Course 3506

Developmental Theory

Developmental psychology deals with growth in people toward their potential. Just as physical growth is determined partly by internal factors such as genetics as well as external factors such as nutrition, cognitive development is also subject to internal and external influences. Some views of development stress these factors to different degrees, but most theorists now agree that development is more than just a simple unfolding of potential which would occur no matter what circumstances a person experienced in life. This means that, since environmental factors vary, the development of individuals will vary. A further complication in this study is that development involves change in human capability. But so does learning. One way of viewing the difference between development and learning is to think of development in terms of the growth of human capabilities and learning in terms of the realization of these capabilities. This is easy to say, but sometimes difficult to do in practice.

We will look at the developmental theories of several theorists. Links to those theorists are found at the bottom of this page.

Some of the factors which affect development are maturation, active experience, social interaction, and cultural and situational contexts.

Maturation

The onset of puberty is a strong example of an aspect of maturation which teachers encounter in their students usually in the later elementary school grades. This maturation occurs at different ages for different children. Along with the physical signs, such as growth of beards on boys and changes in voice pitch, come psychosocial changes in the way children view themselves and are viewed by others. Similar differences can be found in such personal characterisitcs as students' physical skills, reasoning ability and emotional reactions. Children require help in dealing with both their own maturation or lack thereof and that of their peers.

Active experience

Physical manipulation of objects, such as disk drives and sound boards in a computer, can lead both to an understanding of how these physical components are arranged and interconnected, and to thought about their functions. We tend to find it easier to think about things that we have experienced than about what is merely described or presented at an abstract level. A simple example of this might be the way in which we view films set in foreign locales. Our experience of the film tends to be quite different if we have had the experience of being in that locale. One result of development is that we become less dependent on physical manipulation of objects in order to think about them.

Social interaction

We learn from and develop through our interaction with other people. Infants learn how physical movements are interpreted by those around them. This influences their development of a concept of causality. Beyond infancy, language becomes a powerful tool for manipulating ideas and seeing what other people think. This leads to the amazing discovery that others may think differently than I do.

Cultural and situational contexts

Where you grow up determines what demands are placed upon you. That is, your culture influences the capabilities that you develop. A non-print oriented culture will be unlikely to call forth a person's potential for reading and writing. That culture will make it important to develop memory abilities. Within a culture, the situational context will affect development in similar ways. Children have a strong tendency to take an interest in the things that their parents are interested in (within limits). In this way, situations can affect what capabilities are developed.

In this part of the course, we will look at the work of four theorists who have been influential in this area:

JEAN PIAGET is known primarily for his delineation of four stages of development, but we will examine more of his ideas in the area of cognitive views of learning.

LEV VYGOTSKY emphasized the importance of the sociocultural environment of person in coming to understand that person's cognitive development.

ERIK ERIKSON developed a theory of psychosocial development which is mainly aimed at understanding how a person achieves a sense of identity.

LAWRENCE KOHLBERG has contributed another stage theory. The emphasis in Kohlberg's theory is on the development of moral reasoning.