Theory and research

Theory

Set of logically related concepts that seek to organize, explain, and predict data

Hypothesis
Possible explanations for phenomena, used to predict the outcome of research

The 2 issues

• is development Active or Reactive?
• Is development continuous or discontinuous?

Mechanistic Model
views human development as a predictable response to stimuli

Organismic Model
views human development as internally initiated by an active organism occurring in distinctive stages

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

• Psychoanalytic
• learning
• cognitive
• contexual

PSYCHOANALYTICAL

• view of human development as being shaped by unconscious forces
• Freud-Psychosexual
• Erikson- psychosocial

Freud

• biological drives
• shift from oral to anal to genital
• id-pleasure principle
• ego- reality principle
• superego- conscience and societal norms

ERIKSON 8 STAGES
TRUST VERSUS MISTRUST AUTONOMY VERSUS SHAME INITIATIVE VERSUS GUILT
INDUSTRY VERSUS INFERIORITY IDENTITY VERSUS IDENTITY CONFUSION
INTIMACY VERSUS ISOLATION GENERATIVETY VERSUS ISOLATION INTEGRITY VERSUS DESPAIR

Learning
View of Human development which holds that changes in behavior result from experiences or adaptation to the environment

BEHAVIORISM

• identifies roll of the environment in causing behavior
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning

Observational learning and modeling

Social cognitive theory

Cognitive

• View that thought processes are central to development
• Piaget's stages
• Vygotsky's social-cultural theory

Piaget

• Schema
• sensorimotor
• preoperational
• concrete operational
• formal operational

Vygotsky

• children learn through social interaction
• scaffolding

COntectual

• see's the the individual as inseparable from the social context
• see fig 2-1

Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory

• microsystem-everyday environment
• mesosystem- interlocking of microsystems
• exosystem- linkages between microsystem and outside systems
• macrosystem- overarching cultural patterns
• chronosystem- dimension of time/change

EVOLUTIONARY/SOCIOBIOLOGICAL

• behaviors are based in biology
• an unconscious drive for survival leads to adaptive behaviors

RESEARCH

• Quantitative versus qualitative
• sampling
• Data collection
• research design

DATA COLLECTION

• SELF REPORTS
• NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION
• LABORATORY OBSERVATION
• BEHAVIORAL AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES

RESEARCH DESIGNS

• CASE STUDY
• ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY
• CORRELATION STUDY
• EXPERIMENT

CASE STUDY

• STUDY OF A SIGNLE SUBJECT

ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

• IN DEPTH STUDY OF A CULTURE

CORRELATION STUDY

• attempts to find statistical relationships between variables

EXPERIMENT

• well controlled procedure in which the researcher manipulates variables