CHAPTER 1.2 Life-Span Development Notes
What Is a Theory?
• Developmental Theory: an organized set of ideas that is designed to
explain development
• Essential for developing predictions about behavior
• Predictions result in research that helps to support or clarify the
theory
• There are no truly comprehensive theories of human development
Major Theoretical Perspectives
• Psychodynamic • Ecological & Systems
• Freud, Erikson • Bronfenbrenner, Lawton
• Learning • Lifespan
• Skinner, Bandura • Baltes/Riley/Staudinger
• Cognitive
• Piaget/King & Kitchener,
Information Processing,
Vygotsky
Psychodynamic Theory:
• Holds that development is largely determined by how well people resolve conflicts they face at
different ages
• Perspective traces its roots to Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic,
latency, genital)
• Erik Erikson proposed the first comprehensive life-span view of psychosocial development in
his psychosocial theory of personality (see his book, Childhood and Society)
• Epigenetic Principle: each stage of Erikson’s theory has its own place and importance
Learning Theory: Behaviorism
• Operant conditioning (the basis of behavior analysis)
(behavior works upon the environment and the environment works upon
behavior)
• The consequences of a behavior determine whether it will be
repeated.
• A positive or negative reinforcer increases the chance that a
behavior will be repeated.
• A punisher decreases the chance that a behavior will be repeated.
Learning Theory: Social Learning Theory
• Observational learning, or imitation
• People learn by watching others.
• Imitation is more likely when the subject of an observation is seen
as smart, popular, or talented.
What Is a Theory?
• Developmental Theory: an organized set of ideas that is designed to
explain development
• Essential for developing predictions about behavior
• Predictions result in research that helps to support or clarify the
theory
• There are no truly comprehensive theories of human development
Major Theoretical Perspectives
• Psychodynamic • Ecological & Systems
• Freud, Erikson • Bronfenbrenner, Lawton
• Learning • Lifespan
• Skinner, Bandura • Baltes/Riley/Staudinger
• Cognitive
• Piaget/King & Kitchener,
Information Processing,
Vygotsky
Psychodynamic Theory:
• Holds that development is largely determined by how well people resolve conflicts they face at
different ages
• Perspective traces its roots to Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic,
latency, genital)
• Erik Erikson proposed the first comprehensive life-span view of psychosocial development in
his psychosocial theory of personality (see his book, Childhood and Society)
• Epigenetic Principle: each stage of Erikson’s theory has its own place and importance
Learning Theory: Behaviorism
• Operant conditioning (the basis of behavior analysis)
(behavior works upon the environment and the environment works upon
behavior)
• The consequences of a behavior determine whether it will be
repeated.
• A positive or negative reinforcer increases the chance that a
behavior will be repeated.
• A punisher decreases the chance that a behavior will be repeated.
Learning Theory: Social Learning Theory
• Observational learning, or imitation
• People learn by watching others.
• Imitation is more likely when the subject of an observation is seen
as smart, popular, or talented.
