1. Child Development Theories

2. Why is Childhood Crucial?
Research has shown that early childhood may be the most important life stage for brain development.
A baby’s brain is about one quarter the size of an adults’.
Scientists have found that babies’ brains develop in response to stimulation.
Arouses senses such as sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.
Babies who are stimulated develop more quickly and have a more secure self-image.

3. What is a theory?
A theory should allow us to predict and explain human behavior
It should be stated in such a way that it can be shown to be false
It must be open to scientific investigation

4. Child Development Theorists
Although researches don’t always agree, scientific researchers have agreed upon the five following general rules.
Development is similar for each individual
Development builds upon earlier learning.
Development proceeds at an individual rate.
The different areas of development are interrelated.
Development is a lifelong process.

5. Psychoanalytic Theories:
Freud’s Psychosexual Theory
Personality has 3 parts
There are 5 stages of psychosexual development
Oedipus complex allows child to identify with same-sex parent
Fixation is an unresolved conflict during a stage of development

6. Freudian Stages Birth to 1½ yrs 1½ to 3 yrs 3 to 6 years
6 yrs to puberty
Puberty onward
Oral Stage
Infant’s
pleasure
centers on
mouth
Anal Stage
Child’s
pleasure
focuses on
anus
Phallic
Stage
Child’s
pleasure
focuses on
genitals
Latency
Stage
Child
represses
sexual
interest
and develops
social and
intellectual
skills
Genital
Stage
A time of
sexual
reawakening;
source of
pleasure
becomes
someone
outside of the
family
Figure 2.1

7. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory:
There are 8 stages of psychosocial development
Each has a unique developmental task
Developmental change occurs throughout life span
Key points of psychoanalytic theories:
Early experiences and family relationships are very important to development
Unconscious aspects of the mind are considered
Personality is best seen as a developmental process

8. Erikson’s Stages Developmental Period
Erikson’s Eight Life-Span Stages
Erikson’s Stages
Developmental Period
Trust vs Mistrust
Infancy (first year)
Autonomy vs shame & doubt
Infancy (1 to 3 years)
Initiative vs guilt
Early childhood (3 to 5 years)
Industry vs inferiority
Middle and late childhood
Identity vs identity confusion
Adolescence (10 to 20 years)
Intimacy vs isolation
Early adulthood (20s, 30s)
Generativity vs stagnation
Middle adulthood (40s, 50s)
Integrity vs despair
Late adulthood (60s onward)
Figure 2.2

9. Cognitive theories: Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory
Stresses conscious mental processes
Cognitive processes are influenced by biological maturation
Four stages of cognitive development in children
Assimilation and accommodation underlie how children understand the world, adapt to it, and organize their experiences

10. 11–15 years of age through adulthood
Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Stage:
The infant constructs an understanding of the world
by coordinating sensory experiences with physical
actions: progressing from reflexive, instinctual action
at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought toward
end of the stage.
Birth to 2 years of age
Preoperational Stage:
The child begins to represent the world with words
and images. These words and images reflect
increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the
connection of sensory information and physical action.
2 to 7 years of age
Concrete Operational Stage:
The child can now reason logically about concrete
events and classify objects into different sets.
7 to 11 years of age
11–15 years of age through adulthood
Formal Operational Stage
The adolescent reasons in more abstract idealistic
and logical ways.
Figure 2.3

11. Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory
Children actively construct their knowledge
Social interaction and culture guide cognitive development
Learning is based upon inventions of society
Knowledge is created through interactions with other people and objects in the culture
Less skilled persons learn from the more skilled
Information-processing theory
Compares computers to the human mind
Thinking is information processing

12. Information-Processing Theory
geography
literature
science
INPUT
OUTPUT
Information is taken into brain
Information is used as basis of behaviors and interactions
history
religion
Information gets processed, analyzed, and stored until use
math

13. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Model
Behavior
Person
(cognitive)
Environment
Figure 2.4

14. Child imitates behavior
Bandura’s Modeling/Imitation
Child
observes someone
admired
Child imitates behavior
that seems rewarded

15. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory:
Environmental factors influence development
5 environmental systems affect life-span development
Eclectic theoretical orientation:
Selects features from other theories
No one theory has all the answers
Each theory can make a contribution to understanding life-span development

16. Chronosystem Exosystem Mesosystems Macrosystem Political philosophy
Family
School & classroom
Religion & groups
Peer group
Chronosystem
School system
Political philosophy
National customs
Economic patterns
Social conditions
Cultural values
Community
Mass media
Medical institutions
Exosystem
Mesosystems
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory of Development
Macrosystem
Figure 2.5

17. Observed correlation: as permissive parenting increases, children’s self-control decreases
causes
Children’s lack
of self-control
Children’s lack
of self-control
causes
Permissive
parenting
Permissive
parenting
Other factors,
such as genetic
tendencies, poverty,
and sociohistorical
circumstances
cause
and
both
Children’s lack
of self-control
Possible Explanations for Correlational Data
Figure 2.9

18. Group 1 Group 2 Time playing video games: 2 hours each day More
playful
and
sociable
Group 2
Time
playing
video games:
6 hours
each day
More
aggressive
and
antisocial

19. Other Influences on Development
Heredity
Blood type, eye color, and hair color
Environment
Children also learn attitudes and beliefs from their environments