CHAPTER 1CHAPTER 1

History, Theories, and MethodsHistory, Theories, and Methods

The Development of the The Development of the Study of DevelopmentStudy of Development

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

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

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

Theories of DevelopmentTheories of Development

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)

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

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 unconsciousChildren play with same sex playmates

• Stage 5 – Genital stage Begins with biological changes in adolescence resulting in desire for intercourse

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

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

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

Erik Erikson

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)

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

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

B.F.Skinner

Fig. 1-1, p. 6

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

Fig. 1-2, p. 7

Fig. 1-3, p. 7

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

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

Albert Bandura

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

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

Jean Piaget

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

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

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

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)

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

Fig. 1-4, p. 11

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

Lev Vygotsky

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.

Controversies in DevelopmentControversies in Development

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

Nature or Nurture?

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

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

Developmental Theorists

How Do We Study Development?How Do We Study Development?

Developmental Research Methodologies

• Naturalistic observation– research conducted in natural setting– in “the field”

• Case study– carefully drawn account of an individual’s

behavior

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

Fig. 1-5, p. 16

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

Piaget’s Experiment

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

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

Longitudinal Studies

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

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

Fig. 1-6, p. 19

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