chapter 2 pp part i

Understanding and Studying Child Development

Part I

Chapter 2

2 | 2Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Scientific Theories• Developmental scientists formulate theories or

hypotheses about the causes of behavior and use these to design studies about development and make sense of their findings.

• Theories of child developmental help developmental scientists decide what to focus on when they study or work with children.

• People develop implicit theories to help them understand and explain other people’s behavior.


Scientific Theories

• A structured sets of ideas that attempts to organize and explain facts (an objective statement of truth.)

• Opinions result from an individual’s “feelings” about a given item and may or may not be based on fact.

• Different theories provide different frames of reference for interpreting facts, and there is a tendency to interpret facts in ways that fit the theory.


Evaluating Theories of Development

• A good theory is:– Understandable– Predicts future events– Explains facts– Provides practical guidance– Stimulates new knowledge– Empirically based (based on observation and

experimentation)

– testable


Theoretical Approaches to Child Development

• BIOLOGICAL THEORIES• ETHOLOGICAL THEORIES• NEURODEVELOPMENTAL

APPROACHES• PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES• LEARNING THEORIES• COGNITIVE THEORIES• CONTEXTUAL THEORIES


BIOLOGICAL THEORIES

• Biology-based theories assume that powerful organic or inherited forces influence behavior– Evolutionary factors– Physiological development (i.e., brain

functioning)


BIOLOGICAL THEORIES: Evolutionary Theory

• Focus on how behaviors promote the survival of the individual and the species

• Research areas include – social behavior– mate selection– language– reasoning abilities– cooperation, etc.


BIOLOGICAL THEORIES: Ethological Theory

• Focus on – Evolutionary causes and

adaptive value of behavior

– Ethologists propose that there are critical and sensitive periods in development where a specific type of learning occurs rapidly


BIOLOGICAL THEORIES: Attachment Theory

• Attachment theorists argue– Attachments form as infants give cues to

which caregivers respond, increasing the likelihood of infant survival

– Over the first few years of life, children develop inner working models about themselves and others; based on the kind of care they have received, a specific type of learning occurs rapidly


BIOLOGICAL THEORIES: Neurodevelopmental Approaches

• Focus on the relationship of brain development to behavior and thinking

• The kinds of experiences a child has help to determine the patterns of connections in the brain

Doug Plummer/Photo Researchers


PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES

• Have their origins in the belief that the most important causes of behavior are rooted in the unconscious drives and forces that develop within the mind of an individual

• Not often used to guide research; however, they continue to influence the ways people think about human behavior


PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES: Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

• Human behavior arises from the dynamic internal energy resulting from biology

• The libido is the source of action and sexual desire



• The human personality, or psyche, consists of the id (the pleasure principle), the ego (the reality principle), and the superego (the conscience)

• During each stage of development, the increased sensitivity of a particular area of the body makes it an erogenous zone where libidinal energy is invested and pleasure is experienced



• Problems with Freud’s theory are– It is not based on solid scientific evidence– Freud never studied children directly– Aspects of his theory are untestable– It reflects cultural biases


PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES: Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory

• Individuals go through a series of stages representing psychosocial crises

• Crises represent critical periods in personality development



• Erikson believed that Freud’s theory– Gave too little recognition to social and cultural

influences– Failed to recognize developmental changes beyond

adolescence– Did not give enough emphasis to ego development– Focused primarily on the development of neurotic

and maladaptive behavior and did not give enough consideration to healthy development



• Erikson’s major contribution was the detailed definitions he provided of eight stages and the psychosocial crises associated with each

• Erikson’s theory– Was a life span approach– Viewed outcome of stages not permanent– Recognized cultural differences– Emphasized the development of identify (the external

reflection of the ego)


LEARNING-BASED THEORIES

• Maintain the environment in which people live and the experiences they have are major determinants of behavior.

• Behavior changes only occur when the environment is changed.

• Learning-based studies focus on factors that determine how behavior changes in response to everyday events.


LEARNING-BASED THEORIES:Classical Conditioning

• Conditioned responses to previously neutral stimuli could be taught

• Principles discovered accidentally by Pavlov in dogs

• Later extended by Watson to infants


LEARNING-BASED THEORIES:Operant Conditioning

• Focus on how the consequences of a behavior affect the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated

• Behavior is more likely to occur after the presentation of – a positive reinforcement (food, praise, etc.) – A negative reinforcement (removing a negative

condition)



• Reinforcement– Increases the probability that a behavior will be

repeated

• Punishment– Application of unpleasant consequence– Decreases the probability that a behavior will

be repeated– However, punishment is effective for only a

short time and may have unintended negative side effects



• A more effective strategy for reducing unwanted behavior may be extinction in which all positive consequences are withheld.

• Complex strings of behavior are learned through shaping – a process of rewarding behaviors that approximate the desired behavior.


LEARNING-BASED THEORIES:Social Learning Theory

• Bandura • Much of children’s

learning occurs by watching the consequences that others experience for their behaviors through a process called vicarious reinforcement

Elizabeth Crews/Image Works


LEARNING-BASED THEORIES:Social Learning Theory-Modeling Processes

• Through modeling, individuals learn new behaviors, the contexts appropriate for those behaviors, and their consequences

• The four processes involved in modeling behavior are:– Attention– Retention– Motor reproduction– Reinforcement and motivation

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