Psychology 3260: Personality & Social Development

1. Psychology 3260: Personality & Social Development Don Hartmann Spring 2006 Suppl. Lecture 5: Introduction to Theory

2. Supplemental References: Theory • Miller, P. H. (1993). Theories of developmental psychology (3rd ed.). New York: W. H. Freeman. • Vasta, R. (1992). Six theories of child development: Revised formulations and current issues. Philadelphia, Jessica Kingsley Publisher.

3. Overview of Theory Lecture • What are theories? • What functions do they serve? • Examples involving “Dickie loves Johnnie” • Standards for evaluating theories

4. What are Theories? Stories (explanations) of how the facts fit together • Indicate which facts are important… • Which sorts of relationships among the facts are most important for producing understanding… • Theories give facts meaning… • “Without theory, facts remain a clutter of disorganized specks on the canvas, unconnected spots that form no picture of how and why children grow up as they do”…

5. Life Without Theories

6. Life With Theories

7. A Vignette Illustrating the Value of Theory: Little Johnnie • Little Johnnie takes his fluffy, stuffed doll to bed with him, hugs and kisses it, and says "Dickie loves Johnnie" (the stuffed doll loves him).

8. Piaget: Dickie loves Johnnie • Important facts? Piaget has not much to say about sexual behavior or affection. Would focus on: • the child has language; • child confuses self with object • How do the facts inter‑relate? Piaget would state that actions (verbal behavior) reflects stage of thinking ‑‑ in this case, egocentric thought

9. Freud: Dickie loves Johnnie • Facts of interest? • Eros: affect ional and/or sexual behaviors • Same sex of agent and recipient • Interrelation? • Child distinguishes between self and others, but only incompletely (ego is not completely formed) • Evidence of projection (I don't love you; you love me), one of classic defense mechanisms • Child has not had libido suppressed by punishment for affection

10. Bandura: Dickie Loves Johnnie • Facts? • Object taken to bed • Affectional responses • Language use • Agent‑recipient relationship • Inter‑relate? • What has Johnnie been observing in his home ‑‑ affection (imitation) • What has Johnnie been reinforced for? Acting affectionately. • Johnnie perhaps thinks of himself as an affectionate person (self‑concept)

11. Evaluation of Theories: Introduction • Accurately Reflect The Facts Of The Real World Of Children • Clarity • Explain & Predict • Offer Practical Guidance • Internal Consistency • Economical • Falsifiability • Promote the Discovery of New Knowledge • Satisfying: Does it Ring True?

12. Accurately Reflect The Facts Of The Real World Of Children • Some problems that may trip up the accuracy of theories: • Unrepresentative sample • Over-generalized from one content area to another • Inaccurate observations

13. Internally Consistent • Different parts of the theory should not be able to produce inconsistent predictions. -A=-B A=B A=-B -A=B

14. Economical: Law of Parsimony • All other things being equal, simpler theories are to be preferred over more complicated theories. Sometimes referred to as the Law of Parsimony, Occam’s razor, or Morgan’s Cannon

15. Falsifiability: A Falsifiable Theory • The theory can be tested, and if wrong, can be shown to be wrong. Example of a falsifiable theory. The theory states that: • The presence of Vitamin B produces constructive child behavior: +VB+CBeh. • Corollary: The absence of Vitamin B produces negative child behavior: -VB-CBeh. • Furthermore, we can determine whether Vitamin B is present or not, and we can measure the positiveness of child behavior

16. Falsifiability: An unfalsifiable theory (a) • Example of an untestable and hence unfalsifiable theory. The theory states the following: • The presence of Vitamin B produces positive child behavior under circumstance A and negative child behavior under circumstance B • If A: then +VB+CBeh; • If B: then +VB-CBeh

17. Falsifiability: Unfalsifiable (b) The absence of Vitamin B produces the opposite effect: Negative children behavior under circumstance A and positive child behavior under circumstance B • If A: then -VB-CBeh • If B: then -VB+CBeh • Note that circumstance A is the same as in our earlier, testable theory.

18. Falsifiability: Unfalsifiable (c) While we: • can determine whether Vitamin B is present or not, and • we can measure the positiveness of behavior, but • we cannot determine when circumstance A or circumstance B is present.

19. Summary • The value of theory • Dickie & Johnnie • The characteristics of a good theory • Go in Peace!