Freud Made developmental psychology a legitimate field of study Psychoanalytic perspective Psychosexual theory

Components of personality Id: biological needs and desires (innate) Ego: conscious, rational, determines how to meet desires of Id (early infancy) Superego: conscience (develops 3-6 years by interaction with parents)

Stages of psychosexual development Oral Anal Phallic Latency Genital Sexual impulses shift over development

Contributions and criticisms: First theory to stress role of early experience Importance of family relationships, unconscious motivation Overemphasis on sexual feelings Lack of generalizeability No direct study of children Little evidence of influence of early conflict on later personality

Erikson Neo-Freudian Psychosocial theory, emphasis on ego = complex, positive force More emphasis on cultural influences Children as active explorers

Erikson’s stages Trust vs. mistrust (birth-1 yr.) Autonomy vs. shame (1-3) Initiative vs. guilt (3-6) Industry vs. inferiority (6-11) Identity vs. role confusion (Adolescence) Intimacy vs. isolation (Early adulthood) Generativity vs. stagnation (Middle adulthood) Ego integrity vs. despair (Late adulthood)

Contributions and criticisms: Unique life history as worthy of study Encouraged research on social and emotional development Difficult to test Emphasis on clinical interview approach

Behaviorism (learning theory #1) Locke’s tabula rasa Watson’s ideas inspired by Pavlov’s work on animal learning Classical conditioning (e.g., Little Albert) Animals and humans repeat or suppress behavior based on outcome

Operant conditioning: Skinner (learning theory #2) Behavior can be increased by following it with reinforcers E.g., give 3yr. old praise (“good job!”) for good behavior; give 10 yr. old money for good grades Behavior can be decreased by following it with punishment E.g., rats in a cage get a shock when they press a bar for food; teenager gets “grounded” for getting home late

Social learning theory (learning theory #3) New interest in if behaviorism (vs. Psychoanalytic theory) explains children’s social behavior Bandura’s emphasis on modeling (imitation, observational learning) as basis for behavior Current work emphasizes cognition A social cognitive approach: development of personal standards and self-efficacy to guide responses

Learning theories: Three mechanisms Classical conditioning Stimulus-response Operant learning Reinforcers and punishers Social learning Modeling

Learning theories: Contributions and criticisms: Precise and testable Behavior modification Address how and why questions of development Oversimplified Narrow view of environmental influences Downplays contribution of biological influences Underestimation of child’s contribution to development

Piaget Greatest influence on modern study of child development Children are explorers who actively construct knowledge of world Study using open-ended clinical interviews Four broad stages of development (he (assumed NO changes past adolescence!)

Important Piagetian concepts Scheme: organized pattern of though/action to explain experience (e.g, your idea of what going to a movie is like: arrive, buy tickets, sit down, etc.) Assimilation: interpretation using existing cognitive structures (e.g., You like Sara and think she’s nice. She hits your car, you assume it was an accident.) Accommodation: changing existing schemas to explain new experience (e.g., You hear a nasty rumor about Sara. You believe it and so you decide that she’s not a nice person and stop talking to her.)

Four stages of development Sensorimotor: infant sensation and movement to explore (birth-2 yrs.) Preoperational: symbolic, but illogical thinking based on early action patterns (2-7) Concrete-operational: more organized cognition and reasoning (7-11) Formal-operational: complex, abstract reasoning system (11 yrs.+)

Contributions: Great heuristic value Children as active learners with rich knowledge structures Educational philosophy & practice: discovery learning and direct contact with environment Linked moral and cognitive development Development of social cognition (thinking about people)

Criticisms: Underestimated abilities of infants and young children Improvement of performance and training questions and discovery learning vs. teaching Little attention to social, cultural influences Vygotsky challenges idea of children as independent explorers Invariant sequence of stages

Information-processing 1970s cognitive psychology + computer science Human mind is a symbol-manipulating system Biological maturation as an important contributor to cognitive development Sensory “input,” information coding, transformation, organization, and behavioral “output” Small quantitative changes

Contributions and criticisms: Fills gaps in Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory Artificial laboratory studies and oversimplification of cognition Commitment to careful, rigorous research methods Some very narrow models of cognition and task mastery Ignores aspects of cognition that are not linear and logical (e.g., imagination)

Ethology Adaptive or survival value and behavior and evolutionary history & natural selection Biologically programmed behaviors to promote survival (e.g., imprinting) Early experience is important Critical vs. sensitive periods in development

Critical vs. sensitive periods Critical: limited time span, biologically prepared to acquire adaptive behaviors, but requires appropriate environment Sensitive: time period optimal for specific capacities to emerge because person is especially responsive to environmental influences

Critical vs. sensitive periods Critical: e.g., specific time window for Salmon to learn a smell that helps them find their way back to the correct river location to spawn Sensitive: e.g., formation of the parent-child attachment relationship (0-3 years)

Contributions and criticisms: Focus on study in natural environments and comparison of human development to other species development Inspired Bowlby’s theory of attachment Inspired new areas of study: evolutionary developmental psychology (the study of adaptive behaviors across different ages and time) Difficult or impossible to test, retrospective

Vygotsky Emphasis on cultural context and unique environmental conditions Focus on culturally specific practices and relation to development Cultural transmission of beliefs, values, and customs over time Social interaction (i.e., cooperative dialogues) essential to child’s acquisition of cultural beliefs and practices

Contributions and criticisms: Influence of cultural context on development and cross cultural research Study of development as a socially-mediated process Focus on unique strengths of children in different cultures Little attention to the role of heredity and brain maturation in cognitive development More passive view of children’s role in development

Bronfenbrenner Children develop within a complex system of relationships Multiple levels of environmental influences Biological predispositions combine with environmental influences to direct development Focus on bi-directional relationships Five contexts of development

Five contexts of development: Micosystem: activities, interaction patterns of immediate surrounding (e.g., parents, family, daycare, church) Mesosystem: connections between microsystems (e.g., connections between home and school) Exosystem: social systems that affect child’s immediate surroundings that do not contain children (e.g., parent’s work- factory closing; community school board decisions) Macrosystem: cultural laws, values, customs, and resources (e.g., cultural norms and beliefs about how to treat children) Chronosystem: temporal dimension-age of child (e.g., experiencing your parents’ divorce at age 4 vs. 15)

Five contexts of development:

Contributions and criticisms: View of children as products and producers of their environment Rich description of environmental influences View of environment as ever-changing influence on development Incomplete account of development (primary focus on environmental influences)

Dynamic systems theory: Description of variation in development View children’s minds, bodies, and physical and social worlds as an integrated system Dynamic system of development: any change affects organism- environment relationship Goal: to understand how children attain new levels of functioning by studying child behavior while in transition

Dynamic systems theory: e.g., DS Theory was recently used to describe and explain the movement patterns of fish swarms

Dynamic systems theory: e.g., DS theory was recently used to explain and understand the formation and movement of locust swarms. The results of this research will have important implications for prediction and minimization of destructive swarms that destroy vital crops in Africa and other parts of the world.

Dynamic systems theory: When change occurs: children actively reorganize behavior so system components work together again in a more complex, effective manner Common genetic heritage and regularities of physical/social world are sources of universal, broad outlines of development BUT, there are wide individual differences in skills Primary application to cognitive and motor development, but more and more focus on social and emotional development

Comparing theories: Different domains (e.g., social, cognitive) of development Different points of view about development (3 issues) Strengths and weaknesses-none is a complete view of development! Best approach: multi-method and eclectic (=no 1 theoretical bias)