1. The Developing Person Through the Life Span 8e by Kathleen Stassen Berger
Chapter 2 Theories of Development
What Theories Do
Grand Theories
Newer Theories

2. Developmental Theory Developmental Theory
a group of ideas, assumptions, generalizations that interpret and illuminate the thousands of observations made about human growth
provides a framework for understanding how and why people change as they grow older.

3. What Theories Do Theories produce a hypothesis.
Theories generate discoveries.
Theories offer practical guidance.
… Theories are NOT facts.

4. Grand Theories Grand Theories of the Early 20th Century:
Psychoanalytic Theory
Behavioral Theory
Cognitive Theory
Newer Theories:
Sociocultural Theory
Universal Perspective:
Humanism and Evolutionary Theory

5. Psychoanalytic Theory
A theory of human development that holds that irrational, unconscious drives and motives, often originating in childhood, underlie human behavior.
Psychoanalytic theory originated with Sigmund Freud (1856– 1939)

6. Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development
App. Age
Stage
0-18 months
ORAL STAGE: lips, tongue, gums are focus of pleasurable sensations
18ms. -3 years
ANAL STAGE: Anus is the focus of pleasurable sensations, toilet training most important
3-6 years
PHALLIC STAGE: Phallus (penis) most important. Boys proud/Girls wonder what’s wrong
6-11 years
LATENCY: not really stage. Period during which sexual needs quiet
Adolescence
GENITAL STAGE: Genitals are the focus, young person seeks sexual satisfaction
Adulthood
Genital stage last throughout adulthood

7. Psychoanalytic Theory
Erik Erikson (1902–1994)
Described eight developmental stages, each characterized by a challenging developmental
crisis.
His first five stages build on Freud’s theory; but he also described three adult stages.

8. Psychoanalytic Theory
Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
App. Age
Conflict
Infancy year
Basic Trust vs. Mistrust
Early Childhood years
Autonomy vs. Shame
Preschool years
Initiative vs. Guilt
School Age years
Industry vs. Inferiority
Adolescence years
Identity vs. Confusion
Young Adulthood years
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Middle Adulthood years
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Maturity death
Integrity vs. Despair

9. Behaviorism
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.
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Social Learning

10. Behaviorism
Classical conditioning - Ivan Pavlov ( )
(also called respondent conditioning), a 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.

11. Behaviorism
Operant Conditioning

12. Behaviorism
Operant conditioning - B.F. Skinner (1904–1990)
(also called instrumental conditioning) a learning process in which a particular action is followed either by something desired or by something unwanted.

13. Behaviorism
Social Learning Theory- Albert Bandura
An extension of behaviorism that emphasizes the influence that other people have over a person’s behavior.
Modeling- people learn by observing other people and then copying them.
Self-Efficacy- how effective people think they are when it comes to changing themselves or altering their social context.

14. Cognitive Theory Jean Piaget (1896–1980)
Thoughts and expectations profoundly affect action.
Focuses on changes in how people think over time.
Cognitive development occurs over
four age-related periods
Constructivist Perspective of Learning

15. Cognitive Theory

16. Cognitive Theory Cognitive Equilibrium
A state of mental balance, no confusion
Interpret new ideas through past ideas
Easy equilibrium not always possible
If new experience is not understandable,
cognitive disequilibrium can occur
Assimilation
Accommodation

17. Cognitive Theory 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

18. Newer Theories Sociocultural Theory Leo Vygotsky (1896-1934)
Development results from a person’s interaction with their social and cultural surroundings
Culture is integral to development
Apprenticeship in thinking:
how cognition is “taught” by
the older and more skilled

19. Zone of proximal development
Sociocultural Theory
Zone of proximal development
Made up of the skills, knowledge, and concepts that the learner is close to acquiring
Learner needs help to master
Learning must be individualized

20. The Universal Perspective
Humanism
Abraham Maslow ( ),
Hierarchy of Needs
Carl Rogers ( )
Stresses the potential of humans for good
All people have the same needs
Emphasize what people have in common

21. The Universal Perspective
Evolutionary Theory
Based on Darwin’s ideas
Humans are more alike than different
Human development influenced by drives to survive and reproduce
Selective adaptation: process by which people adapt to their environment

22. Eclectic Perspective The approach taken by most developmentalists
Aspects of each of the various theories of development are applied
rather than adhering
exclusively to one