The 9 main theories about development

Developmental psychology is responsible for the study of human beings throughout all their vital stages. Analyzes how cognition develops and how behavior changes during growth. It is an interesting discipline that contributes a multitude of knowledge to the field of applied psychology.

To understand this important field of knowledge and not get lost along the way, we are going to describe the nine main theories on which it is based. TO through From them we will be able to understand and explain the advances that have occurred in developmental psychology during recent decades.

Theories about development

These nine theories about development that we are going to talk about from an evolutionary perspective are Gestalt, psychoanalysis, Erikson’s psychosocial development, behaviorism, cognitive psychology, the ecological approach, Piaget’s constructivist approach and Vygotsky’s cultural psychology.

1. Gestalt psychology

It was one of the first currents that emerged in psychology. Today some of his knowledge has become obsolete, however, his approach to perception was undoubtedly revolutionary. Furthermore, although the psychologists assigned to it are less known in the study of development, the truth is that they also stood out in this field.

Gestalt defends that we use a series of structures to know. These would have a physical basis and would impose their qualities regarding our evolution. In other words, development has a biological foundation that we learn to use as we grow.

Thus, for this theoretical approach There would not be a “development” in the aspect of genesis and evolutionary stages, but rather a progressive discovery of the brain’s capabilities.. However, current psychology shows us that this is not true and there really is genesis and evolution in cognitive processes.

2. Freud and psychosexual development

Psychoanalysis is a movement with a very clear father: Sigmund Freud. This approach emphasizes unconscious impulses and their effects on our behavior.

Although this branch suffered from an unscientific method and its postulates lack the principle of parsimony, it is no less true that it has had a great impact on the study of development and that its theories represented a revolution with respect to the conception that was held. childhood and adolescence from psychology.

Regarding development, It is considered that this happens because the child needs to satisfy a series of needs at each evolutionary stage. Therefore, it classifies development into a series of stages depending on how the satisfaction of that series of needs is established. Psychoanalysis has also emphasized the importance of sexuality in all stages of our development, including the early ones.

The evolutionary stages that Freud postulated are the following:

Oral stage. It develops in the first 18 months of a child’s life. According to Freud, the child seeks pleasure through the mouth. This would be the reason why children tend to bite and/or suck it all.Anal stage. It ranges from 18 months to 3 years. The important thing is the sphincter control. This control leads the child to a sense of achievement and independence.Phallic stage. Between 3 and 6 years old. The pleasure zone would be genitals. His curiosity also arises in the differences between men and women. Freud also claimed that girls felt penis envy and that is never resolved satisfactorily.Latency stage. He goes from 6 years old until the beginning of puberty. There is no specific erogenous zone. The libido is not that strong. The development of the ego and the superego help to reduce it. They are more dedicated to social interaction.genital stage. From puberty onwards. It is related to physical changes. The pleasure zones are the genitals, but on this occasion seek contact with other people. He is born interest in sex and sexual relations.

3. Erikson and psychosexual development

This perspective is also a psychoanalytic theory. Erikson, like Freud, proposed that there are different stages of development. He thought that the different stages allowed the acquisition of certain competencies that helped the individual achieve the goals that will arise during the next life stage. This is how development and growth occur.
The stages that Erikson postulated are:

Stage 1. Trust vs. distrust (0-18 months). It takes place after birth. In it, the first task of the ego is the development of trust.Stage 2. Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt (18 months-3 years). At this stage, children acquire a certain degree of control over their body, which in turn causes their autonomy to grow. Stage 3. Initiative vs. Guilt (3-5 years). Children begin to strengthen their power over the world through play. She grows interested in interacting with others to test her own abilities. Stage 4. Industriousness vs. Inferiority (5-13 years). At this stage, children replace their desire to play to be more productive and complete more difficult tasks.Stage 5. Identity vs. Identity Dissemination (13-21 years). Children become teenagers. They find their sexual identity and begin to design a future image of what they want to be.Stage 6. Intimacy vs. Isolation (21-39 years). At this stage, people begin to draw limits on what the person will not sacrifice to please others.Stage 7. Generativity vs. Stagnation (40-65 years). People recognize that life is not just about them. Through their actions, they hope to make contributions that become legacies.

4. Behavioral theories

This current was born in response to the lack of scientific attitude of psychoanalysis. It is extremely positivist; Everything that cannot be measured directly, for them, is outside the study of psychology. Therefore, they only studied the relationship between stimuli and behavior, ignoring any intermediate variables that could not be measured.

For behaviorists, development is only understood through the different types of learning. The child is born with a series of unconditioned and innate responses, which through experience he associates with other stimuli. Through very simple processes he generates a multitude of complex behaviors. The problem with this theory is that it can be too reductionist.

5. Albert Bandura’s social learning theory

Albert Bandura, going beyond the classic behaviorist conceptions, proposed that learning is mediated by the different social interactions that we have from the moment of our birth. In this way, it gave an important place to both the internal motivations of individuals and social aspects linked to learning and modeling new behaviors.

Thus, according to Bandura, own expectations regarding performance are fundamental in the learning process, as well as the observation of actions carried out by others (parents, adults, peers) in the development of new skills.

6. Cognitive psychology

It arises as a reaction to behaviorism, and is concerned with studying the internal processes that can mediate between a certain stimulus and a certain behavior. This is where computational and connectionist perspectives on the human brain are born. Today, cognitive psychology is the most supported perspective, especially in Europe.

Regarding the study of development, Cognitive psychology proposes that the subject is a processor of information who builds internal representations of what the world is like.. This principle of constructivism brings cognitive theory closer to Piaget and Vygotsky. However, it distances itself from them because it understands development processes as associative.

7. The ecological approach

The Ecological theory has focused on the complexities of environments and their links to development. Human development is inseparable from the context in which a person lives and grows.
This approach asserts that all aspects of development are interconnected. So, no element can be isolated from the others and understood independently.
The exponent of this perspective is Urie Bronfenbrenner, who proposed that individuals are part of a series of complex and interactive systems:

Microsystem. It is the basic environment in which the individual develops. It includes family and school.Mesosystem. It consists of the interactions established between the elements of the microsystem. For example, the relationship between family and school, or between teachers and families, etc. Exosystem. It refers to the contexts that influence microsystems. For example, the work of the parents, the relationship of the school with the place in which it is located. Macrosystem. They are the structural conditions. For example, culture, institutions, state policies, etc.

8. Jean Piaget’s constructivist approach

Piaget is one of the great references in theories on development. He is considered one of the fathers of constructivism. He starts from the idea that the construction of a child’s world and his way of doing it will depend on the problems that arise. His theory of development focuses on the formation of knowledge.

Through his constructivist perspective, he developed a theory that divided development into a series of stages.. These stages are universal and all subjects would go through them at similar ages.

Piaget emphasizes the maturation process. Through this process a balance is found between the individual and the demands of the environment. At the same time, it also raises a assimilation process of external reality and another process of accommodation from our structures to the environment.

9. The cultural psychology of Lev Vygotsky

Vygotsky is another of the great references in theories on development. Like Piaget, he proposed development from constructivism. However, despite agreeing on the perspective, they focused his attention on different points: while Piaget focused on how the individual interacted with his environment, Vygotsky focused on the cultural and social effects that influenced development.

For Vygotsky, development was inseparable from the social environment., since culture and society are what transmit the forms of behavior and organization of knowledge. Of course, it is not a copy and paste process, the child constructs his reality through what society tells him. This theoretical postulate is known as socioconstructivism.

It is an interesting paradigm with many possibilities. Although many people consider Vygotsky’s thinking as opposed to Piaget’s, in reality they can be easily reconciled.. But, to do this, we have to take a broader perspective that acts from different levels and ways of investigating.

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