Theories of Child Development 2024 PDF

Theories of Child Development Shannon Gray Week 2  Major Theories Psychoanalytic Cognitive Learning Ecological Sigmund Freud Jean Piaget John Watson Urie Erik Erikson Lev Vygotsky Albert Bandura Bronfenbrenner “as...

Theories of Child Development Shannon Gray Week 2  Major Theories Psychoanalytic Cognitive Learning Ecological Sigmund Freud Jean Piaget John Watson Urie Erik Erikson Lev Vygotsky Albert Bandura Bronfenbrenner “as long as scholars look for the theory of life span development, they are likely to be disappointed” Paul Baltes, 1987 Psychoanalytic Theories Assume that behaviour is governed by conscious and unconscious processes (Boyd & Bee, 2014) They are concerned with progression of a child’s mental capacitates and mental life and how this aligns with biological maturation These theories tend to be very focused on stages with each stage relating to a particular need or task  Suggest that the individual personality is a combination of early childhood experiences and unconscious impulses or desires. eg, say that you were conducting research to understand why a person has committed a series of violent crimes If you adhered to psychodynamic theory, conclude that the person had many negative or violent experiences as a child and that these experiences have led to an unconscious desire to harm others, which eventually becomes a conscious desire What do we think about this? According to Freud, human personalities are made up of three parts: The id is the part of the brain that operates unconsciously based on what Freud called the 'pleasure principle. This part of the personality, according to Freud, is driven by instant gratification and pleasure, while avoiding anything that would cause discomfort or pain. The Marshmallow Test  Unlike the id, which is unconscious and irrational, the ego is the part of the personality that negotiates between the id and the real world. Called ‘reality principle’ : As we develop and our instincts come into conflict with reality, the ego emerges. The ego works to satisfy our drives but does so in a socially acceptable manner E.g. ego redirects aggressive urges such as a desire to lash out physically into more socially acceptable forms (i.e. verbal aggression or vigorous physical play) According to Freud's theory, one could not solely pursue pleasure and still be a functional member of society, so the ego exists to provide some balance for the id, which is purely motivated by self-interest  Final piece of Freud's three-pronged theory is the super ego, which exists to keep a person from deviating from social expectations or engaging in amoral behaviour Perhaps the most conscious part of the personality, the super ego adheres to all of the things that children learn in the very early part of their lives, such as social or cultural standards Represents moral standards - based on the internalization of the world view, norms, children absorb at a young age from their parents and the environment As the conscience, it includes our sense of right and wrong, maintaining taboos specific to the child’s internalization of parental culture. If the requirements of the superego are not followed, feelings of guilt and/or shame may arise.  Consider this scenario: your id unconsciously desires to spend your whole life eating unhealthy food, drinking excessively, and stealing money (because working is unpleasant) Your ego, on the other hand, consciously knows that these things are unhealthy and socially unacceptable, so it attempts to prevent you from doing those things Meanwhile, your super ego, operating on the moral lessons learned in childhood, knows that these things are considered bad and, in some cases, amoral, which reinforces the prevention of the unconscious pleasure driven behaviours Psychodynamic approach to behaviour analysis attempts to understand human behaviour using these concepts of unconscious desire, conscious social constraints, and the lessons of morality, or right and wrong, that are learned from parents and the community in early childhood Modern Psychodynamics Modern psychodynamics remains a prominent theory in the present much the same that it was in the 19th century This is not to say that it has remained unchanged; many theorists have rejected pieces of Freud's theories and modernized the idea. Still, the fundamental pieces of psychodynamics remain very much in place. In the present, psychodynamics is being applied to areas of childhood development and has become a popular element in psychotherapy. Psychodynamic psychotherapy, for example, uses the psychodynamic model to address unconscious elements of people's lives that are causing distress by increasing self-reflection and self-awareness. Freud’s Psychosexual Theory Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is often considered the founding father of psychoanalysis One of his core assumptions was the existence of the an unconscious and innate sexual drive called the libido He proposed a five-stage psychosexual theory: 1. Oral 2. Anal 3. Phallic 4. Latency 5.Genital Stage Stage Stage Stage Instinctual Libido What Freud thought - humans have what he called an instinctual libido. Libido is probably a familiar word that basically means sex drive. But the weird thing about Freud's theory is that he basically thought that infants, from birth, have a sex drive; we have an instinctual libido. In the beginning, there's some form of sexual drive that is present and it's key to developing personality. And he thought that this libido developed in stages - these are the psychosexual stages - and they develop through you focusing on different body parts. What he thought was that if anxiety or trauma occurred during one of the stages, then what you're going to have when you're an adult later on in life is a characteristic set of problems, neuroses, anxieties, that have to do with development being interrupted at that stage at that particular body part. So yes, it's weird. Stage 1 - Oral Stage (0-1 years) The first one is the oral stage. If you think about it, it makes a little sense that oral would be the first one; babies like to chew on things, and they like to suck on things, so it makes a certain amount of sense that Freud would go there. Life is really dominated by breastfeeding, initially, for babies. An important part of this stage is that the baby is pretty much entirely id driven at this point. It's not thinking, it's doing things instinctually. It has certain wants and desires that are pretty simplistic. It goes about and it does them. Stage 1 - Oral Stage (0-1 years) Freud thought this had to do with personality; when babies are weaned - when they're not allowed to breast feed anymore - the baby learns the principle of delayed gratification. This is super important because you can't just do whenever you want; this is a pretty key concept to being a functioning What Freud thought was that if the parents were too indulgent in this stage or didn't enforce this well enough, the kid might resist growing up. He wouldn't develop this sense in a proper way. If parents were basically too delayed with their gratification, the kid would basically grow up being manipulative of others.  Stage 1 - Oral Stage (0-1 years) People who are stuck at the oral stage, Freud called having an 'oral fixation’. The basic theory about the oral stage is that if people are interrupted at this stage, they'll do things like smoke and eat too much. That's sort of having an oral fixation. This has entered our vocabulary. It's the title of a Shakira album. So that's the oral stage. Stage 2 - Anal Stage (1-3 years) The next stage is what Freud called the anal stage And as one might expect from the title the key experience here (remember the key experience from the oral stage was breast feeding) is toilet training. It continues the development of delayed gratification In this stage, the ego starts to develop. It starts to reign in the id. The ego is always dealing with having you interact with reality, so the ego starts to reign the id a little bit; not as much as the super-ego will later, but it works on it a little bit. Stage 2 - Anal Stage (1-3 years) During toilet training, parents are trying to teach the kid to be clean, but they need to do this in a way that the ego can grow up properly If they are way too demanding, if they are not understanding that toilet training is hard, the kid is going to grow up really obsessed with order. This is what Freud thought These are actually people that we describe - this is another one that has gotten into our language - as 'anal compulsive‘ If you've ever described someone as anal because they have their action figures all in a row and they're colour coordinated, that's what you're basically saying, is that they are too obsessed with order, and what Freud would think is that their parents didn't toilet train them properly - they were too demanding. Stage 2 - Anal Stage (1-3 years) If the parents aren't demanding enough, predictably, the kid is going to grow up to be extremely messy This is one that hasn't really gotten into our language so much - Freud's term for this was 'anal expulsive'. Someone is just a mess, they leave their stuff everywhere Freud thought that kind of personality type was related to parents who weren't demanding enough of their kids during toilet training Stage 3 - Phallic Stage (3-6 years old) This is the stage where kids really start to become aware of their bodies. They start to learn the biological differences between being a boy and being a girl and that it all kind of rests on the existence of a phallus or not At least that's what Freud thought. That's sort of a controversial aspect of his theory - he was saying that absence of penis or no absence of penis was the defining thing He's gotten a lot of flak for that, and we won't go into that right now. But basically, what's going on here is kids are learning that boys are different from girls Stage 3 - Phallic Stage (3-6 years old) This is also where the famous 'Oedipus complex' comes into play What Freud thought - as boys realize that they're boys, they become really jealous of their father because they have an attraction to their mother. They are simultaneously attracted to their mothers and want to kill their fathers, which they can't do because they're kids and that's frustrating For girls, there's theoretically another complex that's called the 'Electra complex' that goes the other way, so that they are attracted to their fathers and want to get rid of their mothers. This is something that Freud thought was natural; this is not a disorder, this is something he thought happens to everybody. Stage 3 - Phallic Stage (3-6 years old) This experience of these feelings and desires he thought helped out developing the super-ego. Remember this is the product of your personality which is your conscience - it helps you make decisions and know whether things are right or wrong. Since parents are associated so strongly with morality and long-lasting thinking, Freud thought that working through the Oedipus complex can actually help you develop a strong, healthy sense of the super-ego To cope with this conflict, children adopt the values and characteristics of the same-sex parent, thus forming the superego The good outcome of this is that they learn to deal with these feelings and not act on them. They have them but they're not acting on them. This is the conclusion of the phallic stage Stage 4 – Latency (6-12 years old) Latency means exactly what it sounds like - there's basically nothing going on in this period at all There's no explicit sexuality, at least that's what Freud thought. Kids start doing other things, they make friends, they like to go to school - they're not really obsessed with their bodies as much or any of those things we were talking about earlier The important thing that happens during latency is that this is when...so if anything went wrong during the earlier stages (if they weren't toilet trained properly or they didn't work out their Oedipus complex properly) this is where these things start to get solidified into character traits and personality During this stage, the superego continues to develop while the id’s energy is suppressed. So all the things that can go wrong in childhood get turned into a real personality during latency Stage 5 - Genital Stage (puberty onwards) Not to be confused with the phallic stage, this is the genital stage, number five. What really happens in this stage is kids become independent of their parents That's the goal, they get there, and now they're independent for the rest of their lives. Like the phallic stage, the focus here is, once again, on the genitals - on what makes you a boy or girl (Freud believed) But in this stage, the sexuality is adult and aimed at another person If development has been successful to this point, the individual will continue to develop into a well-balanced person Stage 5 - Genital Stage (puberty onwards) In this part, the ego and the super-ego are as developed as they're going to get Hopefully it went well and you don't have imbalances there. We're not just satisfying primal urges anymore, they're reigned in Any issues that happened in the first three stages then crystallize into personality during latency, now you're in the genital stage, this is how you're going to be. This is your personality.  We should talk about why we care about this. The basic reason is that Freud had a ton of influence for a long time about how psychologists thought about all things. These stages are important to understand, but they're also largely discredited. There's really not a lot of scientific evidence. There's anthropological evidence that suggests that the general conclusions he came to aren't really universal. So not all kids go through things that are like this.  So the theory is inherently sexist; it revolves around girls wanting penises. This would be something we'd need to work out if it were at all scientific, but it's not. Its real problem is that it wasn't developed scientifically. One of the things that a lot of people have pointed out was that Freud was interested in sexuality. He found that interesting, so he ended up defining development in that way, because of things that he was interested in. This is really problematic and it's something that can happen really easily - that we let our own interests and the things that we find interesting influence what we assume is true for everybody else and what we assume is fundamentally true about people Contributions of Psychodynamic Theory Freud’s ideas made a large impact on psychology and psychiatry and are still discussed and used today Freud wrote up case studies like ‘Little Hans’ and ‘Anna O’, Psychodynamic therapies drew attention to the psychological causes of mental health issues Technique of psychoanalysis: One-to-one client-practitioner relationship aimed at increasing patient’s self-knowledge. Criticisms of Psychodynamic Theory Having vague concepts that can be used to explain anything but which can predict very little Having concepts difficult to test and verify scientifically Freud’s belief that personality is entirely shaped by early childhood experiences Freud’s lack off emphasis on social and cultural influences on behaviour and personality Recap.. Successful completion of each stage results in development of healthy personality If certain issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, fixation can occur A fixation is a persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage Until this conflict is resolved, the individual will remain “stuck” in this stage. E.g., A person who is fixated on the oral stage may be over-dependent on others and may seek oral stimulation through smoking, drinking, or eating Psychosocial Theory Erik Erickson Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory Erik Erikson (1902-1944) was a Danish-German-American psychoanalyst and psychologist Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory (1968) outlines eight stages of human development that extend from infancy to adulthood Stages 1-5 are related to childhood and adolescence His psychosocial theory incorporates both educational and social influences and how these contribute to people’s personalities throughout their lifespan (Maree, 2021) Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages Stage 1: Basic Trust vs Basic Mistrust (First 2 years of life) Infant develops a basic trust in the world around them and their ability to affect events in their environment If their needs are not adequately met they may become mistrustful Stage 2: Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt (2-3 years) Independence is supported by greater mobility, however, they must be guided by caregivers as repeated failures can engender a sense of shame or doubt Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages Stage 3: Initiative vs Guilt (4-5 years) Children try new things on their own and explore their own abilities These new skills and abilities help them to conquer the world around them and gain a sense of direction Too much guilt can inhibit their independence and interactions with others Stage 4: Industry vs Inferiority (6-12 years) The child seeks to win approval by mastering certain competencies required by society Encouragement and praise are important for acquiring an adequate sense of proficiency and self-belief. If not, they may develop a sense of inferiority Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages Stage 5: Identity vs Role Confusion Child re-examines their identity and the roles they occupy in the world Support and encouragement can help them achieve an adequate sense of self and independence Erikson’s theory continued on to Stage 8 which included development in older age Criticisms of Psychoanalytic Theory The concepts such as libido and identity are very difficult to test with research Some have argued that these theories are too focused on personality rather than being complete theories of development Strengths of theory Erikson’s psychosocial development theory provides an integrated and broad framework for social development. It gives an understanding of the stages involved in human development throughout a lifespan. It showcases the identity crisis individuals go through during the different stages of development. It asserts the importance of culture and society and its influence on one’s development. Weaknesses of theory Other researchers have pointed out there may be considerable variation in the timing and nature of the transitions across individuals, genders, cultures, and historical time periods A better approach may be to focus on certain critical life events, regardless of when they occur Although there are a broad similarities in biological, psychological, and social changes over time, not everyone shares the same social and cultural experiences/lifestyles, or indeed reacts to life changes in the same way Theory is difficult to test empirically Weaknesses of theory While moving from one stage to another, the theory lacks explanation. Better elaboration is required for the impact of culture on development. Too much importance is given on individuality with little elaboration of the same. There is a lack of elaboration between the connection of all the stages. Many researchers argue that the theory is extremely Eurocentric. Most studies argue that the theory focuses only on male development. This theory involving eight stages is believed to be a generic plan of development by many researchers. Comparison of Freud vs Erikson Sigmund Freud Psychosexual Theory Erik Erikson Psychosocial Theory Development occurs in stages Development occurs in stages Recognises unconscious Recognises unconscious Driven by biological forces Driven by social forces Early experiences outweigh experiences Both early and late life experiences are important later in life Cognitive Theories of Development Cognitive developmental theories place greater emphasis on cognitive development rather than personality, emotional or social development Greater emphasis is placed on the child’s actions on the environment and their cognitive processes Cognitive Theories Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a highly influential Swiss psychologist who proposed a cognitive theory of development Piaget noted that all children appear to go through the same discoveries and thought processes Piaget argued that it is not the environment that shapes the child but that the child seeks to understand it’s environment The process of knowledge acquisition requires consideration of a previous state of lesser knowledge and future state of greater knowledge (Piaget, 1973) Piaget’s Theory Organised into 4 stages: 1. Sensorimotor Stage (birth – 2 years): Children act based on reflexes with little intention or planning and learn to manipulate words or symbols at the end of this stage 2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years): Use of symbols and language emerge and child engage in more imaginary play 3. Concrete operational Stage (7-11 years) Children develop conversation skills as well as logical reasoning and perspective- taking 4. Logic operational Stage (11+ years) How people can adapt to and figure out their environment Piagetean Conservation Task Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory Lev Vygotsky (1896-1634) was a psychologist from the Soviet Union He differed from Piaget with regards to his emphasis on the importance of social interactions The learning of new cognitive skills is guided by an adult or older child who helps to structure the learning (Boyd & Bee, 2014) Criticisms of cognitive theory Some argue that the stage-like structure of theories such as Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is not reflective of how development occurs (Levine & Munsch, 2022) They argue that children move through these stages more gradually On balance, there is some evidence that this theory is applicable across cultures which makes it a valuable theory of development (Maynard, 2008) Learning Theories Learning theories focus on how the environment influences a child’s development rather than on how the child understands their environment They are primarily concerned with behaviour which can be observed rather than on internal thoughts and processes (Levine & Munsch, 2022) Within these theories, behaviour is shaped by your history of learning This field of psychology is also called behaviourism John Watson John Watson (1878-1958) was an American psychologist who was an early proponent of Behaviourism Behaviourists believe that inborn or genetic factors have little influence on development but that the environment shapes the child through learning “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,...” John Watson – Baby Albert  Whatever happened to Little Albert after his frightening encounter with Watson was only recently solved Before Watson could attempt to de-condition the child’s fear, Albert’s family moved away and all but disappeared Only recently has it been discovered that poor little Albert’s life took an even more tragic turn He passed away at the age of 6 from a buildup of fluid in the brain It was also discovered that Little Albert suffered from this since birth, and that Watson knew about Albert’s health problems during the time of the experiment but intentionally misrepresented his research as a case study of a healthy boy (Fridlund, Beck, Goldie & Irons, 2012) Ivan Pavlov and Classical Conditioning Ivan Pavlov (1849-1963) was a Russian physiologist who coined the term Classical Conditioning He used to ring a bell before feeding his dogs and then observed that the dogs would drool when the bell was rung Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory Albert Bandura (1925-2021) was a Canadian-American psychologist who put forward a theory that furthered traditional learning theories and bridged the gap between learning theory and cognitive theory Bandura argued that learning is not only reinforced but learned from watching others in the social environment. He called this observational learning Bobodoll Experiment Ecological Perspective Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) was a Russian-American psychologist who proposed an ecological theory of human development (1979) Development occurs within a complex social system, environment or ecology which itself is embedded within a larger social and cultural context He described this theory as a set of nested structures or like a set of “Russian dolls”  The Microsystem: Consists of a child’s immediate environment or surroundings such as home, school, peer group etc. The Mesosystem: Consists of interactions between the settings the child directly engages (i.e., microsystems) The Exosystem: A child may never enter the exosystem but events here influence what happens in their immediate environment (e.g., political systems, education systems) The Macrosystem: Cultural patterns of ideology or organisation of social systems which directly influence how the micro-, meso-, exo- systems are organised  Major Theories Psychoanalytic Cognitive Learning Ecological Freud’s Piaget John Watson Bronfenbrenner Psychosexual Vygotsky Albert Bandura Theory Erikson’s Psychosocial stages The journey of developmental psychology Contemporary Theory and Early Theorists Research - Child focus -Entire Lifespan - Step-wise development - Multidisciplinary - Single discipline Paradigm Shift References Bee, H., & Boyd, D. (2014). The Developing Child (13th Ed.). Pearson International. Levine, L. E., & Munsch, J. (2022). Child Developmnet: an active learning approach (4th Ed.). Sage Publications, Inc. Applied Developmental Science : An Advanced Textbook, edited by Richard M. Lerner, et al., SAGE Publications, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/dcu/detail.action?docID=996886. Created from dcu on 2022-04-28 12:44:23.  Well … overall? No single theory described can explain entirely the rich complexity of children’s development, but each has contributed to our understanding of development. Psychoanalytic theory best explains the unconscious mind. Erikson’s theory best describes the changes that occur in adult development. The behavioural and social cognitive and ecological theories have been the most useful for identifying the environmental determinants of development. The ethological theories have highlighted biology’s role and the importance of critical and sensitive periods in development. In short, although theories are helpful guides, relying on a single theory to explain development is probably a mistake Next Week.. Please bring in a teddy bear….all will be revealed next week.