Basic Summary Of Child Development Theories
Basic Summary Of Child Development Theories
The transformations involved in the twenty years or so it takes an infant to become an adult are complex and endlessly fascinating. Some of them make sense and others are completely baffling to the observer. People have been trying to make sense out of this for as long as they have tried to make sense out of anything. Following is a brief look at some of the major child development theories.
Freud explained a lot of human psychology in sexual terms. He thought that even infants and children were obsessed with sex. He claimed that the focus shifted with age. His terms for the phases are widely known: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Most current psychologists think that children have much less interest in sex. It is also thought that he didn’t give enough attention to female development.
It is a truism that people are affected by their environments. Ecological systems theory works at studying this systematically. It analyzes the world of the child as multiple environments. The innermost layer is the micro system. This would cover the neighborhood, school, and family. The larger society is referred to as the macro system. This consists of not only the culture, but the level of prosperity and other factors. Things that change are part of the chrono system. For a child, this could include the birth of a new sibling, or an older sibling leaving home. The theory also considers the interactions between these environments. It has increased our understanding of the relationship between children and their environments.
Jean Piaget used developmental stages as the basis for his theory of cognitive development. The essence of this theory is that there are discrete stages that comprise the growth of thinking ability. Normal humans almost always go through the same stages in the same order. The first, or sensorimotor stage, is based on direct contact with things of interest. The formal operation stage is the last. A person reaching that stage is ready to think like an adult.
The significance of interpersonal relationships to the growth of children is the focus of attachment theory. It claims that a good relationship with one or more caregivers is essential for a child to reach its potential as an adult. It has been able to influence the design of successful treatments of children’s developmental problems.
Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development proposes eight stages covering an entire human lifetime. The first five stages cover learning and growth up to adulthood. Each stage is viewed as a crisis that should be resolved for growth to continue. For example, the will stage, which applies to two and three years old, is about the person’s ability to act autonomously.
Behaviorism was a dominant force for a major portion of the twentieth century, and is still significant today. It advocates looking at measurable and observable behavior, rather than speculating on what is going on inside. More recent developments have backed away from this somewhat extreme position. It has been used to gain some insights into child development.
Even with all these theories, children can still be mysterious. This is not to deny that there has been progress. Psychology understands a lot more than it did a century ago. Hopefully this progress will continue.
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