1. Chapter 1: Exploring Child Development
Theories about Child Development
By Kati Tumaneng (for Drs. Cook & Cook)

2. Theories about Child Development
What is a Theory?
A theory is an explanation of how facts fit together, allowing us to understand and predict behavior.
Why are Theories Useful?
Summarize the facts as currently known
Allow prediction of future behavior and events
Provide guidance
Stimulate new research and discoveries
Act as filters for identifying relevant info, observations, and relationships

3. Theories Psychoanalytic Behavioral & Social Learning Cognitive
Biological
Systems

4. Psychoanalytic Theories
Theories that focus on the structure of personality and on how the conscious and unconscious portions of the self influence behavior and development.
Prominent Theorists
Sigmund Freud
Erik Erikson

5. Sigmund Freud

6. Psychoanalytic Theories: Freud
Freud ( ) focused on structure of personality; how conscious and unconscious shaped development
3 levels of conscious awareness
Id – primitive sexual and aggressive instincts
Ego – rational branch of personalities
Superego – moral branch of personalities

7. Psychoanalytic Theories: Freud
5 Stages of Psychosexual development
Oral (age 0-2)
Anal (age 2-3)
Phallic (age 3-7)
Latency (age 7-11)
Genital (age 11-adulthood)

8. Erik Erikson

9. Psychoanalytic Theories: Erikson
Erickson ( ) focused on ego and healthy child development
Psychosocial stages of development
Trust v. Mistrust (age 0-1)
Autonomy v. Shame and Doubt (age 2-3)
Initiative v Guilt (age 4-5)
Industry v. Inferiority (age 6-12)
Identity v. Role Confusion (adolescence)
Intimacy v. Isolation (early adulthood)
Generativity v. Stagnation (middle adulthood)
Integrity v. Despair (later adulthood)

10. John B. Watson

11. Behavioral Learning Theories
Behaviorism – An American movement to develop a psychology that was objective and scientific focusing on the principles of classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Watson ( ) – Father of American Behaviorism; focus on observable conditions in environment and how they are related to overt behaviors

12. Ivan Pavlov

14. Behavioral Learning Theories
Classical conditioning – Process where neutral stimuli are paired with unconditioned stimuli until they come to evoke conditioned responses.
Pavlov’s dog
Watson applied classical conditioning work of Pavlov to children
Little Albert

15. B. F. Skinner

16. Behavioral Learning Theories
Operant Conditioning – Process where reinforcing or punishing consequences of actions affect behaviors.
Skinner stressed importance of consequences of behavior for learning and development.
E.g., praise for cleaning room or grounding for missing curfew.

17. Albert Bandura

18. Social Learning Theories
Social Learning – Process where children learn by observing and imitating the behaviors of other people.
Bandura studied how children learn by observing and imitating others.
E.g., girl learns to smile at visitors after watching her father smile at visitors

19. Jean Piaget

20. Cognitive Theories: Piaget
Piaget ( ) created the Cognitive Development Theory which focused on how children actively adjust their own understandings as they learn about the world.
Schemes – mental representations
E.g., how to grasp a ball

21. Cognitive Theories: Piaget
Assimilation – the process of bringing new objects or information into a scheme that already exists. If the assimilation is not successful, the scheme needs to be accommodated. E.g., infant drops the ball.
Accommodation – the process of adjusting or adapting a scheme so it fits the new experience. E.g., infant learns to hold ball with 2 hands.

22. Cognitive Theorists: Piaget
Four Stages of Development
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete operational
Formal operational
Current information processing approach to studying cognition built on Piaget’s foundation
A theoretical approach focusing on how children perceive, store, and retrieve information, and on the strategies they use to solve problems.

23. Lev Vygotsky

24. Cognitive Theorists: Vygotsky
Vygotsky ( ) created the Sociocultural Theory which emphasized importance of language and culture in shaping cognition.
Internalization of speech aids self-control
Social speech
Private speech
Inner speech

25. Cognitive Theorists
Information Processing Theory – A Theoretical approach focusing on how children perceive, store, and retrieve information, and on the strategies they use to solve problems.
Emphasize roles of:
Basic processing efficiency
Changes in the knowledge base

26. Biological Theories
Ethology – Area of study focusing on the adaptive significance or survival value of behaviors.
Strong influence from Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and natural selection concept.
Behavior Genetics
Neuropsychology – An area of study that focuses on the study of the brain and nervous system; researchers often observe brain functions using technology such as CT scans, PET, and fMRI.

27. Biological Theories

28. Urie Bronfenbrenner

29. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory
Focuses on the complex set of systems and interacting social layers that can affect a child’s development.
Microsystem – interactions with people in immediate environment
Mesosystem – larger social environment
Exosystem – even larger social settings and networks
Macrosystem – values, customs, laws and resources of culture at large
Chronosystem – how the effects of the systems, and the interrelationships among them, change over time

30. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory

31. Dynamic Systems Theory
Theories that use models from mathematics and physics to understand complex systems of development.
Focus on how layers of systems interact with one another and change over time.

32. Baby on Slide 1: from retrieved December 8, 2005
Freud on Slide 5: from retrieved December 6, 2005
Baby on Slide 7: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 10). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Erikson on Slide 8: from retrieved December 6, 2005
Watson on Slide 10: from retrieved December 6, 2005
Pavlov on Slide 12: from retrieved December 6, 2005
Cartoon on Slide 13: from retrieved December 8, 2005
Skinner on Slide 15: from retrieved December 6, 2005

33. Bandura on Slide 17: from http://www. des. emory. edu/mfp/bandurabio
Bandura on Slide 17: from retrieved December 6, 2005
Piaget on Slide 19: from retrieved December 6, 2005
Baby on Slide 21: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 14). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Vygotski on Slide 23: from retrieved December 6, 2005
Scan on Slide 27: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 16). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Bronfenbrenner on Slide 28: from retrieved December 6, 2005
System on Slide 30: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 18). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
All other images retrieved from Microsoft PowerPoint Clip Art.