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Sigmund Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development
Freud is really one of the first psychologists to try to conceptualize human development. Freud believed that development in childhood takes place in series of fixed psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Freud believed that life was built around tension and pleasure and that development would also be affected by these two things (McLeod, 2017). He stressed one must develop in a way to control the emotions of their id, superego, and ego (McLeod, 2017). -
John Watson and Emergence of Behaviorist Theories
Watson proposed the process of classical conditioning (Pavlov’s experiment) can be applied to and explain all aspects of human psychology (McLeod, 2018). He introduces the idea that everything from speech to emotional responses are simply patterns of stimulus and response. His ideas would give rise to later behaviorist theories such as Skinner’s behaviorist perspective (McLeod, 2018). -
Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
Piaget proposed the idea that children would only be able to fully grasp some concepts within specific developmental stages (i.e. sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages) (Berk, 2013). Piaget believed children used language differently in each stage and that language plays a huge role in cognitive development (McLeod, 2018). Fun fact: children can begin to use language to express and discuss abstract concepts after reaching the formal operational stage. -
B. F. Skinner's Behaviorist Perspective
Skinner uses ideas based upon those of Watson and other behavioristic theorists to create his own theory of behavior. Skinner creates a theory which postulates that everything we do is dictated by our environment and our behavior is a response to external stimuli (Demirezen, 1988). Skinner also believes that language acquisition is dictated by our environment and the positive or negative reinforcement we receive from it (Demirezen, 1988). -
Noam Chomsky and the Nativist Theory
Chomsky proposes the idea of language acquisition device (LAD) which is an innate system that: 1) permits children, once they have acquired sufficient vocabulary, to combine words into novel, grammatically consistent phrases and 2) allows children to understand the meaning of sentences they hear (Berk, 2013). Chomsky also believed the idea of universal grammar in that there are deep structures and surface structures in every sentence regardless of what language it is in (Berk, 2013). -
Eric Lenneberg's Critical Period of Language Acquisition
Although he was a linguist rather than a psychologist, Lenneberg was one of the first to propose there is a critical period for language acquisition and believed the period ends around the age of 12 years old. He believed that if no language was learned before this age, then language could not be learned in a normal and functional sense (Trettenbrein, 2012). Case Study: Genie https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201707/the-feral-child-nicknamed-genie -
John Bowlby's Attachment Theory
Bowlby proposed a theory that attachment develops in four phases: preattachment, attachment-in-the-making, clear-cut, and formation of a reciprocal relationship. He saw that the development of attachment in each phase as an important, complex process that affects later development in a person’s life (Berk, 2013). Mary Ainsworth would expand on this idea and create 4 different attachment styles. Both theorists show how important attachment is for both early and later development (Berk, 2013). -
Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory
Considered a neo-Freudian, Erikson created an eight-stage theory of psychosocial development that focuses on social interactions (rather than sexual interests) and conflicts that arise during different stages of development (Cherry, 2019). In this theory, development is focused on throughout the lifespan and both children and adults will face developmental crisis (i.e. trust vs. mistrust or intimacy vs. isolation) which serve as major turning points in development (Cherry, 2019). -
Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory
Bandura's theory believes that new patterns of behavior can be acquired through direct experience or by observing the behavior of others (Bandura, 1971). This theory can be important for both language and emotional development of people. Learning language can be thought of in the context of this theory because one can learn language by direct observations/experiences, by learning through modeling, or by listening/observing others (Berk, 2013). -
Lev Vygotsky's Constructivist Learning Theory
Vygotsky's theory is a theory of social development and proposes knowledge is a construction of meaning unique to the individual (Berk, 2013). He saw consciousness and cognition as the end product of socialization and social behavior. His theory contained three major themes regarding social interaction, the more knowledgeable other, and the zone of proximal development. Additionally, Vygotsky's theory places more emphasis on culture and how it affects cognitive development (McLeod, 2018).
