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BA Learning Difficulties/disabilities

Psychological and Social DevelopmentIntroduction

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Psychological Theories Cognitive Behavioural Psychoanalytic Humanistic Biopsychology Social Cultural Political Social Constructionist Feminist

Critical Psychology Critical Race Post Modernist Discursive Forensic Spiritual Developmental Narrative Community Psychology To name but a few...

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•Personality as a socio – cultural formation•Opened up concepts such as context dependent

Emancipatory Disability Studies

• Challenges the assumption that psychology is a progressive and

enabling practice

•Participant action research•Community activism – political engagement

To free from bondage, oppression, or restraint; liberate

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Disability and PsychologyDisability is not just the physical, sensory or intellectual impairments a person has, but the exclusion from society they face as a result.

This book examines the discipline of psychology in this regard. It argues that psychology has tended to ignore the socio-cultural aspects of disability and treat disabled people as objects rather than arbiters of psychological intervention.

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Developmental Psychology

Study of development from birth to old age

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Developmental Theories in Psychology

Development is concerned with the general way that a person functions and the skills that they acquire over time. Changes that constitute development have three defining characteristics:

Orderly Directional or cumulative Stable and enduring

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Developmental Theories in Psychology

All human beings share, to a greater or lesser extent, a number of commonalities such as:

A biological heritage composed of ’species specific behaviours’ such as language

A common broad rate of development throughout our life cycle

A common physical and social environment – i.e. family

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Normative Development Refers to development that is usual or to be

expected for a particular age Referred to as ‘milestones’ – these indicate what

most children can do at a particular age Psychologists are interested in individual differences

and seek to explain how these come about Individual differences can come about due to either1. Genetic differences2. Social or Environmental determinants

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What is developmental Psychology?

Freud Piaget

Study of development from birth to old age

WatsonDarwin

Approaches

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all individual differences

in behaviour are due to different

experiences of learning

I have called this principle...

Natural Selection

Behaviourism Biopsychology Psychodynamic Cognitive

the goal of all behaviour is

the reduction of tension

through the release of

energy, which produces pleasure

Children construct their own

knowledge in

response to their

experiences1

2 3 4

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Influences on development The Ecology of

Development – ‘ecology’ meaning the environmental conditions which a person experiences or is affected by, directly or indirectly – see Bronfenbrenner’s work (1979)

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Social and Emotional Development

Developmental psychologists who are interested in this aspect of development examine how individuals develop social and emotional competencies

Friendships Understanding and

dealing with emotions Development of

identity

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Contributions to psychologyDevelopmental Psychology have helped Psychologists to understand:

How children learn. The development of abstract thought. The development and variety of attachments. The development of language The effects of maternal deprivation and privation. The effects of day care on children’s cognitive and

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Early socialisation

The significance of attachment – implications for later social and emotional development – Bowlby (1969)

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Approaches to social development

1. The Psychodynamic approach – Freud – neo-Freudian Erikson

2. The Learning theory approach – Watson, Pavlov, Thorndike, Skinner, Bandura – Social Learning Theory

3. The Cognitive-developmental approach – social cognition – self-concept – gender role development – development of moral reasoning

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Social behaviour Moral development – psychodynamic,

learning theory and cognitive-developmental approaches – effects of parenting style, peer groups and wider social influences

Gender role development Understanding of the ‘self ’ and that of the

minds of other people (Theory of Mind) The development of self-esteem

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Cognitive Development Piaget’s (1936/1952) theory of cognitive

development Vygotsky Brunner The measurement of intelligence

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Adolescence and Adulthood Physical and psychological changes during

adolescence Factors that influence personality and social

development during adolescence Theories of development and change during

early, middle and later adulthood Impact of particular life events during adulthood

– marriage, parenting, divorce, unemployment, retirement, bereavement and death

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