By Lisa Fiore 1

 How does psychoanalytic theory explain development across the lifespan?  What is the relationship between psychosocial crises and lifespan development?  How did Piaget explain cognitive development?  What impact does culture have on lifespan development?  What is the behavioral perspective on development?  What is the status of current developmental theory? 2

 Theory: ◦ a belief or idea that develops based on information or evidence ◦ a proposed explanation for observed phenomena 3

Good theories help to:  organize a huge body of information  focus our search for new understandings  explain how findings may be interpreted  identify major disagreements among scholars 4

How does psychoanalytic theory explain development across the lifespan? 5

Freud:  Father of Modern Psychology Psychoanalytic theory:  Theory of the development of personality  Emphasis on the role of the unconscious 6

According to Freud:  Five stages of development  Pleasure center for each stage  Fixation: if pleasure center is not satisfied, can become “fixated” at that stage  Defense mechanisms used to control anxiety 7

 Structures of the Mind ◦ Id: strives only to secure pleasure; works on the “pleasure principle” ◦ Ego: rational part that keeps us in touch with reality; uses the “reality principle” ◦ Superego: differentiates right from wrong; our conscience 8

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Psychosocial theory: ◦ stage theory emphasizing the impact of social experiences throughout development  Life crisis: ◦ the main tension experienced and resolved during each of eight life stages ◦ must be resolved to move to next stage 10

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Contributions:  An emphasis on the early years of life as critical to human development  The influence of the unconscious aspects of the mind on behavior  Personal fears may be confronted in symbolic terms (e.g., fairy tales)  Changes occur throughout the entire lifespan 12

Criticisms:  Unconscious thoughts may not be reliable sources of influence on development  Negative aspects of human development are overemphasized, particularly sexual desires  Bias toward Western culture as the norm against which all others are evaluated 13

How did Piaget explain cognitive development? 14

 Cognitive theorists Piaget &Vygotsky focus on people’s conscious thought processes  Information processing theory views cognitive development from a mechanical standpoint 15

 Piaget : ◦ first to systematically study cognitive development  Stages of Cognitive development: ◦ changes throughout development to help us organize and adapt to our world 16

 Adaptation: consists of assimilation and accommodation  Assimilation: the way we incorporate new data into existing schemes  Accommodation: the manner by which schemes change 17

 Equilibration: a balance between assimilation and accommodation when we encounter new data  Schemes: new patterns of thought as a result of assimilation or accommodation 18

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 Vygotsky : placed emphasis on social processes in cognitive development  Elementary processes : basically biological  Psychological processes : essentially sociocultural 20

 Social and Cultural processes: shapes children’s development  Internalization : observe something & make it part of our own repertoire  Speech: the most powerful tools humans use to progress developmentally  Zone of proximal development (ZPD) 21

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 Computer Metaphor: ◦ brain performs operations based on cognitive structures & thought processes ◦ humans perceive, encode, represent, store, & retrieve information  Focus on: ◦ selective attention ◦ mental processes 23

Contributions:  A view of people as active participants in constructing knowledge and meaning  Conscious efforts to understand the world lead to advances in development  Viewing biological structures as influenced by social forces, that influences our biology 24

Criticisms:  An underestimation of the cognitive skills of infants and young children  Lack of attention to individual variation in cognitive development 25

What is the behavioral perspective on development? 26

Learning Theory : Behavioral view of only what can be observed and measured may be scientifically studied  Pavlov  Watson  Skinner  Bandura 27

Pavlov: Classical conditioning: ◦ learning by associating a neutral stimulus with an involuntary response that is usually elicited by another stimulus Watson: Studied humans and classically conditioned emotional responses 28

Operant conditioning: Consequences of behavior will influence future behavior  Reinforcement: ◦ Positive reinforcement ◦ Negative reinforcement  Punishment  Extinction 29

Social Cognitive Learning  Modeling  Observational Learning  Self-efficacy 30

Bronfenbrenner’s Theory  Four components:  Proximal processes  Person  Context  Time 31

Bronfenbrenner’s Theory  Environmental systems ◦ Microsystem ◦ Mesosystem ◦ Exosystem ◦ Macrosystem 32

Developmental Systems Theory:  Searches for relationships among the multiple levels that contribute to development 33

 Examines interactions among levels of development ◦ Genetic ◦ Neural ◦ Behavioral ◦ Environmental 34

Lerner (2002) emphasized 3 levels of analysis: ◦ Knowledge of a person’s characteristics ◦ Understanding a person’s context ◦ Conceptualization of the relationship between characteristics and context 35

Life Course Theory: ◦ Study aging over the entire life course ◦ How human lives are organized and evolve over time ◦ Relationship between individuals’ life course and society Evolutionary Developmental Psychology 36

Evolutionary Developmental Psychology (Bjorklund): ◦ Applies Darwin’s basic principles of evolution to explain contemporary human development ◦ Understanding genetic and environmental mechanisms that underlie human development 37

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs  Physiological Needs  Safety Needs  Love and Belongingness Needs  Esteem Needs  Self-Actualization 38

National Research Council Institute of Medicine Study (2000):  A study examined 50 years of early childhood research with the goal of improving policies aimed at raising and educating young children 39

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