lecture 3 E (1)

1

PY2009

Developmental Psychology

Topic 3 – Theories

Dr. Katherine Macaulay

Room LC B

Office Hour Tuesday 12.00 to 1.00Room MJ 128

2

Last Week: Research Methods

Levels of Research Methods

1. Data Class: Qualitative/Quantitative?

2. Research Strategy: Longitudinal/Cohort?

3. Study Type: Experiment/Observation?

4. Data Measure: Reaction Time/Behaviour Observation?

5. Response Indicator: Verbal/Manual Response?

1. Defining Terms: Paradigm, Theory and Models.

2. Psychoanalytic Child Development.

3. Behavioral Child Development.

4. Social Child Development.

5. Cognitive Child Development.

6. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

This Week: Theories

1. Defining Terms

Paradigm = A general perspective and umbrella for conducting investigations within a discipline.

Theory = A set of interlinked assertions to explain an area of a discipline and generate useful predictions.

Model = An entity that permits the testing or demonstration of part of a theory.

1 Scientists accept the dominant paradigm until anomalies are thrown up.  2 Scientists then begin to question the basis of the paradigm itself as new theories emerge which challenge the dominant paradigm.3 Eventually one of these new theories becomes accepted as the new paradigm.

Paradigm = A general perspective and umbrella for conducting investigations within a discipline.

These transformations were gradual as old beliefs were replaced by the new paradigms creating "a new gestalt" 

Plolemaic system the earth at the centre of the universe.

Copernican system the sun at the centre of the universe. Then and moving from Newtonian physics to Relativity and Quantum Physics.

The history of science is characterized by revolutions in scientific outlook that we progress intellectually through stages of development. 

This can be related to Piaget’s Stage Theory account of cognitive development in children.

Theory = A set of interlinked assertions to explain an area of a discipline and generate useful predictions.

Theories create a basis for research. Researchers use theories to form

hypotheses that can then be tested.

Theories are dynamic and always changing. As new discoveries are made,

theories are modified and adapted to account for new information.

Theories of development are much more specific than paradigms.

A theory of development deals with change over time and is usually concerned with three things.

First, it should describe changes over time within an area or several areas of development.

Second, it should describe changes among areas of development.

Third, it should explain these changes.

No one theory has proved adequate to describe and explain development.

Numerous theories have influenced developmental learning practices and will continue to do so.

Major Theorists of Child Development

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Emotional experiences in childhood have profound effects on a person as an adult. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) Stressed that children learn by using their senses and that they learn best by pursuing their interests.Arnold Gessell (1880-1961) Developed basic information about the order in which children master various skills and the typical rate of this development.Jean Piaget (1896-1980) First to study children in a scientific way, focused on how children learned. Lev Vygotsky (1898-1934) Believed that both biological development and cultural experiences influenced children’s ability to think and learn. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) Like Freud, said personality develops through stages and thought that each stage includes a unique psychological crisis. B. F, Skinner (1904-1990) A child’s action repeatedly brings positive effects, it will be repeated and learned. When negative results repeatedly occur, the child will eventually stop the action. Albert Bandura (1925-) Children learn by modelling.

Model = An entity that permits the testing or demonstration of part of a theory

EXAMPLE : HOW PARENTS IMPACT CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Finding cause-and-effect links between specific actions of parents and later behavior of children difficult. As, some children raised in dramatically different environments can later grow up to have remarkably similar qualities. Or, children who share a home and are raised in the same environment can grow up to have astonishingly different personalities than one another.

 During the early 1960s, psychologist Diana Baumrind conducted a study on more than 100 preschool-age children. Using naturalistic observation, parental interviews and other research methods, she identified four important dimensions of parenting.

Siegler, R. S., DeLoache, J. S., Eisenberg, N., & Leaper, C. (2011). The Family. How children develop (3rd ed., pp. 469-471). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Bernstein, D. A. (2011). Essentials of psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Limitations: Despite Baumrind's initial study and researchers having conducted similar studies - that led to a number of similar conclusions – this model of parenting styles has been critiqued.

"There is no universally "best" style of parenting," Douglas Bernstein

"So authoritative parenting, which is so consistently linked with positive outcomes in European American families, is not related to better school performance among African American or Asian American youngsters."

Freud believed children develop through stages based upon a particular erogenous zone. During each stage, an unsuccessful completion means that a child becomes fixated on that particular erogenous zone and either over– or under-indulges once he or she becomes an adult.

A stage theory so completed in a predetermined sequence and can result in either successful completion or a healthy personality or can result in failure, leading to an unhealthy personality

2. Psychoanalytic Child Development.

The theories proposed by Sigmund Freud stressed the importance of childhood events and experiences, but almost exclusively focused on mental disorders rather that normal functioning. 

In Freudian theory, the mind is structured into two main parts: the conscious and unconscious mind. The conscious mind includes all the things we are aware of or can easily bring into awareness. The unconscious mind includes all of the things outside of our awareness – all of the wishes, desires, hopes, urges and memories that lie outside of awareness yet continue to influence behavior.

Too much or too little gratification can result in an Oral Fixation or Oral Personality which is evidenced by a preoccupation with oral activities.

This type of personality may have a stronger tendency to smoke, drink alcohol, over eat, or bite his or her nails. Personality wise, these individuals may become overly dependent upon others, gullible, and perpetual followers. They may also fight these urges and develop pessimism and aggression toward others.

1. Oral Stage – 0 to 12 months

ID = Child starts with innate and untamed drives for selfish self-gratification (impulses, desires and emotions).

Gets stimulation and gratification from putting objects in mouth and sucking on whatever she can find.

Through society’s pressure, mainly via parents, the child has to learn to control anal stimulation.

In terms of personality, after effects of an anal fixation during this stage can result in an obsession with cleanliness, perfection, and control (anal retentive).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, they may become messy and disorganized (anal expulsive).

2. Anal Stage – 1 to 3 yearsEgo begins to develop, and produces some restraint of ID but not in a systematic way.

Child learns that she can influence parents by withholding or letting go of faeces. Also, gets more intense sexual-like stimulation from this process.

3. Phallic Stage – 3 to 6 years

Ego ceases its increasing influence on ID.

The pleasure zone switches to the genitals.

Freud believed at this stage boys develop unconscious sexual desires for their mother. Hence, he becomes rivals with his father and sees him as competition for the mother’s affection.

Boys also develop a fear that their father will punish them for these feelings, such as by castrating them.

This group of feelings is known as Oedipus Complex ( after the Greek Mythology figure who accidentally killed his father and married his mother).

5. Genital Stage – 12 years to end of Adolescence

Balance achieved between ID, ego and Superego.

Adult-like interest in others develops.

The final stage of psychosexual development begins at the start of puberty when sexual urges are once again awakened.

Through the lessons learned during the previous stages, adolescents direct their sexual urges onto opposite sex peers.

4. Latency Stage – 6 to 12 years

Superego develops at start of stage and increasingly mediates between ID and Ego.

Sexual urges are completely suppressed.

LIMITATIONS

Theory is focused almost entirely on male development with little mention of female psychosexual development.

Theory is difficult to test scientifically with research that has been conducted tends to discredit Freud's theory.

Future predictions are too vague. How can we know that a current behavior was caused specifically by a childhood experience? The length of time between the cause and the effect is too long to assume that there is a relationship between the two variables.

Theory is based upon case studies and not empirical research. Also, Freud based his theory on the recollections of his adult patients, not on actual observation and study of children.

These theories deal only with observable behaviors.

Development is considered a reaction to rewards, punishments, stimuli and reinforcement.

These theories differ considerably from other child development theories because they gives no consideration to internal thoughts or feelings.

They focus purely on how experience shapes who we are.

2. Behaviourist Theories

Behaviourist Theories

1. Pavlov = Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning theory involves learning a new behavior via the

process of association.

2. Watson = Operant Conditioning a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments

for behavior

3. Skinner = Instrumental Conditioning plus Reinforcement changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement which is given after

the desired response

Pavlov = Classical ConditioningThe unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is the object or event that originally produces the reflexive / natural response.The response to this is called the unconditioned response (UCR).  The neutral stimulus (NS) is a new stimulus that does not produce a response.When the neutral stimulus becomes associated with the unconditioned stimulus, it becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS). The conditioned response (CR) is the response to the conditioned stimulus.

Pavlov carried out the same experiments on children, the homeless and orphaned.

Including surgically adding taps to their salivary glands and force feeding them.

Watson = Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior.

"Little Albert" experiment, John Watson and a graduate assistant conditioned a small child to fear a white rat. They accomplished this by repeatedly pairing the white rat with a loud, frightening clanging noise. They were also able to demonstrate that this fear could be generalized to other white, furry objects. The ethics of the experiment are often criticized today, especially because the child's fear was never deconditioned.

Skinner = Instrumental Conditioning plus Reinforcement

Operant Conditioning in the ClassroomBehavior modification therapy used in clinical and educational psychology, particularly with people with learning difficulties, it applies largely to issues of class- and student management, rather than to learning content.

A simple way of giving positive reinforcement in behavior modification is in providing compliments, approval, encouragement, and affirmation; a ratio of five compliments for every one complaint is generally seen as being the most effective in altering behavior in a desired manner. 

Instrumental conditioning; reinforcement or punishment are used to either increase or decrease the probability that the behaviour will occur again in the future.   Neutral operants (neither increase nor decrease the behavior being repeated).Reinforcers positive or negative. (increase the probability of a behavior being repeated). Punishers: Response from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.

Behaviourist techniques are still sometimes useful in the treatment of phobias or anxiety problems.

For Example: teachers are able to apply classical conditioning in the class by creating a positive classroom environment to help students overcome anxiety or fear.

Pairing an anxiety-provoking situation, such as performing in front of a group, with pleasant surroundings could help the student learn new associations.

Instead of feeling anxiousand tense in these situations, the child will learn to stay relaxed and calm.

Two major theories dominated the first 20 or 30 years of the 1900s.

These were psychoanalytic theory and behaviourist theory.

They had major differences including:1. The “mind” is the main object of interest v completely ignored.2. Development driven by internal v external factors.3. Based on considering abnormal v normal development.4. Psychological problems caused by unresolved childhood conflicts v maladaptive behaviour reinforced.

They also had things in common including:1. Child given fairly passive role in its own development.2. Relatively little interest in generating falsifiable predictions.3. Relatively little interest in making key concepts and constructs highly probable.

4. Social Child Development.

Children learn new behaviors from observing other people.

External reinforcement was not the only way that people learned new things.

Unlike behavioral theories intrinsic reinforcements such as a sense of pride, satisfaction and accomplishment could also lead to learning.

By observing the actions of others, including parents and peers, children develop new skills and acquire new information.

Bandura = Added Observational Learning.

 Bobo doll experiment demonstrated that young children would imitate the violent and aggressive actions of an adult model.

Children observed a film in which an adult repeatedly hit a large, inflatable balloon doll. Children were allowed to play in a room with a real Bobo doll just like the one they saw in the film. Children were more likely to imitate the adult's violent actions when the adult either received no consequences or when the adult was actually rewarded for their violent actions. Children who saw film clips in which the adult was punished for this aggressive behavior were less likely to repeat the behaviors later on.

Bandura's research on observational learning raises an important question: If children were likely to imitate aggressive actions viewed on a film clip in a lab setting will they imitate the violence observed on popular films, television programs, and video games? The debate over this topic has raged on for years.

In the past 2 decades, correlational and experimental studies have found a positive association between violent video game play and aggression. There is less evidence, however, to support a long-term relation between these behaviors. This study examined sustained violent video game play and adolescent aggressive behavior across the high school years and directly assessed the socialization (violent video game play predicts aggression over time) versus selection hypotheses (aggression predicts violent video game play over time). Adolescents (1,492, 50.8% female) were surveyed annually….Sustained violent video game play was significantly related to steeper increases in adolescents’ trajectory of aggressive behavior over time. Moreover, greater violent video game play predicted higher levels of aggression over time, after controlling for previous levels of aggression, supporting the socialization hypothesis. In contrast, no support was found for the selection hypothesis…. Our findings, and the fact that many adolescents play video games for several hours every day, underscore the need for a greater understanding of the long-term relation between violentvideo games and aggression, as well as the specific game characteristics (e.g., violent content, competition, pace of action) that may be responsible for this association.

A Longitudinal Study of the Association Between Violent Video Game Play and Aggression Among AdolescentsTeena Willoughby, Paul J. C. Adachi, and Marie Good

Developmental Psychology . October 31, 2011. doi: 10.1037/a0026046

Vygotsky’s Theory

Theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition as he believed that community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning.“

Played down role of individual in achieving advanced thoughtCultural Tools = Language.Signs = Speech, Writing, Numbers.Development driven by maturation for first 2 years = Pre-linguistic thought + pre-intellectual speech.

Then at 2 years the culture takes over the leading role in development.

Modes rather than stages, because each mode continues to be used once it becomes significant.

Mode 1 (0 to 2 years) = Separate Paths of Language and ThoughtMode 2 (2 to 3 years) = Integration of Thought and LanguageMode 3 (3 to 7 years) = Language Splits into Communicative v EgocentricMode 4 (5 to 15 years) = Expansion of Zone of Proximal DevelopmentMode 5 (7 years plus) = Internalisation of Egocentric Speech.

The zone of proximal development(ZPD) has been defined as "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978, p86)..

5. Cognitive Child Development.

Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development.

Before his studies the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults. 

Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults.

Children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.

Piaget: What Causes Human Psychological Development

1. Adaptation = Only survive if can adapt to environment.2. Equilibration = Balance and predictability about the

environment.3. Concepts = Cope by constructing mental entities of

the world so that can think in absence of concrete objects.

4. Schema = Use concepts to create repertoire of behaviours that permit effective acting on the world and make the environment easier to manage.

5. Assimilation = Cope with world without modifying schema.6. Accommodation = Where assimilation not leading to

adaptation, improve concepts and modify schema.

Piaget’s 4 Major Stages of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor = birth to 2 years

2. Preoperational = 2 to 7 years

3. Concrete Operations = 7 to 11 years

4.Formal Operations = 11 years onwards

Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage

1.1. Reflexes = 0 to 1 month

1.2. Primary Circular Reactions = 1 to 4 months

1.3. Secondary Circular Reactions = 4 to 8 months

1.4. Coordination of (Secondary) Schema = 8 to 12 months

1.5. Tertiary Circular Reactions = 12 to 18 months

1.6. Mental Representations = 18 months onward

(Time, Space, Object, Memory, deferred imitation, novel goal-directed behaviour, language, problem-solving)

Piaget’s Preoperational Stage

2.1. Preconceptual Sub-Stage = 2 to 4 yearsTasks include brother task, perspective-taking.2.2. Intuitive Sub-Stage = 4 to 7 yearsTasks include conservation, seriation, class inclusion, transitive inference. Concepts mature and language improves dramatically.But further development is limited partly because child is:

(a) Still egocentric.(b) Does not yet fully appreciate that some aspects of an object cannot change whilst others can change.(c) Does not yet have concept of Reversibility.(d) And so lacks understanding of Logical Multiplication (concept of Compensation).

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

Not formally split into sub-stages.

1. But marked by gradual passing on harder variants of the Conservation task.

2. Plus more variants on the Transitive Inference Task.

But still fails on more formal Class Inclusion tasks and hardest Conservation Tasks (volume, mass).

In other words, the child’s passing on a particular task seems linked to the concrete nature of that task.

Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage

1. No sub-stages or tasks to highlight failings and new competencies.

2. Most tasks variants for concrete operations are now passed most of time.

3. Attainment highlighted by increasing performance on tasks such as balance beam.

4. Child has logical multiplication, abstract logical thinking, strategic thinking.

LIMITATIONS

Main criticism of work is in regards to his research methods. Inspiration for the theory observations of his own three children and other children all from well-educated professionals of high socioeconomic status.

Because of this unrepresentative sample, it is difficult to generalize his findings to a larger population.

Environmental factors may play a role in the development of formal operations.

Children possess many of the abilities at an earlier age, theory of mind research has found that 4- and 5-year-old children understanding of their own mental processes as well as those of other people.

The development of the computer in the 1950s and 1960s was responsible for the cognitive approach becoming the dominant approach in modern psychology (taking over from behaviorism).

Information Processing

The Information Processing model another way of examining and understanding how children develop cognitively.

This approach conceptualises children's mental processes through the metaphor of a computer processing, encoding, storing, and decoding data.

Computer Analogy1a. Hardware Structural = Different brain structures (e.g. Frontal lobes).1b. Hardware Functional = Cognitive structures (e.g. memory).2a. Software Firmware = Basic symbols and operations (e.g. basic sound categories). 2b. Software Programs = Collections of rules for each cognitive domain (e.g. creative writing).3. Information = knowledge (e.g. the concept of “metaphor”)

Development for Information Processing Theorists

1. Growth of Hardware = Brain regions + cognitive structures.

2. Software = Larger instruction set + more powerful rules/strategies.

3. Knowledge = Larger database + more efficient storage .

Convergence of Information Processing and Piaget

Similarities1. Both explain limitations as well as abilities.

2. Both explain how new abilities came from older abilities.

Differences1. Piaget focus is “conceptual structures” but IP is processing capacity.

2. Piaget says development follows stages but IP says is continuous.

6. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Cognitive neuroscience and development has evoked considerable interest in recent years.

Technological advances make it possible to map in detail the changes in brain structure that take place during development.

The early developmental theories are increasingly coming to be understood in a neuronally realistic way.