Developmental Psychology Qualitative Change

CHAPTER 2: • Emergence of new phenomena that could

THEORY AND RESEARCH not be easily predicted on the basis of the
Research in Development basic functioning.

BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN

BASIC THEORETICAL ISSUES
ISSUE 1: ACTIVE AND REACTIVE

John Locke

• John Locke held that a young child is a tabula

rasa a “blank slate” upon which society
writes. How the child developed, in either
positive or negative ways, depended entirely DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN
on experiences.

• MECHANISTIC MODEL - In this model, people

are like machines that react to environmental
input. (Behavioural Perspective)

Jean Jacques Rousseau

• Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that

children are born “noble savages” who DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES
develop according to their own positive INTRODUCTION
natural tendencies if not corrupted by
society. Perspective l:
Psychoanalytic
• ORGANISMIC MODEL - This model sees
people as active, growing organisms that set SIGMUND FREUD: PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
their own development in motion. ERIK ERIKSON: PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
(Humanistic Perspective)

BASIC THEORETICAL ISSUES

ISSUE 2: CONTINUOUS AND PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
DISCONTINUOUS
• Humans were born with a series of innate,
Continuous biologically based drives such as hunger, sex,
and aggression.
• Gradual and incremental
• Unconscious motivation – the power of
Discontinuous
instincts and other inner forces to influence
• Abrupt or uneven our behaviour without awareness.

• ID (Pleasure Principle) – impulsive,

irrational , selfish, seeks immediate
gratification.

• EGO (Reality Principle) – rational, finds

realistic way to gratify instincts, develops
from ego as 3-6 years old internalize the
moral standards and values of their parents.
Quantitative Change
• SUPEREGO (Morality Principle) – individual’s
• Change in number or amount, such as height, internalized moral standards.
weight, or vocabulary.
 • Health Personality = balance of the ID, EGO
and SUPEREGO
Perspective ll:
• Fixation – arrest in development that can Learning
show up in adult personality; libido remains
IVAN PAVLOV: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
tied to an earlier stage of development.
B.F. SKINNER: OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Oral Fixation – may grow up to become nail
bitters or smokers (no satisfaction in life). ALBERT BANDURA: SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
• Anal Fixation – may be obsessively clean,
rigidly tied to schedules and routines,
defiantly messy. (Close to OCPD and ADHD) BEHAVIORISM

Classical Conditioning

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES • Response to a stimulus is evoked after

repeated association with a stimulus that
normally elicits response.

Operant Conditioning

• Consequences of operating on the

environment; reinforcements and
punishments.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
• Reinforcement – increasing the likelihood
that the behaviour will be repeated.

Behaviour (S) > Response (P) = Repeated Behaviour

• Punishment – decreasing the likelihood of

repetition reinforcement is most effective
when it immediately follows a behaviour.
PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY
Behaviour (S) > Response (P) = avoidance of
• Emphasized the influence of society on behaviour + Behaviour (S) > Stress Response = lower
developing personality. chance of repeating the behaviour

• Each stage requires balancing positive and • Extinguished – behaviour returns to its
negative tendency. original level when a response is no longer
reinforced.
• Major psychosocial challenge that is
particularly important at that time and will
remain an issue to some degree throughout
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
the rest of life.
• Reciprocal Determinism – behaviourist sees
• SOCIAL CLOCK – conventional, culturally
environment as the chief impetus for
preferred timing of important life events.
development and Bandura suggested that
PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY the impetus for development is bidirectional.

Behaviorism = stimulus > response

Social Cognitive Theory = stimulus > response >

stimulus

• Observational Learning – people learn

appropriate social behaviour chiefly by
observing and imitating models.
 • Social Cognitive Theory – cognitive processes
are at work as people observe models, learn
chunks of behaviour and mentally put the
chunks together into complex new behaviour
pattern.

• Self-efficacy – confidence in one’s ability.

SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
Perspective Ill:
Cognitive • Cognitive development is shaped by the
sociocultural context in which it occurs and
JEAN PIAGET: COGNITIVE STAGE THEORY grows out of children’s interactions with the
member of the culture.
LEVY VGOTSKY: SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
• Zone of Proximal Development – the gap
between what they are already able to do by
COGNITIVE STAGE THEORY themselves and what they can accomplish
with assistance.
• Viewed intelligence as a process that helps an
organism adapt to its environment. • Scaffolding – supportive assistance with a
task that parents, teachers, and others give
• Constructivism – children actively construct
to a child.
new understanding of the world based on
their experiences.

• COGNITIVE GROWTH occurs through 3 Perspective IV:

related processes: CONTEXTUAL
1. Organization: tendency to create categories URIE BRONFENBRENNER: ECOLOGICAL MODEL
Schemes: ways of organizing information about the ECOLOGICAL THEORY
world that govern the way the child thinks and
behaves in a particular situation.

2. Adaptation: how children handle new

information in light of what they already
know.

Assimilation: incorporating it into existing cognitive

structures

Accommodation: adjusting one’s cognitive structures

to fit the new info

3. Equilibration: children want what they understand

of the world to match what they observe around
them.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Perspective V: Evolutionary/Sociobiological

E.O WILSON: EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY • Separation Protest – crying when caregiver
leaves.
• Evolutionary explanation of animal behaviour
could be applied to the study of human • Mutual Regulation – ability of both infant and
behaviour. caregiver to respond appropriately and
sensitively to each other's mental and
• Human nature and culture is the product of
emotional states.
genetic evolution.
• Social Referencing - seeking emotional
• Natural Selection - is defined as the
information to guide behaviour.
differential survival and reproduction of
different variants of members of a species, • Babies react negatively to strangers by 8 or 9
and is the tool the natural world uses to months
shape evolutionary processes.

ATTACHMENT THEORY
OTHER THEORIES RELATED TO Mary Ainsworth
DEVELOPMENT
MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Kohlberg

IDENTITY FORMATION
James Marcia

• Crisis – period of conscious decision making.

• Commitment – personal investment in an

occupation or ideology.

4 TYPES OF IDENTITY

1. FORECLOSURE – commitment without crisis;

result of exploring choices but accepting
someone else’s plans for her life; uncritically
accepted other’s opinions.

2. MORATORIUM – crisis with no commitment

ATTACHMENT THEORY yet; actively grappling with his identity and
Mary Ainsworth trying to decide the path he wants his life to
• ATTACHMENT – reciprocal, enduring take; exploration.
emotional tie between infant and caregiver, 3. IDENTITY DIFFUSION – no commitment, no
each of whom contributes to the quality of crisis; not seriously considered options and
the relationship. has avoided commitments.
• STRANGE SITUATION – designed to assess IDENTITY ACHIEVEMENT: Crisis leading to
attachment patterns between infant and commitment
adult.

• Stranger Anxiety - wariness of a person she

does not know.

• Separation Anxiety – distress when a familiar

caregiver leaves her.