Directions: Using the concept summary in Chapter 2 of our text, fill in the blanks for each of the developmental theories. Provide examples from your own experience or the textbook in the last column. Next describe your ideal theory of child development, combining the elements that you believe would encapsulate your own beliefs and experiences
Approach | Theorist | Underlying Model | Theoretical Beliefs/Assumptions | Key Terms | Example |
Humanistic | Maslow | Organismic/ Contextual | All individuals are unique and whole, and strive toward the fullest development of their potential. | Meta- and basic needs, self-actualization, peak experiences | hunger represents a deficiency that can be satisfied by eating |
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Behavioristic | Pavlov, WatsonSkinnerBandura | MechanisticMechanistic/ OrganismicContextual/ Organismic | Child learns through conditioning of reflexive behaviors.Changes in behavior are a function of reinforcement and punishment.Observational learning leads to developmental change; our ability to anticipate the consequences of our behavior is fundamental. | Reflex, conditioned stimulus and responseReinforcement, punishment, shapingImitation, self-efficacy, social/cognitive, reciprocal determinism | Infants typically react with fear when they hear a sudden, loud noise. The noise is an unconditioned stimulus for an unconditioned fear response.when a child learns to say milk as a result of imitating a parent and is then given milk |
Cognitive | PiagetInformation Processing | OrganismicMechanistic/ organismic/ Contextual | OrganismicDevelopment is a process of learning to represent, process, store, and retrieve information. | Stages, assimilation, accommodation, equilibrationMemory, perception, thinking, symbolic representation, computer models | Learning through the use of senses and/or experiences. |
Biological Ecological Approaches | BowlbyVygotskyBronfenbrenner | OrganismicOrganismic/ ContextualOrganismic/ Contextual | Social behaviors have a biological basis understandable in evolutionary terms.Human development is highly dependent on culture and language.Development results from a complex series of interactions and accommodations between a person and the systems in which the person is embedded. | Attachment bonds, imprinting, sensitive periodCulture, language, zone of proximal growth, scaffoldingMicro-, meso-, exo-, macro-, and chronosystem | many important interactions occur at an immediate, face-to-face level. |
Dynamic Systems | Thelen | Organismic/ Contextual | A change in any part of the system (mind, body, environment) leads to disequilibrium, readjustment, and growth | Integrated systems, interactions, dynamism Stability/instability | Analyzing the multiple interactions of all related systems of such actions as an infant learning to reach |
Psychoanalytic | FreudErikson | OrganismicOrganismic | Individual is motivated by instinctual urges that are primarily sexual and aggressive.Child progresses through stages by adapting to the sociocultural environment | Id, ego, superego, psychosexual, fixation, regressionCompetence, developmental tasks, psychosocial | The infant has to learn how to trust. Trust is one of the basic components of a healthy personality. But, says Erikson (1959), the infant has a strong tendency to mistrust the world because so little is known about it. This presents a conflict with the infant’s inclination to develop a trusting attitude and to become more independent—hence trust versus mistrust. |
Your Ideal Theory | Piaget | Organismic | OrganismicDevelopment is a process of learning to represent, process, store, and retrieve information | Stages, assimilation, accommodation, equilibration | My ideal theory is that of Piaget. I also believe that children learn in stages. The stages he has set are concurrent with my experience teaching young children.We live in a world of “live and learn” and that is exactly what children do when they are allowed the opportunity. |