Lifespan Development

Module 2: Developmental Theories

Module Learning Outcomes

Describe the major developmental theories in lifespan development

2.1: Use psychodynamic theories (like those from Freud and Erikson) to explain
development
2.2: Explain key principles of behaviorism and cognitive psychology
2.3: Describe the humanistic, contextual, and evolutionary perspectives of devel
opment
Psychodynamic Theories
Learning Outcomes: Psychodynamic Theories

2.1: Use Psychodynamic Theories to Explain Development

2.1.1: Describe theories as they relate to lifespan development

2.1.2: Describe the historical foundations leading to the development of

theories about lifespan development

2.1.3: Describe Freud's theory of psychosexual development

2.1.4: Describe Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development

Key Concepts in the Scientific Approach

• Theory: a well-developed set of ideas

that propose an explanation for
behavior and events that is used to
make predictions about future
observations

• Hypothesis: a testable prediction that

is arrived at logically from a theory,
often worded as an if-then statement
Areas of Disagreement among Theorists

• Three key issues remain among which developmental theorists often disagree
• Passive versus active: the role of early experiences on later development
versus current behavior reflecting present experiences
• Continuity versus discontinuity: whether or not development is best viewed
as occurring in stages or as a gradual and cumulative process of change
• The nature/nurture debate: the role of heredity and the environment in
shaping human development
History of Developmental Psychology

• The scientific study of children began in the late nineteenth century, and
blossomed in the early twentieth century

• Three early scholars:

• John Locke: proposed that the mind of the newborn as a tabula rasa (“blank
slate”) on which knowledge is written through experience and learning
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau: proposed that development occurs according to
innate processes and progresses through three stages: infancy, childhood, and
adolescence
• Charles Darwin: known for his theory of evolution
Early Scholars in Developmental Psychology

• G. Stanley Hall: established scientific journals for publishing child development

research, first president of the American Psychological Association
• James Mark Baldwin: conducted quantitative and experimental research on
infant development
• John B. Watson: founder of the field of behaviorism
• Sigmund Freud: psychoanalytic approach and model of psychosexual
development
• Arnold Gesell: conducted the first large-scale study of children’s behavior that
revealed consistent patterns of development focused on biological “maturation”
• Jean Piaget: stage theory of cognitive development
Freud’s Psychodynamic Perspective
• Dominated the field of psychiatry until the
growth of behaviorism in the 1930s
• Proposed that personality forms during the first
few years of life
• Proposed that the ways in which parents or other
caregivers interact with children have a long-
lasting impact on children’s emotions, behavior,
and personality
• Suggested the first purely psychological
explanation for physical problems and mental
illness
• Proposed that unconscious motives, desires,
fears, and anxieties drive our actions
Freud’s Theory of Personality
● Three parts to adult personality:
○ Id: includes our instincts and drives, wants
immediate gratification, the pleasure principle
(something is judged good or bad depending on
whether it feels good or bad)
○ Ego: develops during the first three years of
life, the rational part of our personality, the
reality principle (helps the id satisfy its desires
in a realistic way), considered the self
○ Superego: emerges around age five, rule-based,
acts as our conscience
● A strong ego to balance the id and superego ->
healthy personality
● Imbalances -> neurosis or a tendency to experience
negative emotions
Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development
• If we do not have the proper nurturing and parenting during a stage, we will be stuck,
or fixated, in that stage, even as adults

• In each stage, the child’s pleasure-seeking urges, coming from the id, are focused on
a different area of the body, called an erogenous zone

Stage Age (years) Erogenous Zones Major Conflict Adult Fixation Example

Oral 0 to 1 Mouth Weaning off breasts or Smoking, over eating

bottle
Anal 1 to 3 Anus Toilet training Neatness, messiness

Phallic 3 to 6 Genitals Oedipus/Electra Complex Vanity, overambition

Latency 6 to 12 None None None

Genital 12 and older Genitals None None

Stages of Psychosexual Development
• Oral Stage
• Infant meets needs for comfort, warmth, food, and stimulation primarily through
immediate oral gratification

• Psychologically, the infant is all id

• If the caregiver meets oral needs consistently, the child will move away from this
stage and progress further

• Inconsistent or neglectful caregiving can lead to the child becoming fixated in the
oral stage and as an adult this person may engage in eating, drinking, smoking,
nail-biting, or compulsive talking to feel comfort when afraid or insecure
 Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont. I)
• Anal Stage
• The ego is being developed
• Associated with toddlerhood and potty-training
• The child is learning self-control and taught that some urges must be contained
and some actions postponed

• Fixation at this stage

• Anal retentive (fear of letting go) as a result of overly controlling caregiving;
the person might be extremely neat and clean, organized, reliable, and
controlling of others
• Anal expulsive as a result of the caregiver neglecting to teach the child to
control urges; the person might become an adult who is messy, irresponsible,
and disorganized
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont. II)
• Phallic Stage
• preschool years (ages 3-5)
• Oedipus complex: refers to a child’s unconscious sexual desire for the opposite-
sex parent and hatred for the same-sex parent
• Castration anxiety: Freud believed that the boy fears that if he pursues his
mother, his father may castrate him
• Electra complex: refers to a girl’s unconscious attraction for her father, followed
by realizing she cannot compete with her mother, so she gives up that affection
and learns to be more like her mother
• Penis envy: Freud believed that the girl feels inferior because she does not
have a penis
• The formation of the superego occurs during the dissolution of the Oedipus and
Electra complexes
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont. III)
• Latency Stage
• Associated with middle childhood (6-11)

• Attention focused on family and friendships, the biological drives are temporarily
quieted (latent)

• If the child is able to make friends, they will gain a sense of confidence

• If not, the child may continue to be a loner or shy away from others, even as an
adult
Stages of Psychosexual Development (cont. IV)
Genital Stage
• Associated with adolescence throughout adulthood

• A person is preoccupied with sex and reproduction

• The adolescent experiences rising hormone levels and the sex drive and hunger
drives become very strong

• Ideally, according to Freud, the ego is strengthened during this stage and the
adolescent uses reason to manage urges
Practice Question 1

According to Sigmund Freud’s theory, a person’s problematic behavior is based on

_______.

A.being stuck in the developmental task of trust vs. mistrust

B.unconscious motives, fears, and anxieties
C.observational learning without consequences
D.a classically conditioned response
Practice Question 2

According to Sigmund Freud’s theory, an infant smiles because something feels

good and cries because something feels bad because of the _______.

A.Oedipus complex
B.Electra complex
C.reality principle
D.pleasure principle
Defense Mechanisms
• Denial: not accepting the truth or lying to oneself
• Displacement: taking out frustrations on a safer target
• Projection: attributing unacceptable thoughts to others
• Rationalization: involves a cognitive distortion of “the facts” to make an event or an
impulse less threatening
• Reaction formation: outwardly opposing something you inwardly desire, but that
you find unacceptable
• Regression: going back to a time when the world felt like a safer place, perhaps
reverting to one’s childhood behaviors
• Repression: pushing painful thoughts out of consciousness (in other words, thinking
about something else)
• Sublimation: transforming unacceptable urges into more socially acceptable
behaviors
Class Activity: Defense Mechanisms in Everyday Life

1. Get into groups of 3 or 4

2. Identify and share examples of defense mechanisms you observe being used in
everyday life. These examples could come from TV shows, movies, or your own
experience

3. Identify the purpose that the identified defense mechanisms serve

4. Identify how the use of the defense mechanisms might contribute to more
problems (e.g., in thinking, feeling, and relationships)
Assessing the Psychodynamic Perspective
• During Freud’s era in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, there was a climate
of sexual repression, combined with limited understanding and education
surrounding human sexuality, which heavily influenced Freud’s perspective
• Criticisms:
• Very difficult to test scientifically
• Freud’s theory is considered to be sexist
• Freud suggested that much of what determines our actions is unknown to us
(or unconscious)
• Despite the criticisms, Freud’s assumptions about the importance of early
childhood experiences in shaping our psychological selves have found their way
into child development, education, and parenting practices
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
• Erikson, as a student of Freud’s, expanded Freud’s theory of psychosexual
development by emphasizing the importance of culture in parenting practices and
motivations and adding three stages of adult development
• Contrasts with Freud:
• Erikson proposed that an individual’s personality develops throughout the lifespan,
which is a departure from Freud’s view that personality is fixed in early life
• Erikson emphasized the social relationships that are important at each stage of
personality development, in contrast to Freud’s emphasis on erogenous zones
• Erikson identified eight stages, each of which includes a conflict or developmental
task.
• The development of a healthy personality and a sense of competence depend on the
successful completion of each task
Psychosocial Stages of Development
Major psychosocial tasks to accomplish or crises to overcome (with defining virtues
in parentheses)
• Trust vs. Mistrust (Hope): From birth to 12 months of age, infants must learn that
adults can be trusted
• Autonomy vs. Shame (Will): Toddlers (ages 1–3 years) explore their world and
learn that they can control their actions and act on their environment to get results
• Initiative vs. Guilt (Purpose): Preschoolers (ages 3–6 years) are capable of initiating
activities and asserting control over their world through social interactions and play
• Industry vs. Inferiority (Competence): Elementary school children (ages 7–12)
either develop a sense of pride and accomplishment in their schoolwork, sports,
social activities, and family life, or they feel inferior and inadequate because they
believe they do not measure up
Psychosocial Stages of Development (cont.)
Major psychosocial tasks to accomplish or crises to overcome (with defining virtues
in parentheses)
• Identity vs. Role Confusion (Fidelity): Adolescents’ (ages 12–18) main task is
developing a sense of self; they explore various roles and ideas, set goals, and
attempt to discover their adult selves
• Intimacy vs. Isolation (Love): People in early adulthood (20s through early 40s) are
concerned with developing and maintaining successful relationships with others
• Generativity vs. Stagnation (Care): People in middle adulthood (40s to the mid-
60s) are concerned with finding their life’s work and contributing to the development
of others
• Integrity vs. Despair (Wisdom): People in late adulthood (mid-60s to the end of
life) are concerned with reflecting on their lives and feeling either a sense of pride
and satisfaction or a sense of regret and failure
Assessing Erikson’s Theory

• Strength
• View that development continues throughout the lifespan

• Weaknesses
• Stages or crises can occur more than once or at different times of life
• Focuses heavily on stages and assumes that the completion of one stage is a
prerequisite for the next stage of development
• Focuses on the social expectations that are found in certain cultures, but not in all
• Focuses on more men than women
• Difficult to test rigorously because of its vagueness
Practice Question 3

According to Erikson’s theory, children either develop a sense of competence, pride,

and accomplishment or a sense of inadequacy during which stage of psychosocial
development?

A.Autonomy versus Shame

B.Initiative versus Guilt
C.Industry versus Inferiority
D.Identity versus Role Confusion
Behaviorism and Cognitive Psychology
Learning Outcomes: Behaviorism and Cognitive Psychology

2.2: Explain key principles of behaviorism and cognitive psychology

2.2.1: Describe the principles of classical conditioning

2.2.2: Describe the principles of operant conditioning

2.2.3: Describe social learning theory

2.2.4: Describe Piaget's theory of cognitive development

2.2.5: Describe information processing approaches to cognitive development

The Behavioral Perspective

• Behaviorism emerged early in the 20th century

• The keys to understanding development are observable behavior and external

stimuli in the environment

• Behaviorism refers to theories of learning that focus on how we respond to

events or stimuli rather than emphasizing internal factors (e.g., mind or
consciousness) that motivate our actions

• Through the scientific study of behavior, it was hoped that laws of learning could
be derived that would promote the prediction and control of behavior
Classical Conditioning

● Associated with Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist

studying digestion

● Classical conditioning helps us understand how our

responses to one situation become attached or
connected to new situations

● Classical conditioning explains how we develop

many of our emotional responses to people or events
or our “gut level” reactions to situations
Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Experiments

Before Conditioning:
Unconditioned stimulus (food) produces an
unconditioned response (salivation)
During Conditioning: Neutral stimulus (bell) is
presented just before the unconditioned stimulus
(food)
After Conditioning: the neutral stimulus
becomes a conditioned stimulus (bell) when
presented alone and now produces a conditioned
response (salivation)
John B. Watson and Behaviorism

• Established the psychological school of behaviorism

• Known for applying classical conditioning principles to human behavior
• Believed that most of our fears and other emotional responses are classically
conditioned
• Believed that parents could be taught to help shape their children’s behavior
• Tried to demonstrate the power of classical conditioning with his famous
experiment with an 18-month-old boy named “Little Albert,” who he
conditioned to fear a white rat (which the child did not initially fear)
Operant Conditioning

● Associated with B.F. Skinner, who sought to explain how new behaviors are
learned, not just how existing behaviors are reflexively elicited (as in classical
conditioning)

● Behavior is motivated by the consequences we receive for the behavior: the

reinforcements and punishments

● In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a behavior and its consequence;

behaviors are either strengthened or weakened because of their consequences
The Law of Effect

• Skinner based his ideas on the law of effect, first proposed by psychologist
Edward Thorndike
• Behaviors followed by consequences that are satisfying are more likely to
be repeated
• Behaviors followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated
• Skinner believed that we learn best when our actions are reinforced
• A reinforcer is anything following a behavior that makes it more likely to
occur again I
• Intrinsic or primary reinforcers (e.g., food or praise)
• Secondary reinforcers (e.g., money, which can be exchanged for what one
really wants)
The Skinner Box
• Skinner conducted scientific experiments on animals (mainly rats and pigeons) to
determine how organisms learn through operant conditioning
• He placed the animals inside an operant conditioning chamber, also known as a
“Skinner box”
• A Skinner box contains a lever (for rats) or disk (for pigeons) that the animal can
press or peck for a food reward via the dispenser
Social Cognitive Theory

• Associated with Albert Bandura

• Originally known as Social Learning Theory, developed in the 1960s
• Proposes that learning occurs in a social context through a dynamic and reciprocal
interaction of the person, their own behavior, and the environment
• Reciprocal determinism: the interplay between our personality and the way we
interpret events and how they influence us
• Observational learning: individuals can learn novel responses by watching the
key behavior of others, referred to as social models
• Social models are typically of higher status or authority compared to the observer,
such as parents and teachers
Observational Learning Process

• The observational learning process consists of four parts

• Attention: one must pay attention to what they are observing in order to learn
• Retention: to learn one must be able to retain the behavior they are observing in
memory
• Initiation: the learner must be able to execute (or initiate) the learned behavior
• Motivation: needed to engage in observational learning
• Consequences can play a role in observational learning
• Vicarious reinforcement occurs when people’s behavior is influenced by
observing social models receive reinforcement or punishment
Practice Question 4

Which form of learning occurs when a voluntary response is strengthened or

weakened by its association with positive or negative consequences that occur soon
after the response?

A. Classical conditioning
B. Operant conditioning
C. Observational learning
D. Psychosocial learning
Practice Question 5

Which behavioral theory proposes that we learn new responses by observing others
model the behavior?

A. Social Cognitive Theory

B. Operant conditioning
C. Classical Conditioning
D. Psychosocial Theory
The Cognitive Perspective

• Cognitive theories focus on how our mental processes or cognitions change over
time
• Jean Piaget developed the theory of cognitive development (a stage theory) as a
comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence
• Making sense of the world
• When faced with something new, a child may either fit it into an existing
framework (schema) and match it with something known (assimilation) or
expand the schema to accommodate the new situation (accommodation) by
learning new words and concepts
• The underlying dynamic of cognition: determine whether new information
fits into our old way of thinking or whether we need to modify our thoughts
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development: Sensorimotor
A series of four stages approximately associated with age ranges

1. Sensorimotor (from birth to about 2 years old)

• Children learn through their senses and motor behavior
• Object permanence: the understanding that even if something is out of sight, it
still exists, develops between 5 and 8 months old
• Stranger anxiety: a fear of unfamiliar people
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development: Preoperational
A series of four stages approximately associated with age ranges

2. Preoperational (from about 2 to 7 years old)

• Children can use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas and engage in
pretend play
• Children begin to use language, but they cannot understand adult logic or
mentally manipulate information
• Preoperational children have not developed conservation: even if you change the
appearance of something, it is still equal in size as long as nothing has been
removed or added
• Egocentrism: the child is not able to take the perspective of others
• Theory-of-mind: understanding that people have thoughts, feelings, and beliefs
that are different from one’s own, usually develops between 3 to 5 years old
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development: Concrete
Operational
A series of four stages approximately associated with age ranges

3. Concrete Operational (from about 7 to 11 years old)

• Children can think logically about real (concrete) events
• They have a firm grasp on the use of numbers and start to employ memory
strategies
• Children also master the concept of conservation and understand that even if
something changes shape, its mass, volume, and number stay the same
• Children understand the principle of reversibility: objects can be changed and
then returned back to their original form or condition
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development: Formal
Operational
A series of four stages approximately associated with age ranges

4. Formal Operational (from about age 11 to adulthood)

• Children can deal with abstract ideas and hypothetical situations
• Children can use abstract thinking to problem solve, look at alternative
solutions, and test these solutions
• A renewed egocentrism occurs in adolescence
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Criticisms
• Newer research supports a model of development that is more continuous than
Piaget’s discrete stages
• Other research suggests that children reach cognitive milestones earlier than Piaget
describes
• Across cultures, there is considerable variation in what children are able to do at
various ages, and Piaget may have underestimated what children are capable of
given the right circumstances
• Many developmental psychologists suggest a fifth stage of cognitive development,
known as the postformal stage wherein decisions are made based on
circumstances, and logic is integrated with emotion as adults develop principles that
depend on contexts
• Postformal thinkers are able to draw on past experiences to help them solve
new problems
Information Processing Approaches to Development

• Considered an alternative to Piagetian approaches

• Emphasizes a continuous pattern of development
• We do not just respond to stimuli, we process the information we receive
• The model assumes that complex behavior can be broken down into a series of specific
steps, and as we develop strategies for processing information, we can learn more
complex information

• Standard information-processing model includes:

• Attention mechanisms for bringing information in
• Working memory for actively manipulating information
• Long-term memory for passively holding information so that it can be used in the
future
Neo-Piagetian Theories

• View cognition as a made up of different types of individual skills, rather than

a single system of increasingly sophisticated general cognitive abilities
• Use the same terminology as information processing approaches
• Cognitive development proceeds quickly in certain areas and more slowly in
others
• Experience plays a greater role in furthering cognitive development than
traditional Piagetian approaches claim
• Adopted principles from other theories, such as social-cognitive theory, that
allow them to consider how culture and interactions with others influenced
cognitive development
Cognitive Neuroscience Approaches

• Cognitive neuroscience: the scientific field that studies the biological processes
that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections and
activity in the brain that are involved in mental processes (e.g., problem solving)
• Cognitive neuroscientists seek to identify actual locations and functions within
the brain that are related to different types of cognitive activities
• Developmental cognitive neuroscience: examines interrelations between brain
changes and changes in cognitive ability as children grow up, as well as
environmental and biological influences on the developing mind and brain
Practice Question 6

_______ is the understanding that even if something is out of sight, it still exists.

A. Conservation
B. Object permanence
C. Reversibility
D. Theory-of-mind
Humanistic, Contextual, and
Evolutionary Perspectives
Learning Outcomes: Humanistic, Contextual, and Evolutionary
Perspectives
2.3: Describe the humanistic, contextual, and evolutionary perspectives of
development

2.3.1: Describe the major concepts of humanistic theory as developed by Carl

Rogers
2.3.2: Explain Maslow's hierarchy of needs
2.3.3: Describe Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of cognitive development
2.3.4: Explain Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model
2.3.5: Describe the evolutionary perspective
2.3.6: Contrast the main psychological theories that apply to human
development
Carl Rogers and Humanism
• Rogers’ emphasized the importance of the self-actualizing tendency in shaping
personality
• Humans are constantly reacting to stimuli with their subjective reality (phenomenal
field), which changes continuously
• Over time, a person develops a self-concept (i.e., our thoughts and feelings about
ourselves) based on feedback from this field of reality
• Ideal self: the person that you would like to be
• Real self: the person you actually are
Carl Rogers and Humanism (cont.)
• Human beings develop an ideal self and a real self based on the conditional status of
positive regard

• Congruity: how closely one’s real self matches up with the ideal self
• Our self-concept is accurate when we experience congruence
• High congruence leads to a greater sense of self-worth and a healthy, productive
life
• Incongruence: when there is a great discrepancy between our ideal and actual
selves, which leads to maladjustment

• According to Rogers, parents can help their children achieve their ideal self by giving
them unconditional positive regard or unconditional love in an environment that is
free of preconceived notions of value and worth
Carl Rogers and The Good Life
Rogers described life in terms of principles rather than stages of development
The good life: when a fully functioning person continually aims to fulfill their potential
and demonstrate the following traits/tendencies:
• Openness to experience
• Existential lifestyle: living each moment fully
• Trusting one’s own judgment
• Freedom of choice
• High levels of creativity
• Reliability and constructiveness
• A rich full life: experiencing joy and pain, love and heartbreak, fear and courage
more intensely
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Abraham Maslow: an American

psychologist best known for
proposing that a hierarchy of
human needs motivates behavior
• The most basic needs must be
met before people become
motivated to achieve higher
level needs
• The goal in Maslow’s theory is to
attain self-actualization
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory: A Contextual Perspective

• Contextual perspective: considers the relationships

between individuals and the physical, cognitive,
personality, social, cultural, and environmental
influences on development

• Vygotsky believed that social interaction plays a

critical role in children’s learning
 Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory:
A Contextual Perspective (cont.)
Three themes in Vygotsky’s ideas of sociocultural learning:
1. Human development and learning originate in social, historical, and cultural
interactions
• Guided participation: a learner actively acquires new culturally valuable
skills and capabilities through a meaningful, collaborative activity with an
assisting, more experienced person
• Scaffolding: teachers model or demonstrate how to solve a problem, and then
step back, offering support as needed
2. Use of psychological tools, particularly language, mediate development of higher
mental functions
3. Learning occurs within the Zone of Proximal Development, the difference between
what a learner can do without help and what they cannot do
 Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological
Systems Theory
• Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory:
the qualities of a child and their environment
interact to influence how they will grow and
develop
• Ecological = a natural environment
• Stresses the importance of studying a child in
the context of multiple environments
• Renamed the theory the bioecological model to
recognize the importance of biological
processes in development
• Chronosystem: the relevant historical context
and timeframe in which all development occurs
The Evolutionary Perspective

• The evolutionary perspective seeks to identify behavior that is the result of our
genetic inheritance from our ancestors
• Evolutionary psychology: a theoretical approach in the social and natural
sciences that examines psychological structure from a modern evolutionary
perspective
• It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations
or the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection in human
evolution
• Evolutionary approaches claim that genetic inheritance not only determines
physical traits such as skin and eye color, but also certain personality traits and
social behaviors
Behavioral Genetics

• Behavioral genetics: a field of scientific research that uses genetic methods to

investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in behavior and
studies the effects of heredity on behavior
• Behavioral geneticists strive to understand how we might inherit certain
behavioral traits and how the environment influences whether we actually
display those traits
• It also considers how genetic factors may influence psychological disorders such
as schizophrenia, depression, and substance abuse
Evaluating Lifespan Theories

• Developmental theories provide a set of guiding principles and concepts that

describe and explain human development

• Theories are based on their own premises and focus on different aspects of
development (e.g., a particular ability or development across the lifespan)

• Many lifespan developmentalists use an eclectic approach, drawing on several

perspectives simultaneously since the same developmental phenomenon can be
viewed from a number of perspectives
Practice Question 7

According to Vygotsky, this gap between what a student can and cannot do without
help is referred to as _______.

A. the zone of proximal development

B. the theory of mind
C. guided participation
D. scaffolding
Practice Question 8

Which theory stresses the importance of studying a child in the context of multiple
environments?

A. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

B. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
C. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model
D. Rogers’ humanistic theory
Class Activity: Ecological Systems in Real Life

1. Get into groups of 3 or 4

2. Select a biographical movie (e.g., The Social Network, Hidden Figures, Frida)
or autobiography and describe the influences on the main character’s
development according to Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model
3. Consider the following:
• Microsystem: parents and siblings with direct, significant impact
• Mesosystem: schools, extended family, religion
• Exosystem: community values, history, economy
• Macrosystem: cultural elements, global economic conditions, war,
technology trends
• Chronosystem: larger historical context and timeframe
4. Share your summary with the class
Quick Review
What are the historical foundations of lifespan development theories?
What is Freud’s theory of personality, including the three parts of adult personality?
What is Freud’s theory of psychosexual development?
What are defense mechanisms?
What are criticisms of Freud’s psychodynamic perspective?
What is Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development?
What is classical conditioning? What is operant conditioning?
What are social cognitive theory and observational learning?
What are Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?
What is the information processing approach to development?
What is the cognitive neuroscience approach to development?
What are the humanistic approaches to development (Rogers and Maslow)?
What is the contextual perspective, and what is Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory?
What is Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory?
Describe the evolutionary approach to development and behavioral genetics.