Theories of Development: Psychoanalytic, Learning, and Social-Cognitive Approaches

Theories of Development

Overview

This chapter explores major theoretical perspectives in developmental psychology, focusing on how internal drives, emotions, learning, and cognition shape human development across the lifespan. Theories are compared for their assumptions, strengths, and weaknesses.

Psychoanalytic Theories

Freud's Psychosexual Theory

Sigmund Freud proposed that developmental change is driven by internal drives and emotions, with behavior governed by both conscious and unconscious processes. The motivating force behind most behavior is the libido.

• Personality Structure:

  • Id: Unconscious, present at birth, contains basic sexual and aggressive impulses.

  • Ego: Satisfies the needs of the id, keeps personality components in balance.

  • Superego: Moral judge, contains societal rules, develops near end of early childhood.

• Defense Mechanisms: Ego generates ways to reduce anxiety, such as repression.

Psychosexual Stages

Freud believed sexual feelings are central to personality development, occurring in five stages:

1. Oral stage (Birth to 1 year): Focus on mouth, lips, tongue. Fixation leads to oral behaviors.

2. Anal stage (1 to 3 years): Focus on anus. Fixation may result in orderliness or messiness.

3. Phallic stage (3 to 6 years): Focus on genitals. Oedipus/Electra complexes arise.

4. Latency stage (6 to 12 years): No libido focus. Development of defense mechanisms.

5. Genital stage (12+ years): Focus on genitals. Achievement of sexual maturity.

Early experiences are formative; unresolved conflicts can result in adult fixations.

Table: Psychosexual Stages

Stage	Approximate Ages	Focus of Libido	Major Developmental Task	Adult Characteristics if Fixated
Oral	Birth to 1 year	Mouth, lips, tongue	Weaning	Oral behaviors, passivity, gullibility
Anal	1 to 3 years	Anus	Toilet training	Orderliness, obstinacy, messiness
Phallic	3 to 6 years	Genitals	Resolving Oedipus/Electra complex	Vanity, recklessness, sexual dysfunction
Latency	6 to 12 years	None	Developing defense mechanisms	None
Genital	12+ years	Genitals	Achieving sexual maturity	Sexually mature, well-integrated

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

Erik Erikson expanded on Freud, emphasizing the interaction of internal drives and cultural demands. Development continues throughout the lifespan, with eight psychosocial stages, each defined by a crisis (opposing possibilities).

• Healthy personality: Requires resolving each stage's crisis with a favorable ratio of positive to negative outcomes.

Table: Erikson's Eight Psychosocial Crises

Stage	Age	Positive Characteristic	Developmental Task
Trust vs. Mistrust	Birth to 1	Hope	Secure attachment to caregiver
Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt	1 to 3	Will	Self-care skills, independence
Initiative vs. Guilt	3 to 6	Purpose	Assertiveness, goal orientation
Industry vs. Inferiority	6 to 12	Competence	Mastery of skills, norms
Identity vs. Role Confusion	12 to 18	Fidelity	Sense of self, values
Intimacy vs. Isolation	18 to 30	Fidelity	Intimate relationships
Generativity vs. Stagnation	30 to late adulthood	Care	Parenting, creativity, mentoring
Ego Integrity vs. Despair	Late adulthood	Wisdom	Self-acceptance, life review

Childhood and Adult Stages

• Childhood: Trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame/doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion

• Adulthood: Intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, ego integrity vs. despair

Generativity and Ego Integrity

• Generativity increases in midlife and remains important in later years.

• Middle-aged adults reflect on life achievements and meaning.

Table: Review of Erikson's Ages and Stages

Age Range	Crisis
Birth to 1 year	Trust vs. mistrust
1 to 3 years	Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
3 to 6 years	Initiative vs. guilt
6 to 12 years	Industry vs. inferiority
12 to 18 years	Identity vs. role confusion
18 to 30 years	Intimacy vs. isolation
30 years to late adulthood	Generativity vs. stagnation
Late adulthood	Integrity vs. despair

Evaluation of Psychoanalytic Theories

• Both Freud and Erikson highlight the importance of early relationships and changing needs with age.

• Freud introduced concepts such as the unconscious, ego, and identity, and invented psychotherapy.

• Erikson emphasized continued development during adulthood.

• Weaknesses: Concepts are often vague and difficult to test empirically.

Table: Evaluating Psychoanalytic Theories

Theory	Main Idea	Strengths	Weaknesses
Freud's psychosexual theory	Personality develops in five stages, each focused on a different part of the body	Emphasizes early experiences, provides explanations for mental health	Sexual feelings not as important as Freud claimed
Erikson's psychosocial theory	Personality develops through eight life crises	Explains role of culture, provides useful descriptions of development	Describing each period as a single crisis may oversimplify

Learning Theories

Behaviorism and Environmental Manipulation

John Watson argued that children could be trained to do anything through environmental manipulation. Behaviorism is a foundational approach for all learning theories, focusing on how experience shapes development.

Classical Conditioning

Based on Ivan Pavlov's work, classical conditioning explains how organisms acquire new signals for existing responses.

• Key Concepts:

  • Reflex: Automatic stimulus-response connection

  • Unconditioned stimulus (US)

  • Unconditioned response (UR)

  • Conditioned stimulus (CS)

  • Conditioned response (CR)

• Example: Watson's "Little Albert" experiment conditioned fear of a white rat by pairing it with a loud noise, resulting in generalization to other white, fuzzy objects.

Table: How Watson Conditioned Fear in Albert

Neutral Stimulus	Unconditioned Stimulus (US)	Unconditioned Response (UR)
White rat	Loud noise	Fear reaction
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)	Conditioned Response (CR)
White rat	Fear reaction

• Practical Implications:

  • Classical conditioning is important in infancy and therapy for anxiety.

  • Systematic desensitization can help unlearn fears.

Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

B.F. Skinner proposed that learning occurs through consequences that follow behavior.

• Reinforcement: Increases likelihood of behavior repetition

• Punishment: Decreases likelihood of behavior repetition

• Extinction: Behavior stops when not reinforced

• Partial reinforcement: Behavior reinforced only sometimes, making it resistant to extinction

Bandura’s Social-Cognitive Theory

Albert Bandura emphasized that learning can occur through observation, not just reinforcement. Observational learning and self-efficacy are key concepts.

• Self-efficacy: Belief in one's ability to succeed influences well-being and health.

Additional info:

• These notes cover the first half of the chapter, focusing on psychoanalytic and learning theories. Cognitive, biological, and ecological theories are addressed in subsequent sections.