Amanda Rion EDUC 121 80N Marjie Risen 10 Sept 2010

Child Development Theories There are four child development theories from the mid-twentieth century that I am going discuss. Each one of the theories came from a different man who had spent a lot of time working on developing his theory. The four theories are psychosexual, cognitive, Sociocultural, and psychosocial. The first theory is Freuds Psychosexual Theory; this is the theory that started the psychoanalytic movement. The second theory I am going to discuss is Piagets Cognitive Developmental Theory. This is a theory about the stages of cognitive development from birth to adulthood. The third theory is Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory. This is a theory that stated a childs development is determined by their culture and their influence by adults. The final theory is Eriksons Theory of Psychosocial Development. Erikson was a theorist who built upon Freuds theory and thought there was more to each stage than Freud had discovered. Sigmund Freud was the founder of the psychoanalytic movement in the twenty first century. Freud and Erik Erikson were the two individuals who had the most influence on this movement. The psychoanalytic perspective is defined as Freuds views of personality development, in which children move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. The way these conflicts are resolved determines psychological adjustment. Freud was a Viennese physician who worked with troubled adults allowing them to talk freely about painful events in their childhood. By working with these adults Freud was able to examine the unconscious motivations of his patients allowing him to come up with his psychosexual theory. Freuds psychosexual theory puts emphasis on how parents manage their childs sexual aggressions and drives in the first few years of life is crucial for healthy personal development. Freud was able to break the personality into three parts: id, ego, and superego. He believed the id was the largest part of the mind and was where

all the biological needs and desires came from. The ego is the part of the personality that starts when the child is an infant. Freud believed the ego allowed the child to find a way to redirect the ids impulses so that they were acceptable. The final personality stage is the superego. Freud believed the superego was from age 3 years to 6 years. While parents are demanding their children to fit in and conform to society, the superego allows the child to develop an understanding of what their parents want. He was also able to break the stages into four categories oral, anal, phallic, and latency. Freuds theory states by allowing children to have a good balance between a childs biological sexual needs and societys views, then a child can grow into a well adjusted adult. The next theory is Piagets Cognitive Development Theory. Piaget did not believe that childrens learning depends on reinforces, such as rewards from an adult. This allowed him to develop his Cognitive Development Theory. His theory states: children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world and cognitive development takes place in stages. He believed children saw the world differently, and didnt think the same way adults did. Piagets stages were broken up into four parts; the first one was the sensorimotor stage. Piaget believed this stage took place from birth until the age of two. The sensorimotor stage is when a baby starts to use senses and movements to explore the world. As the child grows into a preschooler they come into what Piaget believed was the preoperational stage. The preoperational stage is from age two until around age seven. In this stage preschoolers develop languages and make believe places they can go to. In this stage a childs thinking lacks logic. Around the age of seven is when a child will enter the concrete operational stage. The concrete operational stage lasts from age seven until age eleven. Piaget believed this was the stage where children started to think logically. Children are able to organize and classify things in this stage.

This stage in child development is a very important learning stage. In Piagets theory he believed during this stage children were not abstract thinkers, and were not thinking in the same way as adults yet. After the age of eleven children start coming into the world of adulthood. They were able to think logically and use abstract thinking. In this stage a person is able to problem solve and knows the different between right and wrong. The next theory is Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory. Vygotsky believed many cognitive processes and skills are socially transferred from more knowledgeable members of society and children. Vygotskys Sociocultural theory helps explain the wide cultural variation in cognitive competencies. He believed that children learned from adults. A child who had never set the table before would not be able to properly set it without being instructed on where to put things by an adult. Without being taught from the adult, Vygotsky believed the child would not be able to properly complete the task. His research showed that children in different cultures learned differently. A child who grows up in America in the age of technology is probably going to learn how to use a computer, where a child who lives in a third world country is probably going to be learning survival skills. Vygotsky believed that biological development played a smaller role in a childs development. This is one of the main things that set him apart from other theorists. Erik Erikson was a follower of Freuds theories. He took Freuds theories and expanded the development in each stage. Erikson divided his theory into eight psychosocial stages. One of the things that set Erikson apart from Freud was his stages went from birth until death. Freuds stages went from birth until adulthood. The first stage in Eriksons theory is basic trust verses, which he believed was an oral stage. This stage was from birth until the age of one year. In this stage infants learn to gain trust. An infant will cry when they need something and can

trust that their needs will be met, or their parent will come to comfort them. In this stage an infant also learns to mistrust. If the infant has to wait too long to be comforted he will start to mistrust his caretaker. Also if a person is to rough or gets frustrated with the infant he will learn mistrust. The second stage is anatomy verses shame and doubt which is an anal phase. This phase is from one year to three years. Erikson believed that a child was able to use their new mental and motor skills to make decisions for themselves. He also believed that autonomy allows parents to let their child make a reasonable choice and explorations without making them feel shamed like they are doing something wrong. The third stage is initiative verses guilt, which is the phallic stage. This stage is believed to start at age three and end at age six. Erikson believed that children could discover who they wanted to become by imaginative play. When parents encouraged their children in this phase it allowed children to develop purpose and ambition. Erickson believed if parents forced too much self control on their child in this stage then the child would be full of guilt. The fourth stage is industry verses inferiority. This stage starts at age six and goes until age eleven. Erickson also associated this stage with Freuds stage of latency. In this stage Erickson believed children were able to learn and work well with others. When pressures at home including negative experiences happened to a child this made the child feel incompetent. The fifth stage is identity verses role confusion, and occurs during adolescence. This is the stage where the child tries to discover who they truly are what their place in this big world is. In this stage a child might decide what career they want when they graduate. If a child doesnt have goals or ideas on which they really are then there could be a lot of confusion. A child could become confused on what their role as an adult truly is. The sixth stage is intimacy verses

isolation. This stage starts as adolescent starts adulthood. In this stage a person is still trying to establish who they are, or follow on the path they have chosen. In this stage a person develops intimate relationships with other people. This is the stage where a person might find true love for the first time. The negative side to this stage is some people are not able to form intimate relationships due to past failures in other stages. The seventh stage is generatively verses stagnation, which occurs in adulthood. In this stage a person usually becomes a parent and starts teaching the next generation the things they have learned. During adulthood a person is able to work productively. If a person fails in these ways then they begin to feel like a failure and feel unable to accomplish anything. Eriksons eighth and final stage is integrity verses despair, which happens when a person starts growing old. This is the stage where a person can take a look back at their life and see what they have accomplished and the person they were in their prime. Most people feel they enjoyed their life and it was worth living. Sometimes a person is not satisfied with their life and may fear death. We do not know whose theories are right and who are wrong. Theorists spend their lives trying to prove their own theories, build upon someone elses theories, or try to prove another persons theory wrong. While we may never know who is truly right and who just has a theory, we are still able to get insight into how children grow and develop by exploring the different theories. Having a good understand of the theories can help us as adult in raising our own children.