Module 1: Introduction to Development

Influences on Development

Cultural, social and historical factors influencing development:

• Normative age-graded influences: similar biological influences for individuals at the same age - Ex: puberty

• Normative history-graded influences: why people born at the same time (cohort) tend to be similar - impact of historical circumstance on a generation

• Non-normative life events: unique occurrences that impact on the individual, independent of historical period

Major Developmental Theories

Psychoanalytic: Freud and Erikson

• People move through a series of stages where they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations

• Psychosexual stages of development and how three parts of personality (id, ego, and superego) become integrated throughout these stages

• Freud was the first person to emphasise the importance of the parent-child relationship on development

Erikson saw development as continuing throughout the lifespan, with fundamental psychosocial conflict at every stage, as opposed to Freud

Birth - 1 yr: Basic trust vs mistrust

1 - 3 yrs: Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt

3 - 6 yrs: Initiative vs Guilt

6 - 11 yrs: Industry vs Inferiority

Adolescence: Identity vs Role Confusion

Early adulthood: Intimacy vs Isolation

Middle age: Generativity vs Stagnation

Behaviourist Theories

• Traditional behaviourism