Psychoanalytic Theories:

Chapter 2: • Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

– Personality has 3 parts
– There are 5 stages of psychosexual development

The Science – Oedipus complex allows child to identify with

same-sex parent
– Fixation is an unresolved conflict during a stage
of Life-Span of development

Development • Today’s focus is more on cultural experiences and

less on sexual instincts

McGraw -Hill © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Freudian Stages
Birth to 1½ to 3 to 6 6 yrs to Puberty
1½ yrs 3 yrs years puberty onward
Theories Oral Stage Anal Stage Phallic Latency
Stage
Genital
Stage Stage
of Infant’s
pleasure
Child’s
pleasure Child’s Child A time of
centers on focuses on pleasure represses sexual
Development mouth anus focuses on
genitals
sexual
interest
and develops
reawakening;
source of
sexual
social and pleasure
intellectual becomes
skills someone
outside of the
family

Figure 2.1

• All scientific knowledge comes from scientific

investigation – a four-step process • Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory:
– Identify a problem to be studied
– There are 8 stages of psychosocial development
– Collect data or research information
– Each has a unique developmental task
– Analyze the data
– Developmental change occurs throughout life span
– Draw conclusions

• Key points of psychoanalytic theories:

• Diverse but complimentary theories are used – Early experiences and family relationships are
for explaining life-span development:
very important to development
– Psychoanalytic theories – Unconscious aspects of the mind are considered
– Cognitive theories
– Personality is best seen as a developmental process
– Ethological theories
– Ecological theories

1
 Erikson’s Eight Life-Span Stages
• Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory
Erikson’s Stages Developmental Period – Children actively construct their knowledge
Trust vs Mistrust Infancy (first year) – Social interaction and culture guide cognitive
Autonomy vs shame & Infancy (1 to 3 years) development
doubt
– Learning is based upon inventions of society
Initiative vs guilt Early childhood (3 to 5
years) – Knowledge is created through interactions with
Industry vs inferiority Middle and late childhood other people and objects in the culture
Identity vs identity Adolescence (10 to 20 years) – Less skilled persons learn from the more skilled
confusion
Intimacy vs isolation Early adulthood (20s, 30s) • Information-processing theory
Generativity vs Middle adulthood (40s, 50s)
stagnation – Compares computers to the human mind
Integrity vs despair Late adulthood (60s onward) – Thinking is information processing

Figure 2.2

Information-Processing Theory
Cognitive theories: geography

• Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory

– Stresses conscious mental processes literature

– Cognitive processes are influenced by

science INPUT
biological maturation OUTPUT
– Four stages of cognitive development Information Information is
in children is taken into used as basis of
brain behaviors and
– Assimilation and accommodation underlie interactions
how children understand the world, adapt history religion Information
to it, and organize their experiences gets processed,
analyzed, and
stored until use
math

Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Stage:

Birth to 2
The infant constructs an understanding of the world
by coordinating sensory experiences with physical
Behavioral and social cognitive theories:
years of age actions: progressing from reflexive, instinctual action
at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought toward • Pavlov’s classical conditioning includes
end of the stage. conditioned and unconditioned responses
Preoperational Stage: • Watson applies association and generalization
2 to 7 years The child begins to represent the world with words
of age and images. These words and images reflect • Operant conditioning focuses on positive and
increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the
connection of sensory information and physical action. negative reinforcement
Concrete Operational Stage: • Social cognitive theory focuses on observation
7 to 11 years
of age The child can now reason logically about concrete and imitation
events and classify objects into different sets.
• Ethological theory includes imprinting and
11–15 years Formal Operational Stage
of age attachment
through The adolescent reasons in more abstract idealistic
adulthood and logical ways.

Figure 2.3

2
 Bandura’s Modeling/Imitation

Classical Child Child imitates

observes behavior
Conditioning someone that seems
admired rewarded

Generalization

What are the

reinforcements • Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory:
to achieve?
– Environmental factors influence development
– 5 environmental systems affect life-span
development
What happens when
there are no controls
Task: Learn or reinforcement? • Eclectic theoretical orientation:
to read
– Selects features from other theories
Operant – No one theory has all the answers
Conditioning – Each theory can make a contribution to
understanding life-span development

Political philosophy
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Model Exosystem Mesosystems
School system
Eco
nom
s
om

ic
ust

Behavior School &

pat
nity
al c

Family classroom
ter
mu
tion

ns
Com
Na

Chronosystem
s
Cu

tion

Person Peer
Ma

Religion
ltur

Environment
s

(cognitive) group
stitu

ition
ss m

& groups
al

l in

ond
edi
val

dica
ues

ial c
Me

Bronfenbrenner’s
Soc

Ecological Theory
of Development

Macrosystem Figure 2.5

Figure 2.4

3
 – Correlational research
Research • Measures relationships; not the same
as causation

in
– Experimental research
Life-Span • Independent variable gets manipulated
• Dependent variable is the resulting change
Development • Experimental group is manipulated
• Control group serves as the “norm”
for comparison

Observed correlation: as permissive parenting

increases, children’s self-control decreases
• Types of research:
– Descriptive: observes and records Permissive causes Children’s lack
parenting of self-control
behavior
• Laboratory research Children’s lack causes Permissive
of self-control parenting
• Naturalistic observation
• Surveys and interviews
Permissive
• Standardized tests Other factors, parenting
such as genetic cause
• Case studies tendencies, poverty, and
and sociohistorical both
• Life-history records circumstances Children’s lack
of self-control
• Physiological measures

Possible Explanations for Correlational Data

Figure 2.9

Principles of Experimental Research

30 Parents’
Explanations Participants randomly assigned to
25 of Science to experimental and control groups
Percentage Sons and
parent–child 20 Daughters at
interactions a Science
in which the
parent 15
Museum Experimental Control
explained Independent group group
science variable (aerobic (no aerobic
concepts 10 exercise) exercise)

0 Dependent Newborns’ breathing and sleeping patterns

Boys Girls variable

Figure 2.8 Figure 2.10

4
Group 1 Time More
playing playful • Conducting Ethical Research
video and
games: sociable
2 hours – Informed consent: participants give informed
each day consent and participation is voluntary
– Confidentiality of participants’ information
Time More – Participants’ rights will be observed
Group 2 playing aggressive
video and – Debriefing after the experiment
games: antisocial
6 hours – Deception: researchers ensure any deception
each day will not harm the participants

• Time-span research • Minimize bias:

– Focus on the relation of age to some other
variable across the life span (e.g., memory)
– Cross-sectional approach compares different
age groups at one time
– Longitudinal approach studies a group over a
period of time
– Sequential approach combines longitudinal
and cross-sectional approaches
– Cohort effects: due to time or era of birth but
not due to one’s actual age
– Gender bias is based on preconceived ideas
about the abilities and differences between
men and women; research affects how people
think about men and women
– Cultural and ethnic bias
• Life-span research needs to include more
diverse groups of people
• Avoid ethnic gloss in research

• Being a Wise Consumer of Information

– Media only publishes parts of research when
of public interest
Facing Up to – All information for public consumption may be
• Oversimplified, condensed with few details

Research Challenges • Distorted or exaggerated

– People must consider information carefully
• Separate group from individual outcomes
• Do not overgeneralize from small sample
• Look for additional information on a study
• Do not attribute causes when none exist
• Evaluate the source of information

5
The End