Lecture 2

Theories and methods of life-span development

Researchers formulate problems and hypotheses within theories.

Definition of Theory

Theory of theory: A theory is an interrelated, coherent set of statements that help to explain and to make predictions.Often formalized in the natural sciences.

Practice of theory: A theory is a scientific worldview.

Requirements for a theory:

Popper: Falsifiability. A scientific theory should be able to generate predictions that could be disconfirmed.

Definition of Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a specific assumption or prediction that can be tested to determine its accuracy.

PsychoanalyticTheories

EthologicalTheory

CognitiveTheories

EcologicalTheory

Behavioral andSocial Cognitive

Theories

An EclecticTheoreticalOrientation

Theories ofDevelopment

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Medical doctor specializing in neurology -> Dynamic approach

Developed ideas about psychoanalytic theory from work with mental patients

Considered problems to be the result of experiences early in life

Psychoanalytic Theories Mental life is primarily unconscious— beyond

awareness. Mental life is heavily colored by emotion. Early experiences with parents extensively shape

behavior.

Freud’s Structures of Personality

Id Ego Superego

Psychosexual Development

Five stages Each stage focuses on a part of the body for

experiencing pleasure. How conflicts between sources of pleasure are

resolved determines adult personality.

The Five Stages of Psychosexual Development

The Oral Stage (Birth to 18 months) The Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years) The Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years) The Latent Stage (6 years to puberty) The Genital Stage (Puberty on)

The Oral Stage

Pleasure centers around the mouth. Chewing, sucking, biting are sources of pleasure.

The Anal Stage

Pleasure centers around the anus. Eliminative functions are sources of pleasure.

The Phallic Stage

Pleasure focuses on the genitals. Self-manipulation is a source of pleasure. Oedipus Complex appears.

Definition of the Oedipus Complex

The Oedipus Complex is Freud’s term for the young child’s development of an intense desire to replace the same-sex parent and enjoy the affections of the opposite-sex parent.

Resolution of the Oedipus Complex

Children recognize that their same-sex parent might punish them for their incestuous wishes.

To reduce this conflict, the child identifies with the same-sex parent, striving to be like him or her.

The Latent Stage The child represses all interest in sexuality. The child develops social and intellectual skills. Energy is channeled into emotionally safe areas. The child forgets the highly stressful conflicts of the

phallic stage.

The Genital Stage

This is a time of sexual reawakening. The source of sexual pleasure comes from someone

outside the family.

When conflict is not resolved:

Individuals may develop a fixation

Definition of Fixation

A fixation occurs when the individual remains locked in an earlier developmental stage because needs are under- or over-gratified.

Examples of Fixations Oral - Due to a parent weaning too early, as an adult

the individual seeks out oral gratification through smoking, drinking, gum chewing.

Anal - Due to a parent being too strict with potty training, as an adult the individual is excessively neat and orderly (known as “Anal Retentive”).

Phallic - Due to a parent punishing the child for masturbating, as an adult the individual seeks out pornography.

Genital - Due to a parent smothering a child with too much attention, as an adult the individual has difficulty in romantic relationships due to being extremely “needy.”

Erik Erikson (1902-1994)

Recognized Freud’s contributions Believed Freud misjudged some important

dimensions of human development Developed the Psychosocial Theory of

Development

The Psychosocial Theory of Development

The primary motivation for human behavior is social and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people.

Eight stages of development unfold throughout the entire life span.

Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be faced.

The Psychosocial Theory of Development (cont’d)

Crises are not catastrophes but rather turning points of increased vulnerability and enhanced potential.

The more an individual resolves the crises successfully, the healthier development will be.

Stages of Psychosocial Development

Trust vs. Mistrust Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Initiative vs. Guilt Industry vs. Inferiority Identity vs. Identity Confusion Intimacy vs. Isolation Generativity vs. Stagnation Integrity vs. Despair

Example: Identity vs. Identity Confusion (Adolescence)

Individuals are faced with finding out who they are, what they are all about, and where they are going in life.

Adolescents are confronted with many new roles and adult statuses.

If the adolescent explores roles in a healthy manner and arrives at a positive path in life, then positive identity will be achieved.

If an identity is pushed on the adolescent by parents, if the adolescent does not adequately explore many roles, then identity confusion reigns.

Example: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Early Adulthood)

Individuals face the developmental task of forming intimate relationships with others.

Intimacy is defined as finding oneself yet losing oneself in another.

Intimacy is achieved through the formation of healthy friendships and an intimate relationship with another individual.

Isolation results from failure to achieve the above.

Example: Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adulthood)

This involves reflecting on the past and either piecing together a positive review or concluding that one’s life has not been well spent.

Integrity is achieved through reflecting on a past deemed worthwhile.

If the older adult resolved many of the earlier stages negatively, looking back will lead to doubt or gloom (despair).

Contributions of Psychoanalytic Theories

Early experiences play an important part in development.

Family relationships are a central aspect of development.

Personality can be better understood if it is examined developmentally.

The mind is not all conscious; unconscious aspects of the mind need to be considered.

Changes take place in the adulthood as well as the childhood years (Erikson).

Criticisms of Psychoanalytic Theories

The main concepts have been difficult to test. Much of the data used to support these

theories come from individuals’ reconstruction of the past, often the distant past.

The sexual underpinnings of development are given too much importance by Freud.

Psychoanalytic theories are culture- and gender-biased.

Cognitive Theories

Piaget’s cognitive development theory Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory The information-processing approach

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Swiss psychologist Observed his own children to develop theory of

cognitive development Changed how we think about the development of

children’s minds

Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

Children actively construct their understanding of the world.

Children progress through four stages of cognitive development.

Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 yrs.) Preoperational Stage (2-7 yrs.) Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 yrs.) Formal Operational Stage (11 and up)

The Sensorimotor Stage Infants construct an understanding of the world by

coordinating sensory experiences with physical, motor actions.

The Preoperational Stage

Children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings.

Definition of Operations

Internalized mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they previously did physically

The Concrete Operational Stage

Children can perform mental operations. Logical reasoning replaces intuitive thought, as long

as reasoning can be applied to concrete examples.

The Formal Operational Stage

Individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in abstract, more logical terms.

Problem solving is more systematic and involves hypotheses.

Mechanisms of Development

Organization Adaptation Equilibration

Organization

Tendency for parts of a system to form and to be integrated into a whole.

Adaptation

Assimilation: Incorporating new information into one’s existing knowledge

Accommodation: Adapting one’s existing knowledge to new information

Equilibration

Every organism tends towards equilibrium with the environment and equilibrium within itself.

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory

Shares Piaget’s view that children actively construct their knowledge.

Emphasizes developmental analysis, the role of language, and social relations.

Like Piaget, Vygotsky’s ideas were not introduced in America until the 1960s.

Vygotsky’s 3 Basic Claims about Children’s Development

Cognitive skills have their origins in social relations and are embedded in a sociocultural backdrop.

The child’s cognitive skills can be understood only when they are developmentally analyzed and interpreted.

Cognitive skills are mediated by words, language, and forms of discourse.

The Information-Processing Approach

Emphasizes that individuals manipulate, monitor, and strategize about information.

Central are the processes of memory and thinking.

Individuals develop a gradually increasing capacity for processing information.

This enables the acquisition of increasingly complex knowledge and skills.

Contributions of the Cognitive Theories

They present a positive view of development, emphasizing individuals’ conscious thinking.

They emphasize the individual’s active construction of understanding.

Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories underscore the importance of examining developmental changes in children’s thinking.

The information-processing approach offers detailed descriptions of cognitive processes.

Discussion

What happened to our early childhood memories?

Criticisms of the Cognitive Theories

There is skepticism about the pureness of Piaget’s stages.

They do not give adequate attention to individual variations in cognitive development.

Information processing doesn’t provide adequate description of developmental changes in cognition.

Psychoanalytic theorists argue that the cognitive theories do not give enough credit to unconscious thought.

Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

These theories believe that scientifically we can only study what can be directly observed and measured.

They also believe that development is observable behavior that can be learned through experience with the environment.

Classical Conditioning

In the early 1900s, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov discovered the phenomenon in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a behavioral response originally produced by another stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

B.F. Skinner demonstrated that the consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior occurring again.

Consequences can be either rewards (increasing the likelihood of behavior recurrence), or punishment (decreasing this chance).

Social Cognitive Theory

Learning occurs through observing what others do, as individuals cognitively represent what they see and adopt the behavior themselves.

Albert Bandura and Walter Mischel believe that cognitive processes are important mediators of environment-behavior connections.

Contributions of Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

They emphasize the importance of scientific research.

They focus on the environmental determinants of behavior.

They underscore the importance of observational learning (Bandura).

Criticisms of Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Pavlov and Skinner neglect cognition. They put too much emphasis on environmental

determinants. They are too mechanical and give inadequate

consideration to the spontaneity and creativity of humans.

Ethological Theory

Behavior is strongly influenced by biology. Behavior is tied to evolution. Behavior is characterized by critical periods. Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)

identified imprinting. John Bowlby theorizes about attachment.

Definition of Critical Period

A fixed time period very early in development during which certain behaviors optimally emerge

Definition of Imprinting The rapid, innate learning within a limited critical

period of time that involves attachment to the first moving object seen

Attachment

A concept based on principles of ethological theory. Attachment to a caregiver over the first year of life has

important consequences: Positive and secure attachment results in positive

development. Negative and insecure attachment

results in problematic development.

Contributions of Ethological Theory

It has an increased focus on the biological and evolutionary basis of development.

It uses careful observations in naturalistic settings. It emphasizes critical periods of development.

Criticisms of Ethological Theory

The critical period concept may be too rigid. It places too strong an emphasis on biological

foundations. It gives inadequate attention to cognition. It has been better at generating research with

animals than with humans.

Ecological Theory

Developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner. Consists of 5 environmental systems:

The Microsystem The Mesosystem The Exosystem The Macrosystem The Chronosystem

Contributions of Ecological Theory

It provides a systematic examination of macro and micro dimensions of environmental systems.

It gives consideration to sociohistorical influences on development.

Criticisms of Ecological Theory

Even with the added discussion of biological influences in recent years, there is still too little attention to biological foundations of development.

It gives inadequate attention to cognitive processes.

An Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

Does not follow any one theoretical approach Selects and uses whatever is considered best from

each theory

Methods Developmental designs Correlational versus experimental research

Developmental Designs

The Cross-Sectional Approach The Longitudinal Approach The Sequential Approach

The Cross-Sectional Approach: Individuals of different ages are compared at one time.

Pros Study can be

accomplished in a short period of time.

Researchers don’t have to wait for subjects to age.

Cons Provides no

information about how individuals change.

Provides no information about the stability of characteristics.

The Longitudinal Approach: The same individuals are studied over a period of time.

Pros Provide a wealth of

information about stability and change in development.

Provide insight into the importance of early experience for later development.

Cons Expensive and time

consuming. Subjects more likely

to drop out due to moving, losing interest, or illness.

The Sequential Approach A combination of the cross-sectional and longitudinal

approach. Begins with a cross-sectional study of individuals

of different ages. Months or years later, the same individuals are

tested again along with a new group of subjects for each age level.

The Sequential Approach (cont’d)

Complex, expensive, and time consuming. Provides information not obtainable through using

either the cross-sectional or longitudinal designs alone.

Especially helpful in examining cohort effects in life-span development.

Cohort Effects

Cohort effects are due to a person’s time of birth or generation, but not to actual age.

Correlational Research The goal is to describe the strength of the relation

between two or more events or characteristics. It needs to be used with caution as correlation does

not equal causation.

Experimental Research

This allows researchers to determine the causes of behavior.

It uses experimentation: carefully regulated procedures in which one or more significant factors is manipulated, and all others held constant.

Experimental research involves independent and dependent variables, experimental groups, control groups, and random assignment.