Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development
Oral stage: Age Range: Birth to 1 Year
Erogenous Zone: Mouth * During the oral stage, the infant's primary source of interaction occurs through the mouth, so the rooting and sucking reflex is especially important. The mouth is vital for eating, and the infant derives pleasure from oral stimulation through gratifying activities such as tasting and sucking. Because the infant is entirely dependent upon caretakers (who are responsible for feeding the child), the infant also develops a sense of trust and comfort through this oral stimulation. * The primary conflict at this stage is the weaning process--the child must become less dependent upon caretakers. If fixation occurs at this stage, Freud believed the individual would have issues with dependency or aggression. Oral fixation can result in problems with drinking, eating, smoking, or nail biting.
The anal stage: Age Range: 1 to 3 years
Erogenous Zone: Bowel and Bladder Control * During the anal stage, Freud believed that the primary focus of the libido was on controlling bladder and bowel movements. The major conflict at this stage is toilet training--the child has to learn to control his or her bodily needs. Developing this control leads to a sense of accomplishment and independence. * According to Freud, success at this stage is dependent upon the way in which parents approach toilet training. Parents who utilize praise and rewards for using the toilet at the appropriate time encourage positive outcomes and help children feel capable and productive. Freud believed that positive experiences during this stage served as the basis for people to become competent, productive and creative adults. * However, not all parents provide the support and encouragement that children need during this stage. Some parents' instead punish, ridicule or shame a child for accidents. According to Freud, inappropriate parental responses can result in negative outcomes. If parents take an approach that is too lenient, Freud suggested that an anal-expulsive personality could develop in which the individual has a messy, wasteful or destructive personality. If parents are too strict or begin toilet training too early, Freud believed that an anal-retentive personality develops in which the individual is stringent, orderly, rigid and obsessive.

The Phallic Stage
Age Range: 3 to 6 Years
Erogenous Zone: Genitals
During the phallic stage, the primary focus of the libido is on the genitals. At this age, children also begin to discover the differences between males and females.
Freud also believed that boys begin to view their fathers as a rival for the mother’s affections. The Oedipus complex describes these feelings of wanting to possess the mother and the desire to replace the father. However, the child also fears that he will be punished by the father for these feelings, a fear Freud termed castration anxiety.
The term Electra complex has been used to described a similar set of feelings experienced by young girls. Freud, however, believed that girls instead experience penis envy.
Eventually, the child begins to identify with the same-sex parent as a means of vicariously possessing the other parent. For girls, however, Freud believed that penis envy was never fully resolved and that all women remain somewhat fixated on this stage. Psychologists such as Karen Horney disputed this theory, calling it both inaccurate and demeaning to women. Instead, Horney proposed that men experience feelings of inferiority because they cannot give birth to children.
The Latent Period
Age Range: 6 to Puberty
Erogenous Zone: Sexual Feelings Are Inactive
During the latent period, the libido interests are suppressed. The development of the ego and superego contribute to this period of calm. The stage begins around the time that children enter into school and become more concerned with peer relationships, hobbies and other interests.
The latent period is a time of exploration in which the sexual energy is still present, but it is directed into other areas such as intellectual pursuits and social interactions. This stage is important in the development of social and communication skills and self-confidence.
The Genital Stage
Age Range: Puberty to Death
Erogenous Zone: Maturing Sexual Interests
During the final stage of psychosexual development, the individual develops a strong sexual interest in the opposite sex. This stage begins during puberty but last throughout the rest of a person's life.
Where in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual needs, interest in the welfare of others grows during this stage. If the other stages have been completed successfully, the individual should now be well-balanced, warm and caring. The goal of this stage is to establish a balance between the various life areas.
Evaluating Freud’s Psychosexual Stage Theory * The theory is focused almost entirely on male development with little mention of female psychosexual development.

* His theories are difficult to test scientifically. Concepts such as the libido are impossible to measure, and therefore cannot be tested. The research that has been conducted tends to discredit Freud's theory.

* Future predictions are too vague. How can we know that a current behavior was caused specifically by a childhood experience? The length of time between the cause and the effect is too long to assume that there is a relationship between the two variables.

* Freud's theory is based upon case studies and not empirical research. Also, Freud based his theory on the recollections of his adult patients, not on actual observation and study of children.
The Conscious and Unconscious Mind
The Structure of the Mind According to Freud
Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that behavior and personality derives from the constant and unique interaction of conflicting psychological forces that operate at three different levels of awareness: the preconscious, the conscious, and the unconscious. What do these terms mean? What exactly happens at each level of awareness?
The Mind According to Freud
Many of us have experienced what is commonly referred to as a Freudian slip. These misstatements are believed to reveal underlying, unconscious thoughts or feelings. Consider this example:
James has just started a new relationship with a woman he met at school. While talking to her one afternoon, he accidentally calls her by his ex-girlfriend's name.
If you were in this situation, how would you explain this mistake? Many of us might blame the slip on distraction or describe it as a simple accident. However, a psychoanalytic theorist might tell you that this is much more than a random accident. The psychoanalytic view holds that there are inner forces outside of your awareness that are directing your behavior. For example, a psychoanalyst might say that James misspoke due to unresolved feelings for his ex or perhaps because of misgivings about his new relationship.
The founder of psychoanalytic theory was Sigmund Freud. While his theories were considered shocking at the time and continue to create debate and controversy, his work had a profound influence on a number of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, and art.
The term psychoanalysis is used to refer to many aspects of Freud’s work and research, including Freudian therapy and the research methodology he used to develop his theories. Freud relied heavily upon his observations and case studies of his patients when he formed his theory of personality development.
Freud's Three Levels of Mind
Before we can understand Freud's theory of personality, we must first understand his view of how the mind is organized.
According to Freud, the mind can be divided into three different levels: 1. The conscious mind includes everything that we are aware of. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. A part of this includes our memory, which is not always part of consciousness but can be retrieved easily at any time and brought into our awareness. Freud called this the preconscious.

2. The preconscious mind is the part of the mind that represents ordinary memory. While we are not consciously aware of this information at any given time, we can retrieve it and pull it into consciousness when needed.

3. The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. According to Freud, the unconscious continues to influence our behavior and experience, even though we are unaware of these underlying influences.
Freud likened these three levels of mind to an iceberg. The top of the iceberg that you can see above the water represents the conscious mind. The part of the iceberg that is submerged below the water but is still visible is the preconscious. The bulk of the iceberg lies unseen beneath the waterline and represents the unconscious.
Each person also possesses a certain amount of psychological energy that forms the three basic structures of personality: the id, the ego, and the superego. These three structures have different roles and operate at different levels of the mind. In the next article in this series, learn more about the functions of each of these structures.
The Id, Ego and Superego
The Structural Model of Personality
According to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, personality is composed of three elements. These three elements of personality--known as the id, the ego and the superego--work together to create complex human behaviors.
The Id
The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth. This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes of the instinctive and primitive behaviors. According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality.
The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state anxiety or tension. For example, an increase in hunger or thirst should produce an immediate attempt to eat or drink. The id is very important early in life, because it ensures that an infant's needs are met. If the infant is hungry or uncomfortable, he or she will cry until the demands of the id are met.
However, immediately satisfying these needs is not always realistic or even possible. If we were ruled entirely by the pleasure principle, we might find ourselves grabbing things we want out of other people's hands to satisfy our own cravings. This sort of behavior would be both disruptive and socially unacceptable. According to Freud, the id tries to resolve the tension created by the pleasure principle through the primary process, which involves forming a mental image of the desired object as a way of satisfying the need.
The Ego
The ego is the component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality. According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world. The ego functions in both the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.
The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id's desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways. The reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses. In many cases, the id's impulses can be satisfied through a process of delayed gratification--the ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only in the appropriate time and place.
The ego also discharges tension created by unmet impulses through the secondary process, in which the ego tries to find an object in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id's primary process.
The Superego
The last component of personality to develop is the superego. The superego is the aspect of personality that holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from both parents and society--our sense of right and wrong. The superego provides guidelines for making judgments. According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age five.
There are two parts of the superego: 1. The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for good behaviors. These behaviors include those which are approved of by parental and other authority figures. Obeying these rules leads to feelings of pride, value and accomplishment.

2. The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and society. These behaviors are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments or feelings of guilt and remorse.
The superego acts to perfect and civilize our behavior. It works to suppress all unacceptable urges of the id and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather that upon realistic principles. The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious and unconscious.
The Interaction of the Id, Ego and Superego
With so many competing forces, it is easy to see how conflict might arise between the id, ego and superego. Freud used the term ego strength to refer to the ego's ability to function despite these dueling forces. A person with good ego strength is able to effectively manage these pressures, while those with too much or too little ego strength can become too unyielding or too disrupting.
According to Freud, the key to a healthy personality is a balance between the id, the ego, and the superego.
Piaget
There Are Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive Theory: 1. Schemas
(building blocks of knowledge) 2. Processes that enable the transition from one stage to another (equilibrium, assimilation and accommodation) 3. Stages of Development: * sensorimotor, * preoperational, * concrete operational, * formal operational
Schemas
Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent behavior – a way of organizing knowledge. Indeed, it is useful to think of schemas as “units” of knowledge, each relating to one aspect of the world, including objects, actions and abstract (i.e. theoretical) concepts.
When a child's existing schemas are capable of explaining what it can perceive around it, it is said to be in a state of equilibrium, i.e. a state of cognitive (i.e. mental) balance.
Piaget emphasized the importance of schemas in cognitive development, and described how they were developed or acquired.
A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations. The assumption is that we store these mental representations and apply them when needed.
For example, a person might have a schema about buying a meal in a restaurant. The schema is a stored form of the pattern of behavior which includes looking at a menu, ordering food, eating it and paying the bill. This is an example of a type of schema called a 'script'.
Whenever they are in a restaurant, they retrieve this schema from memory and apply it to the situation. The schemas Piaget described tend to be simpler than this - especially those used by infants. He described how - as a child gets older - his or her schemas become more numerous and elaborate.

The illustration (above) demonstrates a child developing a schema for a dog by assimilating information about the dog. The child then sees a cat, using accommodation compares existing knowledge of a dog to form a schema of a cat. Animation created by Daurice Grossniklaus and Bob Rodes (03/2002).
Piaget believed that newborn babies have some innate schemas - even before they have had much opportunity to experience the world. These neonatal schemas are the cognitive structures underlying innate reflexes. These reflexes are genetically programmed into us.
For example babies have a sucking reflex, which is triggered by something touching the baby's lips. A baby will suck a nipple, a comforter (dummy), or a person's finger. Piaget therefore assumed that the baby has a 'sucking schema'.
Similarly the grasping reflex which is elicited when something touches the palm of a baby's hand, or the rooting reflex, in which a baby will turn its head towards something which touches its cheek, were assumed to result operations: for example shaking a rattle would be the combination of two schemas, grasping and shaking.
Assimilation and Accommodation
Jean Piaget viewed intellectual growth as a process of adaptation (adjustment) to the world. This happens through: * Assimilation
– Which is using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation. * Accommodation
– This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation. * Equilibration
–This is the force, which moves development along. Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds.
Equilibrium is occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).
Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be frustrated and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (accommodation).
Once the new information is acquired the process of assimilation with the new schema will continue until the next time we need to make an adjustment to it.

Example of Assimilation
A 2 year old child sees a man who is bald on top of his head and has long frizzy hair on the sides. To his father’s horror, the toddler shouts “Clown, clown” (Sigler et al., 2003).
Example of Accommodation
In the “clown” incident, the boy’s father explained to his son that the man was not a clown and that even though his hair was like a clown’s, he wasn’t wearing a funny costume and wasn’t doing silly things to make people laugh
With this new knowledge, the boy was able to change his schema of “clown” and make this idea fit better to a standard concept of “clown”.
Stages of Development
A child's cognitive development is about a child developing or constructing a mental model of the world.
Imagine what it would be like if you did not have a mental model of your world. It would mean that you would not be able to make so much use of information from your past experience, or to plan future actions.
Jean Piaget was interested both in how children learnt and in how they thought.
Piaget studied children from infancy to adolescence, and carried out many of his own investigations using his three children. He used the following research methods:
Naturalistic observation: Piaget made careful, detailed observations of children. These were mainly his own children and the children of friends. From these he wrote diary descriptions charting their development.
Clinical interviews and observations of older children who were able to understand questions and hold conversations.
Piaget believed that children think differently than adults and stated they go through 4 universal stages of cognitive development. Development is therefore biologically based and changes as the child matures. Cognition therefore develops in all children in the same sequence of stages.
Each child goes through the stages in the same order, and no stage can be missed out - although some individuals may never attain the later stages. There are individual differences in the rate at which children progress through stages.
Piaget did not claim that a particular stage was reached at a certain age - although descriptions of the stages often include an indication of the age at which the average child would reach each stage.
Piaget believed that these stages are universal - i.e. that the same sequence of development occurs in children all over the world, whatever their culture. Stage of Development | Key Feature | Research Study | Sensorimotor
0 - 2 yrs. | Object Permanence | Blanket & Ball Study | Preoperational
2 - 7 yrs. | Egocentrism | Three Mountains | Concrete Operational
7 – 11 yrs. | Conservation | Conservation of Number | Formal Operational
11yrs + | Manipulate ideas in head, e.g. Abstract Reasoning | Pendulum Task |
Educational Implications
Piaget did not explicitly relate his theory to education, although later researchers have explained how features of Piaget's theory can be applied to teaching and learning.
Piaget has been extremely influential in developing educational policy and teaching. For example, a review of primary education by the UK government in 1966 was based strongly on Piaget’s theory. The result of this review led to the publication of the Plowden report (1967).
Discovery learning – the idea that children learn best through doing and actively exploring - was seen as central to the transformation of primary school curriculum.
'The report's recurring themes are individual learning, flexibility in the curriculum, the centrality of play in children's learning, the use of the environment, learning by discovery and the importance of the evaluation of children's progress - teachers should 'not assume that only what is measurable is valuable.'
Because Piaget's theory is based upon biological maturation and stages the notion of 'readiness' important. Readiness concerns when certain information or concepts should be taught. According to Piaget's theory children should not be taught certain concepts until they have reached the appropriate stage cognitive development.
Within the classroom learning should be student centred a accomplished through active discovery learning. The role of the teacher is to facilitate learning, rather than direct tuition. Therefore teachers should encourage the following within the classroom: o Focus on the process of learning, rather than the end product of it. o Using active methods that require rediscovering or reconstructing "truths". o Using collaborative, as well as individual activities (so children can learn from each other). o Devising situations that present useful problems, and create disequilibrium in the child. o Evaluate the level of the child's development, so suitable tasks can be set.
Evaluation of Piaget's Theory
Strengths
* The influence of Piaget’s ideas in developmental psychology has been enormous. He changed how people viewed the child’s world and their methods of studying children. He was an inspiration to many who came after and took up his ideas. Piaget's ideas have generated a huge amount of research which has increased our understanding of cognitive development. * His ideas have been of practical use in understanding and communicating with children, particularly in the field of education (re: Discovery Learning).
Weaknesses
* Are the stages real? Vygotsky and Bruner would rather not talk about stages at all, preferring to see development as continuous. Others have queried the age ranges of the stages. Some studies have shown that progress to the formal operational stage is not guaranteed. For example, Keating (1979) reported that 40-60% of college students fail at formal operation tasks, and Dasen (1994) states that only one-third of adults ever reach the formal operational stage. * Because Piaget concentrated on the universal stages of cognitive development and biological maturation, he failed to consider the effect that the social setting and culture may have on cognitive development (re: Vygotsky). * Piaget’s methods (observation and clinical interviews) are more open to biased interpretation than other methods. Because Piaget conducted the observations alone data collect are based on his own subjective interpretation of events. It would have been more reliable if Piaget conducted the observations with another researcher can compared results afterwards to check if they are similar. * As several studies have shown Piaget underestimated the abilities of children because his tests were sometimes confusing or difficult to understand (e.g. Martin Hughes, 1975). * The concept of schema is incompatible with the theories of Bruner and Vygotsky. Behaviorism would also refute Piaget’s schema theory because is cannot be directly observed as it is an internal process. Therefore, they would claim it cannot be objectively measured. * Piaget carried out his studies with a handful of participants (i.e. small sample size) – and in the early studies he generally used his own children (from Switzerland). This sample is biased, and accordingly the results of these studies cannot be generalized to children from different cultures.
Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development.
As stated above, Vygotsky believed children’s thinking is affected by their knowledge of the social community (which is learnt from either technical or psychological cultural tools). He also suggested that language is the most important tool for gaining this social knowledge; the child can be taught this from other people via language. He defined intelligence as “the capacity to learn from instruction”, which emphasises the fact there is a requirement for a more knowledgable other person or ‘teacher’. He referred to them as just that: the More Knowledgable Other (MKO). MKO’s can be parents, adults, teachers, coaches, experts/professionals – but also things you might not first expect, such as children, friends and computers.
He described something known as the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is a key feature of his theory. There are two levels of attainment for the ZPD: * Level 1 – the ‘present level of development’. This describes what the child is capable of doing without any help from others. * Level 2 – the ‘potential level of development’. This means what the child could potentially be capable of with help from other people or ‘teachers’.
The gap between level 1 and 2 (the present and potential development) is what Vygotsky described as this zone of proximal development. He believed that through help from other, more knowledgable people, the child can potentially gain knowledge already held by them. However, the knowledge must be appropriate for the child’s level of comprehension. Anything that is too complicated for the child to learn that isn’t in their ZPD cannot be learnt at all until there is a shift in the ZPD. When a child does attain their potential, this shift occurs and the child can continue learning more complex, higher level material.

example, a child learning to walk might at first have both their hands held and pulled upwards. As they learn to support their own weight, the mother might hold both their hands loosely. Then she might just hold one hand, then eventually nothing. This progression of different levels of help is scaffolding. It draws parallels from real scaffolding for buildings; it is used as a support for construction of new material (the skill/information to be learnt) and then removed once the building is complete (the skill/information has been learnt).
Woods and Middleton (1975) studied the influence of instruction with their experiment. They provided 3-4 year olds with a puzzle which was beyond their comprehension on their own. The mother then provided different levels of assistance for the child: * L1 – General verbal instruction (“Very good! Now try that again.”) * L2 – Specific verbal instruction (“Get four big blocks”) * L3 – Mother indicates material (“You need this block here”) * L4 – Mother provides material and prepares it for assembly * L5 – Mother demonstrates the operation
After the session, the child was assessed on whether they could construct the pyramid on their own. Results showed that when children were given varied support from mothers (low levels of support when the child was doing well, and high levels when the child struggled) they were able to construct the pyramid on their own. However, when the mother consistently provided the same support, they seemed to make the child conclude the activity was beyond their comprehension and the child soon lost interest in constructing the pyramid. This shows the importance of providing the correct level of scaffolding when teaching a learner.
As a final point, Vygotsky looked at the role of egocentric/private speech. This is, for example, when a child will sit on their own and speak their thoughts out loud as they play. He suggested a child is regulating and planning their behaviour at this point: “Where is the block? I can’t find it. Oh well, I’ll use this block.” He called these ‘monologues’.
By 7 years, these monologues become internalised and the child becomes a “verbal thinker”, which is what most adults can do with no problem. When we are faced with a problem, and we’re alone, we quite often think through the problem – but in our heads. Children before 7 will do this out loud. This verbal thinking forms the basis for higher level, more abstract thinking (planning, reasoning, memorising, evaluating).
Quick summary * Emphasised the role of a teacher in cognitive development, and the need to have support from a More Knowledgable Other, or MKO. * The zone of proximal development, or ZPD, differentiates between a learner’s current development and their potential development when being taught from a MKO. * Scaffolding provides an effective way to reach potential levels of development, but only when different levels of assistance are given when required. * Social and cultural tools are an important means of gaining intelligence. * There is a close link between the acquisition of language and the development of thinking. * Internalising monologues, and therefore becoming a verbal thinker, is a stepping stone to higher levels of thinking.
Vygotsky provided a very influential theory which provided a meaningful social context in the development of learning. The emphasis of cultural knowledge was something unseen in Piaget’s theory. In the next post, I will be evaluating both of the cognitive theories (that of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky) and then comparing and evaluating them against each other.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory of Human Development
The ethological theory focuses on the impact of biology on human behavior, while the ecological theory focuses on the impact that environment plays on the growth and development of an individual. A researcher by the name of Urie Bronfenbrenner theorized that there were five environmental factors that impacted an individual's growth and development; the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem and the chronosystem.
The Microsystem
The microsystem refers to the environment in which an individual lives. This system includes family members, peers, religious communities, neighborhoods and others whom the individual has regular interaction and direct contact with. The microsystem is the system in which an individual encounters the most social interactions. The individual is not simply observing or having things happen to them, but helping to create and construct the experiences they have.
The Mesosystem
The mesosystem is described as the interactions between the microsystems. The mesosystem could include experiences at home related to experiences at school, or experiences at school related to experiences at church. Much like the microsystem, the individual is not simply observing the things happening to them, but are playing an active role in helping create the experiences they have.
The Exosystem
The exosystem is a system in which the individual plays no role in the construction of experiences, but these experiences have a direct impact on the microsystems the individual is part of. An example of an exosystem could include a husband being laid off and this lack of employment having a direct impact on the family's financial state that could affect their day-to-day lifestyle and the stress level in the home.
The Macrosystem
The macrosystem is influenced greatly by the culture and society in which a person lives. The belief systems and ideology of the individual's culture influence the person directly, however, the individual does not necessarily have as much freedom in determining his or her surroundings. Some examples of these influences could include political or religious norms of the culture.
The Chronosystem
The chronosystem reflects the culmulative experiences a person has over the course of their lifetime. These experiences include environmental events, as well as major transitions in life. Some notable transitions include divorce, marriage or the birth of a baby. These transitions are major experiences in an individual's lifetime.
Issue 1: Is Development Active or Reactive?
Are children active in their own development? This controversy goes back to the 18th century. The English philosopher John Locke held that a young child is a tabula rasa —a “blank slate”—on which society “writes.” How the child developed—in either positive or negative ways—depended entirely upon experiences. In contrast, the French philosopher
Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that children are born “noble savages” who develop according to their own positive natural tendencies if not corrupted by society. We now know that both views are too simplistic. Children have their own internal drives and needs that influence development, but children also are social animals who cannot develop optimally in isolation.

Mechanistic Model
The debate over Locke’s and Rousseau’s philosophies led to two contrasting models, or images, of development: mechanistic and organismic. Locke’s view was the forerunner of the mechanistic model. In this model, people are like machines that react to environmental input (Pepper, 1942, 1961). A machine is the sum of its parts. To understand it, we can break it down into its smallest components and then reassemble it.
Machines do not operate of their own volition; they react automatically and passively to physical forces or inputs. Fill a car with gas, turn the ignition key, press the accelerator, and the vehicle will move. In the mechanistic view, human behavior is much the same: it results from the operation of biological parts in response to external or internal stimuli. If we know enough about how the human “machine” is put together and about the forces acting on it, we can predict what the person will do.
Mechanistic research seeks to identify the factors that make people behave as they do. For example, in seeking to explain why some high school students drink too much alcohol, a mechanistic theorist might look for environmental infl uences, such as advertising and whether the student’s friends are heavy drinkers.
Organismic Model
Rousseau was the precursor of the organismic model. This model sees children as active, growing organisms that set their own development in motion (Pepper, 1942, 1961). They initiate events; they do not just react. Thus, the driving force for change is internal.
Environmental infl uences do not cause development, though they can speed or slow it. Because human behavior is viewed as an organic whole, it cannot be predicted by breaking it down into simple responses to environmental stimulation. The meaning of a family relationship, for example, goes beyond what can be learned from studying its individual members and their day-to-day interactions. An organismic theorist, in studying why some high school students drink too much, would be likely to look at what kinds of situations they choose to participate in, and with whom. Do they choose friends who prefer to party or to study?
For organicists, development has an underlying, orderly structure, though it may not be obvious from moment to moment. As a fertilized egg cell develops into an embryo and then into a fetus, it goes through a series of qualitative changes not overtly predictable from what came before. Swellings on the head become eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. The brain begins to coordinate breathing, digestion, and elimination. Sex organs form. Similarly, organicists describe development after birth as a progressive sequence of stages, moving toward full maturation.
Issue 2: Is Development Continuous or Discontinuous?
The mechanistic and organismic models also differ on the second issue: Is development continuous, that is, gradual and incremental, or discontinuous, that is, abrupt or uneven? mechanistic model Model that views human development as a series of predictable responses to stimuli. organismic model Model that,views human development as internally initiated by an active organism, and as occurring in a sequence of qualitatively different stages.

26 Part 1 Entering a Child’s World
Mechanistic theorists see development as continuous, like walking or crawling up a ramp (Figure 2-1a). Development, in mechanistic models, is always governed by the same processes, allowing prediction of earlier behaviors from later ones.
Mechanistic theorists deal with quantitative change —changes in number or amount, such as in height, weight, size of vocabulary, or frequency of communication. A baby who gains 3 pounds in his fi rst 3 months of life experiences a quantitative change.
Quantitative researchers may measure how much or how quickly a child can remember, rather than what memory is or how it operates. Quantitative changes are largely continuous and unidirectional. Children grow in one direction—up.
Organismic theorists emphasize qualitative change —changes in kind, structure, or organization. Qualitative change is discontinuous; it is marked by the emergence of new phenomena that cannot be anticipated easily on the basis of earlier functioning. The change from a nonverbal child to one who understands words and can communicate verbally is a qualitative change.
Organismic theorists see development as occurring in a series of distinct stages, like stair steps (Figure 2-1b). At each stage, children cope with different types of problems and develop different abilities. Each stage builds on the previous one and prepares the way for the next. Organicists see this unfolding structure of development as universal: everyone goes through the same stages in the same order, though the precise timing varies.

Theoretical Perspectives
Theories generally fall within these broad perspectives, each of which focuses on different aspects of development. These perspectives infl uence the questions researchers ask, the methods they use, and the ways they interpret data. Therefore, to evaluate and interpret research, it is important to recognize the theoretical perspective on which it is based.
Five major perspectives underlie much infl uential theory and research on child development:
(1) psychoanalytic, which focuses on unconscious emotions and drives; (2) learning, which studies observable behavior; (3) cognitive, which analyzes thought processes;
(4) contextual, which emphasizes the impact of the historical, social, and cultural context; and (5) evolutionary/sociobiological, which considers evolutionary and biological underpinnings of behavior. Following is a general overview of the basic propositions, methods, and causal emphasis of each of these perspectives and some leading theorists within each perspective. These are summarized in Table 2-1 on page 28–29 and will be referred to throughout this book.

Perspective 1: Psychoanalytic
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), a Viennese physician, originated the psychoanalytic perspective, which views development as shaped by unconscious forces that motivate human behavior. Psychoanalysis, the therapeutic approach Freud developed, seeks to give patients insight into unconscious emotional confl icts by asking them questions designed to summon up long-buried memories. Following is a summary of Freud’s theory of psychosexual development. Other theorists and practitioners, including Erik H. Erikson, whom we discuss next, have expanded and modifi ed Freud’s theory.

Perspective 2: Learning
The learning perspective maintains that development results from learning, a longlasting change in behavior based on experience or adaptation to the environment. Learning theorists are concerned with discovering the objective laws that govern changes in observable behavior. They see development as continuous (not in stages) and emphasize quantitative change.
Learning theorists have helped to make the study of human development more scientifi c by focusing on observable, quantifi able behaviors. Their terms are defi ned precisely, and their theories can be tested in the laboratory. Two important learning theories are behaviorism and social learning (social cognitive) theory.

Learning Theory 1: Behaviorism
Behaviorism is a mechanistic theory, which describes observed behavior as a predictable response to experience. Although biology sets limits on what people do, behaviorists view the environment as much more infl uential. They hold that human beings at all ages learn about the world the same way other organisms do: by reacting to conditions, or aspects of their environment, that they fi nd pleasing, painful, or threatening. Moreover, they argue that learning occurs throughout the lifespan. The processes governing the way you learn to walk are very similar to those governing the emergence of language. Behavioral research focuses on associative learning, in which a mental link is formed between two events.
Two kinds of associative learning are classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Classical Conditioning While studying the role of saliva in dogs’ digestive processes,
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) stumbled upon a phenomenon he labeled
“psychic refl exes.” Pavlov’s dogs were presented with meat powder and then had their saliva collected. He noticed that his dogs began to salivate when they saw their handlers or when they heard clicking noises produced by the device that distributed the meat powder, before the meat powder was even presented. Pavlov tried pairing the meat powder with various stimuli such as the ringing of a bell and the dogs learned to salivate at the sound of a bell. These experiments were the foundation for classical conditioning, in which a response (salivation) to a stimulus (the bell) is elicited after repeated association with a stimulus that normally elicits the response (food).
The American behaviorist John B. Watson (1878–1958) applied stimulus-response theories to children, claiming that he could mold any infant in any way he chose. His writings infl uenced a generation of parents to apply principles of learning theory to child raising. In one of the earliest and most famous demonstrations of classical conditioning in human beings, he taught an 11-month-old baby known as “Little Albert” to fear a furry white rat (Watson & Rayner, 1920).
In this study, Albert was exposed to a loud noise when he started to stroke the rat.
The noise frightened him, and he began to cry. After repeated pairings of the rat with the loud noise, Albert whimpered with fear when he saw the rat. Moreover, Albert also started showing fear responses to white rabbits and cats, and the beards of elderly men.
Although the study had methodological fl aws and would be considered highly unethical today, it did suggest that a baby could be conditioned to fear something he or she had not been afraid of before.
Classical conditioning occurs throughout life. Food preferences may be a result of conditioned learning. Fear responses to objects like a car or a dog may be the result of an accident or a bad experience.
Operant Conditioning Angel lies in his crib. When he starts to babble (“ma-ma-ma”), his mother smiles and repeats the syllables. Angel learns that his behavior (babbling) can produce a desirable consequence (loving attention from a parent), and so he learns to keep babbling to attract his mother’s attention. An originally accidental behavior (babbling) has become a conditioned response.
This type of learning is called operant conditioning because the individual learns from the consequences of “operating” on the environment. Unlike classical conditioning, operant conditioning involves voluntary behavior, such as Angel’s babbling and involves the consequences rather than the predictors of behavior.
The American psychologist B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), who formulated the principles of operant conditioning, worked primarily with rats and pigeons, but Skinner (1938) maintained that these principles apply to human beings as well. He found that an organism will tend to repeat a response that has been reinforced by desirable consequences and will suppress a response that has been punished. Thus, reinforcement is the process by which a behavior is strengthened, increasing the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated. In Angel’s case, his mother’s attention reinforces his babbling. Punishment is the process by which a behavior is weakened, decreasing the likelihood of repetition. If
Angel’s mother frowned when he babbled, he would be less likely to babble again.
Whether a consequence is reinforcing or punishing depends on the person. What is reinforcing for one person may be punishing for another. For a child who likes being alone, being sent to his or her room could be reinforcing rather than punishing.
Reinforcement is most effective when it immediately follows a behavior. If a response is no longer reinforced, it will eventually be extinguished, that is, return to its original
(baseline) level. If, after a while, no one repeats Angel’s babbling, he may babble less often than if his babbles still brought reinforcement.
Behavior modifi cation, or behavior therapy, is a form of operant conditioning used to eliminate undesirable behavior, such as temper tantrums, or to instill desirable behavior, such as putting away toys after play. For example, every time a child puts toys away, she or he gets a reward, such as praise or a treat or new toy. Behavior modifi cation is particularly effective among children with special needs, such as those with mental or emotional disabilities. However, Skinnerian psychology is limited in application because it does not adequately address individual differences, cultural and social infl uences, or other aspects of human development that can be attributed to a combination of factors— not solely learned associations.
Learning Theory 2: Social Learning (Social Cognitive) Theory
The American psychologist Albert Bandura (b. 1925) developed many of the principles of social learning theory. Whereas behaviorists see the environment, acting on the child, as the chief impetus for development, Bandura (1977, 1989; Bandura &
Walters, 1963) suggests that the impetus for development is bidirectional. Bandura called this concept reciprocal determinism —the child acts on the world as the world acts on the child.
Classic social learning theory maintains that people learn appropriate social behavior chiefl y by observing and imitating models—that is, by watching other people, such as parents, teachers, or sports heroes and learning both about what potential behaviors might be, as well as learning about the likely consequences of such behaviors. This process is called observational learning, or modeling (Figure 2-2). People tend to choose models who are prestigious, who control resources, or who are rewarded for what they do—in other words, whose behavior is perceived as valued in their culture. Imitation of models is the most important element in how children learn a language, deal with aggression, develop a moral sense, and learn gender-appropriate behaviors. Observational learning can occur even if a person does not imitate the observed behavior.
Bandura’s (1989) updated version of social learning theory is social cognitive theory. The change of name refl ects a greater emphasis on cognitive processes as central to development. Cognitive processes are at work as people observe models, learn “chunks” of behavior, and mentally put the chunks together into complex new behavior patterns. Rita, for example, imitates the toes-out walk of her dance teacher but models her dance steps after those of Carmen, a slightly more advanced student.
Even so, she develops her own style of dancing by putting her observations together into a new pattern.
Through feedback on their behavior, children gradually form standards for judging their own actions and become more selective in choosing models who exemplify those standards. They also begin to develop a sense of self-effi cacy, the confi dence that they have what it takes to succeed.
Perspective 3: Cognitive
The cognitive perspective focuses on thought processes and the behavior that refl ects those processes. This perspective encompasses both organismic and mechanistically infl uenced theories. It includes Piaget’s cognitive-stage theory and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development. It also includes the information-processing approach and neo-Piagetian theories, which combine elements of information-processing and Piagetian theory.
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive-Stage Theory
Our understanding of how children think owes a great deal to the work of the Swiss theoretician Jean Piaget (1896–1980). Piaget’s cognitive-stage theory was the forerunner of today’s “cognitive revolution” with its emphasis on mental processes. Piaget, a biologist and philosopher by training, viewed development organismically, as the product of children’s efforts to understand and act on their world.
As a young man studying in Paris, Piaget set out to standardize the tests Alfred Binet had developed to assess the intelligence of French schoolchildren. Although his original role was to develop norms for the age at which children could pass particular tasks,
Piaget instead became intrigued by the children’s wrong answers, fi nding in them clues to their thought processes. He realized that children showed specifi c types of logical errors depending on their age.
Piaget’s clinical method combined observation with fl exible questioning. To fi nd out how children think, Piaget followed up their wrong answers with more questions, and then designed tasks to test his tentative conclusions. In this way he discovered that a typical 4-year-old believes that pennies or fl owers are more numerous when arranged in a line than when heaped or piled up. From his observations of his own and other children,
Piaget created a comprehensive theory of cognitive development.
Piaget suggested that cognitive development begins with an inborn ability to adapt to the environment and is initially based on motor activities such as refl exes. By rooting for a nipple, feeling a pebble, or exploring the boundaries of a room, young children develop a more accurate understanding of their surroundings and greater competence in dealing with them. This cognitive growth occurs through three interrelated processes: organization, adaptation, and equilibration.
Organization is the tendency to create categories, such as birds, by observing the characteristics that individual members of a category, such as sparrows and cardinals, have in common.
According to Piaget, people create increasingly complex cognitive structures called schemes, ways of organizing information about the world that govern the way the child thinks and behaves in a particular situation. As children acquire more information, their schemes become more complex. Take sucking, for example.
A newborn infant has a simple scheme for sucking but soon develops varied schemes for how to suck at the breast, a bottle, or a thumb. The infant may have to open her mouth wider, or turn her head to the side, or suck with varying strength.
Adaptation is Piaget’s term for how children handle new information in light of what they already know. Adaptation occurs through two complementary processes: (1) assimilation, taking in new information and incorporating it into existing cognitive structures; and (2) accommodation, adjusting one’s cognitive structures to fi t the new information.
Equilibration —a constant striving for a stable balance, or equilibrium—dictates the shift from assimilation to accommodation.
When children cannot handle new experiences within their existing cognitive structures, they experience an uncomfortable state of disequilibrium. For example, a child knows what birds are and sees a plane for the fi rst time. The child labels the plane a “bird” (assimilation). Over time the child notes differences between planes and birds, which makes her somewhat uneasy (disequilibrium) and motivates her to change her understanding (accommodation) and provide a new label for the plane. She then is at equilibrium. By organizing new mental and behavioral patterns that integrate the new experience, the child restores equilibrium. Thus, assimilation and accommodation work together to produce equilibrium. Throughout life, the quest for equilibrium is the driving force behind cognitive growth.
Piaget described cognitive development as occurring in four qualitatively different stages (listed in Table 2-2 and discussed in detail in later chapters), which represent universal patterns of development. At each stage a child’s mind develops a new way of operating. From infancy through adolescence, mental operations evolve from learning based on simple sensory and motor activity to logical, abstract thought.
Piaget’s observations have yielded much information and some surprising insights.
Piaget has shown us that children’s minds are not miniature adult minds. Knowing how children think makes it easier for parents and teachers to understand and teach them. Piaget’s theory has provided rough benchmarks for what to expect of children at various ages and has helped educators design curricula appropriate to varying levels of development.
Yet Piaget may have seriously underestimated the abilities of infants and young children. Some contemporary psychologists question his distinct stages, pointing instead to evidence that cognitive development is more gradual and continuous (Courage &
Howe, 2002). Research beginning in the late 1960s has challenged Piaget’s idea that thinking develops in a single, universal progression of stages leading to formal thought.
Instead, children’s cognitive processes seem closely tied to specifi c content (what they are thinking about ) as well as to the context of a problem and the kinds of information and thought a culture considers important (Case & Okamoto, 1996). We explore further critiques of Piaget’s work in the chapters that follow.

Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
The Russian psychologist Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896–1934) focused on the social and cultural processes that guide children’s cognitive development. Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory, like Piaget’s theory, stresses children’s active engagement with their environment; but, whereas Piaget described the solo mind taking in and interpreting information about the world, Vygotsky saw cognitive growth as a collaborative process.
Children, said Vygotsky, learn through social interaction. There is no such thing as development without context, and there are as many ways to develop as there are different cultures and different experiences. Children acquire cognitive skills as part of their induction into a way of life. Shared activities help children internalize their society’s modes of thinking and behaving and make those folkways their own. Vygotsky placed special emphasis on language —not merely as an expression of knowledge and thought but as an essential tool for learning and thinking about the world.
According to Vygotsky, adults or more advanced peers must help direct and organize a child’s learning before the child can master and internalize it. This guidance is most effective in helping children cross the zone of proximal development (ZPD), the gap between what they are already able to do and what they could achieve with assistance from another person ( proximal means “nearby”). Children in the ZPD for a particular task can almost, but not quite, perform the task on their own, and it is within this psychological space that most learning occurs. Responsibility for directing and monitoring learning gradually shifts from the adult to the child—much as, when an adult teaches a child to fl oat, the adult fi rst supports the child in the water and then lets go gradually as the child’s body relaxes into a horizontal position.
Some followers of Vygotsky (Wood, 1980; Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976) have applied the metaphor of scaffolds—the temporary platforms on which construction workers stand—to this way of teaching. Scaffolding is the temporary support that parents, teachers, or others give a child in doing a task until the child can do it alone. For example, when a child is learning to fl oat, a parent or teacher supports a child’s back, fi rst with a hand, then with only a fi nger, until the child can fl oat without support.
Vygotsky’s theory has important implications for education and for cognitive testing.
Tests that focus on a child’s potential for learning provide a valuable alternative to standard intelligence tests that assess what the child has already learned, and many children may benefi t from the sort of expert guidance Vygotsky prescribes.