Child Development
theorists
by Mrs. Lauer
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)
Believed that personality develops through a series of
stages.
Believed experiences in childhood profoundly affect adult
life.
Emphasized personality and social development.
Said that the unconscious plays a critical role in
development.
More info: http://www.simplypsychology.org/SigmundFreud.html
Jean Piaget
(1896-1980)
The first to study children scientifically.
Focused on how children learned.
Believed that children go through four stages of learning.
Learning occurs through a blend of accommodation and
assimilation.
Focus is on cognitive development and conscious activity.
More info: http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html
& http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget-moral.html
Jean Piaget’s Stages of
Cognitive Development
Lev Vygotsky
(1896-1934)
Wrote that biological development and cultural experience
influence children’s ability to learn.
Social contact is essential to intellectual development.
Early development is especially important.
Social-cognitive development is continuous.
Learning is an active process as the child seeks to learn from others.
Focus is on cognitive & conscious activity.
More info: http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html
Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural
Theory
Erik Erikson
(1902-1994)
Like Freud, Erikson said that personality develops in stages.
Erikson’s research extends on Freudian thoughts by focusing on the adaptive
and creative characteristic of the ego & expanding on the notion of the stages
of personality development to include the entire lifespan.
Like Freud, Erikson thought that each stage includes a unique psychological
crisis. If that crisis is met in a positive way, the individual develops normally.
Individuals respond to live events as they search for their identity.
Emphasized on personality and social development.
Said both the unconscious and conscious play a role in development.
More info: http://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html
Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial
Development
Erikson proposed a lifespan
model of development, taking in
five stages up to the age of 18
years and three further stages
beyond, well into adulthood.
Erikson suggests that there is
still plenty of room for continued
growth and development
throughout one’s life.
Erikson puts a great deal of
emphasis on the adolescent
period, feeling it was a crucial
stage for developing a person’s
identity.
B.F. Skinner
(1904-1990)
Argued that when a child’s actions have positive results, they
will be repeated.
Negative results will make the actions stop.
Skinner called these principles “reinforcement.”
Created “Operant Conditioning” the learning process in which
behavior is sensitive to or controlled by its consequences.
Created the Skinner Box to test his theory.
More info: http://www.simplypsychology.org/operantconditioning.html
The Skinner Box
Urie Bronfenbrenner
(1917-2005)
Outlined layers of environment that affect a child’s
development, such as the child’s own biology, family/
community environment and society.
Development at all ages is important.
Development is continuous.
Learning is an active process involving continuous
interactions with others and the environment.
Focus is on cognitive, social & conscious activity.
Bronfrenbrenner’s Ecological
Systems Model
Albert Bandura
(1925-present)
Said that children learn from the environment by imitating others
through the process of observational learning (aka modeling).
Disagreed with Skinner.
Bandura believed that humans are active information processors
that think about the relationship between their behavior and its
consequences. Therefore observational learning could not take
place unless the cognitive processes were at work.
Pointed out that although the environment shapes behavior,
behavior also affects the environment.
More info: http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html
Albert Bandura
Bandura’s main research was with the Bobo
Doll Experiment.
Children were pre-tested for how aggressive
they were by observing children in a nursery.
Next, children were showed videos of adults
either beating the inflatable doll or nurturing it.
Children were then given a doll of their own to
play with to see how they would interact with it.
Students typically replicated the behavior they
witnessed the adult exhibit with the Bobo Doll.
More info: http://www.simplypsychology.org/
bobo-doll.html
Bandura’s Social Learning
Theory