Theories of Psychological Development - AP Psychology

"Preconventional" is an early stage of moral development that describes the stage at which decisions are made purely based on "reward and punishment", as opposed to "ethics and morals." Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a theory of moral development that centered on three primary stages: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Each of these major stages has two subdivisions. The preconventional stage focuses on reward and punishment, and is relatively oriented around the self. The conventional stsge begins to introduce social norms and morals, while the postconventional stage focuses on social contracts and ethics.

Freud posited that there are five stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

The sensorimotor stage of development comes from Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

Motivation is not included among the list of human needs according to Maslow. Maslow identified five levels in his hierarchy: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.

Authoritative child-rearing and parenting entails high acceptance and involvement with reasonable control/demands and autonomy of children. The scenario described in this question best corresponds to this style of parenting.

Authoritarian child-rearing and parenting emphasizes strict rules and control, with little acceptance and autonomy of children.

Permissive child-rearing and parenting entails high acceptance of children, but parents tend to act more as "friends" with their children by not setting clear expectations, granting too much autonomy, and spoiling children.

Uninvolved child-rearing and parenting often conveys disinterest or emotional detachment from children. Beyond providing for children's basic needs (e.g., food, clothes, shelter), parents tend to not be actively involved or emotionally available for children.

Social Learning Theory stems from behaviorism and operant conditioning, and it emphasizes imitation, modeling, and reinforcement to encourage appropriate behavior.

Unconscious conflicts and resolutions are linked more to psychoanalytic theory, whereas self-directed behavior is associated more with Piagetian ideals of actively exploring one's world to facilitate learning.

Emotionality and attachment are related more to social-emotional development than cogntiive development and learned behavior.

Erik Erikson believes that each age group has to deal with a psychosocial conflict in order to successfully develop. In infancy, infants wonder if they can trust the people around them. If an infant successfully develops trust, he or she will feel safe in the world.

During the phallic stage (ages 3 to 5), Freud believed that young boys desire their mother - but because the boys cannot have their mother, they identify with their father and take on a male gender role.

The "Strange Situation" experiment began by placing a mother alone in a room with her child. After some time, a stranger enters the room, and the mother leaves the room shortly after the stranger's entrance. A short time later, the mother returns and the stranger leaves. Following this, the mother again leaves the room and returns after a brief period in which the child is alone in the room.

The purpose of this study was to examine the infant's behavior when "abandoned" by his/her mother, and his/her reaction when the mother returned to the room. The children were then classified into three kinds of attachment to their mothers.

Authoritarian parents prioritize the obedience of their children, and are more likely to punish bad behavior than to reward good behavior. This tends to more often produce anger, distrust, and withdrawal in children raised in Authoritarian households than in children raised in Authoritative or Permissive homes.

Freud's stages of human development focus heavily on sex and aggression, and largely do not account for social influences beyond relationships with one's parents, and after puberty. Eriksen found all of these features of Freud's theory problematic.

In the preoperational stage (~2-7 years old), a human can speak and understand language, but cannot yet comprehend concrete logic or complex relationships between characteristics of objects. Piaget also characterizes this as a stage of egocentrism.

Jean Piaget's term schemata refers to cognitive rules/frameworks/blueprints ("schematics") with which humans interpret the world around them. As humans develop through childhood, their schemata are challenged and change to assimilate new knowledge and logic.

In contrast to Jean Piaget's 4 stages, the Information-Processing Model suggests continuous, gradual development, the rate of which depends on the individual and the information presented to them. This model also tends to draw illustrative examples of human cognition and information processing from the way computers process information.

Nature vs. nurture refers to the debate over which of the two aspects has greater influence on human behavior. Erik Erikson developed a psychosocial theory which proposed 8 stages throughout life: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and lastly integrity vs. despair.

Freud, Erik Erikson, Piaget, and Kohlberg all developed theories of development that involved stages, whereas Skinner focused on classical conditioning.

Freud came up with the psychosexual stages of development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Erik Erikson came up with eight stages of social development (ex: trust vs. mistrust). Piaget came up with the stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Kohlberg came up with the stages of moral development: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional.

Resolving the conflict of autonomy vs. shame is the developmental task of the second stage of Erik Erikson's 8-stage model of psychosocial development. Typically, it is during this stage that a developing child learns to toilet train and to get dressed. Erikson described this stage as the time in which a sense of personal control over physical tasks was developed. If conquered successfully, the fruits of this stage are feelings of autonomy. The other answers are all stages in Erikson's model, but not his second stage.

In Maslow's proposed a hierarchy of needs, the need to become self-actualized was at the pinnacle of the hierarchy. Self-actualization can be defined as the state in which a person has reached his personal highest level of psychological health and ability. Another way of stating this is reaching one's full growth potential. Maslow made new distinctions between Eastern and Western cultures, but did imply that those of the more elite classes would be more likely to attain this status but only fleetingly.

The characteristics of secure attachment in young children include exploring new places but using their parent as a secure base, having separation anxiety, having stranger anxiety, and being comforted by their parent’s return.

The characteristics of ambivalent attachment in young children include not exploring new places, are distressed when separated from the primary care giver, are not comforted or seem angry when they are reunited with the parent, and are clingy.