Child

Development
Theories
WHY IS CHILDHOOD CRUCIAL?
 Research has shown that early childhood may be the most
important life stage for brain development.
 A baby’s brain is about one quarter the size of an adults’.
 Scientists have found that babies’ brains develop in response
to stimulation.
 Arouses senses such as sight, sound, touch, taste, and
smell.
 Babies who are stimulated develop more quickly and have a
more secure self-image.
 What is a theory?

 A theory should allow us to predict and

explain human behavior
• It should be stated in such a way that it
can be shown to be false
• It must be open to scientific
investigation
CHILD DEVELOPMENT THEORISTS

 Although researches don’t always agree,

scientific researchers have agreed upon the
five following general rules.
 Development is similar for each individual
 Development builds upon earlier learning.

 Development proceeds at an individual rate.

 The different areas of development are interrelated.

 Development is a lifelong process.

Psychoanalytic Theories:
 Freud’s Psychosexual Theory
 Personality has 3 parts
 There are 5 stages of psychosexual development
 Oedipus complex allows child to identify with
same-sex parent
 Fixation is an unresolved conflict during a stage
of development
 Freudian Stages
Birth to 1½ to 3 3 to 6 6 yrs to Puberty
1½ yrs yrs years puberty onward
Oral Stage Anal Stage Phallic Latency Genital
Stage Stage Stage
Infant’s Child’s
pleasure pleasure Child’s Child A time of
centers on focuses on pleasure represses sexual
mouth anus focuses on sexual reawakening;
genitals interest source of
and develops sexual
social and pleasure
intellectual becomes
skills someone
outside of the
family

Figure 2.1
 Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory:
 There are 8 stages of psychosocial development
 Each has a unique developmental task
 Developmental change occurs throughout life span

 Key points of psychoanalytic theories:

 Early experiences and family relationships are very
important to development
 Unconscious aspects of the mind are considered

 Personality is best seen as a developmental

process
 Erikson’s Eight Life-Span Stages
Erikson’s Stages Developmental Period
Trust vs Mistrust Infancy (first year)
Autonomy vs shame & Infancy (1 to 3 years)
doubt
Initiative vs guilt Early childhood (3 to 5
years)
Industry vs inferiority Middle and late childhood
Identity vs identity Adolescence (10 to 20 years)
confusion
Intimacy vs isolation Early adulthood (20s, 30s)
Generativity vs Middle adulthood (40s, 50s)
stagnation
Integrity vs despair Late adulthood (60s onward)

Figure 2.2
Cognitive theories:

 Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory

 Stresses conscious mental processes
 Cognitive processes are influenced by
biological maturation
 Four stages of cognitive development
in children
 Assimilation and accommodation underlie
how children understand the world, adapt
to it, and organize their experiences
 Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive
Development
Sensorimotor Stage:
The infant constructs an understanding of the world
Birth to 2 by coordinating sensory experiences with physical
years of age actions: progressing from reflexive, instinctual action
at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought toward
end of the stage.
Preoperational Stage:
2 to 7 years The child begins to represent the world with words
of age and images. These words and images reflect
increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the
connection of sensory information and physical action.
Concrete Operational Stage:
7 to 11 years
of age The child can now reason logically about concrete
events and classify objects into different sets.
11–15 years Formal Operational Stage
of age
through The adolescent reasons in more abstract idealistic
adulthood and logical ways.

Figure 2.3
 Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory
 Children actively construct their knowledge
 Social interaction and culture guide cognitive
development
 Learning is based upon inventions of society
 Knowledge is created through interactions with
other people and objects in the culture
 Less skilled persons learn from the more skilled

 Information-processing theory
 Compares computers to the human mind
 Thinking is information processing
 Information-Processing Theory
geography

literature

science INPUT OUTPUT

Information Information is
is taken into used as basis of
brain behaviors and
interactions
history religion Information
gets processed,
analyzed, and
stored until use
math
 Bandura’s Social Cognitive Model

Behavior

Person Environment
(cognitive)

Figure 2.4
 Bandura’s Modeling/Imitation

Child Child imitates

observes behavior
someone that seems
admired rewarded
 Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory:
 Environmental factors influence development
 5 environmental systems affect life-span
development

 Eclectic theoretical orientation:

 Selects features from other theories
 No one theory has all the answers
 Each theory can make a contribution to
understanding life-span development
 Political philosophy
Exosystem Mesosystems
School system

School &
Family classroom

Chronosystem

Religion Peer
& groups group

Bronfenbrenner’s
Ecological Theory
of Development

Macrosystem Figure 2.5

 Observed correlation: as permissive parenting
increases, children’s self-control decreases

Permissive causes Children’s lack

parenting of self-control

Children’s lack causes Permissive

of self-control parenting

Permissive
Other factors, parenting
such as genetic cause
tendencies, poverty, and
and sociohistorical both
circumstances Children’s lack
of self-control

Possible Explanations for Correlational Data

Figure 2.9
Group 1 Time More
playing playful
video and
games: sociable
2 hours
each day

Group 2 Time More

playing aggressive
video and
games: antisocial
6 hours
each day
OTHER INFLUENCES ON DEVELOPMENT

 Heredity
 Blood type, eye color, and hair color
 Environment
 Childrenalso learn attitudes and beliefs from their
environments