Note: Descriptions derived from Life-Span Human Development by Carol K. Sigelman and David R. Shaffer.
» Darwin's
Theory of Evolution
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) believed that young,
untrained infants share many characteristics with their nonhuman ancestors
and that observing child development might provide insights into the evolutionary
history of the human species.
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» Freud's
Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) challenged prevailing
notions of human nature and human development by proposing that we are
driven by motives and emotions on which we are largely unaware and that
we are shaped by our earliest experiences in life.
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» Erikson's
Theory of Psychosocial Development
Erik Erikson (1902- ) revised Freud's theory
by placing more emphasis on social influences, developing stares with a
broader focus, emphasizing the ego, expressing a more positive view of
human nature, and applying the theory across the entire life span.
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» Piaget's
Cognitive Developmental Theory
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) viewed intelligence as
a process that helps an organism adapt to its environment and proposed
four major periods of cognitive development.
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» Behaviorism
John B. Watson believed that conclusions about
human development and functioning should be based on observations of overt
behavior rather than on speculations about unconscious motives or cognitive
processes that remain unobservable.
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» Skinner's
Operant Conditioning Theory
B. F. Skinner belived that the essence of human
development is the continual acquitsition of new habits of behavior and
that these learned behaviors are controlled by external stimuli (reinforcers
and punishers).
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» Bandura's
Social Cognitive Theory
Albert Bandura claimed that humans are cognitive
beings whose active processing of information from the environment plays
a major role in learning and human develpment.
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» Vygotsky's
Cognitive Theory
Lev Vygotsky insisted that children's minds are
shaped by the particular social and historical context in which they live
and by their interactions with adults.
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» Information
Processing Theory
The information proccessing approach to humban
development emphasizes the fundamental mental processes involved in attention,
perception, memory, and decision making by using a computer analogy.
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» Biobehavioral
Theories
These theories look to investigate the extent
to which genetic and environmental differences among people or animals
are responsible for differences in their traits.
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» Bowlby's
Attachment Theory
John Bowlby believed that many invant behaviors
that promote emotional attachments have evolved because they make it more
likely that the invant will be cared for by adults and will therefore survive.
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» Cross-Cultural
Theories
This perspective looks to find the typical rather
than the unique and look for the underlying similarities among cultures
in order to define universal occurrences.
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» Bronfenbrenner's
Ecological Theory of Development
Urie Bronfenbrenner emphasized that the developing
person is embedded in a series of environmental systems that interact with
one another and with the individual to influence development.
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» Contextual
Theories
These perspectives hold that development arises
from the ongoing interrelationships between the changing
organism and a
changing world. Changes in the person produce
changes in his or her environment, changes in the environment produce changes
in the person, and this interchange goes on continuously.
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» Risk
and Resiliency Theories
These theories investigate the survival of individuals
(resiliency) that are faced with adversity (risk).
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