This document provides an overview of several major theories of social development. It begins by discussing why child development theories are studied and what theories aim to do. It then examines five key issues in developmental theory, including nature vs nurture. The document proceeds to summarize Freud's psychoanalytic theory, including his stages of psychosexual development. It also covers Erikson's psychosocial stages. Learning theories like classical and operant conditioning are explained, as are social learning theory. The document concludes by introducing ecological theories including Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of interacting environmental systems influencing development.

1. THEORIES OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
How Children Develop
Chapter 9
Lawrence Heller, Psy. D.

2. Child Development Theories
Psychoanalytic Theory
Learning Theory
Theories of Social Cognition
Ecological Theories

3. Child Development Theories
Why do we study child development?

4. Developmental theory
 systematic statement of principles and
generalizations that provides a coherent framework
for studying development
What Theories Do

5. What Does a Theory Do
Theories
 form basis for hypotheses that can be tested by
research studies
 formulating right question is more difficult that finding
right answers
 generate discoveries
 offer insight and guidance by providing coherent
view

6. Five Key Developmental Issues
1) Nature-nurture issue
 Biological forces or environmental forces
2) Activity-passivity issue
 Are humans active agents in their own development or
passively shaped by forces beyond their control?
4) Continuity-discontinuity issue
 Are changes over the lifespan gradual or abrupt (like stair
steps)?
 Are changes quantitative (a matter of degree) or qualitative
(changes in kind)?

7. Five Key Developmental Issues, continued
4) Universality-context-specificity issue
 Are developmental changes common to all humans or
different across cultures, subcultures, contexts, and
individuals?
5) Goodness-badness of human nature
 Evidence of biologically-based tendencies for good and bad

8. Learning Objectives
What are the features of Freud’s psychoanalytic
theory of personality?
What are the features of Freud’s psychoanalytic
theory of psychosexual development?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of
psychoanalytic theory?

9. Psychoanalytic theory views behavior as motivated by
the need to satisfy basic drives (instinct)
 Such as eating, sleeping, excretion, and sexual desires
Psychoanalytic Theory

10. Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of
Personality
Central notion: humans have instincts that motivate
behavior at an unconscious level
Humans possess psychic energy that is divided
among three components of the personality

11. Id
 Impulsive, selfish part of
personality
The earliest and most
primitive personality
structure. It is unconscious
and operates on the
pleasure principle

12. Ego
Rational aspect that seeks to gratify instincts

13. Superego
Internalized moral standards
 what we think of as the conscience

14. Path to the Superego
Oedipus Complex
 The conflict experienced by boys in the
phallic stage (age 3-6) because of their
sexual desire for their mother and their fear
of retaliation by their father

15. Path to the Superego
Electra Complex
 The conflict experienced by girls in the
phallic stage (age 3-6) because of their
sexual desire for their Father and their fear of
retaliation by their mother
 Freud believed this occurs with less intensity
than the Oedipus complex for boys

16. Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual
Development
As a child biologically matures, libido seeks to
gratify different biological needs
 Libido – psychic energy of the sex instinct
Child moves through five stages
 Oral – infancy
 Anal – toddlerhood
 Phallic –3 to 6 years of age
 Latent – 6 to 12 years of age
 Genital - adolescence

17. Stages of Personality Development
First stage, first year
Mouth = erogenous zone
Weaning is primary conflict
Age 6 to puberty
Sexual feelings
repressed, same-sex
play, social skills
3 to 6 years
Superego develops
Sexual feelings
** Oedipus complex
1 to 3 years
Ego develops
Toilet training conflict
Expulsive vs. retentive
personalities
Puberty
Sexual feelings
consciously expressed
LATENCY
STAGE
ANAL
STAGE
GENITAL
STAGE
ORAL
STAGE
PHALLIC
STAGE
FREUD’S
PSYCHOSEXUAL
STAGES

19. Freud’s Theory – Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms
 unconscious coping devices that the
ego adopts to defend itself against
anxiety

21. Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud
Video
 People who don’t resolve the issue of each
stage can get “stuck” in that stage

22. Strengths and Weaknesses of Freud’s Theory
Weaknesses
 Theory said to be ambiguous, internally
inconsistent, not testable, and therefore not
falsifiable
Strengths
 Many insights have held up and been influential
Called attention to unconscious processes
Emphasized importance of early experience
Emphasized importance of emotions and
emotional conflicts

23. Learning Objectives
How does Erikson’s psychoanalytic theory compare
to Freud’s theory?
What crisis characterizes each of Erikson’s
psychosocial stages?

24. Erik Erikson Versus Freud
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

25. Erikson’s Stages
of Psychosocial Development

27. Erik Erikson
 How society or parents respond to the child
in each stage affects if the child succeeds
or fails to resolve the conflict of that
stage
 What do you think would be the result if a
child does not resolve a crisis?
 Erikson’s developmental stages Video

28. Learning Objectives
What are the distinct features of the learning theories
covered in this chapter: Watson’s classical conditioning,
Skinner’s operant conditioning, and Bandura’s social-
cognitive theory?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the learning
theories in our understanding of lifespan development?

29. Learning Theory
Classical Conditioning
 Pavlov
 Watson
Operant Conditioning
 BF Skinner
Social Learning
 Bandura

30. Classical Conditioning
Pavlov believed behavior is the result of
learning
 1849-1936
 Russian physiologist
 Discovered classical conditioning
 Reflexes, stimuli
& responses

31. Elements of Classical Conditioning
CONDITIONED
(learned)
UNCONDITIONED
(unlearned)
STIMULUS
RESPONSE
STIMULUS
RESPONSE

32. Putting It All Together
Neutral
Stimulus
No
Response
Unconditioned
Stimulus
Unconditioned
Response
Conditioned
Response
Conditioned
Stimulus

33. Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination
CS during
conditioning

34. Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

35. Neutral
Stimulus
No
Response
Conditioned
Stimulus
Conditioned
Response
Conditioned
Response
Conditioned
Stimulus
Higher-order conditioning:
Occurs when a strong conditioned
stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus,
causing the neutral stimulus to become a
second conditioned stimulus
Higher-Order Conditioning

36. John B. Watson (1878-1958)
Believed that
development is
determined by the child’s
social environment
through learning and
conditioning.

37. Conditioned emotional response:
Emotional response that has become
classically conditioned to occur to learned
stimuli
 Little Albert
Conditioned Emotional Responses

38. Mary Cover Jones (1924)

39. Other Conditioned Responses
Conditioned Taste Aversion: Development of a nausea or
aversive response to a particular taste because that taste was
followed by a nausea reaction, occurring after only one
association

40. Other Conditioned Responses
Biological
preparedness:
Tendency to learn
certain associations
with only one or few
pairings due to the
survival value of the
learning

41. Operant Conditioning
BF Skinner (1904-1990)
 Studied observable ,
measurable behavior
 Learning depends on
consequences

42. Important aspects of
Operant Conditioning
 Reinforcement increases the likelihood of a
desired behavior
 Positive means something is added
 Negative means something is taken away or
avoided
 Punishment Reduce or eliminate behavior

43. Skinner Box Video

44. Positive VS Negative Reinforcement

45. Punishment

46. Copyright ©
Pearson Education 2012
Modified by Jackie Kroening
Punishment should be:
• Immediate
• Consistent
• Paired with reinforcement
for correct behaviors
Making Punishment More Effective

47. Punishment Problems
Drawbacks to severe punishment:
 Fear and anxiety
 Lying
 Avoidance
 Modeling of aggression

48. Social Learning Theory
Albert Bandura

49. Social Learning Theory
Bandura agued that most human learning is
social in nature and based on observation of the
behavior of others
 “Monkey see, Monkey do”
 Reciprocal determinism- The child influences the
environment and so does the environment influence
the child.
 Bobo Doll Experiment

50. Ecological Theories of Development
Ethological psychology view
Evolutionary psychology views
These views are concerned with understanding
development and behavior based on an animal’s
evolutionary heritage

51. Ethological Approach
Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)
 Often referred to as the father of modern ethology

52. Konrad Lorenz
Imprinting- a form of learning in which newborns of
some species of birds and mammals become attached
to and follow adult members (mom/dad) and follow
them everywhere.
The purpose is so they baby will stay near for
protection and food
Imprinting video

53. Bioecological Theory
Uri Bronfenbrenner
This perspective treats child’s environment as a layered
system like the rings of a tree with each layer
representing a different type of system.
 5 interacting systems influence a child’s development
 The child participates in each system
 The quality of each system either enhances or interferes with
the child’s development

54. Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model
Video-
bioecological
model intro

55. Bioecological Theory Vocabulary
Microsystem: Closest to the child - family,
school, neighborhood, church
Mesosystem: relationships within the
immediate environment - who lives with child,
who is the teacher, what is the neighborhood
like?
Exosystem: social settings that indirectly
affect the child - parent’s work, neighborhood
safety, services, media

56. Bioecological Vocabulary (cont.)
Macrosystem: the culture, values, beliefs,
attitudes - a value for family? a work ethic? a
respect for elders? pride in possessions?
ethnic & socioeconomic factors?
Chronosystem: time, the changes over time
in all systems - job change, family change,
death/moving, school change, new sibling,
getting older and having more responsibility

57. Bioecological System Beliefs:
The quality of the systems and people affect the
child’s development.
AND
The characteristics of the child affect other’s
perceptions of the child, which then affects the
child’s development

58. The End