Cognition and Development

Social DevelopmentDr Simon Bignell

Simon Bignell, N208

s.bignell@derby.ac.uk1

Learning Outcomes

Following this session and with independent study, you should:

• Understand what is meant by social development.

• Outline at least two theories of social development.

• Evaluate the merits of at least one theory of social development.

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What is social development?

An account of how children’s development may be influenced by other people, the environment and institutions around them (Siegler, Deloache &

Eisenberg, 2006, p.335).

Environment may be the immediate surroundings while institution may be cultural & societal/wider context of social development.

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What is social development?Theories of Psycho-Social Development.

• Freud’s Psychosexual Development• Erikson’s Epigenetic Theory

Psycho-analytic Theories

• Watson’s Behaviourism• Skinner’s Operant Conditioning• Bandura’s Social Learning

Learning Theories

• Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological model Ecological Theory

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Psychoanalytic Theories:Sigmund FreudErik Erikson

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Reasoned that a child’s early experiences had a profound influence in later life.

Further reasoned that children developed through universal developmental stages.

Developed the Psychosexual theory of human development.

Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)

Freud’s theory of psychosexual development - Psychodynamic Theory

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Psychosexual Theory: Basic assumption

The basic assumption is that human beings are motivated by powerful innate forces known as instincts or drives.

Instincts or drives energise and direct all human psychic and physical activities.

Libido is the collective term for the psychic energy that motivates behaviour (libido is NOT simply sex drive).

Libido & the Psychosexual Theory

For Freud the Psychosexual Theory denotes that psychic energy (libido) is biological.

Libido is fused throughout the body’s erogenous zones (e.g. the mouth, the genitals and the anus).

At different stages of the psychosexual development the psychic energy (libido) is infused into the respective erogenous zone as it becomes sensitive.

Biological and psychological instincts and drives are present at birth in the form of hunger and discomfort, for example, and these drives are housed in the ID.

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Freud’s Developmental Dynamics

Ego develops some 6-8 months after birth (Reality Principle).

Superego develops (between 3-5 years) and becomes the introjected moral principle.

ID operates on the ‘pleasure principle’ (gain pleasure and avoid displeasure). Seeks instant gratification of its drives or needs.

9 ID, Ego and Superego constitute Freudian

personality structure with amazing dynamics.

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Probably the father of psychosocial development debate.

Developed psychosocial development theory based on his own life + the Native American Oglala Lakota Tribe.

Established 8 psychosocial stages of development.

Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development - Epigenetic Theory

Erik Erikson (1902-1994)

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Erikson’s Epigenetic Principle

Erikson used epigenetic (upon emergence) principle to denote the emerging tasks of each of the 8 stages.

Each stage is seen as a bipolar task (A vs B) where A has to be achieved to avoid B.

Thus the individual must achieve/resolve stage tasks in order to move to the next stage.

Inability to resolve a conflict at a particular stage may mean “struggle” in later stages.

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An evaluation of Psychoanalytic theories

• Psychoanalytic theories have been highly influential within psychology.

• Freud and Erikson’s work highlights the importance of attending to infant’s early experiences and their relationships with key figures in their lives.

• Freud’s work in particular influenced Bowlby when he was creating his theory of attachment.

• Erikson’s theory provided the basis for a number of studies looking a adolescence. However psychoanalytic theories can be criticised for being vague and untestable.

• The foundations of Freud’s theory in particular have been brought into question.

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Learning Theory:Watson’s Behaviourism.Skinner’s Operant Conditioning.Bandura’s Social Learning Theory.

• John Locke reasoned that there are no ideas stamped upon our minds at birth: thus at birth the mind is a blank slate ‘Tabula Rasa’.

• All human knowledge has been shaped by experience.

• Experience is a major factor in the psycho-social development of the person.

John Locke

(1632-1704)

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Watson’s Behaviourism.• Development is entirely shaped the by

child’s environment.

• Children learn through conditioning and as such psychologists should only study observerable behaviour and not the mind.

• Watson and Rayner (1920) demonstrated the principle of conditioning in their ‘Little Albert’ experiment.

• 9 month-old showed no fear of a rat. • Showed the rat to baby on a number of

occasions with a loud crashing noise. • The pairing of the rat and the crashing

noise conditioned Albert to become afraid of the rat.

• Watson suggested that this was proof that things such as fears are not instinctual – they are learned.

John Watson(1878-1958)

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Skinner’s Operant Conditioning.

• Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which an individual's behaviour is modified by its consequence.

• He argued that children learn through operant conditioning where good behvaiours are rewarded and bad behaviours are punished.

• Skinner’s theory has been used to good effect to control children’s bad behaviour.

• For example children behave badly to get attention – therefore attention is a reinforcer – the more attention the child gets the more they will engage in the bad behaviour. To overcome this bad behaviour should be ignored and not reinforced with attention.

• This technique has been adapted to create time out where the child spends time in isolation to calm down when they have been misbehaving.

Burrhus Skinner ‘B.F. Skinner’(1904-1990)

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Bandura’s Social Learning Theory.• He argued that children learn

through observing others and that reinforcement can be used to increase the chances of a child imitating an observed behaviour.

• Bandura’s (1963) ‘Bobo doll’ experiment supported this argument.• Preschool children watched a

video of an adult being violent and aggressive towards a plastic doll.

• Children were then shown one of three possible endings and observed to see how many times they imitated what they had seen the adult do.

Albert Bandura (1925-)

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Reward Punish None0

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BoysGirls

IV: 3 Video Endings (Conditions)

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Bandura’s ‘Bobo Doll’ Experiment

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An evaluation of Learning theories • In contrast to psychoanalytic approaches Watson, Skinner and Bandura’s

theories are supported with and grounded in empirical research.

• Watson and Skinner’s research still has practical implications today as systematic desensitization and operant conditioning are used in clinical settings to help people overcome phobias or for behaviour modification.

• Bandura’s research also has practical implications and has contributed to our understanding of children’s behaviour (e.g. how children learn from significant role models and the influence of media such as TV and video games).

 • However, Watson and Skinners approach has been critiqued for being too

simplistic and the social learning approach as been criticised for not attending to the biological drives of the child and their cognitive processes.

• Later in his career Bandura did attend to the role of cognition in learning suggesting that successful learning also depended on the child ability to attend to what they were observing and then encode, store and retrieve that information. Despite this addition to his theory Bandura still presented learning as a largely social process.

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Ecological theory:Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological model

A number of different systems which act together to shape the child’s development.

Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005)

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Ecological theory:Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological model

He delineates four types of nested systems.

He calls these:

• Microsystem (such as the family or classroom);• Mesosystem (which is two microsystems in interaction);• Exosystem (external environments which indirectly

influence development, e.g., parental workplace);• Macrosystem (the larger socio-cultural context).

He later adds a fifth system, called the Chronosystem (the evolution of the four other systems over time).

aka: Ecological Systems Theory

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An evaluation of Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological model.

• Bronfenbrenner (1979) believed that children’s development is shaped by interaction between a complex number of interconnected systems. Therefore this theory places development in a much broader context than the other theories we have considered.

• Furthermore, this theory has provided valuable insights into important issues such as child neglect, the influence of the media on children and social economic status and development.

• However, Bronfenbrenner has been criticised for not attending to specific biological factors which shape development.

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Summary

• This section has examined and briefly evaluated three approaches to social development

• Psychoanalytic theory. • Learning theory.• Ecological theory.

• Each of these theories examines how the child’s experiences with their environment and social interaction shape their development.

• However, each theory places a different emphasis on the role of the wider environment or the child’s biological drives.

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Recommended reading

Bukatko, D. & Daehler, M (2001). Child Development: a thematic approach. Houghton Mifflin: Boston.

Ewen, R. (1993). Introduction to theories of personality. 4th edition. Lawrence Erlbraum: London.

Siegler, R., Deloache, J. & Eisenberg, N. (2006). How children develop 2nd edition. Worth Publishers: London.