PART ONE: INTRODUCTION & GIBSON’S THEORY OF PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT
VCE UNIT 1 PSYCHOLOGY 2012
Chapter 5: Theories of Psychological Development
Introduction
How have you changed and
developed since birth?
In what ways will you continue
to change?
The answers to these questions
can be found in many of the
different developmental
theories that have been
constructed by psychologists
What is a theory?
A theory is a set of ideas which
are proposed to organise,
describe and explain a set of
observations and the
relationships between them. A
psychological theory explains
how and why certain things
occur, usually on the basis of
scientific evidence.
Stages of theory development
Why so many theories?
No single theory of development
is comprehensive enough to
explain all areas of development
across the entire lifespan
Most theories focus on 1 specific
aspect or area of development
Often there is more than one
theory to explain a particular
area of development
Psychological
Development
Perceptual Emotional
Cognitive
Moral
Psychosocial
Why so many theories?
This year we will cover the
following areas of
development:
Perceptual – Gibson
Emotional – Bowlby, Ainsworth,
Harlow
Cognitive - Piaget
Moral -Kohlberg
Psychosocial – Erikson
Psychological
Development
PerceptualGibson
EmotionalBowlby,
Ainsworth & Harlow
CognitivePiaget
MoralKohlberg
Psychosocial
Erikson
Gibson’s theory of perceptual development
Human perceptual systems include
sight, sound, touch, taste and smell
These are all functioning from birth
and are important to survival
Perceptual development continues
throughout the lifespan, however
the greatest changes occur in the
early years of life
Cont.
Eleanor Gibson conducted
many experiments on
different aspects of
perception, particularly on
visual perception in infants
Gibson developed her
theories based on her
research findings
American experimental psychologist
Eleanor Gibson (1910-2002)
Gibson’s theory
Emphasised key processes involved in
perceptual development. These
include:
Role of the infant as an active explorer
The affordance (perceived qualities) of
objects or events that are experienced
The way perceptual exploration
becomes more and more specific and
differentiated (selective) with age
According to Gibson (1983), the infant is
an active explorer in the constantly
changing environment.
When awake, it monitors what is
happening in its environment and actively
searches for and obtains information
about it.
It then uses this information to guide its
actions.
Gibson proposed that these activities are
essentially what perception is.
Perceptual development
The process of continuous
modification and refinement of
perceptual abilities through
experience with incoming sensory
information.
Generally self initiated by the infant-
as the infants abilities develop it
explores the environment more and
learns more about people, events
and objects
Perceptual development cont.
Exploration and the search for
affordances are important
features of perceptual
development
Affordances are the perceived
and actual properties of
something in the environment
that suggest how it should be
used.
Example
If a surface of land is perceived by the animal as
nearly horizontal (instead of slanted), nearly flat
(instead of convex or concave), having sufficient
length and width (in relation to the size of the
animal), and is rigid (can hold the weight of the
animal), then the surface affords support. Since
it is perceived as a surface of support, it can be
considered ‘stand-on-able’, and therefore ‘walk-
on-able’ and ‘run-overable’. It is not ‘sink-into-
able’ like a surface of water or a swamp would
be for a heavy land-dwelling animal. For a
different animal, such as a water bug, the
affordance of support would be different if the
surface is water.
Affordance
Varies from one animal or
person to another as it is a
two way relationship between
something in the environment
and a person or animal (a
persons relationship to
something can differ from an
animals relationship to
something)
Affordances are discovered
through ongoing interaction
with the environment
When this happens
differentiation occurs.
Differentiation is the ability to
selectively perceive differences
between things in the
environment
Example
A two-year-old child may initially
confuse rabbits and cats
because they are both furry
animals about the same size.
However, the child will
eventually discover that
rabbits have long ears — a
distinctive feature that
differentiates them from cats,
guinea pigs, possums and
other small, furry animals.
Differentiation
We become more efficient at
differentiation through
experience and ongoing
interaction with things in the
environment.
So with greater experiences
(as we become older) we
become more efficient or
better at differentiation
An experiment by Gibson on differentiation