Theories of Human Development

Integrative Perspectives

THE MECAHNISTIC PERSPECTIVE – PART II

Dale Goldhaer

1. Learning Theory2. Social Learning Theory3. Information Processing Theory4. Developmental Behavior Generic Theory

Four Theories

pp. 2

LEARNING THEORY(Stimulus-response theory,

Behavior theory, conditioning theory)

John Watson, Clark Hull, Edward Tolman, B.F. Skinner

1. Russian Psychologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) Pavlovian conditioning: What makes a conditioning

stimulus is not some property inherent in that stimulus, but its association with a stimulus already possessing response-eliciting power

2. American Psychologist John Watson (1878-1958) Founder of modern behaviorism Little Albert experiments to demonstrate classical

conditioning of emotional responses Stimulus-response theory

The Origins of Learning Theory

Researchers were interested in investigating the variables that influence the formation of associations (i.e. learning)1.Methodological Learning Theory

Clark Hull, Kenneth Spence, Charles Spike, Tracy Kendler Reversal – non reversal shift studies

2.Radical Behaviorism B.F. Skinner, Donald Baer, Sidney Bijou Operant conditioning / response – stimulus 4 response consequences: positive and negative reinforcer,

punishment & extinction Single subject design – each subject serves as own control group

Modern Learning Theory

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Albert Bandura

Study consisted of a comparison between two sets of families – those having an adolescent with a history of aggressive antisocial behavior and those that did not

The aggressive adolescents were like small children whose impulses are held in check by internal rather than external restraints

Parents of the nonaggressive adolescents were much more effective in fostering an internalized sense of social control. They established and maintained a close, emotionally supportive relationship with their son by using discipline techniques that focused on the quality of the parent-child relationship rather than ridicule, physical punishment, and loss of privileges

Adolescent Aggression (1959)

Introduced the concept of vicarious reinforcement: Modeling of new behaviors is more dependent on the child’s observation of the response consequences to a model rather than on the direct experience of those consequences

“Bobo” experiments are probably most famous of this series of observational learning studies

Social Learning & Personality Development (1963)

The introduction of reciprocal determinism. The person becomes the generator of specific behaviors and the interpreter of the environment to which those behaviors are directed

Response consequences are seen as having 3 functions: (1) imparting information, (2) serving as motivators, and (3) regulating behavior.

Elements of social or observational learning process: (1) attention processes (various factors increase or decrease the amount of attention paid), retention processes (remembering what you paid attention to), motor reproduction processes (reproducing the image), and motivational processes (having a good reason to imitate)

Social Learning Theory (1977)

The causes of our behavior has shifted from a focus on how we react to the past and present to how we cognitively represent the future

Five basic capabilities regulate the process through which individuals regulate the reciprocal relations between person, behavior and environment:1. Symbolizing capability2. Vicarious capability (ability to learn through observing actions of others)3. Forethought capability (symbolically represent the future in the present.

We learn from our experiences)4. Self-regulatory capability (internal control mechanisms). Degree of self-

efficacy is the interaction of 2 internal regulatory mechanisms-our belief that we are or are one capable of a particular act and our beliefs about the desirability of that act.

5. Self-reflective capability: capability to make judgment as to our ability to exercise control over the events that affect our lives

Social Cognitive Theory (1986)

INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY

Robert Siegler, Katherine Nelson, Robert Sternberg

1. Decline of learning theory in the 1950s and 1960s

2. Examination of the mechanistic psychologists in the 1960s and 1070s of Piaget’s theoretical arguments

“training studies” in the 1960s and 1970s to test Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

3. Growing interest in computers Information processing theorists began to consider the

implications of conceptualizing the human mind as an information processing mechanism in the same sense that the computer was conceptualized as doing so

The Origins of Information Processing Perspective

1. Cognitive activity as the processing of symbols (“thinking is information processing”)

2. Cognitive activity as the functioning of a few basic elements (complex cognitive activity can be best understood as reflecting the actions of a number of more specific sub processes)

3. Higher order cognition as a coordinated process (cognitive processes relevant to a particular type of information operate in concert with one another)

4. Cognitive change through self-modification (outcomes generated by the child’s own activities change the way the child processes information in the future)

Commonly Held Assumptions of the Information Processing

Perspective

Basic Elements of an Information

Processing System

Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968

1. The hardware is the cognitive structure(s) that stores the information

2. The software are the cognitive processes that act on the information

3. Three levels of processing structures: sensory registers through which data enters the system through one of the senses, short-term working memory where information is actively processed, and long-term memory structure where information is stored.

Siegler’s Information Processing Approach to Children’s Problem

Solving1. The Distributions of Associations

Model hypothesizes that two factors influence the retrieval effort: (a) a confidence criterion, and (b) a search length

2. The model predicts that the child will first attempt to use the most efficient strategy possible.

1st strategy: retrieve answer stored in long term memory

2nd strategy: elaboration of the representation (use of prompt that might aid in retrieving the correct answer)

3rd strategy: a problem solving strategy or algorithm

3. The probabliltiy of an answer being retrieved on any one occurrence is a function of that answer’s association strength

4. One key element in children’s acquiring new problem solving strategies is their ability to form a “goal sketch” of the problem (a general sense of what an appropriate problem solving strategy needs to look like)Distributions of Associations Model

1. Nelson’s work focused on the cognitive representations of ordered sequences of action that are held in the long term memory (or scripts)

2. Scripts make it possible to both predict and plan for future encounters, to guide actions within a familiar setting

3. Scripts are also important in the subsequent development of the ability to process truly abstract representation

4. Parents serve to scaffold or help support their young children’s experiences through the types of questions they ask, the degree to which they talk about past, present, and future events, etc.

Nelson’s Information Processing Approach for Children’s Event

Knowledge

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory Robert Sternberg’s theory offers

an explanation of the cognitive mechanisms that individuals use to adapt to the everyday demands of life, and in turn, the way these events further define the structure and operation of these cognitive structures and operations.

Intelligence reflects the operation of 3 elements or subtheories:

1. Componential 2. Experiential 3. Contextual

Intelligence is not random – it is an activity purposefully directed toward 3 global goals (1) adaptation to the environment, (2) shaping of an environment, and (3) selection of an environment

DEVELOPMENTAL BEHAVIOR GENETIC PERSPECTIVE

Plomin, Scarr

1. Focus on evolutionary perspective Emphasis on 2 concepts: genetic variation and natural selection

2. A focus on polygenetic inheritance These behavior geneticists are interested in those behavior

phenotypes that are polygenetic in origin – caused by the combined influence of many different genes

3. A focus on differentiating genetic and environmental influence

Emphasis on how this intergenerational, polygenetic process is reflected in the behavioral phenotypes of individuals

Basic Assumptions of a Developmental Behavior Genetic Perspective

1. Animal research methods Selective breeding experiments

2. Human research methods• Comparisons between genetically different individuals in normally

existing environment

3. Kinship studies Comparing MZ (genetically identical) and DZ (similar genetically as non

twin sibling) twins

4. Adoption studies Correlations between “child-adopted parent’ and “child-biological parent”

as a test of relative influence of heredity and environment

Methods of Data Collection & Analysis

Scarr & McCartney (1983)

0

2 0

4 0

6 0

8 0

1 00

1 2 0

Age

Passive Gene-Environment Effects(early in the lifespan)

Active Gene –Environment Effects(niche picking – picking out environments in which one feels comfortable)

Evocative Gene – Environment Effects(Occurs because different genotypes elicit or evoke different

responses from others in that child’s environment)

1. Heredity is a significant determinant of the variability in behavioral phenotypes at all ages

2. When hereditability estimates change over the life span, they increase (environments become more diverse because individuals become more diverse)

3. Genetics plays an increasingly significant role in individual variability because most environmental influences are of the non-shared versus the shared variety

4. Specific genes will be found that affect experience

Plomin’s Theoretical Perspective