DevPsych Theories - Report
DevPsych Theories - Report
DevPsych Theories - Report
Developmental
Psychology
Developmental Theorie
Social/Emotional
Cognitive Domain Domain
Domains of Development
Social/Emotional Domain:
Physical Domain: self-knowledge (self-esteem, metacognition,
body size, body proportions, appearance, sexual identity, ethnic identity), moral
brain development, motor development, reasoning, understanding and expression of
perception capacities, physical health. emotions, self-regulation, temperament,
understanding others, interpersonal skills,
Cognitive Domain: and friendships.
thought processes and intellectual abilities
including attention, memory, problem solving,
imagination, creativity, academic and everyday
knowledge, metacognition, and language.
THEORIES
What is a theory?
Orderly set of ideas which describe,
explain, and predict behavior.
Though people criticized Maslow’s theory for lacking rigor, his big idea continues to
guide parents: a child who is cherished will always stand the best chance in life.
Carl Rogers
He developed the idea that the “core of
human nature is positive”(Pesittelli, 1996)
which influenced his theory of personality
There are three parts to Rogers’
Development of the self: positive regard,
conditions of worth, and incongruence.
According to Rogers, during the positive regard stage of development,
children seek for love, approval and acceptance from others especially their
mothers. Rogers believe that when the positive regard is unconditional, mothers
love and approval are freely granted not conditional on the child’s behavior.
However, when it is conditional, we receive love and approval for our positive
behavior. Once we receive it from others, we form positive regards for ourselves.
Rogers’ stage of conditions of worth is similar to Freud’s idea of super-ego.
During this stage, we see ourselves as worthy only under the conditions that are
acceptable to our parents. We avoid behaviors or conditions that are not
acceptable to our parents. Last but not least, incongruence is the last stage in
which incongruence is developed between the self-concept and behavior which
threatens our self-image.
Cognitive Theories
Beliefs that describe how children
learn; concerned with the
development of a person's
thought processes.
Children "construct" their understanding of
the world through their active involvement
and interactions.
Piaget proposed an idea that seems
obvious now that “Children think differently
than adults.”
Studied his 3 children to focus not on what
they knew but how they knew it.
Jean Piaget
Described children’s understanding as their
"schemas” and how they use:
o assimilation
o accommodation
Sensori-motor
Ages birth - 2: the infant uses his senses and motor
Piaget’s abilities to understand the world
Pre-operation
Cognitive
Ages 2-7: the child uses metal representations of
objects and is able to use symbolic thought and
Developmenlanguage