Download Psychosexual Development

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Theories of child development
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT/THE PSYCHOANALYTIC
PERSPECTIVE
According to the psychoanalytic approach, 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, i.e., the individual’s ability to learn,
to get along with others, and to cope with anxiety. Although many individuals contributed to the
psychoanalytic perspective, two have been especially influential: Sigmund Freud, founder of the
psychoanalytic movement, and Erik Erikson.
FREUD’S THEORY
Freud (1856-1939), a Viennese physician, saw patients in his practice with a variety of nervous
symptoms—such as hallucinations, fears, and paralyses—that appeared to have no physical
basis. Seeking a cure for these troubled adults, Freud found that their symptoms could be
relieved by having patients talk freely about painful events of their childhood. On the basis of
adult remembrances, he examined the unconscious motivations of his patients and constructed
his psychosexual theory of development. It emphasized that how parents manage their child’s
sexual and aggressive drives in the first few years is crucial for healthy personality development.
Three Parts of the Personality
In Freud’s theory, three parts of the personality—id, ego, and superego—become integrated
during a sequence of five stages of development. The id, the largest portion of the mind, is the
source of basic biological needs and desires. The ego—the conscious, rational part of
personality—emerges in early infancy to redirect the id’s impulses so they are discharged on
appropriate objects at acceptable times and places. For example, aided by the ego, the hungry
baby of few months of age stops crying when the child sees the mother unfasten her clothing for
breast-feeding or warm a bottle. And the more competent preschooler goes into the kitchen and
gets a snack on his/her own.
Between 3 and 6 years of age, the superego, or conscience, develops from interactions with
parents, who eventually insist that children conform to the values of society. Now the ego faces
the increasingly complex task of reconciling the demands of the id, the external world, and
conscience. For example, when the ego is tempted to gratify an id impulse by hitting a playmate
to get an attractive toy, the superego may warn that such behaviour is wrong. The ego must
decide which of the two forces (id or superego) will win this inner struggle or work out a
reasonable compromise, such as asking for a turn with the toy. According to Freud, the relations
established between the id, ego, and superego during the preschool years determine the
individual’s basic personality.
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Psychosexual Development
Freud believed that over the course of childhood, sexual impulses/stimulation shift focus from
the oral to the anal regions of the body. In each stage of development, parents walk a fine line
between permitting too much or too little gratification of their child’s basic needs. If parents
strike an appropriate balance, then children grow into well-adjusted adults with the capacity for
mature sexual behaviour, investment in family life, and rearing of the next generation. The
following table shows some of the important characteristics of the five stages of psychosexual
development.
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
Psychosexual
Stage
Oral
Period of
Development
Birth-1year
Anal
1-3 years
Phallic
3-6 years
Description
The new ego directs the baby’s sucking activities
toward breast or bottle. The oral region becomes the
most sensitive erogenous zone. If oral needs are not
met appropriately, the individual may develop such
habits as thumb sucking, fingernail biting, and pencil
chewing in childhood and overeating in later life.
Young toddlers and preschoolers enjoy holding and
releasing urine and feces. When the child reaches
this stage, the erogenous zone shifts from the oral
region to the anal region. Toilet training becomes a
major issue between parent and child. If parents
insist that children be trained before they are ready
or make too much demands, conflicts about anal
control may appear in the form of extreme
orderliness and cleanliness or messiness and
disorder.
Id impulses transfer to the genitals, and child finds
pleasure in genital stimulation. Freud’s Oedipus
conflict for boys and Electra conflict for girls
develop or take place. Young children feel a sexual
desire for the opposite-sex parent. To avoid
punishment, they give up this desire and, instead,
adopt the same-sex parent’s characteristics and
values. As a result the superego is formed, and
children feel guilty each time they violate its
standard. The relations between id, ego, and
superego established at this time determine the
individual’s basic personality orientation.
Latency
6-11 years
Sexual instincts die down, and the superego develops
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further. The child acquires new social values from
adults outside the family and from play with samesex peers.
Genital
Adolescence
Puberty causes the sexual impulses of the phallic
stage to reappear. If development has been
successful during earlier stages, it leads to marriage,
mature sexuality, and the birth and rearing of
children.
Freud’s psychosexual theory highlighted the importance of family relationships for children’s
development. It was the first theory to stress the role of early experience. But Freud’s perspective
was eventually criticized for several reasons. First, the theory overemphasized the influence of
sexual feelings in development. Second, because it was based on the problems of sexually
repressed, well-to-do adults, it did not apply in different cultures from nineteenth-century
Victorian society. Finally, Freud’s ideas were called into question because he did not study
children directly.
ERIKSON”S THEORY
Several of Freud’s followers took what was useful from his theory and stretched and rearranged
it in ways that improved on his idea. The most important of neo-Freudians for the field of child
development is Erik Erikson (1902-1994).
Psychosocial Theory
Erik Erikson expanded Freud’s theory, emphasizing the psychosocial outcomes of development.
Erikson expanded on Freud’s theory by emphasizing that the ego is a positive force in
development, ensuring that individuals acquire attitudes and skills that help them become active,
contributing members of the society. Erikson was also one of the first to recognize the lifespan
nature of development and the impact of culture on one’s individual development.
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Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
Psychosocial
Period of
Stage
Development
Description
Basic trust
vs. mistrust
Birth-1 year
From warm, responsive care, infants
gain a sense of trust, or confidence,
that the world is good. Mistrust occurs
when infants have to wait too long for
comfort and are handled harshly.
Autonomy
vs. shame &
doubt
1-3 years
Using new mental and motor skills,
children want to choose and decide for
themselves. Autonomy is fostered
when parents permit reasonable free
choice and do not force or shame the
child.
Corresponding
Psychosexual
Stage
Oral
Anal
Phallic
Initiative vs.
guilt
3-6 years
Industry vs.
inferiority
6-11 years
Identity vs.
identity
confusion
Adolescence
Intimacy vs.
isolation
Young
adulthood
Through make-believe play, children
experiment with the kind of person
they can become. Initiative—a sense
of ambition and responsibility—
develops when parents support their
child’s new sense of purpose and
direction. The danger is that parents
will demand too much self-control,
which leads to overcontrol, or too
much guilt.
At school, children develop the
capacity to work and cooperate with
other. Inferiority develops when
negative experiences at home, at
school. Or with peers lead to feelings
of incompetence and inferiority.
The adolescent tries to answer the
questions, Who am I, and What is my
place in society? Self-chosen values
and vocational goals and lead to a
lasting personal identity. The negative
outcome is confusion about future
adult roles.
Latency
Genital
Young people work on establishing
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Generativity Middle
adulthood
vs.
stagnation
Old age
Ego
integrity vs.
despair
intimate ties. Because of earlier
disappointments, some individuals
cannot form close relationships and
isolated from others.
Generativity means giving to the next
generation through child rearing,
caring for other people, or productive
work. The person who fails in these
ways feels an absence of meaningful
accomplishment.
In this final stage, individuals reflect
on the kind of person they have been.
Integrity results from feeling that life
was worth living as it happened. Old
people are dissatisfied with their lives
fear death.
Contributions and Limitations of the Psychoanalytic Perspective
A special strength of psychoanalytic perspective is its emphasis on the individual’s unique life
history as worthy of study and understanding (Emde, 1992). Psychoanalytic theory has also
inspired a wealth of research on many aspects of emotional and social development, including
infant-caregiver attachment, aggression, sibling relationship, child-rearing practices, morality,
gender roles, and adolescent identity.
Despite its extensive contributions, the psychoanalytic perspective is no longer in the mainstream
of child development research (Cairns, 1998; Miller, 1993). Psychoanalytic theorists may have
become isolated from the rest of the field because they were so strongly committed to the clinical
approach that they failed to consider other methods. In addition, many psychoanalytic ideas, such
as Freud’s Oedipus conflict and the psychosexual stages, are so vague and subject to
interpretation that they are difficult or impossible to test empirically.
Ref:
1. Berk, L. E. (2004). Development through the lifespan. 3rd (edn) Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
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Behavioural theory
At about the same time in the early 20th century that psychodynamic theory was attracting
increased attention, John Watson (1878 – 1958) was among the first psychologists to champion
the English philosopher John Locke’s view that the infant’s mind is a blank slate on which
experience writes. Watson agued that learning determines what children will be. He assumed
that, with the correct techniques, anything could be learned by almost anyone. In other words, in
Watson’s views, experience was just about all that mattered in determining the course of
development.
B.F Skinner (1904 – 1990) supported this view with his study of operant conditioning, in which
the consequence of a behavior determines whether a behavior is repeated in the future. Skinner
showed that two kinds of consequences were hood especially influential. Reinforcement is a
consequence that increases the future likelihood of the behavior that it follows. Positive
reinforcement consists of giving a reward such as chocolate or gold stars to increase the
likelihood of previous behavior. A father who wants his daughter to help with chores may
reinforce with praises, food treats or money whenever she cleans her room. Negative
reinforcement consists of rewarding people by taking away unpleasant things. The same father
could use negative reinforcement by saying that whenever his daughter cleans her room she
doesn’t have to wash the dishes or fold laundry.
A punishment is a consequence that decreases the future likelihood of the behavior that it
follows. Punishment suppresses a behavior by either adding something aversive or by
withholding a pleasant event. Should the daughter fail to clean her room, the father may punish
her by nagging (adding something aversive) or by not allowing her to watch television
(withholding a pleasant event). Human development researcher also showed that the principles
of operant conditioning could be extended readily to people (Baer & Wolf, 1968).
Berk, L. E. (2004). Development through the lifespan. 3rd (edn) Boston: Allyn & Bacon
Social learning theory
Researchers discovered that people sometimes learn without reinforcement and punishment.
People learn much by simply watching those others around them, which is known as imitation or
observational learning. perhaps imitation makes you think of “monkey-see, monkey-do”, in
which people simply mimic what they see. Later investigations showed that people are more
likely to imitate if the person thay see is popular, smart or talented. They are more likely to
imitate when the behavior they see is rewarded than when it is punished. Findings like this
imply that imitation is more complex than sheer mimicry.
Albert bandura (1918- ) based his social-cognitive theory on this more complex view of reward,
punishment, and imitation. Bandura’s theory is “cognitive” because he believes people actively
try to understand what goes on in their world; the theory is “social” because, along with
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reinforcement and punishment, what other people do is an important source of information about
the world.
Bandura also argues that experience gives people a sense of self efficacy, which refers to
people’s beliefs about their own abilities and talents. Self efficacy beliefs help to determine when
people will imitate others. A child who sees herself as athletically untalented, for example, will
not try to imitate Shaquille O’ Neal dunking a basketball despite the fact that he is obviously
talented and popular. Thus, whether that people will imitate others depend on who the other
person is, whether that person’s behavior is rewarded, and the person’s beliefs about his or her
talents.
Kail, R.V & Cavanaugh, J. C., (2004), Human Development – A life-span view, 3rd (ed), USA,
Thomson & Wadsworth
Cognitive theory
(PIAGET: 1896-1980)
According to Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory, children actively construct knowledge as
they manipulate and explore their world, and their cognitive development takes place in stages.
Piaget did not believe that knowledge was imposed on a passive, reinforced child.
Piaget’s Stages of Development
Central to his theory is the biological concept of adaptation (Piaget, 1971). Just as the structures
of the body are adapted to fit with the environment, so the structures of the mind develop during
childhood to better fit with, or represent, the external world. In infancy and early childhood,
children’s understanding is very different from adults. For example, Piaget believed that young
babies, do not realize that an object hidden from view—a favorite toy or even the mother—
continues to exist. He also concluded that that preschoolers’ thinking is full of faulty logic. For
instance, children younger than age 7 commonly say that the amount of milk or water changes
when it is poured into a differently shaped container. According to Piaget, children eventually
revise these incorrect ideas in their ongoing efforts to achieve equilibrium, or balance, between
internal structures and information they encounter in their everyday worlds (Beilin, 1992; Kuhn,
1992).
In Piaget’s theory, as the brain matures and children’s experiences expand, they move through
four broad stages of development, each of which is characterized by qualitatively distinct ways
of thinking. The table below provides a brief description of Piaget’s stages. In the sensorimotor
stage, cognitive develop begins with the baby’s use of senses and movements to explore the
world. These action patterns evolve into the symbolic but illogical thinking of the preschoolers in
the preoperational stage. Then cognition is transformed into the more organized reasoning of the
school-age child in the concrete operational stage. Finally, in the formal operational stage,
thought becomes the complex, abstract reasoning system of the adolescent and adult.
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Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Stage
Period of
Description
Development
Infants “think” by acting on the world with their eyes,
ears, and hands. As a result, they invent ways of solving
Sensorimotor Birth-2
sensorimotor problems, such as pulling a lever to hear
years
the sound of a music box, finding hidden toys, and
putting objects in and taking them out of containers.
Preschool children use symbols to represent their earlier
sensorimotor discoveries. Language and make-believe
Preoperational 2-7 years
play develop. However, thinking lacks the logical
qualities of the two remaining stages.
Children’s reasoning becomes logical. School-age
7-11 years children understand that a certain amount of water or
Concrete
play dough remains the same even after its appearance
operational
changes. They also organize objects into hierarchies of
classes and subclasses. However, thinking falls short of
adult intelligence. It is not yet abstract.
The capacity for abstract thinking permits adolescents
to reason with symbols that do not refer to objects in the
11 years
Formal
real world, as in advanced mathematics. They can also
on
operational
think of all possible outcomes in a scientific problem,
not just the obvious ones.
Contributions and Limitations of Piaget’s Theory
Piaget’s cognitive developmental-perspective convinced the field that children are active learners
whose minds consist of rich structures of knowledge. Besides investigating children’s
understanding of the physical world, Piaget explored their reasoning about the social world.
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development have sparked a wealth of research on children’s
conceptions of themselves, other people, and human relationships. Piaget’s theory encouraged
the development of educational philosophies and programs that emphasize discovery learning
and direct contact with the environment.
Despite Piaget’s overwhelming contributions to child development and education, in recent years
his theory has been challenged. Research indicates that Piaget underestimated the competencies
of infants and preschoolers. For example, it has been found that when young children are given
tasks scaled down in difficulty, their understanding appears close to that of the older child and
adult than Piaget believed. This discovery has led many researchers to conclude that the maturity
of children’s thinking may depend on their familiarity with the task and the kind of knowledge
sampled. Finally, many studies show that children’s performance on Piagetian problems can be
improved with training. This finding raises questions about his assumption that discovery
learning rather than adult teaching is the best way to foster development.
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Today, the field of child development is divided over its loyalty to Piaget’s ideas. Those who
continue to find merit in Piaget’s approach accept a modified view of his cognitive stages—one
in which changes in children’s thinking are not sudden and abrupt but take place much more
gradually than Piaget believed (case, 1992, 1998; Fischer & Pipp, 1984). Other have given up the
idea of cognitive stages in favor of a continuous approach to development—information
processing.
(Berk, L. E. (2000). Child development (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon)
VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896-1934), the Russian psychologist’s sociocultural theory
focuses on how culture—the values, beliefs, and customs, and skills of a social group—is
transmitted to the next generation. According to Vygotsky, social interaction—in particular,
cooperative dialogues between children and more knowledgeable members of society—is
necessary for children to acquire the ways of thinking and behaving that make up a community’s
culture.
Vygotsky believed that as adults and more expert peers help children master culturally
meaningful activities, the communication between them becomes part of children’s thinking. As
children internalize the essential features of these dialogues, they use the language within them
to guide their own thought and actions and acquire new skills.
Vygotsky’s theory has also been influential in the study of children’s cognition. But Vygotsky’s
approach to cognitive development is different from Piaget’s. Piaget, unlike Vygotsky, did not
regard direct teaching by adults as important for cognitive development. Instead, he emphasized
children’s active, independent efforts to make sense of their world. Vygotsky agreed with Piaget
that children are active, constructive beings. But unlike Piaget, Vygotsky viewed cognitive
development as a socially mediated process—as dependent on the support that adults and more
mature peers provide as children try new tasks. Finally, Vygotsky did not regard all children as
moving through the same sequence of stages. Instead, as soon as children acquire language, their
enhanced ability to communicate with others leads to continuous changes in thought and
behaviour that can vary greatly from culture to culture.
A major finding of cross-cultural and multicultural research is that cultures select different tasks
for children’s learning. In line with Vygotsky’s theory, social interaction surrounding these tasks
leads to knowledge and skills essential for success in a particular culture. For example, among
the Zinacanteco Indians of southern Mexico, girls become expert weavers of complex garments
at an early age through the informal guidance of adult experts (Childs & Greenfield, 1982).
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Contributions and Limitations of Sociocultural Theory
Vygotsky’s theory and the research stimulated by it reveal that children in every culture develop
unique strengths that are not present in other cultures. However, Vygotsky’s emphasis on culture
and social experience led him to neglect the biological side of development. Although he
recognized the importance of biology, he said little about the role of heredity and brain growth in
cognitive change. Furthermore, Vygotsky’s focus on social transmission of knowledge meant
that he placed less emphasis than did other theorists on children’s capacity to shape their own
development.
ETHOLOGY
An approach concerned with the adaptive, or survival, value of behaviour and its evolutionary
history.
The origins of ethology can be traced to the work of Darwin. Two European zoologists, Konrad
Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen, laid its modern foundations. Watching the behaviours of diverse
animal species in their natural habitats, Lorenz and Tinbergen observed behaviour patterns that
promote survival. The best known of these is imprinting, the early following behaviour pattern
of certain baby birds that ensures that the young will stay close to the mother and be fed and
protected from danger. Imprinting takes place during an early restricted time period of
development. If the mother goose is not present during this time, but an object resembling her in
important features is, young goslings may imprint on it instead.
Observations of imprinting led to a major concept that has been widely applied in child
development: the critical period, now referred to as sensitive period for it term offers a better
account of human development than does the term critical period. A sensitive period is a time
that is optimal for certain capacities to emerge and in which the individual is especially
responsive to environmental influences.
Inspired by observation of imprinting, British psychoanalyst John Bowlby (1969) applied
ethological theory to the understanding of the human infant—caregiver relationship. He argued
that attachment behaviours of babies, such as smiling, babbling, grasping, and crying, are built-in
social signals that encourage the parent to approach, care for, and interact with the baby. By
keeping the mother near, these behaviours help ensure that the infant will be fed, protected from
danger, and provided with stimulation and affection necessary for healthy growth.
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Ecological Systems Approach
In essence the Ecological Systems Approach is the acceptance of a new perspective on the
child’s behaviour, and how it relates to other areas of the child’s existence outside the school
perspective. How many times when discussing a pupil’s behaviour in class, have teachers at a
parents evening heard the parents saying “well they're never like this at home” or “are you sure
you’ve got the right child”. This is due to the parents' own perspective of the child behaviour
within their family “system”.
This approach sees the development of both normal and abnormal behaviour as a product of the
child’s environment. All aspects of the child’s environment must be considered. In order to
comprehend better the EBD child in the classroom, one must not just seek to understand the
child’s teacher and classmate experiences, but also the child’s experiences within their family,
neighbourhood and community. This is known as the Child’s System. Emotional and
Behavioural Difficulties are seen as the result of discrepancies between the child’s skills and
abilities, and the demands and expectations placed on the child within the environment that they
are existing within at that time.
The theoretical origins of this perspective rest on Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s “General System
Theory” (1950, 1968). In this human beings are seen as existing in a social web (similar to a
biological ecosystem). The individual’s behaviour and development is both influenced by, as
well as an influence on, the behaviour and development of others with whom they interact in the
web. Thus human behaviour is the product of an ongoing interaction between social
environments and internal motivations (gained from previous social experiences). These systems
include the home, family, religion, culture, sub-culture, community, as well as school. There are
always interconnected elements between these systems. Hence any alteration in one system can
have repercussions in the others. For example in a social system (e.g. the family), there is a
change within a part of the system (e.g. the parental relationship), this affects the whole social
system (e.g. also affects children of family), which may influence allied systems (e.g. school).
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