Developmental Psychology Theories of Development

Development is the series of age-related changes that happen over the course of a life span.

Several famous psychologists, including Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Lawrence Kohlberg, describe development as a series of stages.

A stage is a period in development in which people exhibit typical behavior patterns and establish particular capacities.

The various stage theories share three assumptions: –People pass through stages in a specific order, with each stage building on capacities developed in the previous stage. –Stages are related to age. –Development is discontinuous, with qualitatively different capacities emerging in each stage.

Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Personality The Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud first described personality development as a series of stages. Of these stages, Freud believed that early childhood was the most important. He believed that personality developed by about the age of five.

Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development Like Freud, Erik Erikson believed in the importance of early childhood. However, Erikson believed that personality development happens over the entire course of a person’s life. In the early 1960s, Erikson proposed a theory that describes eight distinct stages of development.

According to Erikson, in each stage people face new challenges, and the stage’s outcome depends on how people handle these challenges. Erikson named the stages according to these possible outcomes:

Trust vs. Mistrust AgeImportant Event Description Birth - 18 months FeedingInfants form a loving, trusting relationship with parents; they also learn to mistrust others.

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt AgeImportant Event Description 18 months - 3 Years Toilet Training Child's energies are directed toward physical skills: walking, grasping, and toilet training. The child learns control along with a healthy dose of shame and doubt.

Initiative vs. Guilt AgeImportant Event Description YearsIndependenceChild becomes more assertive, takes more initiative, becomes more forceful.

Competence vs. Inferiority AgeImportant Event Description YearsSchoolThe child must deal with demands to learn new skills while risking a sense of inferiority and failure

Identity vs. Role Confusion AgeImportant Event Description AdolescencePeersTeens must achieve self- identity while deciphering their roles in occupation, politics, and religion.

Intimacy vs. Isolation AgeImportant Event Description Young AdultRelationshipsThe young adult must develop marriage-seeking relationships while combating feelings of isolation.

Generativity vs. Self-Absorption AgeImportant Event Description Middle AdultParentingAssuming the role of parents signifies the need to continue the generations while avoiding the inevitable feeling of failure.

Integrity vs. Despair AgeImportant Event Description Late AdultLife Reflection Acceptance of one's lifetime accomplishments and sense of fulfillment.

Critique of Erikson’s Theory Usefulness Problem

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development While conducting intelligence tests on children, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget began to investigate how children think. According to Piaget, children’s thought processes change as they mature physically and interact with the world around them.

Piaget believed children develop schema, or mental models, to represent the world. As children learn, they expand and modify their schema through the processes of assimilation and accommodation.

Piaget proposed that children go through four stages of cognitive development: –Sensorimotor –Preoperational –Concrete Operational –Formal Operational

Sensorimotor Stage The Sensorimotor Stage is from approximately birth to 2 years of age. Babies take in the world purely through their senses- looking, hearing, touching, tasting and grasping.

Sensorimotor Stage At 4 to 8 months of age, a child will learn that she can make things move by banging them and shaking them.

Sensorimotor Stage Between 12 and 18 months a child is able to represent hidden objects in her mind (Object Permanence). –In other words, she will be able to “see” objects even when they are out of sight.

Sensorimotor Stage At 18 to 24 months of age, a child will begin to use images to stand for objects. In other words, a physical object can represent something else. Symbols represent objects or events in one’s own environment.

Preoperational Stage The Preoperational Stage is from approximately 2 to 7 years of age.

Preoperational Stage At the early part of this stage, a child will develop the ability to use symbols.

Preoperational Stage Between the ages of 3 and 4, your child will be able to apply this ability to symbolize with objects, to people (names represent people).

Preoperational Stage According to Piaget, children aren’t capable of conservation during this stage.

Preoperational Stage Children in the preoperational stage are egocentric (the inability to take on another’s point of view).

Singing Candlesticks and Dancing Dishes Animism - the tendency to attribute life to inanimate objects

Concrete Operational Stage 7-11 years old Understand concept of conservation. Can think logically, use analogies, and perform mathematical transformations (5+9 is the same as 9+5) also known as reversibility.

Formal Operational Stage We can reason abstractly. If John is in school, then Mary is in school. John is in school. What can you say about Mary? God is love.Love is BlindStevie Wonder is Blind. Stevie Wonder is god.

Critiques of Piaget’s Theories Although Piaget made important contributions to the research on cognitive development, his theory has come under attack for several reasons:

Recent research has shown that he greatly underestimated children’s capabilities. For example, researchers have shown that babies achieve object permanence much sooner than Piaget said they do. Children sometimes simultaneously develop skills that are characteristic of more than one stage, which makes the idea of stages seem less viable.

Piaget ignored cultural influences. Research has shown that children from different cultures tend to go through Piaget’s stages in the same order, but the timing and length of stages vary from culture to culture. Some people never develop the capacity for formal reasoning, even as adults.

HEINZ’S DILEMMA In Europe, a woman was near death from a very bad disease, a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick women’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could get together only about $1000, which was half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. What do you think: Should Heinz have stolen the drug? Why was what he did right or wrong?

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development Lawrence Kohlberg focused on moral reasoning, or why people think the way they do about right and wrong.

Preconventional Morality Conventional Morality Postconventional Morality

Preconventional Morality Morality of self- interest Their actions are either to avoid punishment or to gain rewards.

Conventional Morality Morality is based upon obeying laws to 1.Maintain social order 2.To gain social approval

Postconventional Morality Morality based on your own ethical principles.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development LevelStage What Determines Right and Wrong 1.Preconventional1Punishment by adults 2Reward by adults 2.Conventional3Rules set by close people 4Rules set by society 3.Postconventional5 Rules set by society, judged by what’s personally important 6 Rules based on abstract ethical principles

Critiques of Kohlberg’s Theories Research supports key parts of Kohlberg’s theory. People do tend to progress in order through Kohlberg’s stages, and cognitive and moral development do affect each other. However, critics of Kohlberg’s theory have two main concerns:

People often show the reasoning characteristic of several different levels simultaneously. For instance, in one situation, a person might reason as if he is at a conventional stage, and in another situation, he might use reasoning typical of a postconventional stage.

Kohlberg’s theory of moral development favors cultures that value individualism. In other cultures, highly moral people may base their reasoning on communal values rather than abstract ethical principles.