Child developmenttheories focus on explaining how children change and grow over the course of childhood.
These developmental theories center on various aspects of growth, including social, emotional, and cognitive development.
Why do children behave in certain ways?
Verywell / JR Bee
Children were often viewed simply as small versions of adults.
But why do we study development?
What can we learn from psychological theories of development?
Why is it important to study how children grow, learn, and change?
Freud’s Psychosexual Developmental Theory
Psychoanalytic theory originated with the work ofSigmund Freud.
Freud proposed one of the best-known grand theories of child development.
During each stage, the child encounters conflicts that play a significant role in development.
His theory also stated that the energy of the libido was focused on different erogenous zones at specific stages.
So, what happens as children complete each stage?
And what might result if a child does poorly during a particular point in development?
Successfully completing each stage leads to the development of a healthy adult personality.
According to Freud, personality is largely set in stone by the age of five.
Of these neo-Freudians,Erik Erikson’sideas have become perhaps the best known.
While Eriksons theory of psychosocial developmentshared some similaritieswith Freud’s, it is dramatically different in many ways.
His eight-stage theory of human development described this process from infancy through death.
During each stage, people are faced with a developmental conflict that impacts later functioning and further growth.
Unlike many other developmental theories, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory focuses on development across the entire lifespan.
At each stage, children and adults face a developmental crisis that serves as a major turning point.
Successfully managing the challenges of each stage leads to the emergence of a lifelong psychological virtue.
According to the behavioral perspective, all human behavior can be described in terms of environmental influences.
Some behaviorists, such asJohn B. WatsonandB.F.
Skinner, insisted that learning occurs purely through processes of association and reinforcement.
These theories deal only with observable behaviors.
Development is considered a reaction to rewards, punishments, stimuli, and reinforcement.
This theory differs considerably from other child development theories because it gives no consideration to internal thoughts or feelings.
Instead, it focuses purely on how experience shapes who we are.
Two important types of learning that emerged from this approach to development areclassical conditioningandoperant conditioning.
Classical conditioning involves learning by pairing a naturally occurring stimulus with a previously neutral stimulus.
Operant conditioning utilizes reinforcement and punishment to modify behaviors.
Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory
Cognitive theoryis concerned with the development of a person’s thought processes.
It also looks at how these thought processes influence how we understand and interact with the world.
TheoristJean Piagetproposed one of the most influential theories of cognitive development.
His cognitive theory seeks to describe and explain the development of thought processes and mental states.
It also looks at how these thought processes influence the way we understand and interact with the world.
Bowlby’sattachment theorysuggested that children are born with an innate need to form attachments.
Such attachments aid in survival by ensuring that the child receives care and protection.
Not only that but these attachments are characterized by clear behavioral and motivational patterns.
In other words, both children and caregivers engage in behaviors designed to ensure proximity.
Researchers have also expanded upon Bowlby’s original work and have suggested that a number of differentattachment stylesexist.
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Social learning theory is based on the work of psychologistAlbert Bandura.
Bandura believed that the conditioning and reinforcement process could not sufficiently explain all of human learning.
Like Piaget, Vygotsky believed that children learn actively and through hands-on experiences.
In Vygotsky’s view, learning is an inherently social process.
Through interacting with others, learning becomes integrated into an individual’s understanding of the world.
These theories represent just a few of the different ways of thinking about child development.
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