1. Theories of development

2. Developmental Systems Perspective
Bio-Ecological
Developmental Systems Perspective
Urie Bronfenbrenner

7. Cognition and Modeling
A Different Perspective: Cognitive Behaviorism (Social Learning Theory)
Albert Bandura
Cognition and Modeling
Learn by modeling (imitating) others
We model people who are nurturant, or involved with us.
We model those whom we perceive as being like us.
e.g., At about age 2, gender identification and gender- specific behaviors develop.
Our perceptions about reinforcers (rewards) determine our behavior.

8. Bandura: Cognitive Behaviorism
Self-Efficacy
Our belief in our competence
Our sense that through our own efforts, we can be successful at a given task
A strong sense of self-efficacy is an important factor in healthy child development.
How can we enhance self-efficacy during childhood and at any time of life?

9. Behaviorism: The Original “Nurture” Theory
Traditional Behaviorism: John Watson and B. F. Skinner
Nurture is all important!
A real science: study observable, measurable responses
If we understand the scientific laws of learning, we can produce any behavior we want!

10. B. F. Skinner: Operant Conditioning
Conditioning = Learning
Operant Conditioning
The law of learning that determines any voluntary response
Variable reinforcement schedules
We behave a certain way because we are reinforced (rewarded) for certain behaviors.
Any behavior that is reinforced is likely to be repeated.
Any behavior that is not reinforced is likely to be extinguished.

11. Age-Linked Theories: Piaget
Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Qualitatively different stages exist in the way thinking develops (different age groups conceptualize the world in completely different ways).
Schemas (cognitive structures)
Assimilation, Accommodation
Studies focused on children

12. Cognitive Development: Piaget
Tried to understand the unique qualities of childhood cognition by entering children’s mental framework, setting up tests, watching children’s actions, and listening to them speak
Believed that we grow mentally through assimilation, fitting information from the outside world into our “schemas” (or current mental capacities), and accommodation, enlarging our capacities to fit in this “data” from the world

13. Attachment Theory (mid-20th Century): Nature, Nurture, and Love
Formulated by John Bowlby
Shared Freud’s psychoanalytic view: Early life experiences with caregivers shape our personality.
Determines whether we become well-adjusted or emotionally impaired adults
Bowlby’s Main Focus: “attachment response”
Bowlby was an early evolutionary psychologist.
Attachment response is genetically programmed into our species to promote survival.
Early attachments affect development.

14. Age-Linked Theories: Freud
Psychoanalytic Theory
Analyzes our psyche or “inner life”
Deterministic: “mothering” during first five years determines adult personality and mental health
Id, Ego, Superego
Age-Linked Stages
Focus on erogenous zones
Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency
Therapy = Psychoanalysis

15. Psychosocial Development: Erikson
Considered “the father of lifespan development”
Believed we continue to develop throughout life
Exception to Freud’s idea that development ends in adolescence
Identified core developmental tasks, or psychosocial tasks, for each of eight stages from infancy to old age
Believed that we need to master the task of each previous stage in order to progress to the next

16. A Preview of Erikson’s Stages