theories of development

Theories of Development

Qualities of a good theory

• Internally consistent--parts fit together in a consistent way

• Should provide meaningful explanations

• Open to scientific evaluation

• Stimulate new thinking and research

• Should provide guidance to parents and professionals in the day-to-day work

How theories differ on four developmental issues

• Maturation or experience?

• Process or stages?• Active or passive role

of the child?• Broad or narrow

focus?

Psychodynamic developmental theories

Freud

• The ID seeks pleasure and avoids pain. It is not logical in its searches.

• The ego is rational. Conscious, and problem-solving

• The superego is the moral and ethical component.

Freud’s defense mechanisms

• Defense mechanisms are unconscious distortions of reality used to protect the ego

• Repression forces unacceptable feelings and impulses from memory

• Projection attributes one’s own feelings such as aggression or distrust onto another person

• Fixation is a blockage in development.

Freud's Psychosexual Stages

Psychosexual Stage Approximate Age

Oral

Anal

Phallic

Latency

Genital

Birth - 1 year

1 - 3 years

3 - 6 years

6 - 12 years

12 - adulthood

Description

The mouth is the focus of stimulation and interaction; feeding and weaning are central.

The anus is the focus of stimulation and interaction; elimination and toilet training are central.

The genitals (penis, clitoris, and vagina) are the focus of stimulation; gender role and moral development are central.

A period of suspended sexual activity; energies shift to physical and intellectual activities.

The genitals are the focus of stimulation with the onset of puberty; mature sexual relationships develop.

Erik Erikson

• Personality development is a psychosocial process

• Personality development is a lifelong experience and is influences by three interrelated forces (next slide)

Erikson’s forces:

• The individual’s biological and physical strengths and weaknesses

• the person’s unique life circumstances and developmental history, including early family experiences and degree of success in resolving earlier development crises; and

• the particular social, cultural, and historical forces at work during the individual’s lifetime (racial prejudice, war, poverty)

• Trust vs. Mistrust

• Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

• Initiative vs. Guilt

• Industry vs. Inferiority

• Identity vs. Role Confusion

• Intimacy v. Isolation

• Generativity vs. Stagnation

• Ego Integrity vs. Despair

ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES

Birth – 1 year

1 - 3 years

3 - 6 years

6 - 12 years (Latency Period)

12 - 19 years (Adolescence)

19 – 25 years (Early Adulthood)

25 – 50 years (Adulthood)

50 years and older

Ivan Pavlov’s Classical conditioning

• For involuntary responses

• Basic, not higher order learning

• Paired conditioned response with UCR to form new behaviors (see page 44 of text)

Illustration of Classical Conditioning

BEFORE CONDITIONING:

(A) Place a nipple in baby's mouth:

Touch of nipple (US) — — — —elicits — — — — — > Sucking reflex (UR)

(B) Show baby a bottle with a nipple:

(C) Show baby the a bottle and place its nipples in baby's mouth. Repeat a number of times:

Touch of nipple (US) — — — —elicits — — — — — > Sucking reflex (UR)

(paired with)

Sight of bottle — — — —elicits — — — — — — > Sucking reflex (UR)with nipple (CS)

DURING CONDITIONING:

Sight of bottle — — — — — —elicits — — — — — > No sucking (UR)with nipple (CS)

(D) Show baby the bottle with nipple:

Sight of bottle — — — —elicits — — — — — > Sucking reflex (UR)with nipple (CS)

AFTER CONDITIONING

B. F. Skinner’s Operant conditioning

• Looks at empirically verifiable behaviors only. Not an introspective field of inquiry.

• Operant conditioning works with voluntary muscles only, in contrast to classical.

The behavior-modifier’s tools

Positive reinforcement, response cost, timeout, overcorrection, extinction,

ALT-R, negative reinforcement, PAC

Effective positive reinforcement

• Should be something that the STUDENT finds rewarding

• In schools, will likely be tertiary reinforcement

• Beware of satiation

• Timeliness

• Reinforcers can change

Using response cost effectively

• Spell out the rules of the game early

• Allow for buildup of reserve without telling students

• Take fining only so far before mixing it with other techniques such as time out

Using time out effectively

• Remove the person from sources of stimulation immediately

• Timeout situation must be neutral with no reinforcing properties of its own

• Short in duration

Overcorrection (restitution)

• Insure the relevance of the corrective measure to the problem behavior

• Apply the procedure immediately and consistently

• Keep the performance consistent during overcorrection. If the student is having to walk heel-toe, do not allow him to run the last few yards.

Extinction (systematic non-reinforcement)

• Specify the conditions for extinction so that the child knows why these things are happening

• Dispense no reinforcement before its time

• Watch for spontaneous recovery

Reinforcement of alternative behaviors (ALT-R)

• Behavior to be reinforced must be incompatible with that to be extinguished

• Alternative behavior must already be established

• Alternative behavior must be one that is likely to be supported by the natural environment

Negative reinforcement, also called escape conditioning

• Do not allow the noxious stimulus to become aversive or a different set of behaviors will take over.

• Dispense R- immediately• Do not remove the

noxious stimulus prematurely

Using PAC effectively

• Communicate the rules before beginning an episode where PAC might be used

• No escape after announcement that PAC is about to occur

• Consistent and immediate application

• Present at strong intensity

• Combine PAC with extinction so that the student will not attempt the prohibited behavior again.

Differences between negative reinforcement and PAC

• Negative reinforcement uses a noxious stimulus

• NR has an increase in behaviors as its goal

• Presentation of aversive consequences uses an aversive stimulus

• PAC has the elimination of behaviors as its goal

Shaping

• Shaping is the behaviorist’s way of adding new behaviors

• Behaviors that have even slight resemblance to the target behavior are reinforced.

• The “professor in a corner”

Albert Bandura Social Cognitive Learning Theory

• Observational learning• First in a long line of

studies was at Stanford, 1961, Bandura, Ross, & Ross. Modeling of aggression.

• Film-mediated had same results (1962)

Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory

• Thinking is qualitatively different depending upon the developmental stage of the learner

• Processes include direct learning, social transmission, and maturation.

PIAGET’S COGNITIVE STAGES

Sensorimotor

Preoperational

Concrete Operational

Formal Operational

Birth - 2 years

2 – 7 years

7 – 11 years

11 years - adulthood

Child develops schemes primarily through sense and motor activities

Child can think symbolically; holds egocentric view of the world

Child becomes able to manipulate logical relationships among concepts but only by generalizing from concrete experiences

Child is able to deal with abstractions, form hypotheses, solve problems systematically

PIAGET’S BASIC PRINCIPLES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

SCHEME: Organized pattern of thought or behavior

ASSIMILATION: Person interprets new ideas or experiences to fit existing schemes

ACCOMODATION: Person changes existing schemes to fit new ideas or experiences

ADAPTATION: Interplay between assimilation and accomodation, resulting in development

EQUILIBRIUM: Harmonious balance of a person’s schemes and experiences with the environment

Piaget’s Social Transmission Factors

• Cognitive consonance--what the learner is experiencing fits with what he believes and knows

• Cognitive dissonance--new info doesn’t agree

• Equilibrium--state of no dissonance

PIAGET’S COGNITIVE STAGES

Sensorimotor

Preoperational

Concrete Operational

Formal Operational

Birth - 2 years

2 – 7 years

7 – 11 years

11 years - adulthood

Child develops schemes primarily through sense and motor activities

Child can think symbolically; holds egocentric view of the world

Child becomes able to manipulate logical relationships among concepts but only by generalizing from concrete experiences

Child is able to deal with abstractions, form hypotheses, solve problems systematically

Lev Vygotsky’s proximal development

• Higher mental functions grow out of the social interactions and dialogues that children have

• Zone of proximal development

• (Womack) Theory explains developmental strain well

Vygotsky’s ideas have given birth to the concept of scaffolding in promoting student learning. Teachers build a cognitive “scaffold” in order to “bring forward” previous learnings and to let students know in which framework the new instruction is coming. This has the effect of extending the Zone of Proximal Development a little further so that the student may extend the boundaries of his knowledge.

Vygotsky’s ideas fit well with those of an American psychologist, David Ausubel (not listed in our book). He pointed out the advantage of advance organizers (1970s) to prepare students for new knowledge. Creating advance organizers might be likened to renting, in advance, several post office boxes for incoming mail, upon beginning a new business. One box receives only payments on account; one, complaints; one, invoices from other businesses; a fourth, general mail. In this way the business owner should have a good idea what awaits him when he gets his mail and should have a head start on his bookkeeping and correspondence.

Path of a memory (if remembered)

• Stimulus occurs• Sensory register • Decision to attend• If attending, short-

term memory• Rehearsal strategy• Long-term memory

Factors in Information Processing

• Control processes, including rehearsal strategies. Failure to use rehearsal strategies is the single greatest difference between retarded and non-retarded learners.

• Metacognition

• Knowledge base. This affects the meaningfulness aspect.

Brain Basics: The Brain and LearningBrain Basics: The Brain and Learning

Welcome toThe Brain and Learning

The following slide show may be used in a PowerPoint presentation session or copied onto overhead transparencies. Each slide

is accompanied with notes for the instructor or session facilitator.

“Educators must develop a basic understanding of the psychobiology of the brain to enable them to evaluate emerging

educational applications.”Robert Sylwester


There are two types of brain cells.

Neurons

10% of your brain cells are neurons.

Glia

90% of your brain cells are glia.


• The average three-pound brain contains about 100 billion neurons.

• The average three-pound brain contains about 1000 billion glial cells.


The average three-pound brain has about one quadrillion connections

between neurons.


It is the connection between neurons that makes us “smart”.


• Heredity provides about 30-60% of our brain’s wiring.

•40-70% of our wiring comes from environmental impact.


“Experience is the chief architect of the brain.”


•Neurons consist of a cell body, an axon and dendrites.


Brain Basics: How Neurons CommunicateBrain Basics: How Neurons Communicate

.

.

.

Axon

Dendrites

Cell Body

The axon sends information.

The dendrites and cellbody receive information.

The action inside the cell iselectrical.

The action between cellsis chemical.

Reoccurring electrical stimulation between cells promotes cell growth. This cell growth occurs in the form of dendrite branching. More dendrite branches

create more connections. Hence, better understanding.


•We learn on many levels at once. The cellular level is just one way learning occurs. Learning and

behavior are also strongly affected by the other chemicals in the brain: the monomines and peptides.

•Some estimate that over 98% of the brain’s communications occur through peptides and perhaps

only 2% occurs through the synapses.


Take a moment to think on your own…

then turn to your partner and share an insight, idea or personal response to

the material just covered.Take 2 to 3 minutes each.


Brain Basics:Brain Basics: The Memory ProcessThe Memory Process

SensoryMemory

Short Term Memory

Long TermMemory

Not transferred to short term memory and so not stored in the memory system

Rehearsal

Retrieval

Initial Processing

Elaboration andOrganization

Sight

Sound

Smell

Taste

Touch

Sensory memory influences different areas of the brain.


Brain Basics: Reaction to StimuliBrain Basics: Reaction to Stimuli

This slide represents blood flow changes that occur while an individual is seeing words in print.

Brain Basics: Reaction to StimuliBrain Basics: Reaction to Stimuli

This slide represents blood flow changes that occur while an individual is hearing words.

Memory is a process rather than a skill or a thing. A given “memory” is not

created or stored in one single place in the brain.


Brain Basics: The Learning ProcessBrain Basics: The Learning Process

SensoryMemory

LimbicSystem

Short-termMemory

Long-termMemory

Sensesreceiveinformation.

Brain determineswhich information is emotionallyimportant enough to attend to.

Neurons are stimulated. Electro-chemical activity strengthens the synapse.

Repeated activation improves messageTransmission.

The more these networks of neurons are used, the stronger they become…the more easily they are accessed and information

recalled.

Brain Basics: M -SpaceBrain Basics: M -Space

The capacity of short-term memory appears to develop with age. The number of spaces increases by one unit every other year beginning at age three.

Juan Pascual-Leon, 1970

3 5 7 9 11 13 15

Age

The m-space capacity ofindividuals increases at about this rate but can vary up or down by up to two units for each age group.

Brain Basics: ChunkingBrain Basics: Chunking

A chunk is any cohesive group of items of information that we can remember as if it were a single item.

The difference between novices and experts in a field appears

to be that experts tend -- because of a great deal of experience

in a field -- to organize information into much larger chunks,while novices work with isolated bits of information.

Benjamin Bloom

Brain Basics: SchemasBrain Basics: Schemas

Our neural networks make up a map that represents our general knowledge about the world. This neural map is often called “schema”. Our schema provides us with the way for us to understand a subject or the

world around us.“In order to comprehend, we select a

schema that seems appropriate and fill in the missing information.”

Pat Wolfe

Without the appropriate schema, students have no wayto assimilate new information.


For more information about the brain and learning, visit the ArtFul Minds web

site.

http://library.advanced.org/50072/

InRev1 APPROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGY

Characteristics

Emphasizes activity of the nervous system,especially of the brain; the action of hormones and otherchemicals; and genetics.

Emphasizes the ways in which behavior andmental processes are adaptive for survival.

Emphasizes internal conflicts, mostly unconscious, which usuallypit sexual or aggressive instincts against environmental obstaclesto their expression.

Emphasizes learning, especially each person’s experiencewith rewards and punishments.

Emphasizes mechanisms through which peoplereceive, store, retrieve, and otherwise process information.

Emphasizes individual potential or growth and the role of uniqueperceptions in guiding behavior and mental processes.

Approach

Biological

Evolutionary

Psychodynamic

Behavioral

Cognitive

Humanistic

Time for your thoughts:

What would a classroom be like if it used the best information from all

these theories?

theories of development

Documents

sucking urwith nipple

years adulthood50 years

touch of nipple us

moral development

sucking reflex urb

years adolescence19

narrow focus

years early adulthood25