Theories of Development (Chapter 1)

1. Theories of Development(Chapter 1) Historical Foundations Mid-Twentieth-Century Theories Recent Perspectives Discussion: Your Evaluation of Theories

2. Besides looking at the Domains, DO THINK ABOUT YOU, parenting, and teaching (journal page)

3. Theories • Continuous or Discontinuous or __stages____ ? ( pg 8) • Nature or Nurture is ___________ • Cultural role in growth and development.

4. Resiliency Is the normal developmental process of adaptation, using the biological and environmental resources available to them. It is a connection between personality, temperament, cognitive, social/emotional, & physical potential and family and community rearing practices.

5. Group Discussion pg10-- Textbook “Ask Yourself” Questions -- • Each group discuss: • Resilience: the complexities of heredity and environment. Masten believes that resilience is a normal developmental process of adaptation. • Characteristics would be heredity (intelligence and personality and intelligence) and family and/or community rearing practices. • Stressors: poverty, drug abuse, mental illness, multiple moves….others?

6. Resiliency Activity • You are part of community foundation that includes parents, teachers, social service personal, business owners. You are seeking funding for interventions designed to promote resilience in children. You believe that some children who exhibit resilience are able to overcome threats to their development. • Choose one or two interventions to promote resilience in children. • Way(s) to build children’s capacity to reduce their exposure to risk. • Ways(s) to affect a positive change in children’s environment. • Be prepared to present your interventions. • Tell which of your interventions DRAWS from heredity or from the environment.

7. Bandura: Social Learning Theory • Emphasized modeling • Children learn by observing and imitating • Added cognition (social cognition) to the social theory • That is, how we think about ourselves • As children development they become more selective about their behavior. • They develop self-efficacy…belief about self. • Example: Persistence and teaching • Helpful in treating emotional and behavioral problems. • Too narrow a view of development. Does not include enough explanation of the environmental influence in development. • Does not recognize that contributions that humans make to their own development.

8. Behaviorism • Direct observable events. • Influenced by animal studies • Stimulis-response • Skinner • Increase behavior by adding a reinforcer (food, praise). Decrease by punishment (take away a privilege). • Operant conditioning:reinforcement-punishment

9. Piaget: Cognitive-Developmental Theory • Stages: sensorimotor; preoperational; concrete operational, and formal operations • Infants and children CONSTRUCT knowledge by interacting with the world. • Constructivism • Mind grows and develops and adapts. • Used observation and open ended interviews to investigate children’s thinking. • Discovery learning is important to learning but so is training. • Not enough of cultural or social influence.

10. Erikson:Psychosocial TheoryAdded cultural influences to growth and development • The ego and id acquire skills that make the individual a contributing member of society. • There ae stages of development which describe both normal and abnormal development. The stages need to understood in the context of the culture of the individual. • Example: Basic Trust vs. Mistrust • Birth-1 Warm responsive care vs. neglect.

11. Vygotsky’s Socialcultural Theory • Helps us to understand the cultural influences in learning and cognition. • Culture is values, customs, beliefs and skills of a social group. • Children’s learning is influenced by a mentor or other adults and peers in the community. • Learning takes place through dialog…language. • Learning is not in isolation. It need support. • As language increases and becomes more complex, so does learning. • More on social, less on biological.

12. Ecological Theory (pg. 27, Fig 1.4)Urie BronfenbrennerAmerican psychologist • Each child develops within a complex system of relationships in their environment. • (bioecological) This means the child brings their own personality and temperament to the situation/context.

13. Ecological System • Microsystem- me and caregivers • Mesosystem-school • Exosystem-workplace, neighbor, extended family • Macrosystem-cultural values, laws, customs of country (and international?) • Chronosystem---dynamic (ever changing) • How we study a cultural? Ethnography-participant observation

14. Your Evaluation of Theories-- Exercise/Discussion -- • Report on the following: • 1. What feature in which theory/approach do you find most attractive (and why)? • 2. What feature in which theory/approach do you find most unattractive (and why)? • I’ll call on some of you to read your responses.

15. Next time-- January 30th • Read Chapter 2 and workbook. • Complete journal page. Type on web site and print. • Come to class prepared. Page in journal. Be prepared to read in textbook group and large group. Your chapter 1 notes should be in your journal also. • Quiz on chapter two.

16. Exam # 1--Highlights • Know periods of development. • Name and explain the domains. • Explain Resiliency. Can you connect to URIE’s ecological theory? • Know major theorists and how they have contributed to the study of development. Be able to compare and contrast theorists. • Explain how nature/nurture affect development. • Know ways of studying children…advantages and disadvantages. Explain which methods a classroom teacher might want to use or a parent might want to utilize. • Berk often mentions child-rearing and its affect on child development in this chapter. Thisis one of our themes. Be able to talk about some ideas she has mentioned related to child rearing. • Ethics guidelines for research.

17. Exam #1 continued • First part: Individual • Second part: Cooperative • Bring you journal to the exam. • Questions will come from workbook pages and class activities and presentations. • See Power Point.