The document discusses three key issues in developmental psychology: nature vs nurture, continuity vs discontinuity, and universal vs context-specific development. It then summarizes three major theories: Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory which emphasizes innate stages of cognitive development influenced little by environment; Erikson's psychosocial theory which views development as proceeding through innate psychosocial stages with strong environmental influences; and social cognitive learning theory which sees development as the gradual accumulation of learned behaviors through modeling and reinforcement from the environment.

1. Aim
The aim of this seminar is to further your understanding of some of the important issues and theories
in Developmental Psychology.
In Lecture 1 you were given information about the key issues and controversies in Developmental
Psychology. Three of these are:
a. Nature vs nurture. To what extent are the qualities we possess inborn (acquired through genetic
inheritance/hereditary), and to what extent are they acquired as a result of our experiences and
environmental influences?
b. Continuity vs Discontinuity. How much does development simply continue earlier acquisition and
how much does it lead to qualitatively new behaviours and skills?
c. Universal vs context-specific development. To what extent can developmental psychology identify
developmental changes that occur to everyone throughout the world and to what extent should it take
specific human and cultural contexts into account?
Also during the lecture you were told about some of the key theories in developmental psychology.
Some of these are summarised below.
For each theory, try and identify what the theory says about each of the key issues above (e.g. does
Piaget believe that nature or nurture has the major influence on development?). Explain your answers.
None of the theories will be as clear cut as saying for example, that nurture has NO part to play in
development but each usually emphasises one side of the equation more than the other. Some of the
theories are silent on some of the key issues so do not worry if you cannot identify exactly what every
theory says about every key issue. Please note that these are not ALL the theories relevant to
Developmental Psychology but are the ones in which the issues can be demonstrated most clearly.
Theories of Human Development
1. Cognitive-Developmental Theory: Piaget
The most famous cognitive-developmental theorist was Jean Piaget. Piaget was more interested in
cognitive functioning than personality development. He was interested in how knowledge develops in
the human organism. He considered cognitive to be a biological process and was interested in how the
thinking brain functions to process incoming information.
Piaget’s is an age-stage theory of development that stresses the action of the mind on the
environment. He observed that at different ages, children show qualitatively different levels of
comprehension and reasoning. Piaget believed that intellectual development proceeds in an orderly
sequence that is characterised by specific growth stages. The role of the environment is merely to
provide information. Some information can be assimilated into the child’s existing way of thinking about
the world (mental structure). Other information forces changes in the child’s mental structure in order
for new experiences to be added. In this way, the child’s thinking processes develop. All children are
said to progress through all stages regardless of environmental influences.
Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Stages:
a. Sensorimotor development (0-2 years). The infant exercises rudimentary sensory and motor
awareness and functions almost exclusively by means of reflexive responses.
b. Preoperational thought (2-7 years). The child demonstrates an increase in language abilities and
concepts become more elaborate. However, the child can only view the world from its own perspective
(egocentrism).

2. c. Concrete operations (7-11 years). The ability to consider the viewpoints of others and understand
relational concepts is evident. However, the child cannot solve problems of an abstract nature.
d. Formal operations (11-15). Abstract thinking is now possible and scientific problem-solving
strategies emerge.
2. Psychodynamic Theory: Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
Erikson’s theory is based on the psychoanalytic approach to human development, founded by
Sigmund Freud. According to Freud, the child is born with basic animal instincts that operate at the
unconscious level of thought. These instincts require immediate gratification. Development depends in
part on transforming these animal needs into socially acceptable, rational behaviour. The range of
potential behaviour is very broad at birth and then becomes increasingly reduced in scope, fixed in
form and shaped to conform to social norms.
Freud’s theory of development was a pschosexual one – children were said to pass through five
psychosexual stages of development. However, Erikson’s theory of development converts Freud’s
psychosexual theory to one of psychosocial stages of ego development. Erikson believed that the
process of socialising the child into a given culture occurs as the person passes through eight innately
determined, sequential stages. Although he recognised the individual’s instinctual drives, Erikson
emphasised the child’s interaction with the environment. For Erikson, the events of later childhood can
undo the personality foundations built earlier in life.
Essential for the theory is the organism’s ability to deal with a series of crises throughout her/his
lifespan. Each stage of life has a crisis that is related in some way to an element in society. The
development of personality begins with strengths that commence at birth; as the child grows, strength
is accrued, one quality at a time; each quality undergoing rapid growth at a critical period of
development.
8 psychosocial stages:
a. Basic trust vs basic mistrust (0-1 years) – the nature of parental interaction with the infant is critical.
Proper care, love and affection mean the child develops a sense of trust. Otherwise, the child
becomes suspicious and mistrusting.
b. Autonomy vs doubt (1-3 years) – the child begins the experience independence. If this urge to
explore the world is encouraged, children grow more confident and autonomous. If not, children may
harbour doubts about their own inadequacy.
c. Initiative vs guilt (3-5 years) – parental reinforcement is important for the child to develop initiative
and promote purpose- and goal-directiveness. Parental restrictiveness promotes guilt whenever
children seek to discover the world on their own.
d. Industry vs inferiority (6-11 years) – child desires to manipulate objects and learn how things work,
leading to a sense of order, a system of rules and understanding of the environment. Inferiority results
if adults perceive such behaviour as mischievous or silly.
e. Identity vs role confusion (adolescence) – the task is to develop an integrated sense of self. Failure
of adults to help adolescents establish a sense of personal identity may lead to inadequacy, isolation
and indecisiveness (role confusion).
The final three stages occur during adulthood and are not strictly relevant to this module. For your
reference they are:

3. f. Intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood) – task is to develop close meaningful relationships with
others. Individuals are able to share themselves with others on a moral, emotional and sexual level.
Those unwilling or unable to do this will suffer loneliness or isolation.
g. Generativity vs self-absorption (middle adulthood) – generativity means adults are willing to express
concern for others. The self-absorbed person will be preoccupied with personal well-being and
material gain.
h. Integrity vs despair (old age) – those with a sense of integrity have typically resolved previous
psychosocial crises and are able to look back at their lives with dignity, satisfaction and personal
fulfilment. Despair sets in if looking back engenders feelings of disappointment and failure.
3. Social Cognitive Learning Theory
Social learning theory is a variant of Behaviourism. Behaviourism looks at the way in which behaviour
is acquired, instead of looking at changes in people’s behaviour as they age. People’s behaviour
changes as they learn new responses as a result of experiences in a new environment. The difference
between children and adults is a quantitative one: adults have learned many more behaviours or
responses to a larger number of specific people and situations than have children. Social learning
theory pays more attention to human development than behaviourism (which concerns itself with the
behaviour of lower animals primarily) and gives greater recognition to the role of social reinforcements
in explaining how behaviours are learned.
Albert Bandura and Walter Mischel are the two foremost social learning theorists. Like the
behaviourists, they view development as the gradual accumulation of responses. Human beings and
environments constantly interact. Much of what children learn is acquired through their natural
tendency to imitate or model the behaviour of others. If they witness a model (e.g. parent) being
rewarded their imitation of the model’s behaviour will increase. In imitating models, children temporarily
identify with them and consequently share the pleasure of being reinforced – vicarious reinforcement.