Theories of Social Development

1. Theories of Social Development How Children Develop (3rd ed.) Siegler, DeLoache & Eisenberg Chapter 9: Part 1

2. Theories of Social Development: The Goal • Theories of social development attempt to account for important aspects of development: • Emotion, personality, attachment, self, peer relationships, morality, and gender • Such theories must: • Explain how children’s development is influenced by the people and individuals around them • Examine the ways that human beings affect each other

3. Overview • I. Psychoanalytic Theories • II. Learning Theories • III. Theories of Social Cognition • IV. Ecological Theories of Development

4. I. Psychoanalytic Theories A. View of Children’s Nature B. Central Developmental Issues C. Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development D. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development E. Current Perspectives

5. Freud’sTheory • Sigmund Freud’spsychoanalytic theory has had greater impact on Western culture and on thinking about social and personality development than any other psychological theory.

6. Erikson’s Theory • Erik Erikson’slife-span developmental theory, which was a successor to Freud’s theory, has also been influential.

7. A. View of Children’s Nature • In Freud’s theory, behavior is motivated by the need to satisfy basic biological drives. • Psychoanalytic theories also stress the continuity of individual differences, maintaining that early experiences shape subsequent development.

8. B. Central Developmental Issues • Continuity/Discontinuity: both are stage theories that stress discontinuity in development • Individual Differences: however, psychoanalytic theories stress the continuity of individual differences across development • Nature/Nurture: both emphasize the biological underpinnings of developmental stages interacting with the child’s experience

9. C. Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development • Freud was a neurologist who became interested in the origins and treatments of mental illness. • He believed that many of his patients’ emotional problems originated in their early childhood relationships.

10. 1. Basic Features of Freud’s Theory • Freud’s theory is referred to as a theory of psychosexual development because it posits a series of universal developmental stages in which psychic energy becomes focused in different erogenous zones. • Psychic energy: the biologically based, instinctual drives that energize behavior, thoughts, and feelings • Erogenous zones: areas of the body that become erotically sensitive in successive stages of development

11. 2. The Developmental Process Freud’s Personality Structure: Id • The biological drives with which the infant is born • The earliest and most primitive personality structure • Unconscious and operates with the goal of seeking pleasure Ego • Emerges in the first year • The rational, logical, problem-solving component of personality Superego • Develops during the ages of 3 to 6 • Based on the child’s internalization (or adoption as his or her own) of the parents’ attributes, beliefs, and standards

12. Stages of Psychosexual Development If fundamental needs are not met during any stage, children may become fixated on these needs, continually attempting to satisfy them.

13. Superego Development • For boys, the path to superego development is through the resolution of the Oedipus complex, a psychosocial conflict in which a boy experiences a form of sexual desire for his mother and wants an exclusive relationship with her • Freud argued that the son’s desire for his mother and hostility toward his father is so threatening that the episode is repressed and infantile amnesia results. • The complex is resolved through the boys’ identification with his father. • Freud thought that girls experience a similar but less intense conflict, the Electra complex, involving erotic feelings toward the father, resulting in their developing a weaker conscience than boys do.

14. D. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development • Erik Erikson accepted the basic constructs of Freud’s theory, but enlarged the theory to include other factors such as culture and contemporary issues. • Eight age-related stages (five during childhood and adolescence) • Each stage is characterized by a specific crisis that the individual must resolve. • If the dominant issue of a stage is not successfully resolved before the next stage begins, the person will continue to struggle with it.

15. 1. The Developmental Process: Erikson’s Stages

16. E. Current Perspectives • The most significant of Freud’s contributions to developmental psychology were: • His emphasis on the importance of early experience and emotional relationships • His recognition of the role of subjective experience and unconscious mental activity • Erikson’s emphasis on the search for identity in adolescence has had lasting impact.

17. II. Learning Theories A. View of Children’s Nature B. Central Developmental Issues C. Watson’s Behaviorism D. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning E. Social Learning Theory F. Current Perspectives

18. A. View of Children’s Nature • Learning theorists emphasize the role of external factors in shaping personality and social behavior. • Reinforcement and punishment • More contemporary learning theorists emphasize the importance of cognitive factors and the active role children play in their own development.

19. B. Central Developmental Issues • Emphasize continuity in development, proposing that the same principles operate throughout life and that there are no stages. • Focus on mechanisms of change (i.e., learning principles) and argue that individual differences arise because of different histories of reinforcement and observation. • Relevant for research and children’s welfare in that therapeutic approaches to treat children are based on learning principles.

20. C. Watson’s Behaviorism • John Watson is the founder of behaviorism • Believed that children’s development is determined by their social environment and that learning through conditioning was the primary mechanism of development. • Demonstrated the power of classical conditioning in a famous experiment with “Little Albert”

21. Critique • Watson’s exclusive emphasis on conditioning is now regarded as simplistic. • However, his approach to extinguishing fear has been widely used to rid people of phobias. • This approach, known as systematic desensitization, is a form of therapy based on classical conditioning in which initially debilitating responses to a given stimulus are gradually deconditioned.

22. D. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning • B. F. Skinner conducted research on the nature and function of reinforcement. • His discoveries include the importance of attention as a powerful reinforcer, and the difficulty of extinguishing behavior that has been intermittently reinforced (i.e., responded to inconsistently). • Skinner’s work on reinforcement also led to a form of therapy known as behavior modification, in which reinforcement contingencies are changed to encourage more adaptive behavior.

23. E. Social Learning Theory • Emphasizes observation and imitation, rather than reinforcement, as the primary mechanisms of development • In a classic series of studies, Albert Bandura and his colleagues found that preschool children can acquire new behaviors through observing others. • Discovered that children’s tendency to reproduce what they learned depended on vicarious reinforcement (i.e., whether the person whose actions they observed was rewarded or punished)

24. Bandura’s Research • Preschool children initially watched a short film in which an adult model performed highly aggressive actions on an inflatable Bobo doll (weighted at the bottom so it pops up when knocked down). • One group of children observed the model rewarded with candy and soda for the aggressive behavior. • Another group saw the model punished. • The remaining children saw the model experience no consequences.

25. Bandura’s Research Findings: • Observing someone else receive a reward or punishment for the behavior affects the subsequent reproduction of the behavior. • Boys were initially more aggressive than girls, but the girls increased their level of imitation when offered rewards.

26. E. Social Learning Theory • Over time, Bandura placed more emphasis on the cognitive aspects of observational learning. • Unlike most learning theorists, Bandura argued that child-environment influences operate in both directions, a concept referred to as reciprocal determinism.

27. Reciprocal Determinism

28. E. Social Learning Theory • In recent years, Bandura has emphasized the importance of perceived self-efficacy. • An individual’s beliefs about how effectively he or she can control his or her own behavior, thoughts, and emotions in order to achieve a desired goal

29. F. Current Perspectives • Learning theories are based on principles derived from empirical research. • They, in turn, have generated extensive research and valuable practical applications • The weaknesses of the learning approach are its limited attention to biological factors and (with the exception of Bandura’s theory) to the impact of cognition.