1. How and Why People Develop and Learn

2. The Role of Developmental Theories
Developmental theories are comprehensive explanations about why people act and behave the way they do.
Learning about developmental theories will
help you better understand the capabilities, motivations, and expectations of those around you.
give you a broader picture of how people develop and change over time.
make you a more empathetic person.

3. How Early Life Experiences Affect People Over Time
Many theorist have multiple ideas about how and why humans develop and change the way they do. These ideas are called psychoanalytic theories.
Psychoanalytic theorist analyze the symbolic meaning behind behaviors.
Developmental theories are comprehensive explanations about why people act and behave the way they do and how they change overtime.

4. Freud’s Theory
Freud believed that what happens early in life affects a person for years to come. .

5. Erikson’s Theory
Erik Erikson believed that both early and later life experiences affect development. He believed that all humans develop in eight stages.
People must successfully resolve a psychological/social conflict before moving to the next stage

6. Erikson’s Psychosocial Developmental Stages

7. Piaget’s Cognitive Theory
Piaget believed that young children base their thinking on what they know.
As they gain more experience, their way of thinking will change and adapt.

9. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Vygotsky believed that children are social beings and develop their minds through interactions with parents, teachers, and other knowledgeable people.
For example, when Mackenzie's teacher shows her how to fold and cut a piece of paper, she may later repeat her teacher’s instructions.

10. Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Kohlberg identified three different levels of thinking that people
go through in making moral decisions.
In the first level people make decisions based on whether or not they will be punished or rewarded.
In the second level, people’s moral decisions are motivated by laws and how they might be perceived.
In the third level, some teens and many adults make moral decisions based on principles and morals.

11. How behaviors can be Caused
Scientist and researchers believed that people were essentially blank screens.
Observable behaviors are the things people do and say, or the way they act.
Behaviorism is the belief that people’s behavior is determined by forces in the environment that are beyond their control.

12. Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning
Pavlov demonstrated the idea of behaviorism through his infamous experiment with a dog. He taught a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell.
Classical Conditioning are behaviors that are associated with emotional responses.
Conditioning can occur without a trainer. A parent may be unaware that he/she is teaching a child to be afraid.
Positive, negative, or neutral experiences affect people and a range of emotional associations, attitudes, and behaviors results.

13. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
B.F Skinner is known for identifying the basic principle of operant conditioning.
Operant Conditioning is the repetition of behaviors when reinforced. If you get an “A” on your test, you may use a similar strategy on a future test.
In order to make a behavior stick, the reinforcement must be gradually removed in an unpredictable pattern.

14. Social Cognitive
Albert Bandura created a theory call the Social Cognitive Theory. He argued that people watch and imitate other people’s behaviors, despite whether or not there are rewards and punishments, and that their reaction to rewards and punishments are filtered by their own perceptions, thoughts, and motivations.

15. So which theorist is correct?
No one theory should be considered the absolute truth. Most are valid to some extent.

16. What causes people to develop specific traits?
Biology and Environment Influence Development
Ethological theory=biology
Ecological theory=environment

17. What else affects development?
People
Community
Economic resources
Media
health care
Nutrition
Physical activity

18. Research Perspective & Methods
Scientific methods
Hypothesis
Descriptive studies
Manipulative experiments
Longitudinal studies
Cross-sectional studies
Naturalistic experiments
Must follow ETHICAL RESEARCH & STANDARDS