Chapter 2: Prominent Approaches in Life-Span Development

Psychoanalytic Approach

-describes the development as primarily unconscious - that is, beyond awareness - and as heavily

coloured by emotion

-according to this, behaviour is merely a surface characteristic and to truly understand

development, we must analyze the symbolic meanings of behaviour and the deep inner workings

of the mind (i.e.: dreams)

-early experience with parents shapes development

-Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalytical theory

Sigmund Freud

-contributions include:

-exploration of the unconscious from which his personality theory emerged

-dream analysis

-defense mechanisms

-the 5 pyschosexual stages of development

-Freud proposed that personality has 3 structures:

1) id

-consists of instincts, which are an individual's reservoir of psychic energy

-the id is totally unconscious and not concerned with reality

-as children experience the demands and constraints of their worlds, the ego emerges,

which deals with the demands of reality

2) ego

-the "executive branch" of the psyche

-uses reasoning to make decisions

-the id and the ego are not moral entities

3) superego

-the moral branch of the personality

-takes into account whether something is right or wrong

-what we refer to as our "conscience"

-according to Freud, the rational ego must resolve conflicts between the demands of reality, the

wishes and dreams of the id, and the constraints of the superego

-conflicts cause anxiety that alerts the ego to use protective measures to resolve the

conflict; these protective measures are called defence mechanisms which reduce anxiety

and conflict by unconsciously distorting reality

-Freud became convinced that his patients' problems were the result of traumatic experiences

early in life that they repressed

-repression is the most powerful and pervasive defence mechanism according to Freud

-repression pushes unacceptable id impulses (i.e.: intense sexual and aggressive desires)

back into the unconscious mind

-Freud believed dreams provided insight to the unconscious

Freud's 5 Psychosexual Stages

-postulates that as children grow up, their focus of pleasure and sexual impulses shifts from the

oral stage to the anal stage, followed by the phallic stage, the latency period, and then the genital

stage

1) Oral Stage

- birth - 18 months

-pleasure centers around the mouth (chewing, suckling, and biting)

2) Anal Stage

- 15 months - 3 years

-pleasure centers around the anus muscles and from elimination

-conflict occurs when a child is punished too harshly or neglected

3) Phallic Stage

-children discover that manipulation of their own genitals brings pleasure

-the Oedipus complex for boys and the Electra complex for girls occurs

-a period when children first come face to face with the realities of their family life and a

conscience emerges as they learn some things are taboo

4) Latency

- 6 years - puberty

-the child represses interests in sexuality and develops social and intellectual skills

5) Genital Stage

-puberty - late adulthood

-reawakening of sexual pleasure

-the source of sexual pleasure becomes someone outside the family

-each stage provides a critical period, during which an individual resolves conflicts between

sources of pleasure and the demands of reality

-the adult personality is determined by how these conflicts are resolved

-when a conflict is not resolved successfully (because the individual's needs were under- or over-

gratified) the person may become fixated at a particular stage in development

-e.g.: when a parents weans a child too early, is too strict during toilet training, or gives

the child too much attention

-according to Freud, unresolved conflicts with parents re-emerge during adolescence

-when resolved, the individual is capable of developing a mature love relationship and

functioning independently as an adult

-it is known today that Freud overemphasized sexual instinct

-other theorists place more emphasis on cultural experiences as determinants of a person's

development

-as well, conscious thoughts play a greater role than Freud envisioned

Erik Erikson

-believed that Freud misjudged some important dimensions of human development

-Erikson's theory says that we develop in psychosocial stages in contrast to Freud's

psychosexual stages

-the primary motivation for human behaviour was social and reflected a desire to affiliate with

other people

-Erikson emphasizes that developmental change occurs throughout the human lifespan

-Freud argues that our basic personality is shaped in the first 5 years of life

-there are 8 stages in Erikson's theory of development

-each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a

crisis that must be faced

-this crisis is a turning point of both increased vulnerability and enhanced potential

-the more successfully the crisis is resolved, the healthier the development

1) Trust vs. Mistrust

-birth - 12 months

-trust emerges when a baby feels comfortable and safe

-needs are responded to lovingly

-resolution (when trust vs. mistrust is resolved certain qualities develop): hope

2) Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

- 1 - 3 years

-toddler exercises will and independence

-shame and doubt result when the toddler is restrained too much or punished too harshly

-resolution: will

3) Initiative vs. Guilt

-preschool - 4 or 5 years

-as children enter a wider social world, they learn to take responsibility for their toys, behaviour,

bodies, etc.

-behaviour becomes more purposeful and a sense of accomplishment becomes more imporant

-guilt is quickly overcome when the child is able to accomplish something

-resolution: purpose

4) Industry vs. Inferiority

-grades K-6

-children enthusiastically pursue mastery of skills (i.e.: spelling, multiplication, sports, etc.0

-children enjoy using their creativity and imagination

-a sense of inferiority emerges when the child is unproductive or made to feel incompetent

-resolution: competence

5) Identity vs. Identity Confusion

-adolescence

-self-discovery occurs at this stage

-resolution: fidelity

6) Intimacy vs. Isolation

-early adulthood

-a sense of self is accomplished; the individual is now able to commit to a relationship and to

responsibilities such as managing one's own resources (i.e.: health, time, money, relationships)

-resolution: love

7) Generativity vs. Stagnation

-middle adulthood

-concern from the next generation

-stagnation occurs when the adult believes they can't contribute to the next generation

-resolution: care

8) Integrity vs. Despair

-late adulthood

-individuals reflect on their lives and conclude that their life has or has not been well spent

-resolution: wisdom

*BE ABLE TO COMPARE ERIKSON'S STAGES WITH FREUD'S STAGES*

-Erikson argues that the proper resolution of a stage is not always completely positive; some of

the negative aspects to conflict are inevitable

-e.g.: you cannot trust all people under all circumstances and survive

-nonetheless, the healthy resolution to a stage crisis allows for balance to be achieved and

virtues / emotional strengths emerge

-no stage is completely resolved; however, when balance is achieved, virtues, or emotional

strengths, emerge in the healthy personality

Neo-Freudians

-thought that environmental, social, as well as biological factors play a role in the emergence of

adult personalities

1) Anna Freud

-made contributions to the fields of child psychoanalysis and child development psychology

-was concerned with the ego, its conflicts with reality, and the defense mechanisms

2) Karen Horney

-criticized Freud's argument on the grounds of gender and cultural differences

-identified 10 neurotic trends which she believed resulted from parental differences and which

she called the basic evil

-the child's reaction to parental indifference (basic hostility and basic anxiety) leads the child to

develop coping strategies; as the individual matures, neurosis may develop

-also thought that individuals could benefit from self-analysis

3) Carl Jung

-believed the psyche includes 3 parts:

1) the ego (the conscious mind)

2) the personal unconscious (includes everything not presently conscious)

3) the collective unconscious (psychic inheritance)

-e.g.: déjà vu, love at first sight, other immediate responses to various symbols

-developed a personality typology that distinguished between introversion and extroversion and

identified ways of dealing with the world

-this typology is the groundwork for the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory

4) Eric Fromm

-believed human nature is influenced by dysfunctional social patterns (i.e.: poverty, war, power,

and capitalistic greed) as well as biological factors

-endorsed feminism

-supported Horney's assertions of gender differences by arguing that:

- men had to prove themselves in the world and thus were driven to acquire wealth and

power at the expense of people and environment

-women feared being abandoned and submitted to male power

-studied Karl Marx

-believed that capitalistic societies damaged the psychological well-being of those who

were marginalized or impoverished

-along with Horney, was one of the first to consider the influence of racism, sexism, and

economic inequities on personality growth

Contributions of the Psychoanalytic Approach

-contributions include its emphasis on these factors:

-early experience plays an important part in development

-family relationships are a central aspect of development

-personality can be better understood if it is examined developmentally

-the mind is not all conscious; unconscious aspects of the mind need to be considered

-changes take place in adulthood as well as in the childhood years (Erikson)

Criticisms of the Psychoanalytic Approach

-criticisms include:

-the main concepts of psychoanalytic theories have been difficult to test scientifically

-the language used is difficult to interpret (we don't know whether a child is feeling guilt, shame,

or inferiority)

-data used to support psychoanalytic theories come from individuals' reconstruction of the past

(often the distant past) and is of unknown accuracy

-the sexual underpinnings of development are given too much importance (especially with

Freud)

-the unconscious mind is given too much credit for influencing development

-psychoanalytic theories present an image of humans that is too negative (especially with Fred)

-psychoanalytic theories are culture and gender-biased

The Cognitive Approach

-the cognitive approach emphasizes conscious thoughts; the psychoanalytic approach stresses

the importance of unconscious thoughts

Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory

-Piaget's Theory stages that children actively construct their understanding of the world and go

through 4 stages of cognitive development

-2 processes underline this cognitive construction of the world: organization and adaptation

-to make sense of our world, we organize our experiences (separate important ideas from

less important ideas; connect one idea to another )

-we also adapt our thinking to include new ideas since additional information furthers

understanding

-we adapt in 2 ways:

1) Assimilation

-occurs when individuals incorporate new information into their existing knowledge

2) Accommodation

-occurs when individuals adjust to new information

Example:

A 9-year old girl is given a hammer and nails to hang a picture on the wall. She has never used a

hammer, but from observation she realizes that a hammer is an object to be held, that is swung

by the handle to hit the nail, and that it is usually swung a number of times. She fits her

behaviour to the information she already has (assimilation). However, the hammer is to heavy

and so she holds it near the top. She swings too hard and the nail bends, and so she adjusts the

pressure of her strikes. These adjustments show her ability to alter slightly her conception of the

world (accommodation).

-learning progresses from one stage to the next as information is first assimilated and then

accommodated

-Piaget thought that assimilation and accommodation operate even in the very young infant's life

-e.g.: newborn's reflexively suck everything that touches their lips (assimilation), but

after several months of experience, they construct their understanding of the world

differently; some objects like their fingers or their mother's breast can be sucked but

others, such as fuzzy blankets, should not be sucked (accommodation)

-Piaget states that the child's cognition is qualitatively different in one stage than in another

-it is the different way of understanding the world that makes one stage more advanced

than another

-knowing information does not make the child's thinking more advanced

-each of the 4 stages we go through as we seek an understanding of the world around us is age-

related and consists of distinct ways of thinking

1) Sensorimotor Stage

-birth - 2 years

-infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (i.e.: seeing

and hearing) with physical, motoric actions

-at the beginning, newborns have reflexive patterns with which to work with

-at the end, 2 year olds have complex sensorimotor patterns and are beginning to operate with

primitive symbols

2) Preoperational Stage

-2 - 7 years

-children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings

-words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of

sensory information and physical action

-preschool children can symbolically represent the world but they still lack the ability to perform

operations (a Piagetian term for internalized mental actions that allow children to do mentally

what they previously did physically)

3) Concrete Operational Stage

-7 - 11 years

-children can perform operations and logical reasoning replaces intuitive thought (as long as

reasoning can be applied to specific or concrete examples)

-children can reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets

-e.g.: concrete operational thinkers cannot imagine the steps necessary to complete algebraic

equations because manipulating unknowns is too abstract at this stage)

4) Formal Operational Stage

-11 - 15 years

-individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in abstract and more logical terms

-adolescents develop images of ideal circumstances

-they might think about what an ideal parent is like and compare their parents to this ideal

standard

-individuals begin to entertain possibilities for the future and are fascinated with what they can

be

-thought becomes more systematic; they can develop hypotheses about why something is

happening the way it is and test the hypotheses

-the adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic, and logical ways

Vygotsky's Socio-Cultural Cognitive Theory

-believed that children actively construct their knowledge

-Vygotsky gave social interaction and culture far more important roles in cognitive development

than Piaget

-Vygotsky's Theory is a social-cultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social

interaction guide cognitive development

-child development is portrayed as inseparable from social and cultural activities

-the development of memory, attention, and reasoning involves learning to use the inventions of

society (i.e.: language, mathematical systems, and memory strategies)

-knowledge is situated and collaborative

-knowledge is not generated from within the individual, but is constructed through

interaction with other people and objects in the culture (i.e.: books)

-this suggests that knowledge can be advanced through interaction with others in

cooperative activities

-children's social interaction with more skilled adults and peers is important to their cognitive

development

-they learn to use the tools that will help them adapt and be successful in their culture

-Zone of Proximal Development is the difference between what a learner can do without help

and what a learner can do with help

-a child follows an adult's example and gradually develops the ability to do certain tasks

without help

-the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent

problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem

solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers

-Vygotsky and other educational professionals believed education's role was to give c

hildren experiences that were within their zones of proximal development, thereby

encouraging and advancing their individual learning

The Information-Processing Approach

-emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it

-memory and thinking are central to this approach

-individuals develop a gradually-increasing capacity for processing information which allows

them to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills

-like Vygotsky's theory, the information-processing approach does not describe development as

being stage-like

-thinking is information processing

-when individuals perceive, encode, represent, store, and retrieve information, they are

thinking

-learning good strategies is important for processing information

Evaluating the Cognitive Approach

Contributions: -the cognitive theories present a positive view of development and emphasize the individual's

conscious thinking

-cognitive theories emphasize the individual's active construction of understanding

-Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories underscore the importance of examining developmental

changes in children's thinking

-the information-processing approach offers detailed descriptions of cognitive processes

Criticisms:

-skeptical about the pureness of Piaget's stages

-cognitive theories do not give adequate attention to individual variations in cognitive

development

-the information-processing approach does not provide an adequate description of developmental

changes in cognition

-cognitive theories do not give enough credit to unconscious thought

The Behavioural and Social Cognitive Approach

-behaviourism holds that only what can be directly observed and measured can be studied in a

scientific way

-development is observable behaviour that can be learned through experience with the

environment

-the behavioural and social cognitive theories emphasize continuity in development and argue

that development does not occur in stage-like fashion

Pavlov's Classical Conditioning

Example:

Dogs innately salivate when they taste food. Dogs salivate in reaction to various sights and

sounds before eating their food. When an individual paired the ringing bell with the food, the bell

ringing subsequently developed the ability to elicit the salivation of the dogs, even when the bell

ringing was presented by itself.

-classical conditioning: a neutral stimulus (i.e.: the ringing bell) acquires the ability to produce a

response that was originally produced by another stimulus (i.e.: the food)

-Watson demonstrated that classical conditioning could be applied to human beings

-he showed a boy named Albert a white rat but Albert was not scared

-Watson then paired a loud sound with the white rat and Albert cried

-Albert began to fear the rat after several pairings of the sound and the rat

Skinner's Operant Conditioning

-a second type of conditioning accounts for the development of types of behaviour

-operant conditioning: the consequences of a behaviour produce changes in the probability of

the behaviour's future occurrence

-if a behaviour is followed by a punishing stimulus, it is less likely to recur

-e.g.: when a person smiles at a child after the child has done something, the child is more

likely to engage in the activity than if the person gives a disapproving look

-Skinner thought that such rewards and punishments shape individuals' development

-e.g.: shy people learned to be shy because of the environmental experiences they had

while growing up

-modifications to an environment can help a shy person become more socially oriented

-behavioural changes are brought about by rewards and punishments, not by thoughts and

feelings

Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory

-development is learned and influenced strongly by environmental experiences, however,

cognition is important in understanding development

-behavioural and social cognitive approach is the view of psychologists who emphasize

behaviour, environment, and cognition as the key factors in development

-first developed by Bandura and Mischel

-they proposed that cognitive processes are important mediators of environment-behaviour

connections

-Bandura's early research focussed heavily on observational learning (learning that occurs

through observing what others do; also known as imitation or modelling)

-social cognitive theory stresses that people acquire a wide range of behaviours, thoughts, and

feelings through observing others' behaviour and these observations form an important part of

life-span development

-people cognitively represent the behaviour of others and then sometimes adopt this behaviour

themselves (this is the cognitive aspect of observational learning)

-e.g.: a parent who often tells her child that he has 3 options, a,b, or c may hear her son

resolve conflict with a friend by saying "Tristan, we have 3 options"

-Bandura's most recent model of learning and development involves 3 elements:

1) behaviour

2) the person

3) the environment

-an individual's confidence that he or she can control his or her success is an example of a person

factor

-strategies to control success are examples of a cognitive factor

-behaviour, personal (and cognitive), and environmental factors operate interactively

-behaviour can influence personal factors and vice versa

-the person's cognitive activities can influence the environment

-the environment can change the person's cognition

Example:

In the case of a college student's achievement behaviour, as the student diligently studies and

gets good grades, her behaviour produces positive thoughts about her abilities. As part of her

effort to make good grades, she plans and develops a number of strategies to make her studying

more efficient. In these ways, her behaviour has influenced her thought, and her thought has

influenced her behaviour. At the beginning of the term, her college makes special efforts to

involve students in a study skills program and she decided to join it. Her success, along with that

of other students who attended the program, has led the college to expand the program next

semester. In these ways, her environment influenced behaviour and behaviour changed the

environment. The college administrator's expectations that the program would work made it

possible in the first place. The program's success has spurred expectations that his type of

program could work in other colleges. Thus, cognition changed the environment and the

environment changed cognition.

Evaluating the Behavioural and Social Cognitive Approach

Contributions:

-include its emphasis on:

-the importance of scientific research

-the environmental determinants of behaviour

Criticisms:

-too little emphasis on cognition (i.e.: with Pavlov and Skinner)

-too much emphasis on environmental determinants

The Ethological Approach

-ethology is the study of animals to discover their responses to the environment, their

physiological makeup, their communication abilities, and their evolutionary aspects

-e.g.: ethologists study a trait such as dominance, mating, or aggression in many different types

of animals to understand whether or not the behaviour is innate or learned

-ethologists believe behaviour is influenced by biology and that a critical or sensitive period was

essential for health development

-ethologists use 3 methods of study to understand the origins of non-verbal behaviours, social

grooming, and other innate behaviours

1) compare the behaviour of closely-related species (i.e.: humans and apes)

2) study the responses of healthy children with those who have physical or mental

challenges

3) consider whether behaviours occur in more than one culture

-the more universally a behaviour is observed, the stronger the possibility that it is innate

Ethological Theorists

Charles Darwin

-first to theorize about the connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom

-theorized the theory of evolution and natural selection

Konrad Lorenz

-the father of ethology because of his studies of the innate behaviour of animals

-using greylag geese, Lorenz determined that newly-hatched goslings attach themselves to the

first "mother" figure they see

-imprinting: the rapid, innate learning within a limited critical period of time that involves

attachment to the first moving object seen

John Bowlby

-the "father of attachment theory"

-stressed that all infants form enduring emotional bonds with their caregivers beyond the need

for physical nourishment

-smiling, crying, and cooing are all part of the infant's innate repertoire of behaviours that elicit

caregivers responses

-an infant elicits a loving, protective response from the caregiver which strengthens the

attachment

-if attachment is negative, life-span development is not optimal

-as the infant develops, he or she seeks the proximity of the caregiver (usually the mother)

-a secure attachment during the critical period of the first two years of life contributes to the

child's ability to develop a sense of self

Evaluating the Ethological Approach

Contributions: -increased focus on the biological and evolutionary base of development

-use of careful observations in naturalistic settings

-emphasis on sensitive periods of development

Criticisms:

-the concepts of critical and sensitive periods may be too rigid

-too much emphasis on biological foundations

The Humanist Approach

-humanists believe that all behaviour is intrinsically motivated toward self-improvement

-people work hard to become the best they can possibly become

-Maslow called it self-actualization

-he believed that only 2 percent of the human population are self-actualizing

-Rogers called it the actualizing tendency

-he believed that every living creature has actualizing tendency

-they both saw that neither the psychoanalysts nor the behaviourists acknowledged the role of

values, intentions, and meaning in understanding human behaviour

Carl Rogers

-reshaped interaction between client and analyst by introducing fully client-centred therapy

-thought the role of the therapist is to empower personal awareness and that clients should have

increasing flexibility in determining their treatment

-congruence: the relationship between a person's ideal self and real self as determined by self-

selected descriptors

-our actualizing tendency refers to our efforts to reduce the gap between the real self (the "I am")

and the ideal self (the "I should be")

-this gap is known as incongruity

-incongruity is caused by the messages we receive from society

-incongruity leads to the use of defense mechanisms and even to full breakdowns

-Rogerian therapy is supportive and non-prescriptive

-he believed that through evolutionary development, all plants and animals know what is good

for them and avoid what is bad

-human nature strives to be healthy

-mental illness, criminality, etc. are distortions of the motivation toward health

-a health, fully-functioning person has the following characteristics:

1) openness rather than defensiveness

2) existential living

-engagement in reality and the present (rather than the past or the future), allowing development

to emerge from experience

3) organismic trusting

-reliant on gut instincts to sustain health and make decisions about what is right and wrong

4) experiential freedom

-making choices and taking responsibility for them

5) creativity

-contributing to the well-being of others through work, love, and community activities by being

able to think outside social conventions when appropriate

6) reliability and constructiveness

-maintaining balance between all needs

7) a rich full life

-involves the courage to be

-launching oneself into the stream of life

Abraham Maslow

-developed the hierarchy of needs which is used to understand and explain human motivation

-Maslow was the founder of the Humanist Approach to psychology

-some needs take precedence over others

-e.g.: when we our sick, our need for sleep overtakes our need for self-esteem

-Maslow applied the theory of homeostasis (the body's desire to maintain balance) to explain his

theory

-homeostasis functions as an internal monitor, alerting us when we need to put on a

sweater or quench our thirst

-like homeostasis, the first 4 needs of the hierarchy are primarily physical in nature

-esteem needs have a "lower" and "higher" order

-lower order esteem needs are satisfied when we experience respect and recognition from

others; this satisfaction is temporary

-higher order esteem needs are based on the respect we have for others; characterized by

feelings of self-confidence, competence, autonomy, and freedom

-if our esteem needs are not met, we may suffer from inferiority complexes

-when not met, an individual experiences anxiety and is motivated to have the need

fulfilled; these are known as deficit needs

-once our primary physical needs are met, they become dormant and we are free to pursue more

psychological needs

-we strive to use our capacities and develop to our fullest potential

-the being needs (B-needs) include cognitive and aesthetic needs, as well as self- actualization

needs

-failure to develop these needs result in atrophy, anxiety, neurosis, etc.

-aesthetic needs involve the turning away from ugliness and feeling calmer and

healthier in beautiful surroundings; when earlier needs are met, we want to create

and surround ourselves with beauty (i.e.: art, music, architecture, etc.)

-self-actualization is the individual expression of self in terms of reaching one's fullest

potential without concern for praise or rewards (e.g.: Mother Theresa)

-the more completely the earlier needs are satisfied, the more peak moments we can experience

-Maslow believed that only 2% of the population and few youth could attain self-actualization

because social and economic pressures keep our internal monitors focused on filling deficits

-the desire to understand, systemize, organize, analyze, and look for relations and meanings is an

innate cognitive need

Evaluating the Humanist Approach

Contributions:

-positive regard for human nature

-influenced and reshaped the nature of the therapist-client relationship

-considers the role of the environment on development

Criticisms:

-interpretation is too subjective

-lacks scientific rigor

The Bio-Ecological Approach

-development reflects the influence of five environmental systems

-environmental contexts still predominate over biological influences

-developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner

-5 environmental systems:

1) Microsystem

-the setting in which the individual lives

-i.e.: contexts involving the person's family, peers, school, neighbourhood

-the most direct interactions with social agents take place (i.e.: parents, peers, school,

neighbourhood)

-the individual is viewed as someone who helps construct experiences

2) Mesosystem

-involves relations between microsystems / relations between contexts

-e.g.: relation of family experience to school experience

3) Exosystem

-when experiences in another social setting (in which the individual does not have an active role)

influence what the individual experiences in an immediate context

-e.g.: work experiences can affect a woman's relationship with her husband and child; if the

mother receives a promotion that requires more travel, this might increase marital conflict and

change patterns of parent-child interaction

4) Macrosystem

-the culture in which individuals live

-culture refers to behaviour patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group of people that are

passed on from generation to generation

5) Chronosystem

-the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as socio-

historical circumstances

-e.g.: the socio-historical aspects of the Technological Revolution differ remarkably depending

on determinants such as age, education, social-economic status, and geography

Evaluating the Bio-Ecological Approach

Contributions:

-a systematic examination of macro and micro dimensions of environmental systems

-attention to connections between environmental settings and historical influences

Criticisms:

-too little attention to biological foundations of development

Summary of Prominent Approaches

-no single approach can entirely explain the complexity of life-span development

-it is important to recognize that although theories are helpful guides, we cannot rely on one

single theory

-an eclectic theoretical orientation does not follow any one theoretical approach, but rather,

selects the most persuasive and workable concepts from each

Sample Question:

The author of the following quote was:

-never wanted to use human subjects

-with animals I was at home

-keeping close to biology

-watching their behaviour

-author had a behavioural approach

-speaker has interest in the objective study of behaviour

-interest in studying animals rather than people

-speaker is John Watson