The top 7 developmental psychology theories that are available for the child are to be outlined in this content for their usefulness as well as their effective influence on the class, the home, and every other community with inclinations to assist the inexperienced, including the child, to improve.
Generally, development is crucial to every human venture or enterprise. Even the human body feeds on its essence so much as the brain.
Developmental psychology focuses on explaining how children change and grow over the course of childhood. These developmental theories center on various aspects of growth, including social, emotional, and cognitive development. The study of human development is a rich and varied subject.
Child development that occurs from birth to adulthood was largely ignored throughout much of human history. Children were often viewed simply as small versions of adults and little attention was paid to the many advances in cognitive abilities, language usage, and physical growth that occur during childhood and adolescence.
1. Behavioral Child Development Theories
According to the behavioral perspective, all human behavior can be described in terms of environmental influences. Some behaviorists, such as John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, insisted that learning occurs purely through processes of association and reinforcement.
Behavioral theories of child development focus on how environmental interaction influences behavior and is based on the theories of theorists such as John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner. These theories deal only with observable behaviors. Development is considered a reaction to rewards, punishments, stimuli, and reinforcement.
2. Freud’s Psychosexual Developmental Theory
Psychoanalytic theory originated with the work of Sigmund Freud. Through his clinical work with patients suffering from mental illness, Freud came to believe that childhood experiences and unconscious desires influenced behavior. According to Freud’s psychosexual theory, child development occurs in a series of stages focused on different pleasure areas of the body. During each stage, the child encounters conflicts that play a significant role in the course of development.
His theory suggested that the energy of the libido was focused on different erogenous zones at specific stages. Failure to progress through a stage can result in fixation at that point in development, which Freud believed could have an influence on adult behavior. While some other child development theories suggest that personality continues to change and grow over the entire lifetime, Freud believed that it was early experiences that played the greatest role in shaping development.
3. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Lev Vygotsky proposed a seminal learning theory that has gone on to become very influential, especially in the field of education. Like Piaget, Vygotsky believed that children learn actively and through hands-on experiences.
His sociocultural theory also suggested that parents, caregivers, peers, and the culture at large were responsible for developing higher-order functions. Learning is an inherently social process. Through interacting with others, learning becomes integrated into an individual’s understanding of the world.
This child development theory also introduced the concept of the zone of proximal development, which is the gap between what a person can do with help and what they can do on their own. It is with the help of more knowledgeable others that people are able to progressively learn and increase their skills and scope of understanding.
4. Bowlby’s Attachment Theory
There is a great deal of research on the social development of children. John Bowbly proposed one of the earliest theories of social development. Bowlby believed that early relationships with caregivers play a major role in child development and continue to influence social relationships throughout life.
In other words, both children and caregivers engage in behaviors designed to ensure proximity. Children strive to stay close and connected to their caregivers who in turn provide a safe haven and a secure base for exploration. Children who receive consistent support and care are more likely to develop a secure attachment style, while those who receive less reliable care may develop an ambivalent, avoidant, or disorganized style.
5. Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory
Cognitive theory is concerned with the development of a person’s thought processes. It also looks at how these thought processes influence how we understand and interact with the world. His cognitive theory seeks to describe and explain the development of thought processes and mental states.
It also looks at how these thought processes influence the way we understand and interact with the world. This is a theory of cognitive development to account for the steps and sequence of children’s intellectual development.
- Sensorimotor Stage: A period of time between birth and age two during which an infant’s knowledge of the world is limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities. Behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli.
- Pre-Operational Stage: A period between ages 2 and 6 during which a child learns to use language. During this stage, children do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally manipulate information, and are unable to take the point of view of other people.
- Concrete Operational Stage: A period between ages 7 and 11 during which children gain a better understanding of mental operations. Children begin thinking logically about concrete events but have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts.
- Formal Operational Stage: A period between age 12 to adulthood when people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also emerge during this stage.
6. Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Social learning theory is based on the work of psychologist Albert Bandura. Bandura believed that the conditioning and reinforcement process could not sufficiently explain all of human learning. The child development theory suggests that observation plays a critical role in learning, but this observation does not necessarily need to take the form of watching a live model.
For example, how can the conditioning process account for learned behaviors that have not been reinforced through classical conditioning or operant conditioning. According to social learning theory, behaviors can also be learned through observation and modeling.
7. Erikson’s Psychosocial Developmental Theory
Psychoanalytic theory was an enormously influential force during the first half of the twentieth century. Those inspired and influenced by Freud went on to expand upon Freud’s ideas and develop theories of their own. Of these neo-Freudians, Erik Erikson’s ideas have become perhaps the best known.
Erikson’s eight-stage theory of psychosocial development describes growth and change throughout life, focusing on social interaction and conflicts that arise during different stages of development.
While Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development shared some similarities with Freud’s, it is dramatically different in many ways. Rather than focusing on sexual interest as a driving force in development, Erikson believed that social interaction and experience played decisive roles.
His eight-stage theory of human development described this process from infancy through death. During each stage, people are faced with a developmental conflict that impacts later functioning and further growth. Unlike many other developmental theories, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory focuses on development across the entire lifespan. At each stage, children and adults face a developmental crisis that serves as a major turning point.
