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Theories of Social Development

Presentation Slides

Chapter

Psychoanalytic Theories
Learning Theories
Theories of Social Cognition
Ecological Theories of Development
Outline of Chapter

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Development is largely driven by maturation.
Freud
Behavior motivated by need to satisfy basic drives
Large focus on the unconscious
Erikson
Development driven by a series of developmental crises
Crises are age-related and maturation-related
Crises must be resolved for healthy social development
Psychoanalytic Theories: View of Children’s Development

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Stage theories
Continuity of individual development is emphasized.
Early experiences pave the way for later development.
Nature–nurture interact: Biology interacts with experience.
Central Developmental Issues

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Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
Stage Description Age
Oral Stage The lips, tongue, and gums are the focus of pleasurable sensations in the baby’s body, and sucking and feeding are the most stimulating activities. Birth to 1 year
Anal Stage The anus is the focus of pleasurable sensations in the baby’s body, and toilet training is the most important activity. 1–2 or 3 years
Phallic Stage The phallus, or penis, is the most important body part, and pleasure is derived from genital simulations. Boys are proud of their penises; girls wonder why they don’t have one. 3–6 years
Latency Not really a stage; latency is an interlude during which sexual needs are quiet and children put psychic energy into conventional activities like schoolwork and sports. 6–11 years
Genital Stage The genitals are the focus of pleasurable sensations, and the young person seeks sexual stimulation and sexual satisfaction in heterosexual relationships. Adolescence
Freud believed that the genital stage lasts throughout adulthood. He also said that the goal of a healthy life is “to love and to work.” Adulthood

Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development

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Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages
Stage Description Age
Trust vs. Mistrust Babies either trust that others will care for their basic needs, including nourishment, warmth, cleanliness, and physical contact, or develop mistrust of others. Birth to 1 year
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Children either become self-sufficient in many activities, including toileting, feeding, walking, exploring, and talking, or doubt their own abilities. 1–2 or 3 years
Initiative vs. Guilt Children either want to undertake many adultlike activities or internalize the limits and the prohibitions set by parents. They feel either adventurous or guilty. 3–6 years
Industry vs. Inferiority Children busily learn to be competent and productive in mastering new skills or feel inferior and unable to do anything. 6–11 years
Identity vs. Role Confusion Adolescents try to figure out “Who am I?” They estabilish sexual, political, religious, and vocational identities or are confused about what roles to play. Adolescence

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

Freud’s contribution is the emphasis placed on early emotional relationships
Role of subjective experience
Role of unconscious mental activity
Foundation for attachment theory
Erikson’s emphasis on the quest for identity in adolescence is important
Laid foundation for research on adolescence
Psychoanalytic Theories: Current Perspectives

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View of Children’s Development
Learning theorists emphasize the role of external factors in shaping behavior.
Reinforcement and punishment guide development.
Central Developmental Issues
There are no qualitatively different stages of development.
Individual differences occur because each child has different reinforcement/punishment and learning opportunities.
Contemporary theorists: Children play a role in their own development.

Learning Theories

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Systematic Desensitization
A form of therapy based on classical conditioning, in which positive responses are gradually conditioned to stimuli that initially elicited a highly negative response; can be very beneficial treatment for fears and phobias
John B. Watson is the founder of behaviorism. He believed that children’s development is determined by their social environment; associated with the research on Little Albert.
Watson’s Behaviorism

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B. F. Skinner proposed that behavior is under environmental control.
Everything we do in life (every act) is an operant response influenced by the outcomes of past behavior.
Intermittent reinforcement: Inconsistent response to the behavior of another person
Behavior modification: Therapy based on principles of operate conditioning in which reinforcement of contingencies are changed to encourage more adaptive behaviors
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

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Social Learning Theory
Emphasizes observation and imitation, rather than just reinforcement, as the primary mechanisms of development
Albert Bandura believed that most human learning is inherently social in nature and is based on observation of the behavior of other people; associated with Bobo doll research.
Vicarious reinforcement: the observing of someone else receiving a reward or punishment
Reciprocal determinism: Bandura’s concept that child–environment influences operate in both directions
Social Learning Theory

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Learning theories have:
Inspired an enormous amount of research in socialization, parental practices
Led to practical applications like systematic desensitization
Drawbacks: Lack attention to biological influences
Learning Theories: Current Perspectives

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Social Cognition theorists believe that:
Children are active processors of social information
They have the ability to think and reason about their own and other people’s thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors
Self-socialization: Children play a very active role in their own socialization through activity preferences, friendship choices, etc.
Social Cognition Theories: View of Children’s Development

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Theme of the active child
Theme of individual differences
Thinking and behavioral differences between males and females, aggressive and nonaggressive children, etc.
Age-related qualitative changes in thinking about social world
Social reasoning
Social Cognition Theories: Central Developmental Issues

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Robert Selman focused on the development of role taking, the ability to adopt the perspective of another person and to think about something from another’s point of view.
Young children’s social cognition is limited due to their inability to take on roles.
As children become less egocentric in their reasoning, they are able to take multiple perspectives simultaneously.
Selman’s Stage Theory of Role Taking

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Dodge emphasized the crucial role of cognitive processes in social behavior.
Children use aggression as a problem-solving strategy.
Some children have a hostile attributional bias, a general expectation that others are antagonistic to them.
Children assume that other people’s ambiguous actions stem from a hostile intent and thus retaliate aggressively.
Physical abuse could be a cause.
Dodge’s Information-Processing Theory of Social Problem Solving

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According to Carol Dweck, children’s motivation is based on either:
Learning goals: Seeking to improve their competence and master new material, or
Performance goals: Seeking to receive positive assessments of their competence or to avoid negative assessments
Children differ in achievement motivation, motivated by either learning or performance goals.
Dweck’s Theory of Self-Attributions and Achievement Motivation

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Entity/helpless orientation: Attributing success and failure to enduring aspects of the self and to give up in the face of failure
Incremental/mastery orientation: Attributing success and failure to the amount of effort expended and to persist in the face of failure
Entity theory: Theory that intelligence is fixed and unchangeable
Incremental theory: Theory that intelligence can grow as a function of experience
Dweck’s Theory of Self-Attributions and Achievement Motivation, Part 2

The comments this teacher is offering his student could be either beneficial or detrimental, depending on whether he focuses on how smart she is or on the effort she has made.
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Social-cognitive theorists emphasize that:
Children are active seekers of information about the social world
Their social experience is influenced by their interpretations
Supported by research
Social-Cognitive Theories: Current Perspectives

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Ethology
Evolutionary Psychology
Biological Model
Ecological Theories of Development

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Children inherit genetic abilities and predispositions.
These abilities serve an adaptive function.
The context in which children develop is important.
Children have an active role in selecting/influencing these contexts.
Selection of contexts is determined by children’s personal characteristics.
Ecological Theories: View of Children’s Development

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Nature and nurture interact to bring about development.
Theories emphasize the sociocultural context of developing children.
Children play an active role in their development.
Ecological Theories Central Developmental Issues

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Ethology
The study of behavior within an evolutionary context
Attempts to understand behavior in terms of its adaptive or survival value
Konrad Lorenz, the father of modern ethology:
Imprinting: A form of learning in which the young of some species of newborn birds and mammals become attached to and follow adult members of the species, usually their mother
Ethological and Evolutionary Theories

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Evolutionary Psychology
With the evolutionary history of our species, certain genes predisposed behavior.
These behaviors solved adaptive challenges (obtaining food, avoiding predators, establishing social bonds).
They improved survival.
They allowed them to mate and reproduce, passing along their genes.
Parental-investment theory: Stresses the evolutionary basis of many aspects of parental behavior, including the extensive investment parents make in their offspring
Ethological and Evolutionary Theories (cont.d)

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Bioecological model: Proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979); considers the child’s environment as composed of a series of nested structures that impact development
Microsystem
Mesosytem
Exosystem
Macrosystem
Chronosystem
The Bioecological Model

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The Bioecological Model (cont.d)

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Bioecological model: considers the child’s environment as composed of a series of nested structures that impact development

Microsystem: The immediate environment that an individual child personally experiences and participates in
Mesosystem: The interconnections among immediate, or microsystem, settings
Exosystem: Environmental settings that a child does not directly experience but that can affect the child indirectly
Macrosystem: The larger cultural and social context within which the other systems are embodied
Chronosystem: Historical changes that influence other systems
The Bioecological Model (cont.d)

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How can we prevent child abuse?
Provide support and education for families
Potential risk factors for child abuse:
Parental stress
Poor impulse control
Substance abuse
Difficult temperament of child
Low family income
Family isolation
Lack of social support
Child Maltreatment
Intentional abuse or neglect that endangers the well-being of anyone under the age of 18
The Bioecological Model (cont.d)

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Source: G. W. Evans, 2004
Physical Environment
Home
Inadequate housing
Structural deficiencies
Inadequate heat
Unsafe drinking water
Poor air quality in house (including parental smoking)
Rodent infestation
Few safety features (e.g., smoke alarms)
Crowding (number of people in home)
Small yards (if any)
Neighborhood
Exposure to toxins
Air pollution (e.g., near highways, factories)
Water, soil pollution (e.g., factories, toxic waste dumps)
Exposure to contaminants (e.g., lead, pesticides)
Few parks or open spaces
Few places for informal gatherings
Inadequate municipal services (e.g., garbage, police, fire)
Few stores, services, including supermarkets
Less bus, taxi service
More bars, taverns
More physical hazards (e.g., traffic volume, street crossings, playground safety)
Socioeconomic Status and Development

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Source: G. W. Evans, 2004
Higher divorce rate
More single-parent households
Harsher, punitive parenting
Low monitoring of children
Less emotional support
More corporal punishment
Less speech from parents
Less frequent literacy activities
Fewer computers/older computers
Less access to Internet
More TV watching
Social Environment
Home
Low parental education
Low parental income
Employment instability
Frequent change of residence
Social isolation (small social networks)
Less social support
Lower marital quality (conflict)
More domestic violence (spousal, child abuse)
Socioeconomic Status and Development (cont.d)

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Source: G. W. Evans, 2004
Neighborhood
High crime rates
High level of violence
Widespread unemployment
Fewer positive adult role models
Few social resources
School
Poor quality day care
Aggressive, violent peers
Unstable peer relations
Poorer quality teachers
High teacher turnover
High student absenteeism
Less parent involvement in school
Less sense of belonging to school
Inadequate buildings (plumbing, heating, lighting, etc.)
Overcrowding
Socioeconomic Status and Development (cont.d)

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The Cost of Affluence
Growing up in highly affluent families can have a negative impact; termed “affluenza.”
Affluent kids report:
Higher levels of substance abuse and delinquency
Parents expect children to excel academically and in extracurricular activities, and this in turn pressures kids.
The Bioecological Model (cont.d)

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Descriptionof Activity 4: Self-Attributions and Achievement Motivation

In Chapter 9 of your textbook, you’ve been learning about Carol Dweck’s Theory of Self-Attributions and Achievement Motivation and different types of achievement motivations (p. 388-390). Discuss the two different patterns of achievement motivation described by Dweck and the different attributions children make about themselves regarding their self-esteem.

Then, recall your own attributions for academic successes and failures when you were in elementary school. What are those attributions like now? What messages from others may have contributed to your attributions?

What recommendations would you make to parents and teachers of toddlers/preschoolers, young school age children, and middle school children (7th graders) to foster a mastery orientation and incremental theory of intelligence in children? How should praise and criticism be worded? [Your answer should include recommendations for all three ages.] Use the information in the textbook to frame and formulate your answers.