PAPALIA – CHAPTER 2

Basic Theoretical Issues

theory Coherent set of logically related concepts that seeks to organize, explain,
and predict data. Theories organize and explain data, the information gathered by
research. As painstaking research adds, bit by bit, to the body of knowledge,
theoretical concepts, such as the idea of an identity crisis, discussed later in this
chapter, help us make sense of, and see connections between, isolated pieces
of data.
hypotheses Possible explanations for phenomena, used to predict the outcome
of research.
Issue 1: Is Development Active or Reactive?
Are people active in their own development? This controversy goes back to the
eighteenth century. The English philosopher John Locke held that a young child is a
tabula rasa—a “blank slate”—on which society “writes.” In contrast, the French
philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that children are born “noble savages”
who develop according to their own positive natural tendencies if not corrupted by
society. We now know that both views are too simplistic. Children have internal drives
and needs that influence development, but children also are social animals who cannot
develop optimally in isolation.
Mechanistic Model The debate over Locke’s and Rousseau’s philosophies led to
two contrasting models, or images, of development: mechanistic and
organismic. Locke’s view was the forerunner of the mechanistic model. In this
model, people are like machines that react to environmental input (Pepper, 1942,
1961). A machine is the sum of its parts. To understand it, we can break it down
into its smallest components and then reassemble it.
Organismic Model Rousseau was the precursor of the organismic model. This
model sees people as active, growing organisms that set their own development
in motion. They initiate events; they do not just react. Thus, the driving force for
change is internal. Environmental influences do not cause development, though
they can speed or slow it.
Issue 2: Is Development Continuous or Discontinuous?
The mechanistic and organismic models also differ on the second issue: Is
development continuous, that is, gradual and incremental, or discontinuous, that
is, abrupt or uneven?
Mechanistic theorists see development as continuous, like walking or
crawling up a ramp. Development, in mechanistic models, is always
governed by the same processes, allowing prediction of earlier behaviors
from later ones. Mechanistic theorists deal with quantitative change —
changes in number or amount, such as in height, weight, size of
vocabulary, or frequency of communication. A baby who gains three
pounds in his first three months of life experiences a quantitative change.
Quantitative researchers may measure how much a person can
remember, rather than what memory is or how it operates. Quantitative
changes are largely continuous and unidirectional.
Organismic theorists emphasize qualitative change —changes in kind,
structure, or organization. Qualitative change is discontinuous: It is
marked by the emergence of new phenomena that cannot be anticipated
easily on the basis of earlier functioning.
Theoretical Perspectives
Five major perspectives underlie much influential theory and research on human
development: (1) psychoanalytic, (2) learning, (3) cognitive, (4) contextual,
and (5) evolutionary/sociobiological.
Perspective 1: Psychoanalytic
Sigmund Freud - psychoanalytic perspective, which views development
as shaped by unconscious forces that motivate human behavior.
Psychoanalysis, the therapeutic approach Freud developed, seeks to give
patients insight into unconscious emotional conflicts by asking questions
designed to summon up long-buried memories.
Sigmund Freud: Psychosexual Development - believed that people are
born with biological drives that must be redirected to make it possible to
live in society. He proposed three hypothetical parts of the personality: the
id, the ego, and the superego.
Newborns are governed by the id, which operates under the pleasure
principle—the drive to seek immediate satisfaction of their needs and
desires. When gratification is delayed, as it is when infants have to wait to
be fed, they begin to see themselves as separate from the outside world.
The ego, which represents reason, develops gradually during the first year
or so of life and operates under the reality principle. The ego’s aim is to
find realistic ways to gratify the id that are acceptable to the superego,
which develops at about age 5 or 6. The superego includes the conscience
and incorporates socially approved “shoulds” and “should nots” into the
child’s value system. The superego is highly demanding; if its standards
are not met, a child may feel guilty and anxious.
psychosexual development In Freudian theory, an unvarying sequence
of stages of childhood personality development in which gratification
shifts from the mouth to the anus and then to the genitals.
psychosocial development In Erikson’s eight-stage theory, the socially and culturally
influenced process of development of the ego, or self.
Perspective 2: Learning
The learning perspective maintains that development results from learning, a long
lasting change in behavior based on experience or adaptation to the environment. Two
important learning theories are behaviorism and social learning theory.
Behaviorism is a mechanistic theory, which describes observed behavior as a
predictable response to experience. They hold that human beings at all ages
learn about the world the same way other organisms do: by reacting to
conditions, or aspects of their environment, that they find pleasing, painful, or
threatening. Behavioral research focuses on associative learning, in which a
mental link is formed between two events. Two kinds of associative learning are
classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
classical conditioning Learning based on association of a stimulus that
does not ordinarily elicit a particular response with another stimulus that
does elicit the response.
operant conditioning Learning based on association of behavior with its
consequences.
reinforcement In operant conditioning, a process that strengthens
and encourages repetition of a desired behavior.
punishment In operant conditioning, a process that weakens and
discourages repetition of a behavior.
 Behavior modification, or behavior therapy, is a form of
operant conditioning used to gradually eliminate
undesirable behavior or to instill positive behavior. It is
particularly effective among people with special needs,
mental or emotional disabilities, or eating disorders.
Social Learning (Social Cognitive) Theory The American psychologist Albert
Bandura (b. 1925) developed many of the principles of social learning theory.
social learning theory Theory that behaviors are learned by observing
and imitating models. Also called social cognitive theory
Bandura suggests that the impetus for development is
bidirectional. Bandura called this concept reciprocal
determinism—the person acts on the world as the world acts on
the person.
Classic social learning theory maintains that people learn
appropriate social behavior chiefly by observing and imitating
models—that is, by watching other people, such as parents,
teachers, or sports heroes. This process is called observational
learning, or modeling.
Bandura’s (1989) updated version of social learning theory is social
cognitive theory. The change of name reflects a greater emphasis
on cognitive processes as central to development. Cognitive
processes are at work as people observe models, learn chunks of
behavior, and mentally put the chunks together into complex new
behavior patterns. Rita, for example, imitates the toes-out walk of
her dance teacher but models her dance steps after those of
Carmen, a slightly more advanced student. Even so, she develops
her own style of dancing by putting her observations together into
a new pattern.
Through feedback on their behavior, children gradually form
standards for judging their actions and become more selective in
choosing models who exemplify those standards. They also begin
to develop a sense of self-efficacy, the confidence that they have
what it takes to succeed.
Perspective 3: Cognitive
The cognitive perspective focuses on thought processes and the behavior that
reflects those processes. Cognitive perspective View that thought processes
are central to development.
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive-Stage Theory Our understanding of how children think
owes a great deal to the work of the Swiss theoretician Jean Piaget. cognitive-
stage theory Piaget’s theory that children’s cognitive development advances in
a series of four stages involving qualitatively distinct types of mental operations.
Piaget’s clinical method combined observation with flexible questioning. To find
out how children think, Piaget followed up their answers with more questions. In
this way, he discovered that a typical 4-year-old believed that pennies or flowers
were more numerous when arranged in a line than when heaped or piled up. From
his observations of his own and other children, Piaget created a comprehensive
theory of cognitive development.
Piaget suggested that cognitive development begins with an inborn ability to
adapt to the environment. By rooting for a nipple, feeling a pebble, or exploring
the boundaries of a room, young children develop a more accurate picture of their
surroundings and greater competence in dealing with them. This cognitive growth
occurs through three interrelated processes: organization, adaptation, and
equilibration.
Organization is the tendency to create categories, such as birds, by observing
the characteristics that individual members of a category, such as sparrows and
cardinals, have in common. According to Piaget, people create increasingly
complex cognitive structures called schemes, ways of organizing information
about the world that govern the way the child thinks and behaves in a particular
situation.
Adaptation is Piaget’s term for how children handle new information in light of
what they already know. Adaptation occurs through two complementary
processes: (1) assimilation, taking in new information and incorporating it into
existing cognitive structures, and (2) accommodation, adjusting one’s cognitive
structures to fit the new information.
equilibration Piaget’s term for the tendency to seek a stable balance among
cognitive elements; achieved through a balance between assimilation and
accommodation.
Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory The Russian psychologist Lev Semenovich
Vygotsky (1896–1934) focused on the social and cultural processes that guide
children’s cognitive development.
sociocultural theory , like Piaget’s theory, stresses children’s active engagement
with their environment; but, whereas Piaget described the solo mind taking in and
interpreting information about the world, Vygotsky saw cognitive growth as a
collaborative process.
Vygotsky placed special emphasis on language—not merely as an expression of
knowledge and thought but as an essential means to learning and thinking about
the world.
zone of proximal development (ZPD) Vygotsky’s term for the difference
between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with help. zone of
proximal development (ZPD), the gap between what they are already able to do
and what they are not quite ready to accomplish by themselves. ( Proximal
means “nearby.”)
Scaffolding is the temporary support that parents, teachers, or others
give a child in doing a task until the child can do it alone. For example,
when a child is learning to float, a parent or teacher supports a child’s
back, first with a hand, then with only a finger, until the child can float
without support.
The Information-Processing Approach The information-processing approach seeks to
explain cognitive development by analyzing the processes involved in making sense of
incoming information and performing tasks effectively: such processes as attention,
memory, planning strategies, decision making, and goal setting. The information-
processing approach is not a single theory but a framework that supports a wide range
of theories and research.
Neo-Piagetian Theories In response to criticisms of Piaget’s theory, some
developmental psychologists have sought to integrate elements of his theory with the
information-processing approach. Instead of describing a single, general system of
increasingly logical mental operations, these neo-Piagetians focus on specific
concepts, strategies, and skills, such as number concepts and comparisons of “more”
and “less.” They suggest that children develop cognitively by becoming more efficient at
processing information. Because of this emphasis on efficiency of processing, the neo-
Piagetian approach helps account for individual differences in cognitive ability and for
uneven development in various domains.
Perspective 4: Contextual
According to the contextual perspective , development can be understood only
in its social context. Contextualists see the individual, not as a separate entity
interacting with the environment, but as an inseparable part of it.
bioecological theory Bronfenbrenner’s approach to understanding
processes and contexts of human development that identifies five levels
of environmental influence. five levels of environmental influence, ranging
from very intimate to very broad: microsystem, mesosystem,
exosystem, macrosystem , and chronosystem.
A microsystem is the everyday environment of home, school,
work, or neighborhood, including face-to-face relationships with spouse,
children, parents, friends, classmates, teachers, employers, or
colleagues. How does a new baby affect the parents’ lives? How do male
professors’ attitudes affect a young woman’s performance in college?
The mesosystem is the interlocking of various microsystems—
linkages between home and school, work and neighborhood. How does a
bitterly contested divorce affect a person’s performance at work? How
does unhappiness on the job affect a parent-child relationship?
 The exosystem consists of linkages between a microsystem and
outside systems or institutions that affect a person indirectly. How does a
community’s transit system affect job opportunities? Does television
programming that may encourage criminal behavior make people less
secure in their homes?
The macrosystem consists of overarching cultural patterns, such
as dominant beliefs, ideologies, and economic and political systems.
How is an individual affected by living in a capitalist or socialist society?
the chronosystem adds the dimension of time: change or
constancy in the person and the environment. This can include changes
in family structure, place of residence, or employment, as well as larger
cultural changes such as wars and economic cycles.
Perspective 5: Evolutionary/Sociobiological
The evolutionary/sociobiological perspective proposed by E. O. Wilson (1975)
focuses on evolutionary and biological bases of behavior. Influenced by Darwin’s
theory of evolution, it draws on findings of anthropology, ecology, genetics,
ethology, and evolutionary psychology to explain the adaptive, or survival, value
of behavior for an individual or species.
According to Darwin, species have developed through the related processes of
survival of the fittest and natural selection. Species with traits better adapted, or
fitted, to their environments survive and reproduce; those less adapted, or less
fitted, do not. Thus, through reproduction, more adaptive characteristics are
selected to be passed on to future generations, and less adaptive characteristics
die out.
Evolved mechanisms are behaviors that developed to solve problems in
adapting to an earlier environment. For example, sudden aversion to certain
foods during pregnancy may originally have evolved to protect the vulnerable
fetus from toxic substances.
Ethology is the study of the distinctive adaptive behaviors of animal
species. Ethologists suggest that, for each species, certain innate
behaviors, such as squirrels’ burying of nuts in the fall and spiders’
spinning of webs, have evolved to increase the odds of survival.
Evolutionary psychology applies Darwinian principles to individual
behavior. According to this theory, people unconsciously strive, not only
 for personal survival, but also to perpetuate their genetic legacy. They do
so by seeking to maximize their chances of having offspring who will
inherit their characteristics and survive to reproduce. However, an
evolutionary perspective does not necessarily reduce human behavior
entirely to the effects of genes seeking to reproduce themselves. It also
places great weight on the environment to which a person must adapt. A
developmental systems approach views human development as the
outcome of a dynamic process of bidirectional interaction between
person and environment.
A Shifting Balance
Research Methods
Researchers in human development work within two methodological traditions:
quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research deals with measurable data.
Quantitative researchers might study, for example, how much fear or anxiety
patients feel before surgery as measured by standardized tests, physiological
changes, or statistical analysis. Qualitative research involves the interpretation
of nonnumerical data, such as the nature or quality of participants’ subjective
experiences, feelings, or beliefs. Qualitative researchers might study how
patients describe their emotions before surgery or how girls describe their
experience of puberty.
Quantitative research is based on the scientific method, which generally
characterizes scientific inquiry in any field. Its usual steps are (1) identifying a
problem to be studied, often on the basis of a theory or of previous research; (2)
formulating hypotheses to be tested by research; (3) collecting data; (4) analyzing
the data to determine whether they support the hypothesis; (5) forming tentative
conclusions; and (6) disseminating findings so that other observers can check,
learn from, analyze, repeat, and build on the results.
Sampling

sample Group of participants chosen to represent the entire population

under study.
 random selection Selection of a sample in such a way that each person
in a population has an equal and independent chance of being chosen.

Forms of Data Collection

Common ways of gathering data include self-reports (verbal reports by study
participants), observation of participants in laboratory or natural settings, and
behavioral or performance measures. Depending in part on time and financial
constraints, researchers may use one or more of these data collection
techniques in any research design.
Self-Reports: Diaries, Interviews, Questionnaires The simplest form of
self-report is a diary or log. Participants may be asked, for example, to
record what they eat each day or the times when they feel depressed. In
studying young children, parental self-reports—diaries, journals,
interviews, or questionnaires—are commonly used, often together with
other methods such as video or audio recording. Parents may be recorded
playing with their babies and then may be shown the recording and asked
to explain why they reacted as they did.
In an interview, researchers ask questions about attitudes, opinions, or
behavior. To reach more people and protect their privacy, researchers
sometimes distribute a printed or online questionnaire, which
participants fill out and return.
Naturalistic and Laboratory Observation Observation takes two forms:
naturalistic observation and laboratory observation . In naturalistic
observation, researchers look at people in real-life settings. The
researchers do not try to alter behavior or the environment; they simply
record what they see. In laboratory observation, researchers observe
and record behavior in a controlled environment, such as a laboratory. By
observing all participants under the same conditions, investigators can
more clearly identify any differences in behavior not attributable to the
environment.
there is a risk of observer bias: the researcher’s tendency to
interpret data to fit expectations or to emphasize some aspects
and minimize others.
Behavioral and Performance Measures For many kinds of research,
investigators use more objective measures of behavior or performance
instead of, or in addition to, self-reports or observation.
Some written tests, such as intelligence tests, compare
performance with that of other test-takers. Such tests can be
meaningful and useful only if they are both valid (that is, the tests
measure the abilities they claim to measure) and reliable (that is,
the results are reasonably consistent from one time to another). To
avoid bias, tests must be standardized, that is, given and scored
by the same methods and criteria for all test-takers.

researchers use an operational definition—a definition stated

solely in terms of the operations or procedures used to produce or
measure a phenomenon. Intelligence, for example, can be defined
as the ability to achieve a certain score on a test covering logical
relationships, memory, and vocabulary recognition. Some people
may disagree with this definition, but no one can reasonably claim
that it is not clear.

Now, sophisticated imaging instruments, such as functional

magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission
tomography (PET), make it possible to see the brain in action, and
the new field of cognitive neuroscience is linking our
understanding of cognitive functioning with what happens in the
brain.
Basic Research Designs

Four basic designs used in developmental research are case studies,

ethnographic studies, correlational studies, and experiments. The first two
designs are qualitative; the last two are quantitative.
CASE STUDIES. case study Study of a single subject, such as an individual or
family.

Ethnographic Studies An ethnographic study seeks to describe the pattern of

relationships, customs, beliefs, technology, arts, and traditions that make up a
society’s way of life. Ethnographic research can be qualitative, quantitative, or
both. It uses a combination of methods, including participant observation, a
form of naturalistic observation in which researchers live or participate in the
societies or smaller groups they observe, often for long periods of time.

Correlational Studies A correlational study seeks to determine whether a

correlation, or statistical relationship, exists between variables, phenomena that
change or vary among people or can be varied for purposes of research.
Correlations are expressed in terms of direction (positive or negative) and
magnitude (degree). Two variables that are correlated positively increase or
decrease together. Two variables have a negative, or inverse, correlation if, as one
increases, the other decreases. Studies show a negative correlation between
amount of schooling and the risk of developing dementia (mental deterioration)
due to Alzheimer’s disease in old age. In other words, the less education, the
more dementia (Katzman, 1993).
Experiments An experiment is a controlled procedure in which the
experimenter manipulates variables to learn how one affects another. Scientific
experiments must be conducted and reported in such a way that another
experimenter can replicate them, that is, repeat them in exactly the same way
with different participants to verify the results and conclusions.

Groups and Variables A common way to conduct an experiment is to divide the

participants into two kinds of groups. An experimental group consists of people
who are to be exposed to the experimental manipulation or treatment —the
phenomenon the researcher wants to study. Afterward, the effect of the
treatment will be measured one or more times to find out what changes, if any, it
caused. A control group consists of people who are similar to the experimental
group but do not receive the experimental treatment or may receive a different
treatment. An experiment may include one or more of each type of group. If the
experimenter wants to compare the effects of different treatments (say, of two
methods of teaching), the overall sample may be divided into treatment groups,
each of which receives one of the treatments under study. To ensure objectivity,
some experiments, particularly in medical research, use double-blind
procedures, in which neither participants nor experimenters know who is
receiving the treatment and who is instead receiving an inert placebo.
In the experimental group, the parents adopted the new read-aloud
method (the treatment), which consisted of encouraging children’s active
participation and giving frequent, age-based feedback. In the control
group, parents simply read aloud as they usually did.
In this experiment, the type of reading approach was the independent
variable, and the children’s language skills were the dependent variable.
An independent variable is something over which the experimenter has
direct control. A dependent variable is something that may or may not
change as a result of changes in the independent variable; in other words,
it depends on the independent variable. In an experiment, a researcher
manipulates the independent variable to see how changes in it will affect
the dependent variable.

Random Assignment. The best way to control for effects of such extraneous
factors is random assignment: assigning the participants to groups in such a way
that each person has an equal chance of being placed in any group. (Random
assignment differs from random selection, which determines who gets into the
full sample.)

Laboratory, Field, and Natural Experiments The control necessary for

establishing cause and effect is most easily achieved in laboratory experiments.
In this type of experiment the participants are brought to a laboratory, where they
are subject to conditions manipulated by the experimenter.
 A field experiment is a controlled study conducted in an everyday setting,
such as home or school.
One is the degree of control exerted by the experimenter; the other is the
degree to which findings can be generalized beyond the study setting.
for practical or ethical reasons, it is impossible to conduct a true
experiment, a natural experiment may provide a way of studying certain
events. A natural experiment compares people who have been
accidentally assigned to separate groups by circumstances of life—one
group who were exposed, say, to famine or AIDS or a birth defect or
superior education, and another group who were not.
Developmental Research Designs
The two most common research strategies used to study development are
cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.
Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, and Sequential Studies In a cross-
sectional study, people of different ages are assessed at one point in
time. In one cross-sectional study, researchers asked 3-, 4-, 6-, and 7-
year-olds questions about a picture of a woman who appeared to be
thinking.
In a longitudinal study, researchers study the same person or group of
people more than once, sometimes years apart. They may measure a
single characteristic, such as vocabulary size, intelligence, height, or
aggressiveness, or they may look at several aspects of development to
find relationships among them.

A sequential study —a sequence of cross-sectional and/or longitudinal

studies— is a complex strategy designed to overcome the drawbacks of
both cross-sectional and longitudinal research.
Ethics of Research
Guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2002) cover
such issues as informed consent (consent freely given with full knowledge
of what the research entails), avoidance of deception, protection of
participants from harm and loss of dignity, guarantees of privacy and
confidentiality, the right to decline or withdraw from an experiment at any
time, and the responsibility of investigators to correct any undesirable
effects, such as anxiety or shame.
In resolving ethical dilemmas, researchers are expected to be guided by
three principles: (1) beneficence, the obligation to maximize potential
benefits to participants and minimize possible harm; (2) respect for
participants’ autonomy and protection of those who are unable to
exercise their own judgment; and (3) justice, inclusion of diverse groups
together with sensitivity to any special impact the research may have on
them.