Chapter 5 Social Theories of Development and Learning Part 2

• English
• Year 3

The Psychosexual Stage Theory

~ Social learning theory emphasizes the role of the situation in determining behavior that the way children develop depends on what they observe as well as what the environment reinforces and punishes.

~Sigmund Fred was a physician by training, but more importantly, he was completely immersed in the scientific thinking of his time.

~ Freud proposed that much behavior was determined by unconscious processes, sexual, and aggressive instinctual processes, an idea very much in contrast with the prevailing belief that behavior was rationally determined.

~ Freud referred to the unconscious as the primary process; it contrasted with the secondary process, which was responsible for more rational and logical processes.

Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms

~ According to Freudian Theory, anxiety is an omni[resent danger, capable of overwhelming the individual.

~ A fact of life for Freudians is that humans are always at risk for being instinctually impulsive.

~ That is, the risk of the id overwhelming the ego is always present.

Anna Freud

~ Anna Freud viewed defense mechanisms as appropriate during childhood when the ego is undeveloped and needs protection from being overwhelmed by anxiety and instinct. 

~ When defense mechanisms persist after childhood, for the most part, the result usually is immature and neurotic thinking.

Unconscious and Conscious Processing

~Freud's belief that both conscious and unconscious thinking occurs is receiving renewed attention.  Epstein reviewed various types of evidence consistent with the idea that thinking is dualistic, that humans sometimes process information holistically rather than analytically, emotionally rather than rationally, and imagistically rather than verbally.

~ Cognitive scientists also are examining relationships between conscious and unconscious processing.

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Psychoanalysis and Education

~ Psychoanalytic theory inspired educational reform in the first of the 20th century, particularly the mental hygiene movement was to apply theories of psychiatry and psychology in schools with the goal of curbing delinquency and improving the mental health of children, thereby bettering society as a whole.

~ The mental hygiene movement was critical of conventional parenting, regarding it as being too controlling.

Evaluation of Freudian Theory

~  Freudian theory was very vague, and it has proven difficult to test definitively. When important Freudian applications were advised and implemented, such as schools based on psychoanalytic ideas about development, formal evaluations were rare.

~When researchers were able to devise tests of Freud's theory, it often was not supported.

~ Like Freud, Erik Erikson proposed a theory of personality development.

~Erik proposed that much of the most important development came later, with development continuing across the lifespan.

~Over the curse of his career, Erikson studied many different types of people and was struck by the adaptability of people to their surroundings.

Ethnic and Racial Identity

~ When Erikson spent time with two Native American tribes, the Yurok and the Sioux, he recognized that their developmental patterns were different not only from each other but also from those in white America and Europe.

~ In the last few decades, a significant amount of the research on identity development has explored the role of ethnic and racial identity in the developmental process.