Themes and Theories

?

What are the main themes?

  • Nature vs nurture
  • Continuity vs discontinuity in change 
  • Critical vs sensitive periods of development
  • Stability vs change 
  • The role of the child in development
  • Individual characteristics vs context
1 of 18

What is nature vs nurture?

  • To what extent inherited or environmental factors affect development 
  • Nature is where development is determined by inherited factors
  • Nurture is where development is determined by environmental influences 
  • Anything produced by the predetermined unfolding of genetic information is called maturation
  • Environmental influences are social or cultural factors that affect us 
2 of 18

What is continuity vs discontinuity?

  • Whether we think the same as we used to just more developed or we have a different way of thinking 
  • Continuity is small gradual cumulative changes 
  • Continuity has quantitative changes (better/quicker at the same skill)
  • Discontinuity is distinct abrupt stages 
  • Discontinuity has qualitative changes between stages
3 of 18

What is critical vs sensitive periods of developme

  • To what extent specific experiences affect typical development 
  • Critical period is where specific experiences are vital for typical development 
  • If maternal deprivation surpasses this period, the child will find it difficult to form relationships/attachments and there could be lifelong consequences 
  • Sensitive period is where specific experiences are important for typical development but not vital
4 of 18

What is stability vs change?

  • To what extent to early traits persist through life
  • Whether we become older versions of our younger selves 
  • Stability is where there is irreversible impact of early experiences
  • Potential for change across the life span
  • Diminishing capacity for change as we grow older
5 of 18

What is the role of the child?

  • Children originally seen as passive recipient of stimulation from environment

More recent views:

  • Choose what to pay attention to
  • Practice talking when alone 
  • Self-directed activities are their own reward
  • Increased role in adolescence when choosing friends and activities
6 of 18

What is individual characteristics vs contextual i

  • Whether we behave in a similar way across a range of situations 
  • Whether the contexts we live in affect how we behave 
  • Example - aggressive children are more likely to seek out aggressive activities/experiences 
  • Modern view adopts the interactionist approach 
  • Interactionist approach is a combination of individual characteristics and situational factors 
7 of 18

What is the behaviourist view?

  • Watson, Pavlov and Skinner 
  • Emphasis on role of learning in human behaviour
  • Continuous development 
  • Operant conditioning used by parents and schools now 
  • Children are passive 
8 of 18

What is Piaget's view as a constructivist?

  • Children have an active role in own development 
  • Construct schema to understand world
  • Four main sequential stages of development 
  • Discontinuous development 
  • Development precedes learning 
9 of 18

What is Vyotsky's view?

  • Social interaction is critical for development 
  • Assistance from experts or adults scaffolds a child's learning
  • Children have cultural tools e.g. language and problem solving 
  • Learning precedes development
  • Child can't be understoof individually as they are part of a society (criticising piaget)
  • Zone of proximal development - what the learner could understand with guidance from adults 
10 of 18

What is Vygotsky's zone of proximal development?

  • Child is the learner
  • What the learner already knows 
  • What the learner could understand with guidance (zone of proximal development)
  • What the learner is not ready or able to learn 
  • Adults help children move to the zone of proximal development 
11 of 18

What is maturation theory?

  • Darwin, Gessell and McGraw 
  • Development according to maturational timetables 
  • Children's abilities predetermined by genetics
  • Teaching is not useful if the appropriate maturational stage has not been reached 
  • Discontinuous development 
12 of 18

What is Bronfenbrenner's (1977) view?

  • There are ecological systems that can change development 
  • Microsystem - immediate family/peers e.g. parents
  • Mesosystem - connections between immediate environmental factors e.g. neighbourhood
  • Exosystem - external but related environment e.g. community services
  • Macrosystem - cultural and social norms e.g. law 
  • Chronosystem - changes over time
13 of 18

What is Bandura's view?

  • Social learning theory (1963)

Observational learning and modelling behaviour occurs under certain conditions:

  • Attention - observer must see behaviour
  • Retention - must be able to remember behaviour
  • Reproduction - must have the skills to remodel it
  • Motivation - depends on the reinforcement 

Children chose who to model

14 of 18

What is Erikson's psychosocial view?

  • 8 stages of psychosocial development 
  • Based on Freud
  • More emphasis on social and cultural factors than Freud
  • Not as based on childhood experience as Freud
  • Continuous development 
  • Successful completion of each stage is required for normal development 
15 of 18

Name as many of Erikson's psychosocial stages as y

  • 1 - Trust/mistrust
  • 2 - Independence/doubt
  • 3 - Initiative/guilt
  • 4 - Industry/inferiority
  • 5 - Identity/role confusion
  • 6 - Intimacy/isolation 
  • 7 - Generativity/stagnation 
  • 8 - Wisdom/despair
16 of 18

What is Freud's psychoanalytic view?

  • Discontinuous development
  • Development shaped by experience in the environment 
  • Development shaped by interaction between the id, ego and superego
  • Best known as a form of therapy
  • Interactionist approach
17 of 18

What are information processing theories?

  • Considers input/stimulus and output/response
  • How information flows through the cognitive system
  • Neo-Piagetian theorists - improvements in memory and executive control at each stage
  • Connectionist models - use of virtual environments to show how information might be processed in a neural network
18 of 18

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Psychology resources:

See all Psychology resources »See all Developmental Psychology resources »