Lifespan Lecture 2 Slides

Overview of Developmental Psychology

• Course: 10445 Psychology Across the Lifespan

• Week 2: Approaches to Human Development

• Instructor: Dr. Caroline Ng

• Objectives: Understand key theories and issues in developmental psychology

Learning Outcomes

• Discuss critical issues in developmental psychology.

• Describe Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, including the three parts of personality and psychosexual stages.

• Explain Erikson’s psychosocial theory and how it differs from Freud’s.

• Evaluate learning theories related to human development.

• Discuss Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory.

• Evaluate cognitive theories and system theories.

Key Developmental Issues

• Nature vs. Nurture

  • Nature:

    • Hereditary influences

    • Emphasis on biological maturation

  • Nurture:

    • Environmental influences

    • Learning through experience

• Continuity vs. Discontinuity

  • Is development gradual or occurs in stages?

  • Concept of stages in development

• Similarity vs. Uniqueness

  • Commonalities vs. differences among individuals

• Activity vs. Passivity

  • Are individuals active in their development or passive recipients of experiences?

Approaches to Developmental Psychology

1. Normative-Descriptive Approach

2. Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

   • Development is influenced by unconscious drives and instincts.

   • Personality structure: id, ego, superego.

   • Development is discontinuous and occurs in stages.

3. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

   • Evolved from psychoanalytical roots, emphasizes social influences.

   • Development consists of eight psychosocial stages, each presenting a crisis for resolution.

4. Learning Theories

   • Influenced by behaviorists, including Watson, Pavlov, and Skinner.

   • Development is continuous; learning principles apply throughout life.

5. Cognitive Theories

   • Focus on how children actively construct understanding through experiences.

   • Piaget: theory of active learning and progression through stages.

   • Vygotsky: social constructivism emphasizing cultural influences on cognitive development.

6. System Theories

   • Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model:

     • Focuses on the interplay between individuals and their environments.

   • Dynamic Systems Theory: acknowledges the complexity of development pathways.

Learning Theory Insights

• Operant Conditioning: Voluntary behavior shaped by reinforcement or punishment.

  • Types of Reinforcement:

    • Positive: Adding desirable stimuli to increase behavior.

    • Negative: Removing aversive stimuli to increase behavior.

  • Types of Punishment:

    • Positive: Adding aversive stimuli to decrease behavior.

    • Negative: Removing pleasant stimuli to decrease behavior.

Social Cognitive Theory

• Emphasizes active agency in learning processes.

• Learning can occur without immediate behavioral changes.

• Reciprocal Determinism: Behavior, cognition, and environmental factors interact to affect learning.

Piaget’s Cognitive Development

• Constructivist approach where children create knowledge from interactions.

• Stages of cognitive development reflecting the maturation and experience interplay.

Sociocultural Theory by Vygotsky

• Emphasizes social interactions and cultural tools in cognitive development.

• Learning occurs first on a social level and then individually.

Information Processing Paradigm

• Focuses on cognitive processes as symbol manipulation.

• Understanding cognition involves studying how individuals process and represent information.

Lifespan Development

• Developmental Principles by Baltes (1987):

  • Lifelong process with gains and losses.

  • Multidimensionality and plasticity of development.

  • Development is contextually and historically situated.

System Theories and Bronfenbrenner’s Model

• Examines the interplay between biological and environmental factors.

• Five Environmental Systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem.

Summary of Theories

• Stage theorists (Freud, Erikson, Piaget) emphasize maturation.

• Learning theorists (Watson, Skinner, Bandura) focus on environmental influences.

• Vygotsky and systems theorists view biology and environment as interrelated in development.