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Focus on Learners Overview development theories focus on explaining how children change and grow over the course of childhood. Such theories center on various aspects of development including social, emotional, and cognitive growth. —Why do children behave in certain ways? Is their behavior relat...

Focus on Learners Overview development theories focus on explaining how children change and grow over the course of childhood. Such theories center on various aspects of development including social, emotional, and cognitive growth. —Why do children behave in certain ways? Is their behavior related to their age, family relationships, or individual temperaments? Developmental psychologists strive to answer such questions as well as to understand, explain, and predict behaviors that occur throughout the lifespan. In order to understand human development, a number of different theories of child development have arisen to explain various aspects of human growth. Sigmund Freud Psychosexual Theory —Was based on his therapy with troubled adults. —He emphasized that a child's personality is formed by the ways which his parents managed his sexual and aggressive drives —id , ego, super ego —“The mind is like an iceberg” Erik Erikson Psychosocial Theory —Expanded on Freud's theories. —Believed that development is life-long. —Emphasized that at each stage, the child acquires attitudes and skills resulting from the successful negotiation of the psychological conflict. —Identified 8 stages: ◦Basic trust vs mistrust (birth - 1 year) ◦Autonomy vs shame and doubt (ages 1-3) ◦Initiative vs guilt (ages 3-6) ◦Industry vs inferiority (ages 6-11) ◦Identity vs identity confusion (adolescence) ◦Intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood) ◦Generativity vs stagnation (middle adulthood) ◦Integrity vs despair (the elderly) Piaget’s stages  Sensory motor period: 0-2 years ◦ Physical interaction with the world  Pre-operational period: 2-7 years ◦ Exploration of the physical world and how it related to the self (ego-centric understandings)  Period of concrete operations: 7-11 years ◦ Logical understandings of the world including reversibility, ordering, sorting, conservation and seriation  Period of formal operations: 11-12 upward ◦ Generation of hypotheses and ability to think abstractedly and scientifically Cognitive development theory  Children "construct" their understanding of the world through their active involvement and interactions.  Studied his 3 children to focus not on what they knew but how they knew it.  Described children's understanding as their "schemas” and how they use: ◦ assimilation ◦ accommodation. Lev Vygotsky Socio-Cultural Theory  Agreed that children are active learners, but their knowledge is socially constructed.  Cultural values and customs dictate what is important to learn.  Children learn from more expert members of the society.  Vygotsky described the "zone of proximal development", where learning occurs.  Scaffolding is the systematic manner of providing assistance to the learners that to effectively acquire skills Kohlberg theory Level 1 - Pre-conventional morality At the pre-conventional level (most nine-year-olds and younger, some over nine), we don’t have a personal code of morality. Instead, our moral code is shaped by the standards of adults and the consequences of following or breaking their rules. Authority is outside the individual and reasoning is based on the physical consequences of actions. Level 2 - Conventional morality At the conventional level (most adolescents and adults), we begin to internalize the moral standards of valued adult role models. Authority is internalized but not questioned, and reasoning is based on the norms of the group to which the person belongs Level 3 - Post-conventional morality Individual judgment is based on self-chosen principles, and moral reasoning is based on individual rights and justice. According to Kohlberg this level of moral reasoning is as far as most people get. Only 10-15% are capable of the kind of abstract thinking necessary for stage 5 or 6 (post-conventional morality). That is to say, most people take their moral views from those around them and only a minority think through ethical principles for themselves. microsystem- setting is the direct environment we have in our lives. Your family, friends, classmates, teachers, neighbours and other people who have a direct contact with you mesosytem – involves the relationships between the microsystems in one's life. This means that your family experience may be related to your school experience. For example, if a child is neglected by his parents, he may have a low chance of developing positive attitude towards his teachers. Also, this child may feel awkward in the presence of peers and may resort to withdrawal from a group of classmates. exosystem – is the setting in which there is a link between the context where in the person does not have any active role, and the context where in is actively participating. Suppose a child is more attached to his father than his mother Macrosystem- setting is the actual culture of an individual. The cultural contexts involve the socioeconomic status of the person and/or his family, his ethnicity or race and living in a still developing or a third world country. For example, being born to a poor family makes a person work harder every day. Chronosystem- includes the transitions and shifts in one's lifespan. This may also involve the socio-historical contexts that may influence a person. One classic example of this is how divorce, as a major life transition, may affect not only the couple's relationship but also their children's behavior.