THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT

Objectives

By the end of the topic, the learner should be able to;

Explain three important theoretical issues of human growth and development

 Describe cognitive theories of development

 Explain the implications of cognitive theories to learning
 Describe personality theories of development
 Explain the implications of personality theories to learning
a) THEORETICAL ISSUES OR QUESTIONS IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
1. NATURE OR NURTURE

The issue of Nature versus have been with us since the beginning of Psychology ;

According to the nature position, human behavior and development are governed by
automatic, genetically predetermined signals known as maturation.

Just as a flower unfolds in accord in accord with its genetic blueprint, we humans crawl
before we walk and walk before we run.

While naturalists would agree that severe environmental influences such as Genie’s, could
retard development, they believe that every child begins with innate growth tendencies.

On the other hand of the debate, the nurturist believe that development occurs by learning
through experience. In other words, with the right training, any child become Einstein or
Mozart

2. CONTINUITY OR STAGES.

Continuity proponents say development is continuous, with abilities, skills, and knowledge
gradually added at a relatively uniform pace.

The continuity model then suggests, adult thinking and intelligence differ quantitatively from
a child’s Cognitive skills are usually described as a result of discrete stages

3. STABILITY OR CHANGE
Psychologists who emphasize stability in development hold that measurements of personality
taken during childhood are important predictors of adult personality.

However research shows the answer is somewhere in the middle; some traits are stable while
others vary greatly across the lifespan.

b) THEORIES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (Jean Piaget’s stages of

cognitive development)

This refers to the development of human understanding. This is a mental activity through
which human beings acquire and process information and knowledge so as to understand the
world

Piaget identified four major periods of cognitive development. He illustrates that stages of
cognitive development occur in the sequence for everyone, but he allowed that the ages at
which stages are reached will vary depending on factors related both to maturation and
experience. Ages therefore are only indicated as a rough guide. For Piaget, stages of
cognitive development provide a basis for other behavior

1. Sensory – motor stage (birth to 2years )

The dominant structures at this stage are behavioural schemata or action schemes ( compare
concepts in older children adults) which evolve as infants begin to coordinate their sensory
input and motor responses in order to ‘act on’ get know the environment.

During this time, infants evolve from reflexive creatures into reflective planful problem
solvers who have learned a lot about themselves and their environment.

Characteristics

 Ability to move and respond to environment

 Begin to communicate
 Born with asset of reflexes by interacting with the environment through movement
 The infant sets in motion the assimilation/ accommodation process. Thus
transforming the reflexes into organized patterns of behavior which Piaget labeled
schemas
 Less easily observed is the movement of the egocentric state of the neonate

0 – 4 months
 Children’s activities are confined to exercising their innate reflexes such as sucking on
objects
 The first non-reflexive schemata emerges at 1-4 months of age as infants discover by
chance that they can emit and control various responses for example sucking thumbs,
blowing bubbles etc. they realize these behaviors are satisfying and worth of repetition.

Between 4-8 months

 Infants also discover by chance that they can make interesting things happen to the
external objects foe example making a rubber duck quack by squeezing it

8-12 month

 Infants begin to co- ordinate two or more actions to achieve simple objectives for
example if you placed a toy under the cushion, the infant is able to lift the cushion with
one hand while using the other hand to grab the toy. This is an intentional schema in
which two unrelated responses, lifting and grasping – are co-ordinated as a means to an
end

12-18 months

 Infants begin to experiment with objects.

 They will try to invent totally new methods of solving problems or reproducing
interesting results
 Development of imitation

18-24 months

 Children begin to internalize their behavioural schemata to construct mental symbols of

images
 They become to solve problems without resorting to trial and error activities for example
stick and bread decides to use stick to bring bread near or toy on the table
 Development of the object permanence
2. Preoperational stage

This goes from about 2yrs to seven

General characteristics
 Elementary forms of speech are used in communication
 The use of symbols is developed
 Thinking is marked still by egocentrism and animistic thinking is evident ie objects are
regarded as alive or aware
 There is a preparation of concrete operations

Pre- conceptual period 2-4yrs

 There is rapid development of language but some overgeneralization occurs as the child
makes early attempts of conceptualization eg all men may be daddy.
 Children assume that because they have feelings and intentions, and are alive, then all
objects must be the same; thinking is animistic
 Nothing is seen as accidental every event has a cause. The combination of all these
factors can lead to a child smacking a door which has banged back on them, saying “
naughty Door”

Pre-logical or intuitive period 4-7 yrs

 Reasoning is based perceptual appearances. A frequently quoted experiment to test this is

one assessing the concept of conservation. Two glass jars are shown, one tall and thin, the
other short and squat. Liquid is poured into the two and then, in full view of the child,
into the taller. The child is asked whether there was more liquid in one glass or the other.
At this stage of reasoning, the child say that the taller glass had more water.
 Thinking is limited by the difficulty the child has in taking into account more than one
attribute of an object at a time. A set of blue beads cannot at the same time be perceived
as wooden as well as blue.
 By the end of pre-operation period, the child is able to manipulate symbols
3. Concrete operations period 7- 12 yrs.
 The child begins to think logically about things he has experienced
 Conservation is mastered, thus, the child realizes the number of objects in a set remain
constant even if the pattern is changed
 The child can also think backwards and forwards in time, meaning that, he has begun to
master reversibility eg in mathematical thinking , this evident when it is realized that, if
2+ 2 = 4 then 4-2= 2
4. Formal operations 12 - adulthood
 The child has the ability to formulate general laws, principles and hypotheses.
 Thinking is sophisticated, flexible, symbolic thought of the adult
 They become able to reason about the abstract propositions, objects or properties that
they have never themselves experienced e.g. mathematics, chemistry, history etc.
 Before reaching formal operations stage, children need to be aided by dolls to work it
out.

IMPLICATIONS OF COGNITIVE THEORIES TO LEARNING

 Cognitive theorists do not see people as controlled by the external forces but emphasize
that individuals think and choose
 They assert that people’s thoughts and interpretations are a powerful influence on their
future actions and ideas
 They also assert that clever thinking produces new behavior
 Learning therefore takes place through cognition. Parents, teachers and other have to
realize that children have the ability to think , analyze and synthesize information,
therefore teachers should involve them in decision making
 They are able to judge and draw conclusions therefore teachers should be well prepared
for their lessons thus prof competent so that students make positive judgments about
them.
 Teachers and parents should be keen to understanding that children should be consulted
and their opinions should be respected
 Explanations of reasons of expected behavior should be given to them
 Children should be given a chance to participate in decision making and problem solving
so that they are able to exercise their insight, leading to the ability to solve real life
situations.
c) PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

Personality is an individual’s unique, relatively consistent pattern of thinking, feeling and

behaving.

Or

Personality is the pattern of psychological and physical process which controls your
characteristic behavior and thought.

Personality is everything about you. This distinguishes you from everyone

Different theorists have emphasized have emphasized different aspects of personality. They
are as follows;

1. Psychodynamic theories
2. Humanistic theories
3. Social learning theories
4. Trait theories
1) Psychodynamic theories

 These theorists view personality as ever- changing interaction of complex psychological

processes
 They tend to emphasize unconscious influences on personality
 They base their views mostly on clinical observations of troubled individuals
 Sigmund Freud Proposed the first and most influential psychodynamic theory of
personality
 There are three Freudian theories that he put together at different stages of his own life.
more than this, however, it took Freud several million words to describe his ever-
changing thoughts
 Much of the power of his theorization comes from the fact that he was a superb narrator
of what he saw as the “human condition”
 Around 1985, Freud spent several months in Paris studying hypnosis with Jean Charcot.
Freud’s interest in psychoanalytic theory seems to have begun about this time. Many of
the patients Charcot treated with hypnosis suffered from hysterical paralysis, that is, the
patients reported that some part of their anatomy often the hand had become completely
paralyzed, just as if something had damaged the part of the brain controlling the hand.
 The paralysis however usually did not affect the patient’s wrist. The onset of the problem
was associated with some traumatic event. For instance, having touched some “dreaded
object”
 Both Freud and Charcot were aware that, there was no way a drug or damage to the
nervous system could affect the hand not the wrist. Charcot maintained that somewhere
in the brain, “dynamic lessons of the functional kind” caused paralysis. This is to say that
Charcot tried to reduce the psychological symptoms to some unknown neural damage.
 Freud believed that hypnosis might be useful in curing some types of mental disorders.
This view was strengthened by the success psychiatrist Joseph Breuer, who had achieved
 using hypnosis with a hysterical patient. He had gotten this patient to relieve some early
unhappy experiences. After the patient had “acted out” those child hood miseries, the
hysterical symptoms seemed to disappear.

Structure of Personality

According to the psychoanalytic view, the personality consists of three systems; Id, Ego and
Superego. However one’s personality functions as a whole rather than as three discrete
segments. The id is the biological component, the ego is the psychological component, and
the superego is the social component.

According Freud, humans are viewed as energy systems. The dynamics of personality consist
of the way in which psychic energy is distributed to the id, ego, and superego. Because the
amount of energy is limited, one system gains control over the available energy at the
expense of the other two systems. Behavior therefore is determined by this psychic energy.

The id

The id is the original system of personality; at birth, the person is all id. It is the primary
source of the psychic energy and the seat of the instincts.

It lacks organization and it is blind, demanding and insistent. The id cannot tolerate reason
and it functions to discharge tension immediately and return to a homeostatic condition.
Ruled by the pleasure principle, which is aimed at reducing tension, avoiding pain, and
gaining pleasure, the id is illogical and driven by consideration to satisfy instinctual needs in
accordance with the pleasure principle. The id never matureSs, but remains the spoilt brat of
personality. It does not think but only wishes or acts.

The ego

The ego has the contact with the external world of reality. It is the “executive” that governs
controls and regulates the personality. The ego controls consciousness and exercises
censorship.

It is ruled by the reality principle; the ego does realistic and logical thinking and formulates
plans of action for satisfying needs. The ego is the seat of intelligence and rationality. It
checks and controls the blind impulses of the id whereas the id knows only the subjective
reality. The ego distinguishes between mental images and things in the external world.
 The superego

This is the judicial branch of personality. It is a person’s moral code, the main concern being
whether the action is good or bad, right or wrong. It represents the ideal rather than the real,
and strives not for pleasure but for perfection. It represents the traditional values and ideals of
the society as they are handed down from parents to children. It functions to inhibit the id
impulses, to persuade the ego to substitute moralistic goals for realistic ones, and to strive
perfection. The superego, then, is related to psychological rewards and punishment. The
rewards are feelings of pride and self – love; the punishments are feelings of guilt and
inferiority.

PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY

Freud belief that all children must pass through similar periods in the development of their
personality.

Each stage has its own crisis and during each stage the child discharges libidinal energy in a
different manner through stimulation of a specific erogenous zone of the body( those parts of
the body which when stimulated , provides sexually pleasurable feelings.

THE PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES

1. Oral period (0-1 year)

In the first year of life, Freud said libido is organized around the pleasurable activities of the
mouth.

During the first year of the oral stage, the infant releases libido primarily through self-
stimulation or autoerotic activities

After a few months however, autoeroticism decreases as the infant begins to seek an external
love object. For most infants, the first external object is the breast. The pleasure the child
derives in sucking the mother’s breast then becomes the model for sexual organism in the
adult.( this becomes a sexual satisfaction in the later life according to Freud 1905/ 1953)

Passive incorporation of good through the mouth

2. Anal period (2- 3years )
During the first year of life, Freud said children tend to be fairly passive. However at some
point between the first and second year, they begin to strive for self-mastery

Toilet training typically begins around 18 months of age and the libido becomes organized
around the anus.

Children soon learn to associate the retention and expulsion of fetus not only with pleasure
but also with the mother’s love and approval.

This serves as the prototype for self- mastery and also for mastering the social and physical
environment in later life ( Freud 1905/ 1953)

3. Phallic period ( 3-5years)

Freud believed that beginning about the start of the fourth year, the libido becomes organized
around the genital stimulation. At about this age and extending into the fifth year, youngsters
discover that manipulation of their genitalia can provide intense sensory pleasure.

The children also develop an intense interest in the genitalia of others. It is at this stage that
Freud said, the Oedipus complex arises in males and the Electra complex arises in females.
( mother-boy and father-girl)

In boys, the Oedipus complex begins when boys learn “guilt” because their mothers punish
them for masturbation.

Freud said that the boy love his mother intensely because he sometimes associates the
intense pleasures of genital self-stimulation with the mother. However, the boy soon notes
two things;

1. The mother pays great deal of attention to the father. The boy becomes jealousy and
wants to get rid of the father in order to have the mother all to himself.
But the boy also suspects that the father is aware of this jealousy, and that parental
threats of castration are therefore only too real.
2. Because the boy has now learned that little girls lack a penis, he decides that they have
already been castrated for loving the mother too much. This insight serves to intensify his
fears of losing the valuable possession that has brought him so much pleasure.
Overwhelmed by anxieties concerning castration, the boys ego defends itself by repressing
all libidinal expression. Freud said that in boys, the complex is simply repressed, it is
literally smashed in pieces by the shock of threatened castration. ( Freud 1925)

According to Sigmund Freud, the boy resolves the Oedipus complex by taking three
important steps;
 He gives up his first love object, his mother
 He identifies with the father by taking on the father’s values and views
 He develops superego, or conscience, that incorporates his parent’s sense of morality

The Electra complex in girls occurs because girls discover that they “lack a penis” Freud said
that they tend to blame the mother for the loss of this important parts of their bodies. The girl
then abandons the first love object (the mother) and turns to the father.

The girls later own comes to identify with the mother and they take own her values and
feminine behaviour . This Freud said, they slowly cease to hate the mother.

Freud believed that, because the Electra complex dissipates rather being fully resolved,
women do not develop a strong conscience as (superego) as do men.( Freud 1933/ 1964)

Resolving the Oedipus and Electra complexes brings about the end of the phallic period and
the start of the latency period.

4 latency period (6 – 8YRS)

They suppress and sublimate libido by redirecting this sexual energy into learning the
cultural tools of reading, writing and arithmetic. This period ends with onset of the puberty

5. Genital period

The individual is sexually capable of reducing the species . sexual energy is focused on the
genital area.

At this stage Freud said that libidinal energy is organized around the discharge of sexual
products. During the genital period which lasts for the rest of life, personality bears the fruit
of earlier developmental stages. The genital period is an eruption synthesis of earlier stages.
This is why Freud said that personality was basically formed by age six (6)( the end of
Phallic period.