Child Development From Infancy to Adolescence. Laura E. Levine
from it are still very influential, particularly in the study of development of mental and emotional disorders (Fonagy, Target, & Gergely, 2006). Many psychotherapists continue to practice therapy based on Freud’s idea that inner conflicts from earlier life experiences, especially early trauma, form the basis for later psychological symptoms, and bringing those inner conflicts from the unconscious mind into consciousness will be therapeutic.
T/F #2
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is based on outdated ideas so it is not relevant to the field of child development today. False.
Erikson’s ideas about the effect of social experiences on development have influenced our understanding of the way development occurs as a series of interrelated experiences. For instance, we better understand the challenge of adolescence when we see it as a struggle to establish a coherent sense of individual identity that emerges from the previous stages of development (Becht et al., 2016; Meeus, van de Schoot, Keijsers, & Branje, 2012). In addition, research has shown that successfully resolving the developmental crises at each of Erikson’s stages has been linked to resilience, which includes the ability to cope with stress (Svetina, 2014). Throughout this book you will read more about resilience and stress as it affects children throughout infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Erikson’s theoretical ideas have been used as a framework for parenting advice (Fletcher & Branen, n.d.) and in the treatment of children with emotional disturbances (Turns & Kimmes, 2014).
Check Your Understanding
Knowledge Questions
1 What are the three parts of the personality according to Freud?
2 Which drive does Freud say is most important for human development?
3 How do the stages in the theories of Freud and Erikson differ?
Critical Thinking
Many 2-year-olds can be quite stubborn, resulting in what is often called the “Terrible Twos.” How do you understand this behavior from the different points of view of Freud and Erikson?
Learning Theories
A very different school of thought about how children develop is offered by the learning theories. Whereas psychoanalytic theory focuses on internal processes of the mind, the learning theories focus on observable behavior. These theories are based on the link between a stimulus (an event in the external environment) and an individual’s response. In the following sections we describe the theories known as behaviorism (which is based on principles of classical and operant conditioning) and social cognitive theory (which is based on principles of modeling and imitation).
Behaviorism: The theory developed by John B. Watson that focuses on environmental control of observable behavior.
Social cognitive theory: The theory that individuals learn by observing others and imitating their behavior.
John B. Watson and Classical Conditioning
John B. Watson (1878–1958) developed the theory he called behaviorism. He concentrated on what he could see: behavior, or what people do. The modern academic field of psychology was just emerging, and psychologists in America were trying hard to establish the field as an experimental science, with testable predictions based on observable phenomena rather than unseen concepts such as Freud’s unconscious mind.
John B. Watson. John B. Watson is called the father of the theory of behaviorism, which focuses on what people do rather than on what they think.
George Rinhart/ Contributor via Getty Images
Watson studied the ways in which the environment influences human behavior. He described a process called classical conditioning and carried out an experiment with a 9-month-old infant, known only as Little Albert, to demonstrate that he could use this process to create fear in a human infant (Watson & Rayner, 1920). You can think of “conditioning” as a type of learning. When we refer to something as “unconditioned,” it means that you don’t need to learn about it because your response is automatic. In classical conditioning, a particular stimulus or event in the environment is paired with another stimulus over and over again. The first stimulus is known as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), because it provokes a natural or unlearned response, known as the unconditioned response (UCR). Watson found that Little Albert, like many infants, was frightened by a sudden loud sound, so in this experiment the noise was the UCS and Albert’s fear was the UCR. The learning that occurs in classical conditioning comes when the UCS is paired over and over again with a neutral stimulus that does not originally provoke any response. Eventually, the neutral stimulus begins to evoke the same response as the UCS, and is then called the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the response is the conditioned response (CR).
Classical conditioning: The process by which a stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus) that naturally evokes a certain response (the unconditioned response) is paired repeatedly with a neutral stimulus. Eventually the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus and evokes the same response, now called the conditioned response.
When Little Albert was first shown a white rat, he was curious and unafraid, so the rat was initially a neutral stimulus because it did not produce a fear response. However, Watson then made the loud sound at the same time that he presented the white rat to the infant. He did this numerous times over a number of days, and Little Albert soon began to express fear by crying as soon as he saw the white rat. Eventually Watson stopped making the loud sound, and yet every time he showed Little Albert the white rat, which by now had become a CS, the infant continued to show fear, which now was a CR, or learned response. Figure 2.2 illustrates the process of classical conditioning.
Figure 2.2 Classical conditioning.
Classical conditioning has become an accepted principle of learning. It’s easy to think of examples in everyday life. A child who visits fast food restaurants with a play area (UCS) has fun there and feels happy (UCR). Although she may have had no preference for this type of food (neutral stimulus), she may come to associate that type of food (CS) with the fun she has at the play areas provided and subsequently feel happy (CR) when she has that food (Petrovich & Gallagher, 2007). To check whether you understand the steps of the classical conditioning process, try Active Learning: Understanding the Process of Classical Conditioning.
Active Learning: Understanding the Process of Classical Conditioning
Read the following paragraph and then answer the questions below.
Every time your roommate leaves the room he says “Goodbye!” and loudly slams the door, making you flinch. After this happens a number of times, your roommate says to you “Gotta go now. Goodbye!” and you realize that you are flinching even before you hear the door slam. Can you identify all the elements in this classical conditioning paradigm listed below?
Unconditioned stimulus (the stimulus that naturally is tied to a response that you can’t control):
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Unconditioned response (the response that is automatic):
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Conditioned stimulus (the stimulus that starts out neutral but is paired with the unconditioned stimulus):
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