Download SR6e Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2
THEORIES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT




Theory: Ideas proposed to describe/explain
certain phenomena

Organizes facts/observations

Guides collection of new data
Should be internally consistent
Falsifiable: Hypothesis can be tested and
proven wrong
Supported by data






Nature/Nurture: Heredity or environment most
influential?
Goodness/Badness: Underlying good or evil
Active/Passive Development: Self determination
or by others
Continuity/Discontinuity: Stages or gradual
change
Quantitative/Qualitative Changes: Degree or
transformation
Universal or Context Specific Development
From Freud’s theory:
Proposes that childhood
sexuality and unconscious
motivations influence
personality
Techniques used in treating
psychological disorders by
seeking to expose and
interpret unconscious
tensions
Ego
Conscious mind
Preconscious mind
Superego
Id
Unconscious
mind

Freud’s idea of
the mind’s
structure



Instincts and unconscious motivation
Id, Ego, and Superego formed from psychic
energy (Libido)
 Id: Instinctual nature of humans (anger and
sex). Operates on the pleasure principle
 Ego: rational and objective (reality principle)
 Superego: internalized moral standards
A dynamic personality system
 Regular conflicts between the three parts





Child moves through five stages
Stages result from conflict between Id &
Superego
Conflict creates anxiety
Ego defends against anxiety with defense
mechanisms
Early experiences have long-term effects on
personality



Psychosexual Stages
 the childhood stages of development during
which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on
distinct erogenous zones
Oedipus Complex
 a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and
feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
Electra Complex
 a girl’s sexual desires for a penis, aimed at her
father and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the
rival mother


Strengths

Awareness of unconscious motivation

Emphasized important early experience
Weaknesses

Ambiguous, inconsistent, not testable

Not supported by research


Most influential neo-Freudian
Some differences with Freud
 Less emphasis on sexual
urges
 More emphasis on rational
ego
 More positive, adaptive view
of human nature
 Development continues
through adulthood








Trust vs. Mistrust: Importance of responsive
caregiver (1st year)
Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt: (1 to 3)
Initiative vs. Guilt: Preschool (4 to 5)
Industry vs. Inferiority: School-age children
Identity vs. Role Confusion: Adolescence
Intimacy vs. Isolation: Young adult
Generativity vs. Stagnation: Middle age
Integrity vs. Despair: Old Age


Strengths
 Focus on identity crisis of adolescence still
most relevant
 Emphasis on rational and adaptive nature
 Interaction of biological & social
influences
Weaknesses
 Sometimes vague and difficult to test
 Does not explain how development comes
about



Pavlov, Watson, Skinner
Behaviorism: Conclusions should be based on
observable behavior. Psychological aspects of
development are determined by the environment.
According to the behaviorists: Everything is
learned!!!!
Tabula Rasa - Environmental view

Ivan Pavlov
 Discovered classical
condition by
serendipity.

Association Learning

NS: Does not elicit a response

UCS: Built-in, unlearned stimulus

UCR: Automatic, unlearned response

CS: Stimulus causes learned response

CR: Learned response

17

Little Albert: The three phases of classical conditioning





Probability of behavior based on
environmental consequences
Operant Behavior - operates (acts) on environment
 produces consequences
Consequences (rewards and punishments)
are contingent on the organism’s behavior.
Reinforcement (reward) increases the
probability that a behavior will occur.
Punishment decreases the probability that a
behavior will occur.



Positive reinforcement – giving something that the
person wants that increases the behavior
Examples:
 Praise
 Teacher attention
 Rewards
Negative reinforcement – taking away something that
the person does not want that increases the behavior
 Cough medicine
 Child stops whining when parent picks the child
up
 Nagging


Positive Punishment (type I or Presentation
punishment) – giving something that the person does
not want that decreases the behavior
 Detention
 Extra work
 Chores
 Yelling
Negative Punishment (type II or Removal
punishment) – taking away something
that the person wants that decreases the
behavior
 Loss of recess
 Loss of favorite toy/activity


Possible consequences of whining behavior.
Moosie comes into the TV room and sees his father talking and joking with his sister.
Lulu, as the two watch a football game. Soon Moosie begins to whine, louder and
louder, that he wants them to turn off the television so he can play Nintendo games. If
you were Moosie’s father, how would you react? Here are four possible consequences of
Moosie’s behavior. Consider both the type of consequences – whether it is a pleasant or
aversive stimulus – and whether it is administered (“added to”) or withdrawn. Notice
that reinforcers strengthen whining behavior, or make it more likely in the future,
whereas punishers weaken it.

Formerly called social learning theory


Humans think, anticipate, believe,
etc.
Cognitive Emphasis: Observational
learning

BoBo doll studies

Model praised or punished

Child learned to imitate rewarded
model

Children learn vicariously.


Strengths

Precise and testable theory

Carefully controlled experiments

Practical applications across lifespan
Weaknesses

Inadequate account of lifespan changes

Ignored genetic and maturational
processes
• Bronfenbrenner: Bioecological Model
– How nature and nurture interact to produce
development
• Five environmental systems
– Microsystem: family
– Mesosystem: school
– Exosystem: society
– Macrosystem: culture
– Chronosystem: time
Fig. 1.2, p. 7

Gottlieb: Evolutionary/Epigenetic Systems

Genes, neural activity, behavior, and
environment mutually influential

Normal genes and normal early
experiences most helpful




Interaction: Biological & environmental
influences
Individual programmed through evolution
Current behavior results from past adaptation
Ethology: Behavior adaptive to specific
environments
 Species-specific behavior of animals &
humans





Instinctual behavior may or may not
occur
Depends on early physical and social
environments
Genes alone don’t influence behavior
A system of interactions
People develop in changing contexts
 Historical
 Cultural
Fig. 2.5, p. 53


Strengths
 Stresses the interaction of nature and nurture
Weaknesses
 Only partially formulated and tested
 No coherent developmental theory