Lecture 2

1. Lecture 2 Theories and methods of life-span development

2. Researchers formulate problems and hypotheses within theories.

3. Definition of Theory • Theory of theory: A theory is an interrelated, coherent set of statements that help to explain and to make predictions.Often formalized in the natural sciences. • Practice of theory: A theory is a scientific worldview.

4. Requirements for a theory: • Popper: Falsifiability. A scientific theory should be able to generate predictions that could be disconfirmed.

5. Definition of Hypothesis • A hypothesis is a specific assumption or prediction that can be tested to determine its accuracy.

7. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) • Medical doctor specializing in neurology -> Dynamic approach • Developed ideas about psychoanalytic theory from work with mental patients • Considered problems to be the result of experiences early in life

8. Psychoanalytic Theories • Mental life is primarily unconscious— beyond awareness. • Mental life is heavily colored by emotion. • Early experiences with parents extensively shape behavior.

9. Freud’s Structures of Personality • Id • Ego • Superego

10. Psychosexual Development • Five stages • Each stage focuses on a part of the body for experiencing pleasure. • How conflicts between sources of pleasure are resolved determines adult personality.

11. The Five Stages of Psychosexual Development • The Oral Stage (Birth to 18 months) • The Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years) • The Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years) • The Latent Stage (6 years to puberty) • The Genital Stage (Puberty on)

12. The Oral Stage • Pleasure centers around the mouth. • Chewing, sucking, biting are sources of pleasure.

13. The Anal Stage • Pleasure centers around the anus. • Eliminative functions are sources of pleasure.

14. The Phallic Stage • Pleasure focuses on the genitals. • Self-manipulation is a source of pleasure. • Oedipus Complex appears.

15. Definition of the Oedipus Complex • The Oedipus Complex is Freud’s term for the young child’s development of an intense desire to replace the same-sex parent and enjoy the affections of the opposite-sex parent.

16. Resolution of the Oedipus Complex • Children recognize that their same-sex parent might punish them for their incestuous wishes. • To reduce this conflict, the child identifies with the same-sex parent, striving to be like him or her.

17. The Latent Stage • The child represses all interest in sexuality. • The child develops social and intellectual skills. • Energy is channeled into emotionally safe areas. • The child forgets the highly stressful conflicts of the phallic stage.

18. The Genital Stage • This is a time of sexual reawakening. • The source of sexual pleasure comes from someone outside the family.

19. When conflict is not resolved: Individuals may develop a fixation

20. Definition of Fixation • A fixation occurs when the individual remains locked in an earlier developmental stage because needs are under- or over-gratified.

21. Examples of Fixations • Oral - Due to a parent weaning too early, as an adult the individual seeks out oral gratification through smoking, drinking, gum chewing. • Anal - Due to a parent being too strict with potty training, as an adult the individual is excessively neat and orderly (known as “Anal Retentive”). • Phallic - Due to a parent punishing the child for masturbating, as an adult the individual seeks out pornography. • Genital - Due to a parent smothering a child with too much attention, as an adult the individual has difficulty in romantic relationships due to being extremely “needy.”

22. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) • Recognized Freud’s contributions • Believed Freud misjudged some important dimensions of human development • Developed the Psychosocial Theory of Development

23. The Psychosocial Theory of Development • The primary motivation for human behavior is social and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people. • Eight stages of development unfold throughout the entire life span. • Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be faced.

24. The Psychosocial Theory of Development (cont’d) • Crises are not catastrophes but rather turning points of increased vulnerability and enhanced potential. • The more an individual resolves the crises successfully, the healthier development will be.

25. Stages of Psychosocial Development • Trust vs. Mistrust • Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt • Initiative vs. Guilt • Industry vs. Inferiority • Identity vs. Identity Confusion • Intimacy vs. Isolation • Generativity vs. Stagnation • Integrity vs. Despair

26. Example: Identity vs. Identity Confusion (Adolescence) • Individuals are faced with finding out who they are, what they are all about, and where they are going in life. • Adolescents are confronted with many new roles and adult statuses. • If the adolescent explores roles in a healthy manner and arrives at a positive path in life, then positive identity will be achieved. • If an identity is pushed on the adolescent by parents, if the adolescent does not adequately explore many roles, then identity confusion reigns.

27. Example: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Early Adulthood) • Individuals face the developmental task of forming intimate relationships with others. • Intimacy is defined as finding oneself yet losing oneself in another. • Intimacy is achieved through the formation of healthy friendships and an intimate relationship with another individual. • Isolation results from failure to achieve the above.

28. Example: Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adulthood) • This involves reflecting on the past and either piecing together a positive review or concluding that one’s life has not been well spent. • Integrity is achieved through reflecting on a past deemed worthwhile. • If the older adult resolved many of the earlier stages negatively, looking back will lead to doubt or gloom (despair).

29. Contributions of Psychoanalytic Theories • Early experiences play an important part in development. • Family relationships are a central aspect of development. • Personality can be better understood if it is examined developmentally. • The mind is not all conscious; unconscious aspects of the mind need to be considered. • Changes take place in the adulthood as well as the childhood years (Erikson).

30. Criticisms of Psychoanalytic Theories • The main concepts have been difficult to test. • Much of the data used to support these theories come from individuals’ reconstruction of the past, often the distant past. • The sexual underpinnings of development are given too much importance by Freud. • Psychoanalytic theories are culture- and gender-biased.

31. Cognitive Theories • Piaget’s cognitive development theory • Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory • The information-processing approach

32. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) • Swiss psychologist • Observed his own children to develop theory of cognitive development • Changed how we think about the development of children’s minds

33. Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory • Children actively construct their understanding of the world. • Children progress through four stages of cognitive development.

34. Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development • Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 yrs.) • Preoperational Stage (2-7 yrs.) • Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 yrs.) • Formal Operational Stage (11 and up)

35. The Sensorimotor Stage • Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical, motor actions.

36. The Preoperational Stage • Children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings.

37. Definition of Operations • Internalized mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they previously did physically

38. The Concrete Operational Stage • Children can perform mental operations. • Logical reasoning replaces intuitive thought, as long as reasoning can be applied to concrete examples.

39. The Formal Operational Stage • Individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in abstract, more logical terms. • Problem solving is more systematic and involves hypotheses.

40. Mechanisms of Development • Organization • Adaptation • Equilibration

41. Organization • Tendency for parts of a system to form and to be integrated into a whole.

42. Adaptation • Assimilation: Incorporating new information into one’s existing knowledge • Accommodation: Adapting one’s existing knowledge to new information

43. Equilibration • Every organism tends towards equilibrium with the environment and equilibrium within itself.

44. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory • Shares Piaget’s view that children actively construct their knowledge. • Emphasizes developmental analysis, the role of language, and social relations. • Like Piaget, Vygotsky’s ideas were not introduced in America until the 1960s.

45. Vygotsky’s 3 Basic Claims about Children’s Development • Cognitive skills have their origins in social relations and are embedded in a sociocultural backdrop. • The child’s cognitive skills can be understood only when they are developmentally analyzed and interpreted. • Cognitive skills are mediated by words, language, and forms of discourse.

46. The Information-Processing Approach • Emphasizes that individuals manipulate, monitor, and strategize about information. • Central are the processes of memory and thinking. • Individuals develop a gradually increasing capacity for processing information. • This enables the acquisition of increasingly complex knowledge and skills.

47. Contributions of the Cognitive Theories • They present a positive view of development, emphasizing individuals’ conscious thinking. • They emphasize the individual’s active construction of understanding. • Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories underscore the importance of examining developmental changes in children’s thinking. • The information-processing approach offers detailed descriptions of cognitive processes.

48. Discussion • What happened to our early childhood memories?

49. Criticisms of the Cognitive Theories • There is skepticism about the pureness of Piaget’s stages. • They do not give adequate attention to individual variations in cognitive development. • Information processing doesn’t provide adequate description of developmental changes in cognition. • Psychoanalytic theorists argue that the cognitive theories do not give enough credit to unconscious thought.

50. Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories • These theories believe that scientifically we can only study what can be directly observed and measured. • They also believe that development is observable behavior that can be learned through experience with the environment.