THEORIES OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Module 3 Psychology 315

Kyle Danielson

Cognitive and social development

• Cognitive development •  Perception •  Attention •  Language •  Problem-solving and

reasoning •  Memory •  Conceptual understanding

• Social development •  Emotions •  Personality •  Family & peer relationships •  Self-understanding •  Aggression •  Moral & prosocial

understanding

Theories of social development explain •  how children’s development is influenced by the people

around them •  how human beings affect and interact with each other

Theories of social development 1.  Psychoanalytic theories

•  Freud, Erikson

2.  Learning theories •  Behaviourist learning theories (e.g., Watson, Skinner) •  Social learning theories (e.g., Bandura)

3.  Social cognition theories •  Selman, Dodge, Dweck

4.  Ecological and evolutionary theories 1.  Ethology/Evolutionary Psychology theories 2.  Bioecological theories (e.g., Bronfenbrenner)

1. Psychoanalytic theories • Freud and Erikson believed that social development is driven by biological maturation

• Freud’s developmental process •  Id

•  Unconscious biological drives present at birth •  Most primitive personality structure •  Ordered toward pleasure

•  Ego •  Emerges at the end of the first year •  Rational, logical, problem-solving

• Superego •  Emerges between ages 3 and 6 •  Based on the child’s internalization of ambient beliefs, norms,

etc.

1. Psychoanalytic theories • Erik Erikson developed a theory of psychosocial

development, which consists of these phases: Stage Description

Trust vs. Mistrust (first year)

Developing trust in other people is the crucial issue.

Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt (1–3½ years)

The challenge is to achieve a strong sense of autonomy while adjusting to increased social demands.

Initiative vs. Guilt (4–6 years)

Resolved when the child develops high standards and the initiative to meet them without being crushed by worry about not being able to measure up.

Industry vs. Inferiority (6–puberty)

The child must master cognitive and social skills, learn to work industriously, and play well with others.

Identity vs. Role Confusion (adolescence–early adulthood)

Adolescents must resolve the question of who they really are or live in confusion about what roles they should play as adults.

1. Psychoanalytic theories • Today, psychologists continue to rely on Freud’s emphasis on: •  The importance of early relationships •  The role of the subconscious

• Erikson’s work continues to be important in our understanding of identity development

2. Learning theories •  Learning theorists focus on the importance of experience. • Experience is the most important factor in a child’s social

and personality development. •  Learning theories are continuous: the same mechanisms

control learning and behaviour throughout life

• Behaviourist learning—children learn through conditioning and reinforcement

• Social learning—children learn through observation and

imitation of others

2a. Learning theories: Behaviourism •  John Watson—founder of

behaviourism • Classic conditioning based on

associations •  Watson: Little Albert experiment;

strict parenting •  Systematic desensitization to

eliminate phobias

• Operant conditioning based on reinforcement and punishment •  Skinner: good behaviour is rewarded; bad behaviour is punished •  Intermittent reinforcement does not change behaviour effectively

2b. Learning theories: Social learning • Observation and imitation of others are the mechanisms

of change in this theory • Albert Bandura

•  Interaction between children’s behaviour and their social environment (reciprocal determinism)

•  Preschool children acquire new behaviours by observing others, particularly when others are rewarded for the behaviour (vicarious reinforcement)

• Bandura described the cognitive mechanisms behind social learning: •  Attention •  Retention •  Reproduction •  Motivation

• Social learning theory is still widely used today •  Selective social learning—individuals’ preferences to learn from

some people and not from others—has become a popular topic of research •  In-group vs. out-group •  Reliable vs. unreliable

2b. Learning theories: Social learning

3. Social cognition theories • Social cognition theories focus more on internal and

cognitive processes in a child’s social development •  thoughts •  feelings •  motives •  expectations •  intentions

Important names: Selman, Dodge, Dweck

3. Social cognition theories: Selman & Dodge • Selman’s stage theory of role taking

•  Children must learn to take on the perspective of others in order to understand social relationships

•  Selman believed that children were unable to do this until 6 years of age

•  Given more recent experimental data, do we still think that this is completely true?

• Dodge’s information-processing theory •  Emphasized cognitive processes, such as interpretation •  Agression as a problem solving-strategy •  Hostile attribution bias

3. Social cognition theories: Dweck • Carol Dweck’s theory of self-attributions and

achievement motivation •  Focuses on children’s tendency to attribute characteristics to

themselves

Entity/helpless orientation

Incremental/mastery orientation

•  Base self-worth on approval

•  Only try to do things that are easy for them

•  Low self-esteem

•  Attribute success and failure to the amount of work put in

•  Persist in solving hard problems

•  Higher self-esteem

3. Social cognition theories: Dweck •  The two orientations extend from two theories that

children might have about their own intelligence •  Entity theory—a person’s level of intelligence is fixed and cannot

change •  Failure indicates to this type of child that they are not smart enough

•  Incremental theory—a person’s level of intelligence changes based on experience •  These children try harder in the face of failure

• Giving children praise for unchangeable traits may lead to entity theory

• Giving children praise for hard work may lead to incremental theory

4. Ecological theories of development • Ethological and evolutionary models

•  Ethology—the study of animal behaviour

• We know that evolution influenced human traits such as bipedalism, opposable thumbs, and brain size

• …so it makes sense that evolution also influenced our behaviour

• Evolution is geared toward reproduction and survival. Certain genes predispose individuals to behave in ways that are more successful toward these goals.

4. Ecological theories of development: Evolutionary psychology • Evolutionary psychology emphasizes the survival/

adaptive value of human behaviours

•  Parental-investment theory claims that parents are so highly invested in their children because it is evolutionary expedient

•  More caring parents have children that survive longer and that produce more offspring in the genetic line

4. Ecological theories of development: The Bioecological Model •  Brofenbrenner: a child’s environment is composed of multiple

layers, extending from the child at the centre, outward to the entire society.

•  Microsystem—a person’s immediate environment with which they interact

•  Mesosystem—the connections between various microsystems •  Exosystem—environmental settings that an individual does

not necessarily experience, but which affect him/her •  Macrosystem—the larger cultural context that contains the

above systems •  Chronosystem—historical context that influence the other

systems

Theories of social development 1.  Psychoanalytic theories

•  Freud, Erikson

2.  Learning theories •  Behaviourist learning theories (e.g., Watson, Skinner) •  Social learning theories (e.g., Bandura)

3.  Social cognition theories •  Selman, Dodge, Dweck

4.  Ecological and evolutionary theories 1.  Ethology/Evolutionary Psychology theories 2.  Bioecological theories (e.g., Bronfenbrenner)