2. What Theories Do Developmental theory
Group of ideas, assumptions, and generalizations that interpret and illuminate the thousands of observations that have been made about human growth
Framework for understanding how and why people change as they grow older
Developmental theory
Systematic statement of principles and generalizations
Framework for understanding how and why people change as they grow older

3. What Theories Do Central questions for you to consider…
Do early experiences-of breast feeding or attachment or abuse- linger into adulthood, even if they seem to be forgotten?
Does learning depend on specific encouragement, punishment, and role models?
Do children develop moral principles, even if they are not taught right from wrong?
Does culture guide behavior?
Is survival a basic instinct, underlying all personal or social decisions?
Each of the five questions above is answered “yes” by one of the five major theories—in order: question 1 by psychoanalytic theory, question 2 by behaviorism, question 3 by cognitive theory, question 4 by sociocultural theory, and question 5 by the two universal theories (humanism and evolutionary theory).

4. What Theories Do Theories produce hypotheses.
Theories generate discoveries.
Theories offer practical guidance.

5. Kindergarten girls in Kentucky bring
What Theories Do
Facts and norms
Norm: An average, or standard measurement, calculated from the measurements of many individuals within a specific group or population.
Theories are not facts—but they allow us to question norms, suggest hypotheses, and provide guidance.
Backpacks or Bouquets?
Children worldwide are nervous on the first day of school, but their coping reflects implicit cultural theories.
Kindergarten girls in Kentucky bring
many supplies, while elementary children in Russia bring flowers for their teachers.
Theories
Are not facts
Are neither true or false
Are neither good or bad
Are useful
Give insight and guidance

6. Grand Theories Theories Characteristics Psychoanalytic Behavioral
Cognitive
Characteristics
Comprehensive
Enduring
Widely applied

7. Grand Theories Psychoanalytic Theory Freud (1856–1939)
Proposes that irrational, unconscious drives and motives, often originating in childhood, underlie human behavior
Freud (1856–1939)
Proposes five psychosexual stages during which sensual satisfaction is linked to developmental needs and conflicts.
Suggests early conflict resolution determines personality patterns
Personality has three parts: id, ego, and superego
See Table 2.1 for more information on Freud’s and Erikson’s stages
Freud’s many papers and case histories, primarily descriptions of his patients’ bizarre symptoms and unconscious sexual urges, helped make the psychoanalytic perspective a dominant force for much of the twentieth century.
Development in the first six years occurs in three stages, each characterized by sexual pleasure centered on a particular part of the body.
Freud at Work
In addition to being the world’s first psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud was a prolific writer.

8. Odd or Common?
Freud
The oddity here is not the biting toddler, but the old leather suitcase, or perhaps Freud’s interpretation of the oral stage.
Everyone who knows babies expects them to mouth whatever they can.
Can you explain this behavior using Freudian theory?

9. Grand Theories Psychoanalytic theory Epigenetic Theory
Stresses that genes and biological impulses are powerfully influenced by the social environment
Erik Erikson (1902–1994)
Described eight developmental stages, each characterized by a challenging developmental crisis
Proposed five psychosocial stages built on Freud's theory, but added three adult stages
If Erikson had published his theory at age 73 (when this photograph was taken) instead of in his 40s, would he still have described his life as a series of crises?
See Table 2.1 for additional information.
A Legendary Couple
In his first 30 years, Erikson never fit into a particular local community, since he so frequently changed nations, schools, and professions.
Then he met Joan. In their first five decades of marriage, they raised a family and wrote several books.

10. Grand Theories
These adolescents think they are nonconformists, and their short skirts, opaque tights, and hairstyles are certainly unlike those of their mothers or grandmothers. But they are similar to adolescents everywhere during each particular historical period—seeking to establish their own distinct identity.
During adolescence, young people find their own answer to the question “Who am I?”
Erikson did this for himself by choosing a last name that, with his first name, implies “son of myself” (Erik, Erik’s son).
Pink or Purple Hair

11. Comparison of Freud’s Psychosexual and Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
Erikson’s first five stages are closely related to Freud’s stages. Erikson, like Freud, believed that problems of adult life echo unresolved conflicts of childhood.
In at least one crucial way, Erikson’s stages differ significantly from Freud’s: They emphasize not sexual urges but rather each person’s relationships to family and culture.

12. Grand Theory Three types of learning
Behaviorism is called learning theory because it emphasizes the learning process.
A theory of human development that studies observable behavior.
Also called learning theory as it describes the laws and processes by which behavior is learned.
Conditioning - the processes by which responses become linked to particular stimuli and learning takes place.

13. Grand Theories Behaviorism Conditioning Learning theory
Proposes that learning takes place through processes by which responses become linked to particular stimuli
Learning theory
Focuses on observable behavior
Describes the laws and processes by which behavior is learned
The second grand theory arose in direct opposition to the psychoanalytic notion of the unconscious
Development in the first six years occurs in three stages, each characterized by sexual pleasure centered on a particular part of the body.
See Table 1.4 for details of each stage.

14. Grand Theories Behaviorism John Watson (1878-1958)
Argued that scientists should examine only what they could observe and measure
Proposed anything can be learned with focus on behavior
No specific stages proposed
John Watson ( )
American psychologist
One of earliest proponents of behaviorism and learning theory
John Watson was an early proponent of learning theory. His ideas are still influential and controversial today.

15. Grand Theories Behaviorism Classical conditioning Pavlov (1849-1936)
Demonstrates that behaviors can be learned by making an association between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus
Also called respondent conditioning
Pavlov ( )
Received the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his digestive processes research.
Resulted in discovery of classical conditioning
Pavlov was a physiologist and contemporary of Freud
Process in which a person or animal learns to associate a neutral stimulus with a meaningful stimulus, gradually reacting to the neutral stimulus with the same response as to the meaningful one.

16. Grand Theories Behaviorism Operant conditioning Skinner (1904-1990)
Proposes that reinforcement or punishment may be used to either increase or decrease the probability that a behavior will occur again in the future
Also called instrumental conditioning
Skinner ( )
Agreed with Watson that psychology should focus on the scientific study of behavior
Was best known for experiments with rats, pigeons, and his own daughter
Most influential North American behaviorist
Learning process in which a particular action is followed either by something desired (which makes the person or animal more likely to repeat the action) or by something unwanted (which makes the action less likely to be repeated).

17. Rats, Pigeons, and People
B. F. Skinner is best known for his experiments with rats and pigeons, but he also applied his knowledge to human behavior. For his daughter, he designed a glass-enclosed crib in which temperature, humidity, and perceptual stimulation could be controlled to make her time in the crib enjoyable and educational. He encouraged her first attempts to talk by smiling and responding with words, affection, or other positive reinforcement.
B. F. Skinner designed a glass-enclosed crib in which temperature, humidity, and perceptual stimulation could be controlled to make her time in the crib enjoyable and educational.

18. Grand Theories
Criticism
Many psychologists reject psychoanalytic theory as unscientific
Others reject behaviorism as demeaning of human potential
Contribution
Both behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory have led to hypotheses that have been examined in thousands of experiments
Three Types of Learning: Behaviorism is also called learning theory because it emphasizes the learning process, as shown here.

19. Grand Theories Cognitive theory Jean Piaget (1896–1980)
Proposes thoughts and expectations profoundly affect actions, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions
Focuses on changes in how people think over time
Jean Piaget (1896–1980)
Maintained that cognitive development occurs in four major age-related periods, or stages
Intellectual advancement occurs lifelong because humans seek cognitive equilibrium
Would You Talk to This Man? Children loved talking to Jean Piaget, and he learned by listening carefully—especially to their incorrect explanations, which no one had paid much attention to before.
All his life, Piaget was absorbed with studying the way children think. He called himself a “genetic epistemologist”—one who studies how children gain knowledge about the world as they grow up.
Maintained that cognitive development occurs in four major age-related periods, or stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational

20. How to Think About Flowers
(a) To 7-month-old Maya, in the sensorimotor stage, flowers are “known” through pulling, smelling, and even biting.
(b) At the concrete operational stage, children become more logical. This boy can understand that flowers need sunlight, water, and time to grow.
(c) At the adult’s formal operational stage, flowers can be part of a larger, logical scheme—either to earn an active process from the beginning of life until the end.
A person’s stage of cognitive growth influences how he or she thinks about everything, including flowers.
Can you identify the Piagetian stage at which each person is thinking about flowers?

21. Piaget Cognitive theory Assimilation Accommodation
Experiences are interpreted to fit into, or assimilate with, old ideas.
Accommodation
Old ideas are restructured to include, or accommodate, new experiences.
Two types of cognitive adaptation:
Assimilation - new experiences are interpreted to fit into, or assimilate with, old ideas
Accommodation - old ideas are restructured to include, or accommodate, new experiences
A new experience can be jarring and incomprehensible.
The resulting experience is one of cognitive disequilibrium, an imbalance that initially creates confusion.
Disequilibrium leads to cognitive growth because it forces people to adapt their old concepts. Piaget describes two types of adaptation: assimilation and accommodation.

22. Cognitive Theory Cognitive Equilibrium
State of mental balance, no confusion
New ideas through past ideas interpreted
Needed for intellectual advancement
Easy equilibrium not always possible
If new experience is not understandable,
cognitive disequilibrium can occur.

23. Piaget’s Periods of Cognitive Development

24. Grand Theories Information processing theory
Representative newer version of cognitive theory
Compares human thinking processes, by analogy, to computer analysis of data, including sensory input, connections, stored memories, and output
Information Processing
Not a single theory but a framework
Inspired by how a computer works
How people think before they respond
How attention and thought affects mental function
Relationship between one person’s thinking and another’s

25. We Try Harder
Details of brain scans require interpretation from neurologists, but even the novice can see that adults who have been diagnosed with ADHD (second line of images) reacted differently in this experiment when they were required to push a button only if certain letters appeared on a screen. Sustained attention to this task required more brain power (the lit areas) for those with ADHD. Notice also that certain parts of the brain were activated by the healthy adults and not by the ADHD ones. Apparently adults who had problems paying attention when they were children have learned to focus when they need to, but they do it in their own way and with more effort.
Details of brain scans require interpretation from neurologists, but even the novice can see that adults who have been diagnosed with ADHD (second line of images) reacted differently in this experiment when they were required to push a button only if certain letters appeared on a screen.

26. Comparing Grand Theories
Criticism
Many psychologists reject psychoanalytic theory as unscientific.
Others reject behaviorism as demeaning of human potential
Contribution
Both behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory have led to hypotheses that have been examined in thousands of experiments

27. Toilet Training--How and When? Research findings
Behaviorist approach was best for older children with serious disabilities
Almost no method seemed to result in marked negative emotional consequences
Many sources explain that because each child is different, there is no “right” way.
What is the goal?
What values are imbedded in each theory, each practice?
Even the idea that each child is different, making no one method best, is the outgrowth of a theory of child development (sociocultural theory, explained soon).
There is no easy answer: Critical thinking is required.

28. Newer Theories New theories Are multicultural Are multidisciplinary
Are most closely tied to current view of science of human development
Include sociocultural theory and universal theory

29. Newer Theories Sociocultural theory Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)
Proposes thoughts and human development results from the dynamic interaction between developing persons and their surrounding society
Focuses on culture as integral to a person’s development
Lev Vygotsky ( )
Describes interaction between culture and education
Developed concepts of apprenticeship in thinking and guided participation
All cultural patterns and beliefs are social constructions, not natural laws, according to sociocultural theorists.
They find customs to be powerful, shaping the development of every person, and they also find that some assumptions need to shift to allow healthier development of all people.

30. Newer Theories Zone of proximal development
Skills, knowledge, and concepts that learner is close to acquiring but cannot master without help
Process of joint construction
New knowledge obtained through mentoring
The Magic Middle
Somewhere between the boring and the impossible is the zone of proximal development, where interaction between teacher and learner results in knowledge never before grasped or skills not already mastered
In general, mentors, attuned to ever-shifting abilities and motivation, continually urge a new level of competence; learners ask questions, show interest, and demonstrate progress, thereby guiding and inspiring the mentors. When education goes well, both are fully engaged and productive within the zone of proximal development.
Particular skills and processes vary enormously from culture to culture, but the overall social interaction is the same.
The intellectual excitement of that zone is the origin of the joy that both instruction and study can bring.

31. Taking culture into account
Sociocultural perspective
Is viewed not as something external that impinges on developing persons but as integral to their development every day via the social
Influences inclusion of culture into contemporary research
Sheds new light on cultural differences in many areas, including attachment, gender, and ethnic prejudice

32. Universal Perspective
Humanism
Stresses the potential of all human beings for good and the belief that all people have the same basic needs, regardless of culture, gender
Abraham Maslow (1908–1970)
One of the founders of humanism
Arranged shared human needs in hierarchy
Contended that everyone must satisfy each lower level before moving higher
Hope and Laughter
Maslow believed in the human spirit and that it could overcome oppression and reach self-actualization, where faith, hope, and humor abound.
Maslow studied law before psychology, and he enjoyed deep discussions with many psychoanalytic theorists who escaped Nazi Europe

33. Moving Up, Not Looking Back
Maslow's hierarchy is like a ladder: Once a person stands firmly on a higher rung, the lower rungs are no longer needed.
Thus, someone who has arrived at step 4 might devalue safety (step 2) and be willing to risk personal safety to gain respect.

34. Universal Perspective
Evolutionary theory
Integrates explanations for many issues in human development
Suggests humans have two long-standing biologically based drives: survival and reproduction
Proposes concept of selective adaptation
Suggests genetic variations are particularly beneficial when the environment changes and benefits humanity as a whole
Selective adaptation
Process by which living creatures (including people) adjust to their environment.
Genes that enhance survival and reproductive ability are selected, over the generations, to become more prevalent.
Genetic variation among humans and inherited flexibility enable humans to survive and multiply. This is probably true not only for biological traits (such as digestion of milk) but also for traits that originate in the brain

35. Selective Adaptation Illustrated
Suppose one of a group of nine mothers happened to have a gene that improved her daughter’s survival (was generally historically true), but this gene mutation meant more births and therefore more surviving children, such that each woman who had the gene bore two who survived to womanhood instead of one.
As you see, in 100 years, the “odd” gene becomes more common than the normal one—a new normal

36. What Theories Contribute
Psychoanalytic theories
Behaviorism
Cognitive theories
Sociocultural theories
Universal theories
Can you identify the contributions of each of the above theories?
Psychoanalytic theories have made us aware of the impact of early-childhood experiences, remembered or not, on subsequent development.
Behaviorism has shown the effect that immediate responses, associations, and examples have on learning, moment by moment and over time.
Cognitive theories have brought an understanding of intellectual processes and how our thoughts and beliefs affect every aspect of our development.
Sociocultural theories have reminded us that development is embedded in a rich and multifaceted cultural context, evident in every social interaction.
Universal theories stress that human differences are less significant than those characteristics that are shared by all humans, in every place and era.

37. Five Perspectives on Human Development

38. What Theories Contribute
Eclectic perspective
Taken by most developmentalists
Occurs when aspects of each of the various theories of development are selectively applied, rather than adhering exclusively to one theory
Helps guard against bias and facilitates open-mindedness to alternative explanations for complexity of human life