Theories and Methods of Development

This is Unit One, part two, on the major theories of development, from Freud's defenses to classical conditioning. Part one closed on Freud's model of the mind: the id, the ego and the superego. Part two opens with how the ego manages anxiety, and then weighs Freud's whole theory. Carry one question through this part: when a theory is tested, what survives? Most of the theories here meet that test somewhere. At the entry that weighs what survives of Freud, the answer is a ledger with two columns, and the rule is to hold both halves. By the end you will be able to weigh what survives of Freud's theory. To name Erikson's eight crises with their approximate ages. To name Piaget's four stages and what each brings. To explain the zone of proximal development and scaffolding. And to tell evolutionary psychology from behavioural genetics, and say why twin studies compare two kinds of twins.

Two entries: how the ego defends itself, and what survives of Freud's theory when it is tested.

How the ego handles a threat.

HGD 0025 Ego Defenses

Ego defenses are mental strategies, used automatically and unconsciously, to manage anxiety when a person feels threatened, and each distorts reality somewhat. Repression pushes upsetting memories out of awareness; denial refuses to see what an event implies. Freud's theory is hard to test, and his case studies were never validated, yet ego defenses are among its better-supported ideas.

The payoff: what survives of Freud's theory.

HGD 0026 What Survives of Freud

Freud's theory dominated psychiatry until behaviourism grew in the nineteen fifties, and it remains the most disputed classic in developmental psychology. Critics make three charges. It is very difficult to test, because it rests on unconscious processes that cannot be observed directly. His case studies were never validated, so they cannot serve as evidence. And a central claim has failed when tested: the idea that children express strong sexual feelings from a very early age, which the psychosexual stages require. Yet research has supported other parts. Unconscious processes do influence behaviour, strongly enough that unconscious influence is now central to cognitive and social psychology. People do use ego defenses, and they differ in how much they rely on each; rationalisation and sublimation are more adaptive than repression and reaction formation, and denial can harm health when people ignore symptoms of illness. And Erikson built the first lifespan theory on these foundations. Two misreadings sit on either side. One dismisses the whole perspective as disproven; the other treats the psychosexual stages as established fact. Hold both halves.

Three entries on Erik Erikson: the first theory of the whole lifespan, one of its crises, then all eight.

The first theory to span a whole life.

HGD 0027 Erikson's Psychosocial Theory

Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory was the first to span the whole lifespan. Each stage poses a psychosocial crisis set by the social world, a challenge from family, school, work or community. Erikson trained with Anna Freud but broke with Freud's emphasis on sexuality, placing social relationships at the centre of development.

One crisis in detail, from the toddler years.

HGD 0028 Autonomy Versus Shame and Doubt

Erikson's second crisis, autonomy versus shame and doubt, is the toddler's struggle to gain self-control while negotiating limits with caregivers: a child between eighteen and twenty-four months insisting on doing everything alone. Each crisis can be resolved well or poorly, and an unresolved one can make later crises harder to meet.

All eight crises, from infancy to old age.

HGD 0029 Erikson's Eight Crises

Erikson described eight crises, each tied to an approximate age. Trust versus mistrust fills the first year; autonomy versus shame and doubt, one to three; initiative versus guilt, three to six; industry versus inferiority, about seven to eleven; identity versus confusion, twelve to eighteen; intimacy versus isolation, nineteen to twenty-nine; generativity versus stagnation, thirty to sixty-four; and integrity versus despair from sixty-five on. Each one resolved well leaves a strength. The bands are approximate, and textbooks differ. The crises have also been criticised for fitting some cultures better than others. On the exam, a middle-aged adult giving back to the next generation is working on generativity.

Two entries on Jean Piaget: a method built on children's wrong answers, and the four stages it produced.

How Piaget studied the way children reason.

HGD 0030 How Piaget Studied Children

Jean Piaget, a Swiss biologist who helped write early intelligence tests, studied children's wrong answers as a window on how they reason: a confident wrong answer reveals a consistent logic, typical of that age. He pioneered the clinical interview and treated the child as an active participant who builds understanding, not a passive learner.

The four stages, in order.

HGD 0031 Piaget's Four Stages

Piaget proposed four stages, each a different way of thinking. The sensorimotor stage, birth to about two, builds understanding through the senses and action and brings object permanence. The preoperational stage, about two to six, brings pretend play and language, but also egocentrism. The concrete operational stage, about seven to eleven, brings conservation and logic about real objects. The formal operational stage, from about twelve, brings abstract logic and moral reasoning. The ages are approximate, and sources differ by a year at the boundaries. Piaget has been criticised for underestimating culture and experience, and research finds considerable overlap between stages.

Four entries on Lev Vygotsky, who put culture and other people at the centre of thinking.

A theory that puts culture first.

HGD 0032 Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory holds that thinking develops within social and cultural contexts, propelled by social tools such as language and help from others: a child solves a puzzle with a parent's hints today, and alone next week. Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, died in his thirties, and his work was little known outside Russia until decades later.

The tool Vygotsky saw guiding thought.

HGD 0033 Private Speech

Private speech is talking to oneself to guide thinking through a hard task, which Vygotsky saw as evidence that language guides cognition. Rehearsing a grocery list aloud is private speech, and so is reciting a mnemonic for the order of operations. Tools free the mind too: a calculator handles routine steps, leaving attention for the harder parts.

The zone where help is most useful.

HGD 0034 The Zone of Proximal Development

The zone of proximal development is the range of skills a learner cannot yet manage alone but is ready to master with a little help. Picture a reader who sounds out new words only when a teacher points to the first sound. Vygotsky's ideas about teaching within the zone have been widely adopted by educators.

How that help is given, then withdrawn.

HGD 0035 Scaffolding

Scaffolding is support given to a learner inside the zone of proximal development and gradually withdrawn as competence grows: training wheels, then a parent's hand on the bicycle seat that finally lets go. The support is temporary by design. Its purpose is to become unnecessary as the skill becomes the learner's own.

Five entries: the mind as a processor, the biological perspectives, attachment, and the twins that help separate genes from environment.

A model of the mind as a computer.

HGD 0036 Information Processing

Information processing theory treats the mind like a computer: information comes in, is processed and stored, and leaves as behaviour, as when you notice a phone number, hold it briefly, store it and dial it later. Here development is continuous, not stage-like; the system grows more efficient. The model is useful, but increasingly seen as simplistic.

Two biological perspectives, asking two different questions.

HGD 0037 Evolution and Behavioural Genetics

Evolutionary psychology studies how universal human patterns evolved, such as attachment and prosocial behaviour, looking for traits that aided survival and reproduction. Behavioural genetics studies how individual differences arise now, through genes and environment, and relies on twin and adoption studies. One asks why humans in general form attachments; the other, why one sibling is shyer than another.

The researcher behind attachment theory.

HGD 0038 Bowlby and Attachment

John Bowlby formed attachment theory after studying institution-raised children who were fed, sheltered and clothed, yet suffered emotionally. Attachment is an enduring, emotionally significant bond, often formed in caregiving, and Bowlby held that at least one attachment is essential to development. Every physical need met was not enough.

What early attachment does, and does not, decide.

HGD 0039 Attachment Is Not Destiny

Secure attachment grows from consistent, sensitive, responsive care, and it gives a child a secure base from which to explore, such as a securely attached student who later moves farther from home for college. Early attachment shapes later relationships, but childhood is not destiny: an insecurely attached person can change through a secure relationship at any age.

How twins help separate genes from environment.

HGD 0040 Twin Studies

Twin studies compare identical twins, who share close to one hundred percent of their genes, with fraternal twins, who share about fifty percent, measuring both kinds of pair on the same trait. Fraternal twins share genes like other siblings, but they share more environment than siblings born years apart. That is why the two kinds are compared.

Two entries to close the part: the behaviourist perspective, and the first kind of learning it described.

The perspective that looks only at behaviour.

HGD 0041 Learning Theory

Learning theory, also called the behaviourist perspective, explains development through the environment: what a person experiences, and the consequences that follow behaviour. Behaviourists held that the mind could not be studied objectively, so they studied behaviour alone. They were wrong that thoughts cannot be measured.

Learning by association.

HGD 0042 Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning is learning by association: a neutral stimulus paired with a meaningful one comes to trigger the same response on its own. Ivan Pavlov's dogs salivated at a sound that had come to signal their food. The food is the unconditioned stimulus; the once-neutral sound becomes the conditioned stimulus. Vocabulary can be learned this way.

Look at what you can now do. You can weigh what survives of Freud: a theory hard to test, built on unvalidated cases, with a failed central claim about early sexual feelings, beside strong evidence for unconscious processes and ego defenses, and a lifespan theory built on its foundations. You can name Erikson's eight crises in order, from trust versus mistrust in the first year to integrity versus despair from sixty-five on. You can name Piaget's four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. You can explain the zone of proximal development, what a learner can master with a little help, and scaffolding, the help withdrawn as competence grows. And you can tell evolutionary psychology, which asks why humans share a pattern, from behavioural genetics, which asks why individuals differ, and say that twin studies compare identical and fraternal pairs. Part three opens with learning from consequences.