Theoretical Perspectives
Theories
provide a framework for understanding phenomena through explanations and predictions
Major theoretical perspectives highlighted in the material: ★ Psychodynamic Perspective, ★ Behavioral Perspective, ★ The Cognitive Perspective, ★ Contextual Perspective
Psychodynamic Perspective
Behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts (often stemming from childhood) that a person has little awareness of
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Unconscious forces influence behavior
Personality consists of three aspects:
id: raw, unorganized personality present at birth.
ego: buffers between the real world and the id.
superego: develops at age 5–6 and is learned from adults in one’s life.
Therapeutic techniques: free association and dream analysis (dream association)
★ Key takeaway: explains behavior in terms of internal conflicts and unconscious processes.
Limitations of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
★ Little to no empirical support.
★ Questionable generalizability to multicultural populations and women.
★ Freud’s work has been criticized for devaluing women.
Jung’s Analytical Psychology
★ The Role of the Unconscious.
★ Individuation: reconciliation of the conscious and unconscious to become fully oneself.
★ Personality Typing.
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
Development is divided into 8 stages, each involving a psychosocial crisis that affects personality development.
Stages (with general age ranges):
1) Trust vs. Mistrust (Infancy: 0-1\;\text{year})
2) Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Early Childhood: 1-3\;\text{years})
3) Initiative vs. Guilt (Preschool: 3-6\;\text{years})
4) Industry vs. Inferiority (School Age: 6-12\;\text{years})
5) Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence: 12-18\;\text{years})
6) Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adulthood: 18-40\;\text{years})
7) Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle Adulthood: 40-65\;\text{years})
8) Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adulthood: 65+\;\text{years})
Limitations of Erikson's Psychosocial Theory
★ Difficult to test.
★ Based on men (historical bias in data).
Psychoanalysis in Therapeutic Practice
★ Considered by some to be out of date.
★ Still remains in many people’s view of therapy.
★ Integrated with other theories.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Categorizes individuals into one of 16 personality types across 4 dimensions.
Can be useful for self-reflection and is widely used across fields
Criticism: reliability and validity concerns; limited predictive power.
Behavioral Perspectives
Focus on observable behavior and stimuli in the environment
Core approaches: ★ Classical Conditioning, ★ Operant Conditioning, ★ Social-Learning Theory.
Classical Conditioning
John B. Watson argued that by controlling a person’s environment, virtually any behavior could be produced.
Used to explain how we learn emotional responses
Example widely cited: Little Albert
Operant Conditioning
A voluntary response is strengthened or weakened depending on its association with positive or negative consequences.
Used for behavior modifications (BF Skinner)
Reinforcement and punishment principles guide behavior change
When reinforcement stops, a behavior is likely to be discontinued (extinction)
Social-Learning Theory
Learning through imitation and modeling.
Key figure: Alfred Bandura; famous Bobo Doll experiment demonstrating observational learning
Emphasizes the role of cognitive processes in learning (integration of social context and cognition).
The Cognitive Perspective
Focus on processes of cognition: how people understand the world around them and internally represent their environment
Major components:
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Information Processing Approaches
Cognitive Neuroscience Approaches
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development
Development occurs through a series of universal stages
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development (overview):
Sensorimotor (0–2 years)
Preoperational (2–7 years)
Concrete Operational (7–11 years)
Formal Operational (11+ years)
Piaget’s Stages (detailed)
Sensorimotor Stage (0–2)
Know the world through movements and sensations;
Learn through actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, listening;
Object permanence develops; realize they are separate beings; actions cause things to happen.
Preoperational Stage (2–7)
Symbolic thinking; language development;
Egocentrism; difficulty taking others’ perspectives (limited theory of mind);
Thinking remains concrete; conservation of mass emerges but is not fully developed.
Concrete Operational Stage (7–11)
Think logically about concrete events;
Understand conservation (e.g., liquid amount equivalence across containers);
Thinking becomes logical and organized, though still tied to concrete contexts;
Begin using inductive logic from specific information to general principles.
Formal Operational Stage (11+)
Think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems;
Develop moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political reasoning;
Use deductive logic from general principles to specific information.
Assessing Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Pros: Supported by thousands of experiments; stage sequence appears accurate.
Cons: Some skills emerge earlier than Piaget proposed; not universal; development may not be fully continuous.
Information-Processing Approaches
Aim to understand how individuals take in, use, and store information.
Emerged from computer science concepts; assume limited processing capacity and improvement with age.
Related to neo-Piagetian theory.
Critiques: Does not account for nonlinear development such as creativity; ignores social and cultural factors in development.
Cognitive Neuroscience Approaches
Look at development through the brain: what neural activity underlies cognitive behavior.
Represent a new frontier in psychology.
Critics argue it often provides description rather than full explanation of development.
Contextual Perspectives
Focus on the relationship between physical, cognitive, and social worlds; emphasize environmental influence on development
Core theories:
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Development arises from social interactions
Children learn about the world through interaction with others, including adults and peers.
Adults scaffold children’s ability to execute tasks, gradually transferring responsibility.
Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model
Emphasizes the role of environmental systems and their interactions with the individual.
Visualized as nested systems that influence development
Key components: Chronosystem, Macrosystem, Exosystem, Mesosystem, Microsystem.
Bronfenbrenner's Model Components
Chronosystem: Environmental changes that occur over the life course.
Macrosystem: Attitudes and ideologies of the culture.
Exosystem: Extended family and neighbors; external settings that indirectly affect development.
Mesosystem: Connections across microsystem contexts (e.g., family–school interactions).
Microsystem: Immediate environments (Family, School, Health services, Peers).
Example of interconnected contexts is illustrated in the slide with a nested-system diagram
Quick reference to key terms (glossary-style)
Psychoanalytic Theory; Id, Ego, Superego; Free association; Dream analysis.
Psychosocial crises; Erikson’s eight stages.
Classical Conditioning; Unconditioned/Conditioned Stimuli; Little Albert as a classical conditioning example.
Operant Conditioning; Reinforcement (positive/negative); Punishment; Extinction.
Social-Learning Theory; Observational learning; Bobo Doll.
Piaget’s stages; Conservation; Object permanence; Abstract thinking.
Information Processing; Cognitive load; Neo-Piagetian extensions.
Cognitive Neuroscience; Brain-based explanations.
Sociocultural Theory; Zone of Proximal Development (implied by scaffolding in Vygotsky); Social interaction as driver of learning.
Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model; Chronosystem; Nested systems (Micro, Meso, Exo, Macro, Chronosystem).