Developed an ecological systems theory of development also called the bioecological approach.

Describes development as taking place within the context of several systems. 

A child's development is affected by several contexts or systems:

 Microsystems - the systems in which a child directly participates -  the immediate environmental contexts the child experiences directly, like the family - Refers to the institutions and groups that most immediately and directly impact the child’s development including: family, school, religious institutions, neighborhood, and peers.

Mesosystem - the interrelationships between events of different microsystems - Interactions between the family and teachers. Relationship between the child’s peers and the family.

Exosystem - where interrelationships between events in contexts in which the child does not directly participate affect the child - the contexts that significant others in the child's life directly experience but the child does not - The parent might receive a promotion that requires more travel, which might increase conflict with the other parent and change patterns of interaction with the child.

Macrosystem -affects each of the other systems -  the larger the cultural context in which all of the other systems exist. - Describes the culture in which individuals live. Cultural contexts include industrialized countries, socioeconomic status, poverty, and ethnicity.

In this way, experiences a child has at home (microsystem) may affect his or her performance in school and vice versa. The interaction of these two microsystems occurs in the mesosystem. The exosystem is a social context that indirectly influences the child's developent, such as a parent's work, and the macrosystem is the cultural context in which all the other systems are embedded and which affects interactions in those systems.

Each stage represents a different erogenous zone or part of the body where pleasure originates.

Oral - (0-1yrs old) - Mouth - Stimulation of mouth produces pleasure; infant enjoys sucking, biting, chewing. Weaning is a major task or conflict.

Examples of traits related to fixation = obsessive eating, smoking, drinking, sarcasm, overly demanding, aggressiveness

Anal - (1-3yrs old) - Anus - Toilet training is major task. Expelling and retaining feces produces pleasure.

Examples of traits related to fixation = extreme messiness, overly orderly, overly concerned about punctuality, fear of dirt, love of bathroom humor, anxiety about sexual activities, overly giving, rebelliousness.

Phallic - (3-6yrs old) - Genitals - Self stimulation of genitals produces pleasure. Oedipal (for boys) and Electra (for girls) complexes occur - children have erotic desires for opposite-sex parent as well as feelings of fear and hostility for same-sex parent. Successful resolution of  this conflict results in identification with same-sex parent.

Examples of traits related to fixation = Excessive masturbation, flirts frequently, excessively modest, excessively timid, overly proud, promiscuity

Latency - (6-12yrs old) - None - Sexual feelings are repressed. Social contacts beyond immediate family are expanded. Focus shifts to school and same-sex friendships.

Genital - (Puberty onward) - Genitals - Establishing intimate, sexual relations with others is the main focus.

Id - (at birth) - pleasure principle; unconscious instincts; irrational; seeks instant gratification - always seeks pleasure and avoids pain; contains the libido or sexual energy.

Ego - (around 6 months) - reality principle; mediates id and reality; executive branch of personality because it makes rational decisions. Cannot determine if something is right or wrong.

Superego - (around 6 years) - morality principle - capable of determining if something is right or wrong because it is our conscience; personal conscience; it only rules about moral behaviorpersonal ideals. Representing the moral standards and values of parents.

sociocultural theory of cognitive development

The difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help.

A child interacts with peers and adults, not just objects in the environment. Vygotsky believed a great deal of cognitive growth comes from these social interactions. He observed taht societies had particular, culturally specific ways of understanding the world. These understandings therefore must be transmitted through members of the culture. The transmission of ideas is done through cooperative dialogue among peers and especially between children and adults. Older children and adults provide what Vygotsky called scaffolding.

In this theory, the zone of proximal development is the range of performance on a particular task a child is capable of doing. The lowerst level of performance appears when the child is working alone. The upper limit of performance appears when the child is working with a more skilled other. Cognitive development is therefore socially mediated in Vygotsky's view. He also studied the role of language in cognition.

1. The Sensorimotor Stage: (birth to age 2) - During this stage, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory experiences and manipulating objects.

2. The Preoperational Stage: ( describes cognitive  behavior between the ages of two and seven) - At this stage, kids learn through pretend play but still struggle with logic and taking the point of view of other people. It is characterized by egocentrism, rigidity of thought, semilogical reasoning, and limited social cognition. Some cognitive psychologists have observed that this stage seems to describe how individuals think more in terms of what they can't do than what they can do. This stage describes the way children in preschool and kindergarten go about problem solving. Many children in the primary grades may also be at this stage in their cognitive development.

3. The Concrete Operational Stage or concrete operations:  (beginning of operational thinking and describes the thinking of children betwen the ages of seven and eleven) - Kids at this point of development begin to think more logically, but their thinking can also be very rigid. They tend to struggle with abstract and hypothetical concepts. Learners at this age begin to decenter. They are able to take into consideration viewpoints other than their own. They can perform transformations, meaning that they can understand reversibility, inversion, reciprocity, and conservation. They can group items into categories. They can make inferences about reality and engage in inductive reasoning; they increase their quantitative skills; and they can manipulate symbols if they are given concrete examples with which to work. This stage of cognitive development is the threshold to high-level learning for students.

4. The Formal Operational Stage: (This stage opens wide the door for higher-ordered, critical thinking. This stage describes the way of thinking for learners between the ages of eleven and fifteen, and for Piaget, constitutes the ultimate stage of cognitive developemnt and describes adult thinking) - The final stage of Piaget’s theory involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas.  Learners at this stage can engage in logical, abstract, and hypothetical thought; they can use the scientific method, meaning they can formulate hypotheses, isolate influences, and identify cause-and-effect relationships. They can plan and anticipate verbal cues. They can engage in both deductive and inductive reasoning, and they can operate on verbal statements exclusive of concrete experiences or examples. These cognitive abilities characterize the highest levels of thought.

Classical Conditioning theory - Pavlov (1849 - 1936)

Learning Theory (behavior is controlled by stimuli in the environment)

A classical experiment exemplifying the standard procedure used in classical conditioning. First Pavlov observed the UR(salivation) produced when meat powder(US) was placed in the dog’s mouth. He then rang a bell(CS) before giving the meat powder. After some repetitions of this pairing of bell and meat the dog salivated to the bell alone, demonstrating what Pavlov called a “conditional” response, now commonly termed “conditioned response” or CR.

Pavlob also demonstrated generalization, discrimination, and extinction.

Generalization is observed when a conditioned response is elicited by stimuli similar to the original CS (conditioned stimulus). Pavlov demonstrated that the strength of the response is determined by the degree of similarity between the original CS and the test stimuli.

Discrimination is the opposite of generalization. this is the process of conditioning a response to occur only after a specific stimulus is presented. 

Extinction is the unlearning of a CR. Pavlov found that the CR will disappear after repeated trials where the CS is presented without the UCS. After conditioning the dog's salivary response to a bell, repeatedly presenting the bell without food eventually causes the salivary response to the bell to be extinguished.

Personality develops over the entire life span (not just through childhood). 

1. Trust vs. Mistrust - (birth -1yr) - Infant’s needs must be met by responsive, sensitive caretakers. If this occurs, a basic sense of trust and optimism develops. If not, mistrust and fear of the future results.

2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt - (1-3yrs) - Children begin to express self-control by climbing, exploring, touching, and toilet training. Parents can foster a sense of autonomy by encouraging children to try new things. If restrained or punished too harshly, shame and doubt can develop.

3. Initiative vs. Guilt - (3-6yrs) - Children are asked to assume more responsibility. Through play, children learn to plan, undertake, and carry out a task. Parents can encourage initiative by giving children the freedom to play and use their imaginations, etc. Children who are criticized or discouraged from taking the initiative learn to feel guilty.

4. Industry vs. Inferiority - (6-11yrs) - In elementary school, children learn skills that are valued by society. Success or failure while learning these skills can have lasting effects on a child's feelings of adequacy.

5. Identity vs. Role Confusion - (Adolescence onward) - The development of identity involves finding out who we are, what we value, and where we are headed in life. In their search for identity, adolescents experiment with different roles. If we establish an integrated image of ourselves as a unique person, then we establish a sense of identity. If not, role confusion results and can be expressed through anger and resentment.

6. Intimacy vs. Isolation - At this time, we are concerned with establishing intimate, long-term relationships with others. If we have successfuly resolved the identy crisis, then we can be warm and open with others. If we are unsure of our identity or if we have developed an unhealthy identity, then we may avoid others or keep them at an emotional distance.

7. Generativity vs. Stagnation - This stage centers around a concern for the next generation. Successful development shows adults sharing their life-acquired wisdom and caring for the growth of the community. Complacency in this stage leads to stagnation and potentially to depression and loneliness.

8. Ego Integrity vs. Despair - If a person looking back on his or her life can believe that is has been meaningful and relatively successful, then a sense of integrity develops. If all that is seen are wasted opportunities and meaninglessness, then the person will be disgusted. Despair will follow disgust if the person feels it is too late to change.

Skinner also believed that learning is controlled by stimuli in the environment but added that behavior is shaped by the rewarding or punishing consequences that follow it. 

Behavior is shaped through the use of reinforcement and punishment. A behavior which is followed by reinforcement will tend to be repeated and a behavior followed by punishment will tend not to be repeated. These two processes, reinforcement and punishment, control the shaping of behavior. 

He also distinguished between positive and negative reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement = a reward or rewarding condition that is experienced after a behavioral response. Since it is a form of reinforcement, it works to increase the probability that the response will be repeated under the same stimulus conditions in the future. (ex.= giving the child a bag of candy for making his bed)

Negative reinforcement = is when a moxious or unpleasant condition is removed when the behavioral response is emitted. (ex.= making the child stay in his room until he makes the bed).

It is based on the notion that cognitive abilities (or one's ability to think) are developed as individuals mature physiologocially and have opportunities to interact with their environment. 

{a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of brain development and cognitive psychology compared to an adult's point of view. Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg.}

Piaget

His theory is considered a stage theory because Piaget predicted that certain behaviors and ways of thinking characterized individuals at different ages. 

Stage theories share the common tenet that certain characteristics will occur in predictable sequences and at certain times in the life of the individual.

Describes developmental change as the product of learning. Learning is defined as changes in observable behavior. 

- John Watson, Pavlov, Skinner and Bandura

These guys suggests that behavior is controlled by stimuli in the environment. 

Extended the work of Pavlob by studying classical conditioning of emotional responses in children. 

Watson believed that at birth we have a small number of emotional responses in our behavioral repertoire. These are love, anger, and fear. He argued that through experience we learn to associate new environmental stimuli with these reflexive emotional responses. 

He, Mary Cover Jones who is one of his students and Raynor worked at the foundation for the classical conditioning theory of phobias or irrational fears.

Changes in behavior are acquired not only through the processes of conditioning, but also through observational learning. Modeling is observing the behavior of a model and then later imitating that behavior. Bandura observed that people can emit a new behavior in its complete form after simply watching someone else perform that behavior. In short, we can learn by observation. 

Changes in behavior are acquired not only through the processes of conditioning, but also through observational learning. Albert Bandura

Descended from Signumd Freud and his theory of personality. For most psychodynamic theorists, personality is mainly unconscious. That is, it is beyond our awareness. In order to understand someone's personality, the symbolic meanings of behavior and deep inner workings of the mind must be investigated. early experiences with parents shape personalities, according to psychodynamic theorists. 

Personality is unconscious or beyond our awareness. In order to understand a personality, the symbolic meaning sod behavior and deep inner workings of the mind must be investigated. Sigmund Freud

This theory argues that there is a bidirectional relationship between the child and the sociocultural environment, such that a child influences the people and the environments he or she interacts with, as much as those people and environments influence the child's development. This is known as reciprocal determinism. 

- Lev Vygotsky

- Urie Bronfenbrenner

There is a bidirectional relationship between the child and sociocultural environment, such that a child influences the people and environments he interacts with and vise versa. Lev Vygotsky, Uri Bronfenbrenner