Theories of Social Development

How Children Develop (3rd ed.) Siegler, DeLoache & Eisenberg

Chapter 9: Part 1

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

Overview

I. Psychoanalytic Theories

II. Learning Theories

III. Theories of Social Cognition

IV. Ecological Theories of Development

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

Freud’sTheory

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has had greater impact on Western culture and on thinking about social and personality development than any other psychological theory.

Erikson’s Theory

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Stages of Psychosexual Development

Stage Description

Oral(first year)

The primary source of satisfaction and pleasure is oral activity. During this stage, the mother is established as the strongest love-object.

Anal(1-3 years)

The primary source of pleasure comes from defecation.

Phallic(3-6 years)

Characterized by the localization of pleasure in the genitalia.

Latency(6-12 years)

Characterized by the channeling of sexual energy into socially acceptable activities.

Genital(12+ years)

Sexual maturation is complete and sexual intercourse becomes a major goal.

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

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.

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.

1. The Developmental Process: Erikson’s Stages

Stage Description

Trust vs. Mistrust(first year)

Developing trust in other people is the crucial issue.

Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt(1–3½ years)

The challenge is to achieve a strong sense of autonomy while adjusting to increased social demands.

Initiative vs. Guilt(4–6 years)

Resolved when the child develops high standards and the initiative to meet them without being crushed by worry about not being able to measure up.

Industry vs. Inferiority(6–puberty)

The child must master cognitive and social skills, learn to work industriously, and play well with others.

Identity vs. Role Confusion(adolescence–early adulthood)

Adolescents must resolve the question of who they really are or live in confusion about what roles they should play as adults.

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.

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

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.

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.

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”

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

Reciprocal Determinism

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

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.