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THEORISTS
Erikson: Psychosocial Development Stages
Trust/Mistrust – hope (0-18 months); Autonomy/Shame and Doubt – will (18 months – 3);
Initiative/Guilt – purpose (3-6); Industry/Inferiority – skill/competence (6-11); Identity/Identity (Role)
Confusion – fidelity (teens)
Piaget
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Cognitive Development Stages: Sensorimotor (0-2): Use of Reflexes (0-1 month), Primary Circular
Reactions (1-4 months), Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months), Co-ordination of Secondary
Schemes (8-12 months), Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months), Mental Combinations (18-24
months); Preoperational (2-7): Advances and Limitations (eg transduction, centration, egocentrism,
conservation and animism); Concrete Operations (7-11): Advances (eg logical thinking, seriation,
transitive inference, class inclusion, inductive reasoning, identity, reversibility, decanter, horizontal
decalage, limited to real situations); Formal (11+): Ability to think abstractly. All hypotheses are
tested. Research shows that adolescent thought is more varied and flexible than Piaget thought.
Infant Memory: Brain not developed enough to store memories (Freud: stored, but repressed
because emotionally disturbing. Others: can’t store because can’t talk about them. See RoveeCollier)
Infant Imitation: Invisible Imitation (9 months), Visible (before invisible), Deferred imitation only
after 18 months. May have underestimated representational ability of babies. 40% of 9 month olds
could perform a two-step procedure (elicited imitation)
Object Permanence: 8-12 month (gradually develops in the Sensorimotor stage). Research suggests
Piaget may have underestimated object permanence because of his testing methods (not ageappropriate)
Visual and Auditory Abilities: Senses unconnected at birth and gradually integrated through
experience. Research shows visual preference and auditory discrimination from birth.
Theory of Mind: Children U/6 have no theory of mind. Recent research shows otherwise. Again,
methodology made the difference.
Private Speech: Cognitive immaturity and egocentrism. Research shows otherwise.
Moral Reasoning: 3 Stages: Rigid Obedience to Authority (2-7); Increasing Flexibility (7-11);
Equity (11/12)
Rovee-Collier: Operant Conditioning
Infant memory – experiments with activating an original mobile (2 months) and different trains (9-12
months)
Ramey: Parental Responsiveness in Infancy/toddlerhood
Encourage exploration, mentor in basic social and cognitive skills, celebrate developmental advances,
guide in practicing and extending skills, protect from inappropriate disapproval, teasing, punishment,
communicate richly and responsively, guide and limit behaviour.
Meltzoff and Moore: Infant Imitation
Disagreed with Piaget. Babies less than 72 hours imitate adults opening their mouths – inborn
predisposition to imitate adults.
Bauer: Young Children’s Long-term Recall
4 factors: no. of times something was experienced, whether the child actively participates, whether verbal
reminders are given, whether the events occur in a logical, causal order.
Kohlberg:
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Cognitive Developmental Theory: Gender knowledge precedes gender behaviour. 3 Stages to
Gender Constancy: Gender Identity (2-3); Gender Stability; Gender Consistency (3-7).
3 Levels and 6 Stages of Moral Reasoning: Level 1: Preconventional Morality (4-10): Stage 1:
Orientation Toward Punishment and Obedience. Stage 2: Instrumental Purpose and Exchange. Level
2: Conventional Morality (10-13 or beyond): Stage 3: Maintaining Mutual Relations, Approval of
Others. Stage 4: Social Concern and Conscience. Level 3: Postconventional Morality (early
adolescence, or not until young adulthood, or never): Stage 5: Morality of Contract, of Individual
Right, and of Democratically Accepted Laws. Stage 6: Morality of Universal Ethical Principles.
Bem: Gender-Schema Theory
Children form gender schemes and extract knowledge from the environment about gender before
engaging in gender-typed behaviour. Emphasises culture in gender roles.
Stelman: Stages of Friendship
Stage 0: Momentary Playmateship (3-7); Stage 1: One-way Assistance (4-9); Stage 2: Two-way Fairweather Cooperation (6-12); Stage 3: Intimate, Mutually Shared Relationships (9-15); Stage 4:
Autonomous Interdependence (12+)
Vygotsky: Sociocultural Theory
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Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding. Important Cognitive Contribution.
Forerunner of Guided Participation
Private Speech: Communication with the Self = Beginning of social communication
Neo-Piaget
Development of Self Concept – 5-7 Shift: 3 Stages: Single representations (4); Representational
Mappings (5/6); Representational Systems (Middle Childhood)
Case: Information Processing: as a child’s application of a scheme becomes automatic, it frees space in
working memory to deal with new information.
Lorenz: Imprinting (Bonding)
Experiments with ducks: attachment to first moving object (usually mother)
Harlow: Babies’ Needs
Experiments with monkeys: apart from feeding, babies need comfort and close bodily contact.
Bradley: Home Inventory/Fostering Competence
Home observation for measurement of the environment – correlations with cognitive development ie
make physical contact with child, praise spontaneously, answer child’s questions, involved in child’s play
Skinner: Learning Theorist
Language learnt through Operant Conditioning (nurture)
Chomsky: Nativism
Inborn Language Acquisition Device (nature)
Bowlby: Ethologist – Biologically Predisposed to Bonding
Bonding in animal studies
Ainsworth: Student of Bowlby: Attachment Theory
Studied Ugandan babies. Devised the Strange Situation Test. 3 Patterns of Attachments: Secure,
Avoidant and Ambivialant
Main and Solomon: Attachment Theory
Added a fourth category of attachment: Disorganized-Disoriented Attachment
Smilansky: Cognitive Levels of Play
4 Types: Functional (locomotor); Constructive (object); Dramatic (fantasy, pretend, imaginative);
Formal Games with Rules
Baumrind: Parenting Styles
3: Authoritative; Authoritarian and Permissive
Maccoby and Martin: Parenting Styles
Added a fourth style: Uninvolved or Neglectful
Gardner: Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal.
Later added Naturalist.
Sternberg: Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Componential (analytic eg IQ test); Experiential (insightful or creative), Contextual (practical)
Elkind
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Hurried Child: Pressure from Society
Immature Aspects of Adolescent Thought: Idealism and Criticalness, Argumentativeness,
Indecisiveness, Apparent Hypocrisy, Self-consciousness (imaginary audience), Specialness and
Invulnerability (personal fable)
Marcia: Identity Statuses
4: Identity Achievement, Foreclosure, Moratorium, Identity Diffusion
Hall, Freud and Freud
Believed that adolescence ushered in a time of storm and stress – adolescent rebellion.
Mead
When a culture provides a gradual, serene transition from childhood to adulthood, storm and stress is
typical in adolescent years.
SOME STUDIES
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Longitudinal Study: Oakland (Adolescent) Growth Study (pre-teen to old age) showed less
competent teenagers made poorer early decisions and tended to lead crisis-driven lives.
Microgenetic Studies: Vygotsky used in order to see how children’s performance could be improved
over a brief interval. Also operant conditioning studies.
Behavioural Genetics: Quantative study of relative hereditary and environmental influences on
behaviour.
Heritability Studies: Family Studies, Adoption Studies, Twin Studies.
Epigenesis.
Effects of heredity and environment on obesity, intelligence, temperament and psychopathology.
Pregnancy: No real proof that exercise may cause heart damage (even excessive)
Effects of Drugs on Foetus: Medical Drugs – can be severe eg Thalidomide disaster, Prozac, antipsychotics. Alcohol – FAS, no known safe level. Nicotine (increases certain risks). Caffeine – not
clear. Marijuana – studies are sparse and findings mixed. Cocaine – severe. Metamphetamines –
increasing concern. HIV – transmission may occur. Other illness: infections (should be treated),
rubella before 11th week almost certain to cause deafness/heart defects. Diabetes more likely to
develop birth defects (high glucose deprives of oxygen). Taxoplasmosis – severe defects. Stress –
major stress may negatively affect offspring, moderate may help. Maternal Age – chance of
miscarriage/stillbirth increases. Outside environmental hazards increase chances of miscarriage and
defects.
Paternal factors – effects on foetus
A, not B errors: tendency for an 8-12 month old to search for an object where they previously found
it rather than the place where they most recently saw it.
Habituation – speed of habituation show promise as predictors of intelligence
Contrary to Piaget, research suggests that at least a rudimentary representational ability exists at birth
or soon after (visual recognition and visual preference studies). Also auditory discrimination
Cross-modal transfer – studies showed 1 month old babies could transfer sucking info to vision.
Attention develops: 1-2 months: gazing time at a new sight increases. 2-9 months: decreases (scan
objects more efficiently). 10 months-2 years: attention becomes more voluntary and task oriented.
New York Longitudinal Study: pioneering study on temperament: goodness of fit. Easy, difficult
and slow-to-warm.
Strange Situation Test
Adult Attachment Interview (intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns)
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Longitudinal data on 900 European American children of early childcare showed negative effects on
cognitive development at 15 months to 3 years.
Studies on how family environment influences a child’s intelligence (nature/nurture). In middle class
white samples show home is strongest at early childhood and diminishes greatly by adolescents.
African American showed the influences remained substantial. Correlation between SES and IQ is
well documented –indirectly through stress, health, parenting, home atmosphere etc.
Children who use the most private speech also use the most social speech and that it is not egocentric.
Does not necessarily diminish.
Much research challenges Kohlberg’s view that gender typing depends on gender constancy. Today
cognitive developmental theorist no longer claim that gender constancy must precede gender typing.
Current view on gender stereotyping is that it rises and falls in developmental patterns
Studies show there is a prosocial personality which remains somewhat consistent throughout life.
Bandura’s Bobo doll – model aggression.
Only child studies: perform better than those with siblings (urban studies)
Today’s children aren’t as advanced (neurologically) as their counterparts 30 years ago – probably
due to too much drilling of the 3 R’s and not enough hands-on experience with the way materials
behave.
Research has found little support for claims of the whole-language approach to reading.
Research shows 25% of children from divorces reach adulthood with serious emotional, social or
psychological problems, compared to 10% of children whose parents stay together.
STAT: Sternberg’s Triarchic Abilities Test – seeks to ensure each element via verbal, essay, mcq’s,
quantitative and figural.
Sociometric studies identify 5 peer status groups: popular, rejected, neglected, controversial and
average.
Most studies support a link between violence and media violence.
Research suggests that Piaget’s formal operations, as the apex of mature thought may be too narrow.
Also overestimated older children’s abilities and underestimated some younger children.
Imaginary audience and personal fable have been widely accepted but have little independent research
support.
Researchers have identified 2 broad categories of measurable change in information processing:
structural and functional.
Recent research has cast doubt on some of the delineation of Kohlberg’s Moral Reasoning stages.
Neither Piaget nor Kohlberg acknowledged parental influence in moral reasoning. More recent
research emphasizes parents’ contribution.