Concept Summary: Approaches to Developmental Theory

APPROCH

Representative Theorist

Main Underlying Model

Major Assumptions (theoretical beliefs)

Key Terms

Psychoanalytic

Freud

Erikson

Organismic

Organismic

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, regression

Competence,

developmental tasks,

psychosocial

Behavioristic

Pavlov, Watson

Skinner

Bandura

Mechanistic

Mechanistic/Organismic

Contextual/ 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 response

Reinforcement, punishment, shaping

Imitation, self-efficacy, social/cognitive, reciprocal determinism

Cognitive

Piaget

Information Processing

Organismic

Mechanistic/ organismic/ Contextual

Child develops cognitive skills through active interaction with the environment.

Development is a process of learning to represent, process, store, and retrieve information.

Stages, assimilation, accommodation, equilibration

Memory, perception, thinking, symbolic representation, computer models

Biological Ecological Approaches

Bowlby

Vygotsky

Bronfenbrenner

Organismic

Organismic/ Contextual

Organismic/ 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 period

Culture, language, zone of proximal growth, scaffolding

Micro-, meso-, exo-, macro-, and chronosystem

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

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