Download Theory Comparison There are six different men who have theories

Theory Comparison
There are six different men who have theories on child development and
different stages of development. They are Erik Erikson, Albert Bandura, Jean Piaget, Lev
Vygotsky, B.F. Skinner, and Abraham Maslow.
In Erikson’s theory he has eight stages and at each stage of life an individual
confronts a major challenge or crisis. Erikson postulated that if crises are not resolved
properly at particular points in the lifespan that later problems will ensue. His theory
emphasizes the role of sociocultural context on children’s personal and social
development, though parts of his theory assume particular cultural perspectives.
Abraham Maslow’s theory has a hierarchy of needs. Maslow claimed that unless
basic physical needs and psychological needs for safety and security are met, humans
cannot move up the hierarchy to achieve the next goals or growth needs: love and a
sense of belonging and then self-esteem. The top of the hierarchy is self-actualization,
which is achievement of life’s goals in many, individual forms. Meeting children’s needs
and helping them achieve these goals contributes to life satisfaction and successful
learning.
Jean Piaget’s theory is basically, children don’t think like adults. He believed that
children actively try to make sense of their experiences by building or construction their
own knowledge. His stages are about cognitive development and how children learn
and solve problems. He also believed that children’s minds develop as the result of
interactions between experience and biology though the process is not identical for
every type of learning.
Vygotsky’s theory is based on his belief that children learn from social interaction
within a cultural context. His emphasis was on what children learn is determined by the
cultural in which they grow up. He viewed development as primarily a continuous
process driven by learning and that at different ages the primary learning task differs.
He believed that speech is the most important tool for learning and the development of
self-regulation is the primary task of the years before formal school entry.
Skinner developed a theory of operant conditioning through systematic
experiments. According to the theory, learning is a change in behavior that is controlled
by the consequences, either positive or negative, that follow the behavior. To get a
desired behavior you would use positive or negative reinforcement. Positive
reinforcement is a reward or pleasant consequence that follows a behavior and negative
reinforcement is an unpleasant consequence that is avoided if the person performs a
behavior more frequently.
Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory is both a behavioral and cognitive
theory. His theory explains an important way that children learn—they observe and
then model the behaviors they observe. The basic principles of this theory are that
children learn by modeling, and can learn vicariously. Bandura claimed that people not
only learn by modeling behavior of others, but by observing and evaluating their own.
Self-regulated learning requires that individuals have internalized standards and that
they have the ability to reflect on their own performance and to reward or punish
themselves.
I believe that all of the theorists have some kind of contribution in helping me
understand children better. Piaget helps in explaining how children learn and think at
different stages. As far as development Maslow has a great way of explaining how
children can become insecure and how children are motivated. Erikson’s theory makes
sense in that one could have problems if not properly addressed during the approximate
age the crisis occurs in.
Vygotsky’s theory is helpful in explaining what children learn is determined by
culture. Not all children learn how to milk cow’s or learn how to drive. Skinner has a
great way of showing how to reinforce behavior to get a desired result. It is a fairly easy
concept and if used properly can be used to modify a child’s behavior. Bandura states
that one learns from modeling and vicariously. I believe that this is true as well in that if
one child does a bad behavior and is punished then other children are less likely to
repeat that behavior. None of the theories confuse me or are hard for me to
understand.