Developmental

Theories & other

Relevant
Theories
Sigmund Freud 1856-1939

Erik Erikson 1902-1994

Lawrence Kohlberg 1927-1987

Jean Piaget 1896-1990

Urie Bronfenbrenner 1917-2005

 Sigmund
Freud
Believed that the way
parents deal with children's
basic sexual and aggressive
desires would determine how
their personalities developed
and whether or not they
would end up well-adjusted
as adults.
focused on identifying the
parts of consciousness
 Stage Age Characteristics

Oral Birth An Infants primary interaction with the world is through

Stage to 1 the mouth. The mouth is vital for eating, and the infant
derives pleasure from oral stimulation through gratifying
activities such as tasting and sucking. If this need is not
met, the child may develop an oral fixation later in life,
examples of which include thumb sucking, fingernail
biting, and overeating.

Anal 1 to With the development of new cells and the control

provided by those cells(sphincters), the focus shifts from
Stage 3 oral stimulation to controlling bladder and bowel
movements. Toilet training is a primary issue with
children and parents. Too much pressure can result in an
excessive need for order or cleanliness later life, while
too little pressure from parents can lead to messy or
destructive behavior later life.

Phallic 3 to At this point in the development, the focus of the id’s

instinctual energies shifts to the genitals. It is during this
Stage 6 period that the children develop an attraction to the
opposite-sex parent. It is also this period that the
children adopt the values and characteristics of the
same-sex parent and form the superego.
 Stage Age Characteristics

Latent 6 to 11 During this stage, children

Stage develop social skills, values,
and relationships with peers
and adults outside of the family.

Genital 11 to 18 During this stage, people develop a

Stage strong interest in the opposite sex,
and the onset of puberty causes the
libido to become active once again. If
development has been successful to
this point, the individual will continue
to develop into a well-balanced
person.
 Erik
Erikson
used Freud’s work as a
starting place to develop a
theory about human stage
development from birth to
death.
Focused on how people’s
sense of identity develops,
how people develop or fail to
develop abilities and beliefs
about themselves which allow
them to become productive,
satisfied members of society.
 Stages Life Stage Meaning & Interpretation
& Age
Trust vs. Infant(0 The infant will develop a healthy balance
between trust and mistrust if cared for and
Mistrust -1,1/2) responded to consistently. Abuse neglect will
foster mistrust. Positive outcomes consist of
the development of hope and drive, while
negative outcomes could contribute to
withdrawal.

Autonomy Toddler Autonomy means self-reliance or

vs. Shame (1-3) independence of the thought and confidence to
act oneself. Toilet training is a significant part
and Doubt of this stage. Positive outcomes consist of
willpower and self-control, while negative
outcomes could contribute to compulsive
behaviors.

Initiative Pre- Initiative means aptitude and self-confidence

to perform actions, even with the
vs. Guilt school understanding of risks and failure. Guilt results
(4-6) from abandonment or believing an action will
draw disapproval. Positive outcomes foster
purpose and direction, while negative
outcomes encourage inhibition.
 Stages Life Stage Meaning & Interpretation
& Age

Industry School Industry means having a meaningful activity and

Age the competence to perform a skill. Inferiority
vs. (7-12) means feeling incapable of experiencing failure or
inability to discover one’s own strengths. This
Inferiority stage is crucial in the school years. Positive
outcomes foster competence, while negative
outcomes encourage inertia.

Identity Adolescent Identity means understanding of self and how one

fits into the surrounding world, while role
(12-18)
vs. confusion focuses on the inability to understand
Role one’s self or personal identity. Positive outcomes
foster fidelity and devotion, while negative
Confusion outcomes encourage repudiation behavior.

Intimacy Young Intimacy means developing relationships with

friends, family, and partners. Isolation involves
Adult
Vs. (19-40) feeling of being excluded form relationships or
Isolation partnership. These encompass sexual maturity,
reciprocal love support, and emotional connection.
Positive outcomes foster love and affiliation, while
negative outcomes encourage exclusivity.
 Stage Life Stage Meaning & Interpretation
& Age

Generativity Adulthood Generativity means unconditional care for

(41-65) one’s offspring or the future generations to
Vs. come, while stagnation refers to self-
Stagnation absorption/concentration. Positive
outcomes foster care and giving, while
negative outcomes encourage rejectivity.

Integrity Mature Integrity means understanding of self and

Adult satisfaction with life, while despair
Vs. (65+) contributes to feelings of wasted time,
Despair while negative outcomes encourage
despair.
 Lawrence
Kohlberg
Describe the 3 stages of
moral development which
described the process
through which people learn
to discriminate right from
wrong and to develop
increasingly sophisticated
appreciations of morality.
1.Preconventional
-describes children who's understanding
of morality is essentially only driven by
consequences. Essentially ,
“might makes right” to preconvention
mind, and they worry about what is right
in wrong so they don’t get in trouble.
2. Conventional
-describes people who act in
moral ways because they believe
that following the rules is the
best way to promote good
personal relationships and a
healthy community.
3. Post conventional
-describes people whose view of
morality transcend what the
rules or law say.
-determine what is moral based
on a set of values or beliefs they
think are right all the time.
 Jean
Piaget
Created a cognitive
development stages theory
that described how children's
ways of thinking developed
as they interact with the
world around them.
Piaget’s has four stages:
Sensorimotor,
Preoperational, Concrete
Operational, and Formal
Operational.
 Stage Approximate Description
Age
Sensorimotor Birth to 18- Infants adapt and organize experiences by
way of sensory and motor actions. Initially,
24 Months
simple reflexes, for example sucking, help
them know their world. Later, within this
stage, the infant differentiates self from
the external world and objects take on
their own existence. This is when object
permanence occurs with the infant able to
symbolize the object and realize that
objects exist even if out of sensory
experience.

Pre 2 to 7 years While the child at this stage lacks logical

operations be or she is no longer tied to
operational sensorimotor input but is tied to and
operates via representational and
conceptual frameworks. The child is able
to employ symbols to recreate or
present experiences. In this stage, the
child believes that everyone sees the
world the same way that he or she
does. This called egocentrism.
Conversation, another achievement of
this stage, is the ability to understand
 Stages Approximate Description
Age

Concrete 7 to 11 years
In this stage, the child has
Operational the ability to employ
logic; however only to
concrete problems and
objects.

Formal Over 11 At this, children’s abstract thinking

Operational leads to reasoning with more
complex symbols. They can think
logically about abstract propositions
and test hypotheses systematically.
They become concerned with the
hypothetical, the future, and
ideological problems.
 Urie
Bronfenbrenner
Develop the ecological
system theory, to
explain how everything
in a child and the child’s
environment affects a
child grows and
develops.
Microsystem

-refers to immediate surroundings of

the individual and consists of the
interactions in his or her immediate
surroundings. It is the setting in
which a person lives; family, peer
groups, neighborhood, and school life
are all included in the microsystem.
Mesosystem

-connects with the structure of

the microsystem. The relationship
can be seen between school life,
the neighborhood, and the
family. The child’s environment
links the child with his or her
immediate surroundings.
Exosystem
- is the outer shell surrounding both the
mesosystem and the microsystem. The
inner level of the exosystem is affected by
the support of the macrosystem.
Bronfenbrenner describes the exosystem as
being made up of social settings that do not
contain the developing person but
nevertheless after experiences in his or her
immediate settings.
Macrosystem
- influences the individual directly, but the
individual has less influence in the determining
settings. The macrosystem includes aspects of
culture and relative freedoms permitted by the
national government, cultural values, the
economy, wars and so on.
- Macrosystem also describes the culture in
which individuals live, including socioeconomic
status, poverty, and ethnicity.
Chronosystem
- refers to the patterning of environmental events
and transactions over the life of an individual as
well as socio historical circumstances . For
example, divorce is one transaction.
- Researchers have found that the negative effects
of divorce on children often peak in the first year
after the divorce. Two years after the divorce,
family interaction is less chaotic and more stable.
An example of socio historical circumstances would
be increasing opportunities in the last decades for
women to pursue a career.