Psychosexual Development, Cognitive Development, Attachment theory and Social Learning Theory

1. The Learning Perspective<br />Freud's Theory of Psychosexual Development: What is it?<br />personality is mostly established by age 5<br />personality develops through childhood stages<br />pleasure-seeking energies (libido) is driving force behind behavior<br />if stages successful: healthy personality<br />fixation: focus on earlier stage: until fixed, person is quot;
stuckquot;
in stage<br />Oral Stage<br />Birth to 1 year<br />Erogenous Zone: Mouth<br />vital for eating<br />oral stimulation: tasting and sucking<br />dependent on caretakers for food<br />weaning process: being less dependent<br />Fixation:<br />dependency or aggression<br />results in: problems with drinking, eating, smoking, nail biting<br />Anal Stage<br />1 to 3 years<br />Erogenous Zone: Bowel and Bladder Control<br />toliet training<br />leads to accomplishment and independence<br />success depends on parents attitudes<br />Fixation:<br />Parents too strict<br />stringent, orderly rigid, obsessive personalities <br />Parents do not encourage/ too lenient<br />messy, wasteful, destructive personalities<br />Phallic Stage<br />3 to 6 years<br />Erogenous Zone: genitals<br />Discover differences between males and females<br />Latent Period<br />6 years to Puberty<br />Erogenous Zone: Sexual feelings are inactive<br />lowered libido interests<br />sexual energy directed in other ways: intellectual and social interactions<br />gains: social and communication skills and self confidence<br />Genital Stage<br />Puberty to Death<br />Erogenous Zone: maturing sexual interests<br />sexual interest in opposite sex<br />if other stages completes successfully: well-balanced, warm, and caring<br />goal: establish balance in life<br />Weakness of Theory:<br />almost all male development, little mention of female<br />difficult to scientifically test<br />libido is impossible to measure<br />beliefs from adult recollections of childhood, not from observation of children<br />Attachment Theory:<br />Theorist: John Bowlby<br />What it is: quot;
lasting psychological connectedness between human beingsquot;
(1969)<br />Stages by Mary Ainsworth:<br />Secure Attachment: Distress when caregiver leaves, but is assured they will come back. Seek comfort from caregiver.<br />Ambivalent-insecure Attachment: Extreme distress, may not depend on maternal caregiver.<br />Avoidant-insecure Attachment: Avoid caregivers, no preference between caregiver and stranger; result of abuse or neglect<br />Disorganized-insecure Attachment: Lack clear attachment, avoid and resist caregiver. Confusion around parents.<br />Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development<br />early cognitive development involves processes based upon children's actions<br />Schemas: Describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing.<br />The process of obtaining that knowledge new info used to modify, add to, or change the previous schema<br />Assimilation: The process of taking in new information into our previous schema's.<br />Accommodation: Changing or altering our existing schemas because of new information<br />Equilibration: Children try to find balance between assimilation and accommodation<br />Sensorimotor Stage<br />Birth to age two<br />Infant trying to make sense of world<br />Knowledge limited to sensory perceptions & motor activities.<br />Utilize skills and abilities they were born with<br />Examples: looking, sucking, grasping, and listening.<br />Object permanence: Child's understanding that things still exist even if they cannot be seen or heard.<br />Six Substages of Sensorimotor Stage<br />Reflexes (0-1 month)<br />Examples: looking or sucking<br />Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months)<br />Examples: Sucking his/her thumb, then later repeating action on purpose<br />Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months)<br />Example: Child picks up toy, to intentionally stick it in his/her mouth<br />Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months)<br />Example: Shake Rattle to make noise<br />Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months)<br />Example: Try different sounds to get peoples’ attention<br />Early Representational Thought (18-24 months) <br />Starts understanding world through mental operations rather than actions.<br />Preoperational Stage<br />Ages 2 to 6<br />Language development starts<br />Start using symbols to represent things<br />Example: Pretending broom is a horse<br />Role playing becomes important<br />Egocentrism: Children unable to take on another person's perspective <br />Conservation: Equal amounts of liquid are poured into two different containers; children believes one is fuller <br />Concrete Operational Stage<br />Around age 7 to 11<br />Start to gain understanding of mental operations<br />Begin to think logical<br />Have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical ideas<br />Reversibility: Awareness that actions can be reversed<br />Example: Child recognizes his/her dog is a Labrador, Labrador is a dog, and dogs are animals.<br />Formal Operational Stage<br />About age 12 into adulthood<br />Ability to think about abstract concepts<br />Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, systematic planning<br />Now have ability to systematically solve problems in logical and methodical ways<br />Problems with Theory:<br />Major source of inspiration was his own children<br />Difficulty generalizing findings to a larger population<br />Social Learning<br />developed by Albert Bandura<br />most influential theory of learning<br />Learning concepts<br />learn through observation<br />mental states<br />learning doesn't have to change behavior <br />Following steps are involved<br />attention -> be interested in what you want to learn<br />retention -> store information and learn from it<br />reproduction ->stage were you perform behavior<br />motivation ->learning was successful, motivated to keep going<br />Bandura's theory influenced teachers and parents in education<br />