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Theories of Development

(8-29-16)

Models of individual-environment interaction

  • organismic (related ideas: “biological” or “organic” theories; “nature” perspectives on the nature vs. nature question)
    • change is qualitative, the organism is active in development, and inherent (intrinsic, biological) forces drive development
    • usually formulated in stage theories of development
    • Dr. Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) studied child development and published a number of influential texts (along with Ilg and Ames), such as: Your Child From Five to Ten
      • hereditary influences drove the “unfolding” of inherent tendencies in the child, emphasized developmental milestones in studying child development
  • mechanistic (related ideas: “learning” or “experiential” theories; more”nurture” on the nature–nurture dimension)
    • change is quantitative, the organism is passive in development, and environmental forces (external, learning) forces drive development
      • [the issue of the organism being passive vs. active is really a separate issues; more recent learning theories tend emphasize the organism as a more active agent]
    • growth occurs through exposure to new learning opportunities
    • usually formulated in additive/continuous theories of development
    • Social learning models of personality usually takes this form, although more recent theories (such as those by Mischel) tend not to view the organism as passive in their interactions with the environment
  • interactionist (related ideas: “multifactorial” theories)
    • change is multidirectional and multidimensional, the organism is active in development, and biological and learning (nature and nurture) are reciprocal forces that drive development
    • multidirectionalilty: multiple pathways in development
    • plasticity: the course of development can be altered, it is not “fixed” by even highly significant events (trauma, illness, success, failure)
    • reciprocal nature of development: individuals are both influenced by their environments and influence their environments, development is transactional
    • Today, almost all developmental models are interactional (at least in philosophy), the details of exactly how to most accurately and usefully map out biological/genetic and experiential/learning effects remains a great challenge

Sociocultural models of development

Bronfenbrenner proposed a model of development that considered multiple levels of relationships between the individual and their world (including their self) which influence on the person:

  • Ecological Perspective
    • Biological: physiological processes
    • Adaptational processes: cognitive processes, personality, coping responses
    • Proximal Social Relational processes: family, peers, school, work
    • Sociocultural processes: government, schools, public policies, economic systems
  • Life Course Perspective: different theoretical models that emphasize the influence of norms, roles and attitudes in shaping development
    • Disengagement theory: loosening social ties
    • Activity theory: involvement
    • Continuity theory: the personality of the aging individual sets an optimal balance between disengagement and activity
  • Ageism: beliefs, attitudes, social institutions or acts reflecting a negative bias based on chronological age
    • may reflect negative attitudes toward death and dying
    • modernization hypothesis suggests that urbanization and industrialization has decreased the value of senior citizens
    • multiple jeopardy hypothesis: people in more than one stigmatized category are affected by the combined negative bias of these negative status dynamics
    • age-as-leveler hypothesis: age overrides other negative status assignments
    • inoculation hypothesis: minorities and women become immune to effects of ageism
    • social clock: normative expectations for the ages at which major life events should occur

Psychological models of development

Personality models

  • Erik Erikson (1902-1994) developed a life span psychological theory of development based on psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theory (Freud)
    • We all live with expensive ghosts in memory’s unmade bed, for what we do not remember remembers us nonetheless.”(Hollis, 2005, p. 20)
    • foundational role of early life events (early life experiences are very important)
    • development occurs in discontinuous stages
    • influences that may operate outside our recognition/awareness (unconscious)
    • emotional (drive) mechanisms tend to predominate over cognitive (rational) controls under many conditions
  • Erikson focused on the ego (adaptive) elements of personality and proposed a psychosocial stage model (epigenetic principle) of development
    • basic trust vs. mistrust (similar to Freud’s oral stage)
    • autonomy vs. shame & doubt (anal stage)
    • initiative vs. guilt (phallic stage and Oedipal conflict)
    • industry vs. inferiority (Freud’s latency period)
    • identity achievement vs. identify diffusion (Freud’s genital stage)
      • Who am I?
      • The emphasis/challenge becomes defining yourself, your values, your interests, your ambitions and goals.
      • [although the ideas of identity achievement, struggling for identity, identity conflict have enjoyed much popularity; productive research outcomes have been meager and often inconsistent]
    • intimacy vs. isolation (mutually satisfying and committed relationship)
      • Can I be with another without losing myself?
      • can you be in a committed, mutually supportive relationship? can you (sometimes) place another person’s interests above your own? can you achieve a balance of empathy and need?
      • The emphasis/challenge becomes working out how you will live in a world of other people, how you will relate to them, how much you can give and how much you can expect from “the other.”
    • generativity vs. stagnation (procreation, productivity, creativity)
      • What do I do with this life?
      • The emphasis/challenge becomes what will be your life’s work: your career/craft, your children, your personal development, your service to others. Erikson believed that: “Generativity, then, if primarily the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation,”, “the concept generativity is meant to include such more popular synonyms as productivity and creativity, which, however, cannot replace it.” (Erikson, 1963, p. 267)
    • ego integrity vs. despair (choices and acceptance)
      • What did it all mean? Have I wasted my life? Did I make the right choices?
      • The emphasis/challenge becomes how you come to terms with what your life has been; and your capacity to be content with and defend this–the one, unique, and finite life that has been yours.
  • The major contributions of Erikson’s work have been the shift of focus to the adaptive aspects of development, the recognition of the role of social forces, the reciprocal nature of development, and the focus on lifespan development
  • Also developing out of psychodynamic models of personality: attachment theory models of development, which have increasing considered how “attachment style”, “internal working models”, and related ideas play out in adult life and change/stability of personality and interpersonal adjustment

Cognitive models

  • Jean Piaget: a stage model of cognitive development
    • adaptation of schemas via assimilation & accommodation to achieve equilibrium; people are actively working to make sense of and succeed in their world
    • assimilation: new experiences are dealt with by existing cognitive processes and structures (schemas)
    • accommodation: new experiences are dealt with by changing existing schemas
    • equilibrium: a balance between internal structures and information encountered in the world
  • Lev Vygotsky
  • sociocultural theory: focuses on how culture is transmitted to next generation
    • social interaction is the mechanism through which children acquire ways of thinking and behaving
    • social influences, especially as these come to be mediated by language, shape the cognitive processes of the individual
    • Vygotsky believed that children begin to communicate with themselves in much the same way as they converse with others
    • Vygotsky described children’s learning as occurring within the zone of proximal development–a range of tasks not yet within the child’s ability but possible with assistance
      • teaching is most effective if it makes use of scaffolding, adjusting the feedback and support to the child’s current level of performance
      • children incorporate their dialogues with adults and make it part of their private speech, which is then used to organize their independent efforts
      • make believe play served as an ideal social context for fostering cognitive development
    • Although most research to date has focused on Vygotsky’s theory as it applies to childhood, his ideas apply to all ages of life: cultures emphasizes certain tasks for their members for success, and these are leaned though interaction with models from within that culture.

Biological models of development

Aging: Why do we age?

  • Theories of aging and death can be grouped into two major categories:
    • Programmed theories of aging: a biological master plan
      • while the average life span of humans has increased in many nations, the maximum life span of approximately 120 years appears not to have increased
      • replication senescence: loss of the ability of cells to reproduce
        • human cells in a culture will only reproduce about 50 times (plus or minus 10): Hayflick limit: Leonard Hayflict, a cellular biologist, observed that human embryo cell would only devide about 50 times and then enter a state of “replicative senescense”, he proposed that there is a genetic limit to the upper age of each species. Longer lived species such as Galapagos tortoises divide approximately 100 times; shorter lived species such as chicken embryos divide only 25 times. Hayflict suggested that “primary aging” reflected a built in genetic limit (approximately 110 to 120 years of age in humans)
        • telomeres: DNA caps on chromosomes that shorten with chromosome reproduction
        • this feature (replication senescence) may act (have been selected for in our evolution) as a limiting factor on the risk of harmful mutations (such as cancer), which increase in probability with multiple replications
    • Damage theories of aging: random insults to the body structures leading to compromised functioning
      • damage by “free radicals”; “oxidative stress theory”: charged particles resulting from oxidation can bind with and damage or impair the functioning of other molecules in our bodies
        • “age spots” on the skin of older people, cardiovascular disease, cancer, some aspects of Alzheimer’s disease, and other aging of the brain reflect possible effects of free radical damage
        • antioxidants (chemical which prevent or neutralize free radicals)
      • cross-linkage theory of aging:
        • the protein fibers that make up our body’s connective tissues become bound up with connections not originally present, leading to negative outcomes (loss of flexibility in the skin and other organs, clouding of the lens of the eye, clogging of arteries, and damage to the kidneys)
      • changes in endocrine system, which produces and regulates hormones
        • decreased efficiency in hormonally controlled homeostasis lead to progressive negative changes in our bodies
        • decreased estrogen production in women culminates in menopause
      • metabolic theories
        • caloric restriction increases life span in many species
      • declines in immune system, “autoimmune theory”
        • decreased efficiency of our protective systems (beginning after age 20) exposes us to greater damage by harmful influences
    • Neither broad group of theories provide a total explanation of why we age and die, and both these factors can influence the other:
      • “genes influence the capacity of cells to repair environmentally caused damage and the damage caused by free radicals alters genetic material.” (Sigelman & Rider, 2009, p. 504)
  • Primary aging (senescence): the underlying, inevitable aging process
    • which may reflect:
      • genetic influences: familial effects on longevity
      • accumulated damage, “random events” theories
      • or, quite possibly, both sorts of influences
  • Secondary aging: the process of environmental influences, health habits, and disease
    • these factors can clearly (and potently) be affected by our choices
    • exercise may affect telomere length (Cherkas, Hunkin, Kato, et al., 2008)
    • How to live longer:
      • exercise (live longer, live better, live happier)
      • choose you diet well
      • stay engaged with life (socially, congitively, helpfully)

Next topic: Research in adult development and aging

Friday’s thought:

“A typical human heart beats between sixty and a hundred times a minute. In the modern world, where we are the beneficiaries of advanced medicine and nutrition, humans live on average for about twice as long as West’s scaling laws would predict. Call it 3 billion heartbeats.
Three billion isn’t such a big number. What are you going to do with your heartbeats?”

(Carroll, 2016, p. 389)

“Three billion heartbeats. The clock is ticking.”

(Carroll, 2016, p. 433)
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