Theoretical Perspectives and Comparative Methods in Developmental Psychology
Administrative Updates and Course Schedule Changes
Schedule Adjustment: Due to illnesses within a family, there has been a change in the lecture lineup for the semester.
Upcoming Guest Lecturer: Hinayatua will visit next week to discuss Maori perspectives on development.
Canvas Updates: The schedule on the Canvas splash page and course outline has been updated. The specific module page for the upcoming week will be posted shortly.
Assigned Materials: Unlike other lectures, Hinayatua has not assigned readings; instead, there are assigned videos that students must watch prior to attending class.
Tutorial Feedback: Students generally report that tutorials are engaging and thought-provoking, facilitating a sense of "getting the gears turning."
Humanistic Theories in Developmental Psychology
Core Philosophy: Humanistic theories represent a shift from the pathological focus of earlier schools of thought (like Freudian psychoanalysis) toward the positive aspects of human nature and the drive for self-improvement.
Abraham Maslow's Perspective: Maslow famously stated: "To oversimplify the matter, it is as if Freud supplied us the sick half of psychology, and we must now fill out the healthy half."
Self-Actualization: This is the internal drive to become the best version of oneself, or the version of one's self that they were "meant to be."
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
Structure: Development is driven by a hierarchy of needs categorized into basic needs and growth needs.
Requirement for Progression: Growth needs (like self-actualization) cannot be effectively pursued until basic needs are met.
Level 1 (Lowest): Physiological Needs: Basic survival requirements such as shelter, food, and water.
Level 2: Social Connection: The need for belongingness and love.
Level 3: Competence and Recognition: The need to be valued by the community, to be recognized for achievements, and to feel competent in one's abilities.
Level 4 (Highest): Self-Actualization: The culmination of development.
Statistical Paradox: Maslow estimated that fewer than of all people actually attain self-actualization. This raises critical questions about who determines if someone has self-actualized and the practical utility of the concept.
Evaluation of Humanistic Theories
Strengths:
These theories focused heavily on psychological wellness.
They provided the foundational principles for what is known today as Positive Psychology.
Limitations:
Lack of Explanatory Power: The theories are descriptive rather than explanatory. While they describe the "what" of development, they do not provide mechanisms for "how" it occurs.
Broadness: The categories are often considered too broad and lack nitty-gritty detail.
Stage Rigidity: The idea of a zenith or final stage is questioned. There is debate over who determines the levels, where the cut-off points are, and if the path to self-actualization varies by culture.
Theoretical Continuity: While some textbooks identify humanistic theory as continuous, the metaphor of climbing a pyramid suggests a discontinuous, stage-based view. This remains an area of academic debate.
Cognitive Theories: Piaget vs. Vygotsky
Jean Piaget (The Constructivist):
Core Question: How do humans transition from being newborns with basic reflexes to impressive, reasoning adults?
Mechanism: Knowledge is constructed through experience. Piaget viewed the child as a "biological organism" exploring the world to build cognitive structures.
Path of Development: Reflexes Reasoning.
Stage-Based Approach (Discontinuous): Piaget proposed qualitative changes where children must master specific problems (e.g., Object Permanence) before "leveling up" to the next stage (e.g., Symbolic Thinking).
Hierarchy of Development:
Early Stage: Learning about the self and objects.
Symbolic Thought Stage: Engaging in symbolic representation.
Concrete Logical Operators: Reasoning about immediate, physical problems.
Abstract Reasoning: Dealing with complex, theoretical concepts.
Lev Vygotsky (The Social Constructivist):
Core Mechanism: Like Piaget, he was a constructivist, but he emphasized the sociocultural side of development.
Social Scaffolding: Development is mediated by interactions with more knowledgeable peers and adults within a social context.
View on Stages: Vygotsky questioned the existence of universal stages. He argued that developmental trajectories vary significantly based on cultural context, environment, and the level of parental engagement.
Information Processing Theory
The Computer Metaphor: This modern perspective views the mind as a computer system.
Hardware: The physical brain.
Software: Knowledge, language, logic, and thought processes acquired through experience.
Drivers of Change: Developmental progress is dictated by the amount of information the brain can process (the efficiency of the "hardware").
Neurological Factors:
Myelination: The insulation of neurons to increase the speed and efficiency of message transfer across the brain.
Neural Pruning and Apoptosis: The process of cutting or refining neural connections to optimize processing, often spurred by experience.
Functional Consequences: As hardware improves, so does working memory capacity. This creates a "bottleneck" effect in younger children; if the brain cannot coordinate sensory information effectively, it impacts attention, the ability to ignore distractions, and social learning.
Nature of the Theory: It is considered a domain-general perspective. Improvements in processing capacity benefit all areas including social processing, physical navigation, and language acquisition.
Evaluation of Cognitive Theories
Strengths:
They are highly testable; researchers can make specific predictions and use data to falsify or support them.
They have significantly influenced parenting and educational practices by providing realistic expectations for what children can process at different ages.
Limitations:
Over-Cognitive: Some argue these theories neglect the role of emotional development and its influence on cognition.
Underestimation: Piaget specifically is often critiqued for underestimating the capabilities of children at various development stages and for being too rigid with his stage-like progression.
Systems Theories: Bronfenbrenner and Gottlieb
Urie Bronfenbrenner: Previously discussed system focusing on embedded spheres (Microsystem to Chronosystem).
Gilbert Gottlieb: Epigenetic Psychobiological Systems Perspective:
Definition of Epigenesis: Term meaning "over and above genes." It refers to the process where the expression of a genetic code is influenced by environmental factors.
Multilayered Organization: Systems theories look at interactions between:
Genetic Activity
Neural Activity (the brain)
Behavior
Environment
Bidirectional Influences: Higher levels (environment/behavior) can have top-down influences on lower levels (gene expression), while lower levels (genetics) constrain what can happen at the top.
Epigenetic Example: Behavioral practices can change how genes are expressed without altering the underlying DNA sequence.
Applications:
Atypical Development: Exploring how genotypes react differently to early childhood adversity to predict outcomes like adolescent depression.
Phylogeny: Looking at how changes in species development impact subsequent generations across evolution.
Strengths: Comprehensive and holistic.
Limitations: It is difficult to generate simple, testable predictions. The complexity and context-specificity can make it hard to create satisfying, generalized theories of development.
Comparative and Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Comparative Research: Understanding human development by studying other species (monkeys, primates) to see what is preserved across evolution.
Case Study: Inequity Aversion in Capuchin Monkeys:
The Currency Task: Monkeys were trained to use smooth rocks as currency to exchange for food.
Fairness Observation: A monkey was perfectly happy with a cucumber reward until they saw a neighbor receive a grape (a high-value reward). The "system" broke down as the monkey reacted to the unfairness.
The Tool Task: Monkey A has a tool (rock) but no food; Monkey B has the reward (hazelnuts) in a jar that requires a tool to open. This tests sharing and cooperation.
Katie McAuliffe's Decider Task:
Mechanism: A child acts as a "decider" with two levers. Green lever = both children get the treats allocated. Red lever = treats fall into a trash can and no one gets anything.
Variables:
Disadvantageous Inequity: The decider gets fewer treats than the partner ().
Advantageous Inequity: The decider gets more treats ().
Findings:
Across cultures, as children get older (from age ), they are increasingly likely to pull the red lever in the disadvantageous condition to reject unfairness.
In some cultures, children also reject advantageous inequity (pulling the red lever when they have more) as a form of signaling belief in equity.
Cross-Cultural Variables: Developmental decisions are modulated by culture (collectivism vs. individualism) and immediate context (e.g., whether a child has siblings, which can lead to higher competition for resources).
Questions & Discussion
Q: Are Information Processing theories popular today?
A: They were very influential in the 1980s and 90s. The modern take is that it is a useful layer of understanding, but it can be misleading if taken too literally. Humans are not just computers; the computer metaphor is folded into a broader understanding alongside emotional and social factors.
Q: What factors besides testosterone influence violence in adolescent males?
A: From a systems theory lens, many factors contribute, including cultural influences and immediate environmental factors, such as whether an adolescent is observing violent behavior in the home. It requires looking at every level of the hierarchy.
Q: Are there stages where epigenetics are more measurable or important?
A: Likely yes. During "sensitive periods" of development, genetic contributions might be more consequential or ratcheted up, or conversely, less plastic after the period ends.
Q: How does this relate to traumatic births?
A: System theorists would argue that a traumatic birth (affecting oxygenation to the infant brain) is a critical factor that has downstream consequences for the entire system, illustrating why developmental psychology is "messy and chaotic."