more-skilled adults and peers is indispensable to their cognitive development

Information-processing theory

emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it.

Information-processing theory

According to this theory, individuals develop a gradually increasing capacity for processing information, which allows them to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills.

Robert Siegler

a leading expert on children’s information processing, states that thinking is information processing.

Robert Siegler

emphasizes that an important aspect of development is learning good strategies for processing information.

Vygotsky’s theory

A sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development.

B. F. Skinner

According to him, through operant conditioning the consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior’s occurrence.

rewards and punishments

In Skinner’s view, such ________ shape development.

behavior

For Skinner the key aspect of development is ______, not thoughts and feelings.

Social cognitive theory

holds that behavior, environment, and cognition are the key factors in development.

Albert Bandura

the leading architect of social cognitive theory

Social cognitive theorists

They stress that people acquire a wide range of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings through observing others’ behavior and that these observations form an important part of life-span development

self-efficacy

Bandura emphasizes that ______ is a key person/cognitive factor in children’s achievement.

ethology

stresses that behavior is strongly infl uenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods.

Konrad Lorenz

helped bring ethology to prominence

Konrad Lorenz

a pioneering student of animal behavior, is followed through the water by three imprinted greylag geese

John Bowlby

stressed that attachment to a caregiver over the fi rst year of life has important consequences throughout the life span.

positive and secure

if this attachment is _______, the individual will likely develop positively in childhood and adulthood.

negative and insecure

If the attachment is ________, life-span development will likely not be optimal.

imprinting

the rapid, innate learning that involves attachment to the fi rst moving object seen.

biological; environmental

While ethological theory stresses ______ factors, ecological theory emphasizes ________ factors

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory

holds that development reflects the influence of several environmental systems. The theory identifies five environmental systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem

microsystem

the setting in which the individual lives.

mesosystem

involves relations between microsystems or connections between contexts.

exosystem

consists of links between a social setting in which the individual does not have an active role and the individual’s immediate context.

macrosystem

involves the culture in which individuals live

chronosystem

m consists of the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances.

Urie Bronfenbrenner

developed ecological theory, a perspective that is receiving increased attention today

eclectic theoretical orientation

An orientation that does not follow any one theoretical approach, but rather selects from each theory whatever is considered the best in it

Psychoanalytic theories

Discontinuity between stages—continuity between early experiences and later development; early experiences very important; later changes in development emphasized in Erikson’s theory.

Psychoanalytic theories

Freud’s biological determination interacting with early family experiences; Erikson’s more balanced biological-cultural interaction perspective.

Cognitive theories

Discontinuity between stages in Piaget’s theory; continuity between early experiences and later development in Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories; no stages in Vygotsky’s theory or information-processing theory.

Cognitive theories

Piaget’s emphasis on interaction and adaptation; environment provides the setting for cognitive structures to develop; information-processing view has not addressed this issue extensively but mainly emphasizes biological-environmental interaction.