2 | 1 copyright © houghton mifflin harcourt publishing company. all rights reserved. scientific...

2 | 1Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Scientific Theories

• Are a set of ideas structured to organize and explain facts.– Fact: an objective statement of truth

• Give meaning to facts.• Guide research.


Evaluating Theories of Development

• Good theories– Explain many facts.– Are understandable.– Predict future events.– Are empirically based.– Are testable.


1)Biological Theories: Emphasis on inherited biological factors and processes.

Evolutionary Theory• Focus on behaviors that promote survival and

reproduction• Research areas include social behavior, mate

selection, language, reasoning abilities, cooperation, etc.


Ethological Theory

• Focuses on – Causes and adaptive

value of behaviors– Cross-species

comparisons• Considers evolutionary

history of both species and social context

• John Bowlby


Neuro-developmental Approaches

• Focus on the relationship of brain development to behavior and thinking

Doug Plummer/Photo Researchers


2) Psychoanalytic Theories

• Common focus on unconscious drives and forces• Not commonly used in research• Many are Freudian in nature


Psychoanalytic Theories: Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

• Human behavior arises from the dynamic internal energy resulting from biology

• The libido is the source of action and sexual desire

• Individuals behavior is based on the changing interactions between the three components of the Psyche and the environment


Psyche

• Id– Primitive and instinctual component– Operates via pleasure principle

• Ego– source of reason– operates via reality principle

• Superego– conscience and moral standards


Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

• Stage theory– Children go through a number of stages and

their resolution of the stage influences their personality development

• Important concepts– Unconscious– Defense mechanisms– Psychoanalytic therapy

• Problems– Not based on scientific evidence– Not easily testable– Culturally biased


Psychoanalytic Theories: Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory

• Individuals go through a series of stages representing psychosocial crises

• Resolution of each crises results in a sense of competence or incompetence which effects the course of development

• Crises represent critical periods in personality development

• Sequence and types of crises are fixed, stages are epigenetic


Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory

• Contributions– Life span approach

• Led to increased study of adolescents and adults

– Outcome of stages not viewed as permanent– Recognition of cultural differences– More positively oriented than Freud

• However, not easily testable


3) Learning Based Theories

• environment and experiences are the major determinants of behavior.

• People are passive and learning occurs when the environment changes.


Classical Conditioning:

• Realized that conditioned responses to previously neutral stimuli could be taught

• Principles discovered accidentally by Pavlov in dogs

• Later extended by Watson to infants

Operant Conditioning:• Focus on how the consequences of a

behavior affect the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated

• B.F. Skinner


Social Learning Theory

• Albert Bandura

• People are influenced by others

• Much of learning occurs through– Vicarious reinforcement– Modeling– Imitation


4) Cognitive Theories: emphasize the role of mental processes in influencing development.

• Examines how thinking and reasoning change over time and the effects of these changes on development.

• Essential feature of development is that individuals strive for a greater understanding of the world around them.


Jean Piaget:

• Cognitive Theory based on Schemes– “Blueprints” that change over time for processing

information– Assimilation

• Directly processing information that fits a scheme

– Accomodation• Changing the scheme to fit the new information

Stages of Cognitive Development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational


Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor• Preoperational• Concrete Operational• Formal Operational


Cognitive Theories: Lev Vygotsky

• Children use psychological tools to develop higher levels of thinking– Numbering systems– Maps– Language


Cognitive Theories: Vygotsky

• Social interaction as key determinant of development

• Learning occurs via interactions with more sophisticated others

• Zone of proximal development– Distance between what you know now and

what you could know with help– Where learning occurs


Cognitive Theories:Information Processing Theory

• People have limited capacity for learning,but can flexibly apply strategies to get around these limitations

• Children and adults remember information differently.

• Changes the way we think effecting our development.


5) Contextual Theories: Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory

• Outlines interplay between child and environments

• Multiple interacting systems influence development


Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Model• microsystem

– immediate environment• mesosystem

– connections among settings• exosystem

– systems indirectly affecting the child• Macrosystem

– larger society values, mass mediaand social policies

• Chronosystem– Historical context


Contextual Theories: Dynamic Systems Theory

• development occurs within systems• Strong interconnection between children and

environment• A new behavior emerges out of several different

systems that work together to produce a new ability.

• systems – show self-organization– have control parameters– naturally develop complexity from more basic

and simple forms– have rate-limiting components


The Scientific Method

• Goal: finding the probable explanation• Designed to produce results that are

– objective– reliable – valid


The Scientific Method

• Steps– Formulating a hypothesis– Designing a study– Collecting evidence– Interpreting and reporting the evidence– Replication– Further Study


Topics in Developmental Science

• Basic developmental research– Designed to answer broad, fundamental

questions• Applied developmental research

– Designed to solve practical problems


Research Strategies

• Vary with respect to degree– Of control and structure.– To which cause and effect can be determined.– Of generalizability.– Of application to real life.


Case Studies

• In-depth examination of a single person• May not be generalizable to others• Often useful for unusual or rare conditions


Clinical Interviews

• Detailed interview with participant• May be biased by participant telling

experimenter what they think he/she wants to hear

• Participant must be language proficient• Flexible method• Offers insight


Survey Studies

• Involves responses to sets of structured questions

• Data is easy to obtain• Self-presentation issues


Naturalistic Studies

• Observation of people in their natural environments

• People tend to behave normally• Difficult to generalize• No control over setting


Correlational Studies

• Are two variables related to each other?– Correlation coefficient

• Cannot establish causality• Provide ethical means to study sensitive topics


Experimental Studies

• Used for determining causality• Provides experimental control• Involves creation of manipulated situation

in a laboratory– Can lead to artificial responses from

participants


Measuring Change over Time

• Cross-Sectional Studies• Longitudinal Studies• Cohort-Sequential Research Design


Cross-Sectional Studies

• Individuals of different ages are tested at the same point in time

• Results from each age group are compared• Cohort issues


Longitudinal Studies

• Same group of individuals is tested over time• Results at different times are compared• Problems

– Individuals drop out– Repeated testing– Difficult to identify age-related change– Expensive and time-consuming


Cohort-Sequential Design

• Combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs

• Data is collected from – Multiple cohorts (like cross-sectional)– Over time (like longitudinal)

• Disentangles age and cohort effects


Measuring Children’s Behavior

• Physiological measures– Record responses of the body

• Behavioral measures– Direct assessment of behavior through observation

• Self-report– Asking people questions – Usually questionnaire-based

• Projective measures– Indirectly assess individuals’ psychological states


Challenges in Research with Children

• self-report and projective measures cannot be used with infants and young children

• young children, even if verbal, may lack insight into their behavior

• testing infants is difficult• ethical issues

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