THEORIES OF

DEVELOPMENT
DEVELOPMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY
AAMNA TAYYABA KHAN
PSYCHOLOGY DEPT., LAHORE
GARRISON UNIVERSITY
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 Freud’s psychoanalytic theory

 Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development

 Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

 Vygotsky’s socio cognitive cultural theory

 Kohlberg’s theory of moral development

 FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
LEVELS OF THE MIND
STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
 SIGMUND FREUD
 According to Freud’s theory, personality involves several factors:

 Instinctual drives – food, sex, aggression

 Unconscious processes

 Early childhood influences (re: psychosexual stages) – especially the parents

 Personality development depends on the interplay of instinct and environment during the first five
years of life.

 Parental behaviour is crucial to normal and abnormal development. Personality and mental health
problems in adulthood can usually be traced back to the first five years.
STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
 PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT
 Freud believed that personality developed through a series of
childhood stages in which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id
 become focused on certain erogenous areas. An erogenous zone is
characterized as an area of the body that is particularly sensitive to
stimulation.
 During the five psychosexual stages, which are the oral, anal,
phallic, latent, and genital stages, the erogenous zone associated
with each stage serves as a source of pleasure.
 DEFENSE MECHANISMS

 Strategies the ego uses to defend itself against the anxiety provoked by conflicts of everyday life.
Defense mechanisms involve denials or distortions of reality.

 The ego must reduce the conflict between the demands of the id and the superego

 According to Freud, this conflict is ever present because the instincts are always pressing for
satisfaction, and the taboos of society are always working to limit such satisfaction. Freud believed that
the defenses must, to some extent, always be in operation.
ERIK ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
 ERIK ERIKSON

 Erikson maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of
psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a
psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development.

 Psychosocial because they involve psychological needs of the individual (i.e., psycho) conflicting with
the needs of society (i.e., social).
 THE PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES

1. Trust vs mistrust (0-1.5 yrs): Deep trust on parent/guardian which will be applied to other

relationships as they grow. Success will lead to the virtue of Hope

2. Autonomy vs. shame (1.5-3yrs): developing sense of personal control over physical skills which will

lead to confidence in their own abilities. Success will lead to the virtue of Will
3. Initiative vs. Guilt (3-5 yrs): interaction with other children in
school will develop the ability to take initiative and feel secure in
their ability to lead others and make decisions. Success will lead to
the virtue of Purpose
4. Industry vs. inferiority (5-12 yrs): They have the need to
understand the values by society and develop pride in their
accomplishments and feel competent. Success will lead to the virtue
of Competence
5. Identity vs. role confusion (12 -18yrs): we search for a sense of self
and personal identity through an intense exploration of personal
values, beliefs and goals. Success will lead to the virtue of Fidelity
(accepting others even if there are ideological differences)
6. Intimacy vs. isolation (18-40 yrs): major conflicts centers on
forming intimate, loving relationships with other people. Success
will lead to the virtue of Love
7. Generative vs. stagnation (40-65yrs): we have a need to create or
nurture things that will outlast us. Success will lead to the virtue of
Care
8. Ego integrity vs. despair (65-death): contemplating
accomplishments and develop integrity if we believe that we have
led a successful life. Includes self-reflection. Success will lead to the
virtue of Wisdom
According to the theory, successful completion of each stage results in a
healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues. Basic virtues are
characteristic strengths which the ego can use to resolve subsequent crises.

Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a reduced ability to

complete further stages and therefore a more unhealthy personality and sense
of self. These stages, however, can be resolved successfully at a later time.
 PIAGET’S THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
 Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that intelligence
changes as children grow. A child's cognitive development is not just about
acquiring knowledge, the child has to develop or construct a mental model
of the world.
 Cognitive development occurs through the interaction of innate capacities
and environmental events, and children pass through a series of stages.
Piaget's stages are:
Sensorimotor stage: birth to 18-24 months
Preoperational stage: 2 to 7 years
Concrete operational stage: 7 to 11 years
Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up
The sequence of the stages is universal across cultures and follow the same
invariant (unchanging) order. All children go through the same stages in the
same order (but not all at the same rate).
 Schema: a concept of framework that already exists at a given
moment in a child’s mind and that organizes information and
provides structure for interpretation
 InPiaget’s theory, two processes, adaptation and organization,
account for changes in schemes.
 Adaptation involves building schemes through direct interaction
with the environment
1. Assimilation: when children incorporate new information
2. Accommodation: when children adjust their schemas to the environment
 Organisation: grouping isolated behaviours into a smoothly
functioning cognitive system
The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by
which the infant, and then the child, develops into an individual who
can reason and think using hypotheses. 
To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of
mental processes as a result of biological maturation and
environmental experience.
Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then
experience discrepancies between what they already know and what
they discover in their environment.
 CRITICISM

 Because Piaget concentrated on the universal stages of cognitive

development and biological maturation, he failed to consider the effect
that the social setting and culture may have on cognitive development.
 VYGOTSKY’S SOCIO
COGNITIVE CULTURAL THEORY
 Vygotsky’s Cognitive Development Theory

 Vygotsky's sociocultural theory views human development as a socially mediated

process in which children acquire their cultural values, beliefs, and problem-
solving strategies through collaborative dialogues with more knowledgeable
members of society. Vygotsky's theory is comprised of concepts such as culture-
specific tools, private speech, and the Zone of Proximal Development.
 As such, culture serves as a mediator for the formation and development of
specific abilities, such as learning, memory, attention, and problem solving. It is
proposed that culture-specific tools play an integral role in the way children
organize and think about the world.
Initially, behavior is exhibited without true intent; however, as the behavior

becomes socially mediated it is internalized as meaningful and then purposefully

demonstrated. For instance, Vygotsky offered the example of an infant reaching

for an object just beyond reach. As the infant reaches, an adult caregiver socially

responds to the nonverbal gesture and that gesture is then transformed into the

intentional and socially-driven behavior of pointing

 Zone of Proximal Development
 The zone of proximal development refers to the difference between what a
learner can do without help and what he or she can achieve with guidance and
encouragement from a skilled partner.

 According to this concept, there is a disparity between what a child can perform
independently and the potential learning that can occur with the assistance of an
adult or through collaboration with peers. Thus, a child’s potential cognitive
abilities are greater than the actual, measurable ability. Facilitated by adults or
peers with more expertise, learning occurs in the Zone of Proximal Development
THREE IMPORTANT COMPONENTS
TO AID THE LEARNING PROCESS
 The presence of someone with knowledge and skills beyond that of the learner (a
more knowledgeable other).

 Social interactions with a skillful tutor that allow the learner to observe and
practice their skills.
 Scaffolding, or supportive activities provided by the educator, or more competent
peer, to support the student as he or she is led through the ZPD.
Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development
 Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development
 Kohlberg's theory of moral development is a theory that focuses on how children
develop morality and moral reasoning.
 Kohlberg's theory proposes that there are three levels of moral
development, with each level split into two stages.
 Kohlberg suggested that people move through these stages in a fixed order,
and that moral understanding is linked to cognitive development.
 The three levels of moral reasoning include preconventional, conventional,
and postconventional.
 The theory also suggests that moral logic is primarily focused on seeking and
maintaining justice.
 How Kohlberg Developed His Theory
Kohlberg based his theory on a series of moral dilemmas presented to his study subjects. Participants
were also interviewed to determine the reasoning behind their judgments in each scenario. 5
One example was "Heinz Steals the Drug." In this scenario, a woman has cancer and her doctors
believe only one drug might save her. This drug had been discovered by a local pharmacist and he
was able to make it for $200 per dose and sell it for $2,000 per dose. The woman's husband, Heinz,
could only raise $1,000 to buy the drug.
He tried to negotiate with the pharmacist for a lower price or to be extended credit to pay for it over
time. But the pharmacist refused to sell it for any less or to accept partial payments. Rebuffed, Heinz
instead broke into the pharmacy and stole the drug to save his wife. Kohlberg asked, "Should the
husband have done that?"
Kohlberg was not interested so much in the answer to whether Heinz was wrong or right but in
the reasoning for each participant's decision. He then classified their reasoning into the stages of his
theory of moral development.