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Child Psychology:
The Modern Science, 3e
by
Vasta, Haith, and Miller
Paul J. Wellman
Texas A&M University
John Wiley and Sons, Inc. © 1999
PowerPoint  Presentation: Chapter 2
Theories of Child Development
Developmental Psychologists

Developmental psychologists align
themselves with
– Specific age groups (infants or adolescents)
– Specific theoretical approaches
• Cognitive-developmental approach
• Environmental/learning approach
• Ethological approach
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Cognitive-Developmental Approach

Piaget was a biologist with strong interests
in how children acquire knowledge
– Piaget argued that the nature of children’s
knowledge changes as they develop
– Schemes refer to the cognitive structures that
are used to understand the world
– Schemes reflect an object in the environment
and the child’s reaction to that object
– For Piaget, development is the reorganization
of knowledge into more complex schemes
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Cognitive Functions: Piaget

Two functions guide cognitive development
– Organization: New knowledge must be merged
with old knowledge
– Adaptation: The survival of an organism
depends on its ability to fit with the environment

Cognitive adaptation is promoted by
– Assimilation, which refers to making sense of
new information using existing cognitive
structures
– Accommodation, which occurs when the existing
structure must be changed to fit new information
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Stage Theories


Developmental change can occur either in
a continuous fashion or can occur in
discontinuous steps
Stage theories suggest that development
of a function occurs in steps that are
qualitatively different
– Implies a progressive orderly series of stages
– Implies that persons move through the stages
in the same order and at approximately the
same time
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Piaget’s Theory of
Cognitive Development

Children move through four stages
– Sensorimotor period: Birth through age 2
• Infant schemes are simple reflexes and interactions
with people and objects
– Preoperational period: Age 2 to 6
• Child begins to use symbols but not problem solving
– Concrete operations: Age 6 to 11
• Child performs mental operations (conservation)
– Formal operations: Age 12 through adulthood
• Child can use formal problem solving and higher
level abstract thinking
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Environmental/Learning
Approaches


The environmental/learning approach
argues that human behavior is acquired
rather than inborn
Learning refers to a relatively permanent
change in behavior that results from
practice or experience
– Definition excludes transitory changes such
as exhaustion or drug actions
– Learning is reflected in observable behavior
– Learning is not due to biological maturation
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Behavioral Analysis

B.F. Skinner focused on two distinct
forms of learning:
– Respondent: Environmental stimuli elicit
reflexive responses (salivation in response
to a steak)
– Operant: Refers to the impact of voluntary
behaviors on the environment
• Operant behaviors are controlled by their effects
• Child places a quarter in a candy machine and
the machine delivers 30 candy bars rather than
one; the child is more likely to place a quarter in
that machine on the next occasion
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Behavioral Analysis

The goal of behavior analysis is to
explain how a child’s experiences
interact with biological processes to
produce development
– Behavior analysis relies heavily on learning
theory to explain development
– Behavior analysis does not invoke unseen
cognitive processes to explain development
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Forms of Learning



Habituation refers to the decline of a reflex
response after repeated elicitation
Classical conditioning refers to a form of
learning in which a neutral stimulus is
paired with a reflexive stimulus; after
several pairings, the neutral stimulus now
elicits a response
Operant learning focuses attention on the
positive and negative effects of behaviors
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Bandura’s Theory of
Observational Learning
(Figure adapted with permission from Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory, © 1977, p. 23.
Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey).
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Reciprocal Determinism
(Figure adapted with permission from “Self System in Reciprocal Determinism” by Albert Bandura,
1978, American Psychologist, 33, p. 345. Copyright © 1978 by the American Psychological Association)
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Ethology


The focus of ethology is on the role of
evolutionary processes in development
Ethology suggests two determinants of
behavior:
– Immediate environmental and internal states
– Evolutionary determinants refer to the idea
that behaviors are functional and that certain
behaviors may have conferred evolutionary
advantages to an animal, allowing it to
survive and to reproduce
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Innate Mechanisms

Ethologists argue that innate behaviors
– Are universal to all members of the species
– Require no learning or experience
– Are stereotyped (similar form)
– Are minimally affected by the environment

“Sensitive periods” are periods during
which learning is biologically programmed
to occur easily
– Imprinting refers to the emotional bonds
formed by young members of a species with
their mothers (Lorenz’s ducklings)
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Development in Context
(Figure reprinted with permission from U. Bronfenbrenner, from C. Kopp/Krakow,
Child Development in the Social Context, (figure 12.1), © 1982 by Addison-Wesley
Publishing Co.)
© 1999 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Copyright
Copyright 1999 by John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.
All rights reserved. No part of the material protected
by this copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission of the copyright owner.