2. The Development of theThe Development of the
Study of DevelopmentStudy of Development
3. Child Development Pioneers
• John Locke
– Believed children came into the world as a “tabula
rasa,” or blank slate
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
– Believed children were inherently good, and when
allowed to express natural impulses, generous
morality would develop
4. Child Development Pioneers (cont’d)
• G. Stanley Hall
– Founded child development as an academic
discipline and focused scientific attention on the
period of adolescence
• Alfred Binet/Theodore Simon
– Developed first standardized intelligence test
intended to help public school children at risk of
falling behind their peers in academic
achievement
5. Adult Development Theorists
• William Perry/Gisella Labouvie-Vief
– Studied cognitive complexity from adolescence to
late adulthood
• K.W. Schaie
– Studied trends in various mental abilities
throughout middle and late adulthood
7. Developmental Theories
• Learning theory
– Stressed the importance of the physical and
social environments (nurture) (John B. Watson)
• Maturation view
– Stressed the importance of biological maturation
as the main force in development (nature) (Arnold
Gessell)
• Psychoanalytic perspective
– Stressed the importance of conflicts between
opposing inner forces (Freud)
8. Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual
Development
• Focused on emotional and social development
• Focused on the origins of psychological traits
– dependence, obsessive neatness, and vanity
• Three parts of the personality
- Id
• Present at birth; unconscious
• Represents biological drives
• Demands instant gratification
- Ego
• Conscious sense of self
• Seeks gratification but avoids social disapproval
- Superego
• Conscious
• Monitors the intentions and behavior of ego by allowing guilt
and shame
9. Five Stages of Psychosexual Development
• Stage 1 – Oral stage Focus on oral activities such as
sucking and biting during first year of
life
• Stage 2 – Anal stage Focus on control and elimination of
bodily waste products
Toilet training stage of life
• Stage 3 – Phallic stage Focus on parent/child conflict
over child’s personal sexual exploration
• Stage 4 – Latency stage Focus on schoolwork
Sexual feelings remain unconscious
Children play with same sex playmates
• Stage 5 – Genital stage Begins with biological changes in
adolescence resulting in desire for
intercourse
10. Contributions of Freudian Theory
• Stimulated various research areas
• Influenced how childcare workers approach infants,
toddlers, and preschoolers
• Influenced teachers’ sensitivity to students’
emotional needs
• Influenced the stage models of other theorists such
as Erikson
11. Limitations of Freudian Theory
• Theory developed from his interactions with adult
patients (mostly women)
• May have inadvertently guided patients’ reports to
confirm his views
• Overemphasized basic instincts and unconscious
motives
12. Erikson’s Psychosocial Development
• Focused on development of
– emotional life
– psychological traits
– self-identity
• Looked at importance of social relationships, but
emphasis was on the ego (sense of self)
• Viewed physical maturation as a major contributor to
development
• Viewed that early experiences affect future
developments and/or accomplishments
• Successful resolution of early life crises bolster
sense of identity
14. Eight Stages of Psychosocial
Development
• Stage 1 – Trust vs. mistrust (age 1)
• Stage 2 – Autonomy vs. shame/doubt (ages 1-3)
• Stage 3 – Initiative vs. guilt (ages 3-5)
• Stage 4 – Industry vs. inferiority (ages 6-12)
• Stage 5 – Identity vs. confusion (ages 12-18)
• Stage 6 – Intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood)
• Stage 7 – Generativity vs. self-absorption (middle adulthood)
• Stage 8 – Integrity vs. despair (late adulthood)
15. Contributions of Erikson’s Theory
• Emphasized importance of human consciousness
and choice
• Portrayed human development as prosocial and
helpful
• Some empirical support that positive outcomes of
early life crises help put us on path to positive
development
16. Behavioral Theory
• Classical conditioning
– Developed by Pavlov
– Learning in which a neutral stimulus elicits the response
usually brought forth by a second stimulus through repeated
pairings with the second stimulus
• ex. tension in children’s bladder paired with the bell
• Operant conditioning
– Developed by Skinner
– Learning in which an organism learns to engage in behavior
that is reinforced
• ex. child learns to adjust behavior to conform to social codes and rules
to earn reinforcers such as attention and approval
19. Reinforcement
• Positive reinforcers
– Increase the frequency of behaviors when they are applied
• ex. food and approval
• Negative reinforcers
– Increase the frequency of behaviors when undesirable
states are removed
• ex. fear of failure is removed when one studies for a test
• Extinction
– Results from repeated performance of operant behavior
without reinforcement
• ex. child’s temper tantrum stops when parent leaves the room
22. Punishment
• Punishment: aversive events that suppress
or decrease the frequency of the behavior
they follow
• Punishment CONS
– Does not suggest alternative acceptable behavior
– Suppresses undesirable behavior only when its
delivery is guaranteed
– Can create feelings of anger and hostility
23. Social-Cognitive Theory
• Developed by Bandura
– Learning occurs
• by observing other people
• by reading
• by viewing characters in the media
• Observational learning occurs by the
modeling of a behavior to another person
25. Cognitive-Developmental Theory
• Developed by Piaget
– Intrigued by children’s wrong answers
– Children seen as active participants
• Scheme
– Action pattern or mental structure involved in acquiring or
organizing knowledge
• Adaptation
– Interaction between the organism and the environment
• Assimilation
– The incorporation of new events or knowledge into existing
schemes
• Accommodation
– The modification of existing schemes to permit the
incorporation of new events or knowledge
• Equilibration
– Achieving a balance between assimilation and
accommodation
26. Four Stages of Cognitive Development
• Stage 1 – Sensorimotor (birth to 2 years)
– focus on sensory exploration; object permanence mastered
• Stage 2 – Preoperational (2-7 years)
– focus on language and symbolic expression through play; children are
egocentric
• Stage 3 – Concrete operational (7-12 years)
– focus on mastering concepts such as reversibility
• Stage 4 – Formal operational (12 years and older)
– ability to reason abstractly
28. Information-Processing Theory
• Based on computer model of information processing
• Cognitive process of
– encoding information (input)
– storing the information into long-term memory
– retrieving the information (or placing it in short-
term memory)
– manipulating the information to solve problems
• Most applicable to the teaching of methodological
steps
• ex: teaching the scientific method
29. The Biological Perspective
Directly relates to physical development:
– gains in height and weight
– development of the brain
– developments connected with hormones,
reproduction, and heredity
• Two primary theories
– Evolutionary psychology
– Ethology
30. Evolutionary Psychology
• Studies the ways in which adaptation and
natural selection are connected with mental
processes and behavior
– Behavior patterns that help an organism to
survive and reproduce are likely to be transmitted
to the next generation
– Fixed action patterns
• A stereotyped pattern of behavior evoked by a
“releasing stimulus,” an instinct
31. The Ecological Perspective
• Ecology
– The branch of biology that deals with the
relationships between living organisms and their
environment
• Bronfenbrenner
– Looked at two-way interactions between the child
and the parents, not just maturational forces
(nature) or childrearing practices (nurture)
32. Bronfenbrenner’s Systems Approach
• Microsystem
– interactions of the child with other people in the immediate
setting such as the home, school, or peer group
• Mesosystem
– interactions of various settings with the microsystem such as a
parent-teacher conference or a school field trip to the zoo
• Exosystem
– institutions that indirectly affect the development of the child
such as the school board or the parent’s place of employment
• Macrosystem
– interaction of the child with the beliefs, expectations, and
lifestyle of his/her cultural setting
• Chronosystem
– the influence that changes over time have on development
34. The Sociocultural Perspective
• Developed by Vygotsky
• Teaches that people are social beings who are affected
by the cultures in which they live
• Focuses on the transmission of information and
cognitive skills from generation to generation
• Views that learning consists of social engagement from
a more skilled individual to a lesser skilled individual
– ex: an older sibling teaching a younger sibling to ride a bike
36. Sociocultural Terms
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
– range of tasks that a child can carry out with the help of a more
skilled apprentice
• Scaffolding
– problem-solving methods such as cues provided to the child to
increase independent functioning
• Diversity
– one’s ethnicity, race, gender, age, etc.
38. The Nature/Nurture Controversy
• Which is more influential in development – nature
(heredity) or nurture (environmental influences)?
• Natural causes
– Genetics
– Nervous system functioning
– Maturation
• Environmental causes
– Nutrition
– Cultural and familial backgrounds
– Educational opportunities
40. The Continuity/Discontinuity Controversy
• Continuous perspective views development as
– a process where the effects of learning mount gradually
with no major sudden qualitative changes
• Discontinuous perspective views development as
– a number of rapid qualitative changes that usher in new
STAGES of development
– biological changes provide the potential for psychological
changes
• Freud and Piaget were discontinuous theorists
41. The Active-Passive Controversy
• Active perspective
– maintains children are actively engaged in their
development
• ex: child viewed as willful and unruly
• Passive perspective
– maintains that children are passive and the
environment acts on them to influence
development
• ex: child viewed as blank tablets
43. How Do We Study Development?How Do We Study Development?
44.
45. Developmental Research Methodologies
• Naturalistic observation
– research conducted in natural setting
– in “the field”
• Case study
– carefully drawn account of an individual’s
behavior
46. Correlational Studies
• Correlation
– attempt to determine whether one behavior or trait
being studied is correlated with another; never
indicates cause and effect
• Correlation coefficient
– number ranging from -1.00 to +1.00 that expresses
the direction and strength of the relationship between
two variables
• positive correlation
• negative correlation
48. The Experiment
• Preferred method for investigating questions of
cause and effect
• One group receives the treatment and the other
group does not
• Experiments test a hypothesis
• Experiments have independent and dependent
variables
– independent variable is manipulated
– dependent variables are the measured results
50. Experiments (cont’d)
• Experimental group
– receives the treatment
• Control group
– does not receive the treatment
• Random assignment
– subjects assigned to a group randomly
• Ethical/practical considerations
– researchers look at the assignment of participants; sometimes
correlational evidence must be settled for rather than
experimental
• Animal subjects
– used to generalize findings to humans when it is not ethical or
practical to use humans in the experiment
51. Longitudinal Research
• In longitudinal research
– same people are observed repeatedly over time,
and changes in development are recorded
• Typical time of study spans months or a few
years
• Longitudinal researchers must enlist future
researchers to continue the study
53. Cross-Sectional Research
• Cross-sectional research observes and
compares subjects of different ages
– a larger number of participants is needed for this
type of study
• Cohort effect
– Group of people born at the same time will
experience cultural and other events unique to
age group
54. Cross-Sequential Research
• Combines longitudinal and cross-sectional
methods to overcome research drawbacks
• Breaks up the full span of the ideal
longitudinal study into convenient segments
• Minimizes the number of years needed to
complete a study
• Uses time-lag comparisons
56. Ethical Considerations
• Do not use methods that may cause physical or
psychological harm
• Inform participants of the purposes of the research and
its methods
• Participation must involve voluntary consent
• Participants may withdraw from study at any time, for
any reason
• Participants are offered information about the results of
the study
• Identities of participants remains confidential
• Research plans are to be presented to a committee of
colleagues and gain approval before proceeding
Editor's Notes
Some abilities decline in middle and late adulthood, but others that represent the accumulation of decades of knowledge can advance into late adulthood.
Freud believed that if a child receives too much or too little during any stage, the child can become fixated in that stage.
Oral Stage- Child develops a fixation if weaned too early or breast-fed too long.
Anal Stage- Excessively strict or permissive toilet training can lead to the development of:
1. anal-retentive traits, such as perfectionism.
2. anal-expulsive traits, such as sloppiness and carelessness
Phallic Stage- Child develops a strong sexual attachment to the opposite sex parent.
Parent of same sex seen as a rival.
Genital Stage- Freud believed that oral or anal stimulation, masturbation, and male-male or female-female sexual activity
are immature forms of sexual conduct that reflect earlier fixations.
Stimulated research on:
attachment
gender role development
moral development
How is Erikson different than Freud?
Erikson focuses on psychosocial development rather than psychosexual development.
Erikson places greater emphasis on the ego, or the sense of self.
Erikson extended Freud’s five stages to EIGHT to include the concerns of adulthood.
Erikson labeled his stages after the LIFE CRISIS that people might encounter during that stage, rather than after parts of the body (like Freud).
As opposed to Freud who portrayed us as selfish and needing to be compelled to comply with social rules
Classical Conditioning
-Behaviorists argue that much emotional learning is acquired through classical conditioning.
Figure 1.1: Schematic Representation of Classical Conditioning.
Before conditioning, the bell is an unlearned or unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that elicits waking up, which is an unlearned or unconditioned response (UCR). Bladder tension does not elicit waking up, which is the problem. During the conditioning procedure, bladder tension repeatedly precedes urination, which in turn causes the bell to ring. After several repetitions, bladder tension has become associated with the bell, making bladder tension into a learned or conditioned stimulus (CS) that causes the child to awaken. Awakening in response to bladder tension is a learned or conditioned response (CR).
Figure 1.2: Positive versus Negative Reinforcers.
All reinforcers increase the frequency of behavior. In these examples, teacher approval functions as a positive reinforcer when students study harder because of it. Teacher disapproval functions as a negative reinforcer when its removal increases the frequency of studying.
Figure 1.3: Negative Reinforcers versus Punishments.
Both negative reinforcers and punishments tend to be aversive stimuli. Reinforcers, however, increase the frequency of behavior. Punishments decrease the frequency of behavior. Negative reinforcers increase the frequency of behavior when they are removed.
Jean Piaget realized that when children answered questions incorrectly, their wrong answers still often reflected consistent, although illogical, mental processes.
Piaget regarded children as natural physicists who actively intend to learn about and take intellectual charge of their worlds.
Discussed in subsequent chapters.
Our strategies for solving problems are sometimes referred to as our “mental programs” or “software.”
Influenced by Charles Darwin, Konrad Lorenz, and Niko Tinbergen
Research into ethological perspective suggest that instinct may play a role in human behavior.
Looks at development ethologically-
inborn, instinctive, behavior patterns
Fixed action patterns – built in or instinctive behaviors
Ex.: birds migrating to same place
Ex: sex hormone secretion during prenatal development resulting in masculine or feminine patterned brain
This is a systems approach recognizing that there are systems imbedded in other systems which influence behavior and development
Ex: the behavior of a child is influenced by parents, peers, teachers, social groups, socio- economic status, etc.
Figure 1.4: The Contexts of Human Development.
According to ecological systems theory, the systems within which children develop are embedded within larger systems. Children and these systems reciprocally influence each other.
Natural Causes- of development studied are genetic heritage (twin studies used frequently), the functioning of the nervous system and maturation
Environmental causes- are nutrition, cultural and familial backgrounds, educational opportunities, cognitive stimulation during early childhood and formal education
Naturalistic Observation-
Observer takes great pains not to disturb the environment.
Interference can result in “bias” in the research results
Effective when studying cultures
Case Studies-
may use diaries, questionnaires, standardized tests, interviews, information from public records
Positive correlation – relationship between two variables in which one variable increases as the other increases.
Negative Correlation – relationship between two variables in which one variable increases as the other decreases.
Figure 1.6: Examples of Positive and Negative Correlations.
When two variables are correlated positively, one increases as the other increases. There is a positive correlation between the amount of time spent studying and grades, as shown in Part A. When two variables are correlated negatively, one increases as the other decreases. There is a negative correlation between the frequency of a child’s delinquent acts and his or her grades, as shown in Part B. As delinquent behavior increases, grades tend to decline.
Seeks to study development over time-
-some subjects’ characteristics such as height, weight, and/or changes in mental capabilities observed repeatedly over time
-a larger number of participants is needed for this type of study
Cohort effect-
children of a particular cohort will have different life experiences than their parents
Figure 1.7: Example of Cross-Sequential Research.
Cross-sequential research combines three methods: cross-sectional, longitudinal, and time lag. The child’s age at the time of testing appears in the boxes. Vertical columns represent cross-sectional comparisons. Horizontal rows represent longitudinal comparisons. Diagonals represent time-lag comparisons.
