Child Development

Child Development

Theories of Child Development

Theories of Child Development

• Freud’s Psychosexual Theory • Erikson’s Social Social--Emotional Theory • Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development • Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development • Fowler’s Stages of Faith

Psychosexual Theory (Freud)

• Oral (0 (0--18 months) • Anal (18 (18--36 months) • Phallic (3(3-6 years) • Latency (6 years years--puberty) • Genital (Puberty and beyond)

Psychosexual Theory

Oral Stage (Birth to 18 months). •During the oral stage, the child is focused on oral pleasures (sucking). •Too much or too little gratification can result in an Oral Fixation or Oral Personality which is evidenced by a preoccupation with oral activities.

Psychosexual Theory Oral Stage (Birth to 18 months). •This type of personality may have a stronger tendency to smoke, drink alcohol, over eat, or bite his or her nails. •Personality wise, these individuals may become overly dependent upon others, gullible, and perpetual followers. On the other hand, they may also fight these urges and develop pessimism and aggression toward others.

Psychosexual Theory Anal Stage (18 months to three years) •The child’s focus of pleasure in this stage is on eliminating and retaining feces. Through society’s pressure, mainly via parents, the child has to learn to control anal stimulation. •In terms of personality, consequences of an anal fixation during this stage can result in an obsession with cleanliness, perfection, and control (anal retentive). On the opposite end of the spectrum, they may become messy and disorganized (anal expulsive).

Psychosexual Theory Phallic Stage (ages three to six). •The pleasure zone switches to the genitals. Freud believed that during this stage boy develop unconscious sexual desires for their mother. Because of this, he becomes rivals with his father and sees him as competition for the mother’s affection.

Psychosexual Theory During this time, boys also develop a fear that their father will punish them for these feelings, such as by castrating them. This group of feelings is known as Oedipus Complex. Later it was added that girls go through a similar situation, developing unconscious sexual attraction to their father. Although Freud strongly disagreed with this, it has been termed the Electra Complex by more recent psychoanalysts.

Psychosexual Theory Latency Stage (age six to puberty). •It’s during this stage that sexual urges remain repressed and children interact and play mostly with same sex peers

Psychosexual Theory Genital Stage (puberty and beyond) The final stage of psychosexual development begins at the start of puberty when sexual urges are once again awakened. Through the lessons learned during the previous stages, adolescents direct their sexual urges onto opposite sex peers, with the primary focus of pleasure is the genitals.

Erikson’s SocialSocial-Emotional Theory Age

Psychosocial Crisis

0-1, Infant

Trust vs. Mistrust

2-3, Toddler

Autonomy vs. Shame

3-6, Preschooler

Initiative vs. Guilt

7-12, School Age child Industry vs. Inferiority

Piaget’s Cognitive Development

Sensory-Motor Stage (birth Sensory(birth--2) Preoperational Stage (2(2-7) Concrete Operations (7(7-11) Formal Operations (11(11-15)

Sensory-Motor Stage Sensory(birth to 2 years)

• object permanence: The concept that things continue to exist even when they are out of sight. • mental representations: Mental images or symbols (such as words) used to think about or remember an object, a person, or an event.

Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years)

• A child becomes able to use mental representations and language to describe, remember, and reason about the world. • egocentric: Unable to see things from another person’s point of view.

Concrete-Operational Stage Concrete(7 to 11 years)

• A child can attend to more than one thing at a time and understand someone else’s point of view, though thinking is limited to concrete matters. • A child can understand conservation conservation..

Principles of Conservation

• The concept that basic amounts remain constant despite superficial changes in appearances.

Formal-Operational Stage Formal(11 to 15 years)

• The individual becomes capable of abstract thought.

Piaget’s Cognitive Development

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

• preconventional: Interpreting behavior in terms of its concrete consequences. • conventional: Interpreting behavior in terms of social (and societal) approval. • postconventional: Emphasis on abstract principles (e.g., justice, liberty, and equality).

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development • • • •

Punishment Reciprocity Good Girl – Good Boy Law and Order

Fowler’s Stages of Faith • Faith: a process of relating to what is important in life • Intuitive Intuitive--Projective (3(3-7): 7): psyche's unprotected exposure to the Unconscious. Imagination runs wild in this stage, uninhibited by logic • Mythic Mythic--Literal (School Years): Years): symbol and ritual begin to be integrated by the child

Fowler’s Stages of Faith • SyntheticSynthetic-Conventional (Adolescences) (Adolescences):: this stage demands a complex pattern of socialization and integration, and faith is an inseparable factor in the ordering of one's world. It is a stage characterized by conformity • Individuative Individuative--Reflective (Young Adult): Adult): beliefs and values are critically evaluated