Chapter 1 PSY-2300 8/28/25

Chapter 1: Key Theorists in Developmental Psychology

• In psychology, how do we know what we know about human development?

• The following theorists are foundational, offering different lenses on development and its drivers.

• Note: Names in this transcript include some spelling quirks (e.g., Roy for Freud, Colby for Bowlby). I’ll present the content as described, with context where helpful.

Freud (Psychoanalytic Theory)

• Core idea: behavior is driven by unconscious forces; personality shaped by these forces.

• Primary drive: sexual and aggressive impulses; development unfolds through successive stages tied to body regions.

• Oral stage (ages 0 to 1 year): the mouth is the focus; important early feeding experiences.

  • Conflict: feeding and the degree of maternal responsiveness. Too strict or too indulgent parenting can lead to later issues related to oral behaviors (e.g., overeating, smoking).

• Freud emphasized early childhood shaping later personality; however, modern psychology critiques psychoanalytic theory for lack of falsifiability and measurement; hard to prove with neuroimaging or experimental methods.

• Historical note: Freud’s work contributed to the modern mental health treatment movement, shifting from confinement to more active therapy, but many of his specific stage-based ideas are not central to contemporary psychology.

Erik Erikson (Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory)

• Core idea: development spans the entire lifespan, with core conflicts at each stage that must be resolved to develop healthily.

• Name note: transcript refers to him as “Eric Ericsson”; original surname was Erikson.

• Lifespan perspective: from infancy through old age (maturity, defined as late adulthood beyond $65$ years).

• Infancy stage: trust vs. mistrust — can you rely on the world and caregivers to be responsive?

  • Healthy resolution: bonding with parents, feeling loved, and trusting others; unhealthy resolution: distrust, feeling unsafe in the world.

• Emphasis on the balance between dependence and independence; ongoing challenges across life stages.

• Criticisms:

  • Based on psychoanalytic ideas and clinical observations rather than controlled experiments.

  • Cultural generalizability is limited; stages may not map neatly onto all populations or life experiences (e.g., retirement timing varies across cultures).

• Some revisions note that later-life stages (generativity, etc.) emphasize contributing to the next generation or community.

Bowlby (John Bowlby) and Ainsworth (Attachment Theory)

• Attachment theory emphasizes close, secure, responsive bonds between infants and caregivers.

• Observational history: post-World War II orphanages and families under stress; prolonged separation was linked to negative developmental outcomes.

• Key idea: early bonding experiences shape future relationships and emotional regulation.

• Ainsworth contributed empirical work on attachment styles (e.g., secure vs. insecure attachments) building on Bowlby’s theories.

• Practical implication: stable, sensitive caregiving supports healthy social and emotional development.

Skinner (Behaviorism)

• Core idea: psychology should focus on observable behavior and how it is shaped by the environment.

• Mechanism: reinforcement strengthens behavior; punishment or lack of reinforcement weakens it.

• The environment, through contingencies, controls behavior;

  • Strong emphasis on external stimuli and measurable outcomes.

• Criticisms: neglects internal thoughts, feelings, and beliefs; overly reductionist; may fail to account for internal cognitive processes.

• Legacy: many evidence-based therapies and behavioral interventions in use today (behavioral and cognitive-behavioral approaches evolved from behaviorist roots).

Bandura (Social Learning Theory / Social Cognitive Theory)

• Key idea: learning occurs by observing others (modeling) and through vicarious reinforcement, not just personal reinforcement.

• Bobo doll experiment: children exposed to aggressive models were more likely to imitate aggressive behavior when given a chance to play, showing observational learning and imitation.

• Self-efficacy: belief in one’s own ability to succeed influences motivation and action; it matters more than actual skill in some cases.

  • If you believe you will succeed at a task (e.g., soccer), you are more likely to attempt it and persist, regardless of current skill level.

• Practical impact: informs many therapies and educational approaches that emphasize modeling, expectations, and belief in capabilities.

Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Genetics

• Evolutionary psychology:

  • Focuses on universal traits that helped humans survive and reproduce across evolutionary history.

  • Emphasizes commonalities across humans; traits persist because they aided survival and reproduction.

• Behavioral genetics:

  • Focuses on how genetic differences between individuals shape behavior.

  • Highlights individual differences and how genes interact with environments.

• Taken together, these perspectives explain both common human patterns and individual variation.

Piaget (Cognitive Development)

• Focus: how children's thinking becomes more logical and sophisticated over time.

• Interest in the systematic errors children make as they move from concrete, intuitive thought to formal, abstract reasoning.

• Stages and progression:

  • Piaget proposed stage-like progression, with qualitative changes in thinking.

  • The transcript notes that Piaget, like Erikson and others, tended to focus on development up to adolescence; late adulthood development is not the primary focus of his stages.

• Overall aim: understand how cognitive structures develop and enable complex problem solving, mathematics, reading, etc.

Developmental Systems Theory (DST)

• Core idea: development results from interactions among multiple systems and levels of influence.

• Systems range from proximal to distal:

  • Proximal: family, siblings, peers, school.

  • Distal: neighborhood, laws, culture, era, technology available, time period.

• Emphasizes that no single factor drives development; instead, a network of interacting factors shapes outcomes over time.

Putting it all together: Theory and Methods

• The field considers multiple lenses to understand development:

  • Psychoanalytic, psychosocial, attachment, behaviorist, social learning, cognitive, evolutionary, genetic, and systems approaches.

• Methodological note: many early theories are based on clinical observations, case studies, or controlled experiments in animals or observational studies in humans; modern psychology emphasizes testable hypotheses, experimental/longitudinal designs, and cross-cultural validation.

• Practical takeaways for exams and study:

  • Recognize each theory’s core assumptions, what they explain well, and their limitations.

  • Be able to connect theories to real-world outcomes (e.g., attachment quality influencing relationships; self-efficacy affecting motivation).

  • Understand how environment and biology interact across the lifespan, per DST and behavioral genetics/environmental interaction.

Key Concepts and Terms to Remember

• Id, ego, superego; psychosexual stages; oral stage; early feeding as a developmental driver.

• Trust vs. mistrust; early caregiver bonds; founders of later social development.

• Attachment theory; secure vs. insecure attachment; effects of separation; close physical contact as a bonding mechanism.

• Classical behaviorism; reinforcement and punishment; environment as driver of behavior.

• Observational learning; modeling; self-efficacy.

• Evolutionary universal traits vs. individual genetic variation.

• Piagetian cognitive stages; progression toward logical reasoning.

• Developmental Systems Theory: proximal and distal influences; multi-level context.

Quick Reference: Common Misunderstandings Clarified

• Psychoanalytic theory is not the sole lens; modern psychology emphasizes falsifiable, testable hypotheses.

• Erikson extends development into old age; some cultural generalizability concerns exist, so interpretation should consider cultural context.

• Attachment and early bonding have robust observational support, but attachment styles can be influenced by multiple caregiving contexts.

• Bandura’s self-efficacy is about belief in ability to perform a task, not just actual skill; belief can drive motivation and persistence.

• DST argues that no single factor (biology, environment, culture) alone explains development; interactions across systems matter.