Week 2 · Chapter

Chapter 2 — Theories of Development

Child Development Free sample edition

The module's primary reading · ~35–45 minutes · Objective 1 (explain child development's domains, periods, and core questions (nature and nurture, continuity and discontinuity), the ecological systems model, and the major theories of development, describing what each theory explains and what it leaves out) · Read it first this week; the lecture, the slide deck, the tutorial, the quiz, and the Child Observation Workshop all build on it.

In plain language

When you watch a child, you start guessing why the child acts that way. A theory (an organized explanation that can be tested) turns those guesses into something careful. This week you meet the major theories of child development, from Erikson's stages to the study of learning by watching. Each theory is a different lens, like a different pair of glasses that brings some things into focus and blurs others. By the end, you will read one toddler's moment through three lenses and say what each one adds.

Why you already care about this

In the psychosocial theory Erik Erikson set out in Childhood and Society (1950), a toddler's stubborn push to do things alone is not the nuisance you might think. It is a sign of growth. You have probably seen that moment yourself. A small child at a family dinner refuses help with a spoon. A nephew at a park insists on climbing the ladder alone. Someone nearby says, "That's the terrible twos," and someone else says, "No, he copies his big sister." Both people are offering a theory, whether they call it one or not.

Here is the moment this chapter keeps coming back to. It comes from the course's running case, an illustrative, unnamed child whose eight observation records follow them from birth to 15. In record R4, the child is 2½ years old, at a childcare center. The child builds a tower next to another child. Each child talks to themselves, and they share no plan. Then a caregiver reaches in to help, and the child pushes the hand away and says, "Me do it."

Why does the child do that? A stage theorist, a learning theorist, and an ecological theorist would each answer differently. None of them is wrong, and none of them is complete. This chapter gives you the tools to hear all three answers.

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

explain what a developmental theory does and why this course uses several;
name Erikson's five childhood and adolescent stages in order, with each crisis;
tell reinforcement from punishment in Skinner's operant conditioning;
describe what the Bobo doll study found and what it does not show;
name what Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories look at, and recall the ecological model;
tell a critical period from a sensitive period;
read one observation record through three theories and end with one plain sentence.

Carry this sentence with you: a theory is a lens, not a verdict.

Where we are

Already covered: Week 1, Introduction: What Child Development Is, gave you the three domains (physical, cognitive, and social-emotional), the periods of childhood, the core questions of nature and nurture and of continuity and discontinuity, Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems, and the running case.
This week: the major theories of development, what each one explains well, and what each one leaves out.
How they connect: Week 1 asked how children change; this week offers several answers to why, and each answer is a theory.
Where we're going next: Week 3, Studying Children: Research, Observation, and Ethics, shows how researchers and educators test these theories by watching children carefully and fairly.

Two ideas from Week 1 matter most to you here. First, the continuity question. Some theories see development as gradual change, like a ramp. Others see it as a series of stages, like a staircase. You will meet both kinds this week. Second, Bronfenbrenner's model. Week 1 taught it as a map of settings. This week you treat it as one theory among several, with its own strengths and gaps.

1. What a theory does: explain, predict, test

Picture a pediatric nurse who notices that toddlers in the waiting room cling to a parent when a stranger walks in. The nurse wonders why. One guess is that toddlers fear new people. Another is that they have learned that strangers bring shots. Each guess points to a different thing to watch next. That is what a theory gives you: a reason and a next question.

A developmental theory is an organized explanation of how and why children change that ties many observations together and makes predictions that research can test.

A good theory does three jobs for you. It explains what you already saw. It predicts what you should see next. And you can test it, because a prediction can turn out wrong. The nurse's first guess predicts that toddlers will cling to any stranger. The second predicts that they will cling mostly to people in uniforms. Watching more toddlers can tell those two apart.

So why do you learn several theories, not one? Each theory was built to explain some parts of development, and it does those parts well. Erikson's theory is strong on feelings and relationships across life. Learning theories are strong on how experience changes behavior. No single theory covers every domain at every age.

Misconception check. Students often think that newer theories replaced the older ones, so only the latest one counts. It is tempting because science does move forward. The cure is to see what each theory is for. Erikson's stages, learning theory, and the ecological model answer different questions, so teachers, nurses, and researchers still use all of them, side by side.

2. Erikson's psychosocial stages: one crisis at a time

Think about a toddler learning to use the toilet, a preschooler inventing a game, and a teenager choosing friends. Each one is facing a different challenge, and each challenge involves other people. One theory organizes those challenges into a sequence.

It starts with Freud. Freud began the psychoanalytic tradition, the line of theory that looks for the roots of personality in early childhood experience and inner drives. Erikson built on that tradition but moved the focus outward, to the child's relationships and social world.

Psychosocial theory is Erikson's account, from Childhood and Society (1950), of eight stages across life, each centered on a crisis between a person's needs and the demands of the social world; five of the stages fall in childhood and adolescence.
A psychosocial crisis is the central tension of a stage, written as two poles joined by "vs.", such as autonomy vs. shame and doubt.

When you read Erikson's word "crisis", do not hear an emergency. It means a turning point that every child meets. The child does not "pass" or "fail" it. Most children end up somewhere between the two poles.

You will see Erikson's five childhood and adolescent stages called Dataset E. The ages are approximate, so read each one as "about," never as a deadline.

Dataset E: Erikson's five childhood and adolescent stages, with each crisis and its approximate period
Stage	Crisis	Approximate period
1	Trust vs. mistrust	infancy (about birth to 1)
2	Autonomy vs. shame and doubt	toddlerhood (about 1 to 3)
3	Initiative vs. guilt	early childhood (about 3 to 6)
4	Industry vs. inferiority	middle childhood (about 6 to 11)
5	Identity vs. role confusion	adolescence

Worked example — placing R4 on Dataset E. First, count the stages. Erikson described 8 stages across life. Five of them fall in childhood and adolescence. So 8 − 5 = 3 stages belong to adulthood, and this course names those 3 in words only. Next, find the child's age. Record R4 describes a child of 2½ years. That age falls inside toddlerhood, about 1 to 3. So R4 sits at stage 2 of the 5 childhood and adolescent stages: autonomy vs. shame and doubt. Stage 1, trust vs. mistrust, comes before it, and stage 3, initiative vs. guilt, comes after it. In words: a toddler of 2½ is working on the autonomy crisis, the push to do things for oneself.

You will meet these stages again as the course moves through each period: the first two in Week 7, the third in Week 10, the fourth in Week 12, and the fifth in Week 14.

Misconception check. Students often think a stage theory is a fixed timetable, so a child who is 3½ "should be done" with autonomy. It is tempting because the table pairs every stage with an age. The cure is the word "about." The ages are approximate, and children vary widely. A stage is a pattern of concern, not a birthday.

Pause and think. Choose one of two prompts. (a) Think of a toddler you have known and describe one moment that looked like the autonomy side of stage 2, using only what the child did and said. (b) Pick any one stage in Dataset E and explain in your own words why Erikson might call it a "crisis" even though nothing is going wrong.

3. Behaviorism and operant conditioning: what follows a behavior

At a birthday party in a community room, a 3-year-old hands a toy to a cousin. An adult smiles and says, "Thank you for sharing!" A week later, at another party, the same child hands over a toy again. Did the smile have something to do with it? Behaviorists would say yes, and they would ask you to watch what happens after the behavior.

Behaviorism began with Watson (1913), "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It", in the journal Psychological Review.

Behaviorism is the approach, launched by Watson's paper "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It", that holds psychology should study observable behavior and how experience shapes it, rather than unseen mental states.

Skinner, a later behaviorist, studied how consequences shape behavior. His idea is called operant conditioning. This course names it in words.

Operant conditioning is Skinner's account of learning in which the consequences that follow a behavior change how likely it is to happen again.
Reinforcement is a consequence that follows a behavior and makes that behavior more likely to happen again, such as praise or a success.
Punishment is a consequence that follows a behavior and makes that behavior less likely to happen again; the term describes the effect on behavior, not a recommendation.

Worked example — the birthday party. Walk it in order. (1) The behavior: the child hands a toy to a cousin. (2) The consequence: an adult smiles and thanks the child. (3) The test: does sharing happen more often afterward? If it does, the smile worked as reinforcement. If sharing becomes rarer, then something about the moment worked as punishment, even if nobody meant it that way. In words: in operant conditioning, you judge a consequence by what it does to the behavior that came before it.

Behaviorism is strong where you can see and count behavior, as you can at a party. It is weaker on what a child thinks or feels, because it chooses not to study those things.

Misconception check. Students often think "punishment" means something harsh, like yelling. In operant conditioning the word is technical. A punishment is any consequence that makes a behavior less likely, and a reinforcement is any consequence that makes it more likely. A frown that ends a behavior counts as punishment; a scolding that somehow makes a behavior more frequent counts as reinforcement.

4. Social learning: children learn by watching

In a family living room, a 2-year-old watches an older sibling practice a dance for a school show. Nobody praises the toddler or gives a reward. Ten minutes later, the toddler is bouncing and spinning in the same pattern. Operant conditioning has a hard time explaining that, because the toddler learned before any consequence arrived. Social learning theory fills the gap.

Social learning theory is the theory that children learn by watching what other people do and what happens to them, not only from the consequences of their own actions.

The best-known test is the Bobo doll study. Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1961) found that children who watched an adult act aggressively toward an inflatable Bobo doll were more likely to imitate that aggression than children who did not watch it. The researchers compared children who saw different things, which let them link the watching to the copying.

Worked example — the sibling's dance. Walk it in order. (1) The model: the older sibling dances. (2) The watching: the toddler sees the moves. (3) The copying: the toddler repeats the pattern later, with no reward first. (4) The reading: social learning theory explains the copying as learning by observation. Operant conditioning adds a second question for later: if the family laughs and claps, does the dancing happen more often? In words: watching can teach a behavior, and consequences can then make it more or less likely.

Misconception check. Students often think the Bobo doll study proves that any single cartoon makes a child aggressive. It is tempting because the study is famous and the headline is simple. The cure is to read what was found. Children who watched an adult act aggressively toward a doll were more likely to imitate that aggression than children who did not. That is evidence that children learn by observation. It is not a finding about one show, about every child, or about lasting harm.

5. Piaget and Vygotsky: two theories of thinking, named now

Watch a 4-year-old at a library story time insist that the moon is following the family car. Then watch an older child at a library homework table get stuck on a puzzle until a volunteer offers a hint. Both moments are about thinking, but two different theories would explain them.

Cognitive-developmental theory is Piaget's account of how children's thinking changes in four stages, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational, each with approximate ages.

Piaget saw the child as an active thinker who builds understanding by exploring, much as you build a skill by trying it. This course teaches his stages one at a time, starting in Week 6. For now, learn the four names in order.

Sociocultural theory is Vygotsky's account that children's thinking develops through social interaction with more skilled people and through cultural tools such as language.

Vygotsky looked outward, at what a child can do with help from someone else and at the tools a culture hands a child. The course teaches his key ideas in Week 9.

Here is a quick contrast for your notes. Piaget's lens looks first at what the child figures out alone. Vygotsky's lens looks first at what the child learns with others. Both lenses look at thinking, and the course uses both.

Misconception check. Students often think a theory they meet only by name this week is less important. It is tempting because the chapter spends fewer words on it. The cure is timing. Piaget's stages get four later weeks, and Vygotsky's ideas get a whole week, because each one needs the period where it fits best.

6. The ecological model as a theory: the settings around the child

Go back to R4's childcare center for a moment. The child's day there depends on more than the block area. It depends on how the center and the family talk to each other, on a parent's work hours, and on what the wider culture expects of toddlers. Bronfenbrenner's model gathers those layers into one picture.

You met Bronfenbrenner (1979), The Ecology of Human Development, in Week 1. His model places the child inside nested systems. They run from the microsystem, the child's own settings such as a home or a classroom, out to the macrosystem of culture, laws, and values. The chronosystem, change over time, was added in his later work. This week you treat it as a theory, which means asking what it explains and what it leaves out.

It explains the settings well, the places you can visit and name. It reminds you that a child's behavior happens somewhere, with someone, inside a culture. It says much less about what is happening inside the child, such as how thinking changes or why a toddler wants to do things alone. That is where the other theories help.

Misconception check. Students often treat the ecological model as only a list of places to memorize. The cure is to use it as a theory. Ask what it predicts: a change in one system, such as a new rule at the center, should show up in the child's day. That prediction can be tested.

7. Ethology: imprinting and sensitive periods

On a farm, newly hatched goslings follow the first moving figure they see. Watch an infant at a pediatric checkup reach for a parent when the room gets loud, and you may wonder whether humans have something similar. Ethology asks that kind of question.

Ethology is the study of behavior in its evolutionary setting, asking how a behavior helps an animal, or a human infant, survive.
Imprinting is the rapid early bond Lorenz described in goslings, which follow the first moving object they see in a short window after hatching.

Lorenz's work raised a big idea about timing, one you may have heard in news stories about babies. Some abilities seem to depend on experience arriving at the right time.

A critical period is a fixed window of time in which a behavior or ability must develop if it is to develop at all.
A sensitive period is a time of special readiness when an ability develops most easily, after which learning it is still possible, though it may take more effort.

For most human abilities, the critical-period idea has largely given way to the sensitive period. A child who meets a skill later can still learn it. The window is a time of special readiness, not a locked door.

Ethology also leads somewhere. Bowlby's attachment theory, which grew from this evolutionary way of thinking, is taught in Week 7.

Misconception check. Students often think "critical period" means that nothing can be learned after the window closes. It is tempting because the phrase sounds final. The cure is the sensitive-period idea. For most human abilities, the course teaches sensitive periods: a time when learning comes most easily, not the only time it can happen.

8. Read R4 through three theories: no single right answer

Now you have the tools, and you can use all three. Here is record R4 laid out the way this course writes observation records, with what the child did in one column and possible interpretations in another. It is illustrative and describes no real child.

Record R4 (illustrative): a child of 2½ years at a childcare center's block area, Day 1, mid-morning
What the child did and said	Possible interpretations
Builds a tower beside another child.	Interest in building; comfort near a peer.
Both children talk to themselves; they share no plan.	Each child may be guiding their own play.
A caregiver reaches in; the child pushes the hand away and says, "Me do it."	A wish to do things without help.

Worked example — three lenses on one record. Read it in the order you will use all term: the record, then the concept, then a theory, then a second theory.

Lens 1, psychosocial (Erikson). At 2½ years, the child is in toddlerhood, stage 2 of Dataset E. Pushing the hand away and saying "Me do it" fits the autonomy side of autonomy vs. shame and doubt, a toddler's push to do things for themselves.
Lens 2, learning (Skinner and Bandura). The record cannot show the child's history. So the learning lens asks two questions for more observation. Has doing it alone been followed by success or praise before? That would be reinforcement. Has the child watched other children build towers? That would be social learning.
Lens 3, ecological (Bronfenbrenner). The block area is part of the child's microsystem. The links between the childcare center and the family form the mesosystem. If the family and the center handle "Me do it" in similar ways, that link may shape what the child expects.
What waits for later. Two details in R4 get names in later weeks. The side-by-side building with no shared plan gets its name in Week 8, and the talking to themselves gets its name in Week 9. This week you flag both and read on.

The reading in one plain sentence: the child's "Me do it" fits Erikson's autonomy vs. shame and doubt, the second stage, at about 1 to 3; the learning lens adds what the child may have seen and what has followed such moments, and the ecological lens adds the setting.

Here is an honesty note about your reading. One short record cannot confirm any theory. Each lens gives you a reasonable reading and a question for the next observation. A second caveat: none of these readings is a judgment of the child. The child is not "stubborn" or "advanced." The record shows behavior at one moment.

Misconception check. Students often think the goal is to pick the one right theory. It is tempting because tests often ask for one answer. The cure is to see what each lens adds. Erikson explains the feeling behind "Me do it," learning theory asks where the behavior came from, and the ecological model shows where it happened. Together they give you a fuller reading than any one alone.

Key terms

Developmental theory — An organized explanation of how and why children change that ties many observations together and makes predictions that research can test; this course uses several, because each explains some parts of development better than others. (first used: 1. What a theory does: explain, predict, test)
Psychoanalytic tradition — The line of theory, begun by Freud, that looks for the roots of personality in early childhood experience and inner drives; Erikson's psychosocial theory grew out of it. (first used: 2. Erikson's psychosocial stages: one crisis at a time)
Psychosocial theory — Erikson's account, from Childhood and Society (1950), of eight stages across life, each centered on a crisis between a person's needs and the demands of the social world; five of the stages fall in childhood and adolescence. (first used: 2. Erikson's psychosocial stages: one crisis at a time)
Psychosocial crisis — In Erikson's theory, the central tension of a stage, written as two poles such as autonomy vs. shame and doubt; how it is worked out shapes the next stages, and the ages attached to it are approximate. (first used: 2. Erikson's psychosocial stages: one crisis at a time)
Behaviorism — The approach, launched by Watson's paper "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It", that holds psychology should study observable behavior and how experience shapes it, rather than unseen mental states. (first used: 3. Behaviorism and operant conditioning: what follows a behavior)
Operant conditioning — Skinner's account of learning in which the consequences that follow a behavior change how likely it is to happen again: reinforcement makes it more likely, and punishment makes it less likely. (first used: 3. Behaviorism and operant conditioning: what follows a behavior)
Reinforcement — In operant conditioning, a consequence that follows a behavior and makes that behavior more likely to happen again, such as praise or a success. (first used: 3. Behaviorism and operant conditioning: what follows a behavior)
Punishment — In operant conditioning, a consequence that follows a behavior and makes that behavior less likely to happen again; the term describes the effect on behavior, not a recommendation. (first used: 3. Behaviorism and operant conditioning: what follows a behavior)
Social learning theory — The theory, tested in Bandura, Ross, and Ross's Bobo doll study (1961), that children learn by watching what other people do and what happens to them, not only from consequences of their own actions. (first used: 4. Social learning: children learn by watching)
Bobo doll study — Bandura, Ross, and Ross's 1961 study, in which children who watched an adult act aggressively toward an inflatable doll were more likely to imitate that aggression than children who did not; it is evidence for learning by observation, not proof that any single program causes aggression. (first used: 4. Social learning: children learn by watching)
Cognitive-developmental theory — Piaget's account of how children's thinking changes in four stages, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational, each with approximate ages. (first used: 5. Piaget and Vygotsky: two theories of thinking, named now)
Sociocultural theory — Vygotsky's account that children's thinking develops through social interaction with more skilled people and through cultural tools such as language. (first used: 5. Piaget and Vygotsky: two theories of thinking, named now)
Ethology — The study of behavior in its evolutionary setting, asking how a behavior helps an animal, or a human infant, survive; it led to the ideas of imprinting and of critical and sensitive periods. (first used: 7. Ethology: imprinting and sensitive periods)
Imprinting — The rapid early bond Lorenz described in goslings, which follow the first moving object they see in a short window after hatching. (first used: 7. Ethology: imprinting and sensitive periods)
Critical period — A fixed window of time in which a behavior or ability must develop if it is to develop at all; for most human abilities the idea has largely given way to the sensitive period. (first used: 7. Ethology: imprinting and sensitive periods)
Sensitive period — A time of special readiness when an ability develops most easily, after which learning it is still possible, though it may take more effort. (first used: 7. Ethology: imprinting and sensitive periods)

Summary

A developmental theory explains, predicts, and can be tested; the course uses several.
Erikson's psychosocial theory has eight stages across life, five in childhood and adolescence, each a crisis.
Dataset E in order: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion.
Behaviorism studies observable behavior; reinforcement makes a behavior more likely, punishment less likely.
Social learning: children learn by watching; the Bobo doll study is evidence for it, not proof about one show.
Piaget's theory looks at thinking in four stages; Vygotsky's looks at thinking with others and cultural tools.
The ecological model explains settings and says less about what happens inside the child.
For most human abilities, think sensitive period, not critical period.
Read one record through several theories; no theory is the one right answer.

Check your understanding

Work these before looking at the answers — they are ungraded, and the answers (with reasoning) are at the bottom of the page.

A 6-year-old on a youth soccer team gets a high five from the coach each time they pass the ball. Over 4 practices, the child passes 2, then 3, then 5, then 7 times. What happened to passing, and which consequence does that suggest?
A 4-year-old at a grocery store watches a parent thank the cashier, and the next day says "thank you" to a librarian without being told. Which theory explains this best, and why?
A friend says, "A 7-year-old who is still working on initiative is behind on Erikson's timetable." Use Dataset E's approximate periods to explain what is wrong with that statement.
A teenager starts learning a second language at 14. A classmate says, "Too late, the critical period is over." Explain which idea the course teaches instead.

Answers (worked reasoning — read after attempting)

Passing rose at every practice: from 2 to 3 is 1 more, from 3 to 5 is 2 more, and from 5 to 7 is 2 more, so 7 − 2 = 5 more passes from the first practice to the fourth. Because passing became more likely after the high fives followed it, the high five worked as reinforcement. The test is the effect on the behavior, which is how operant conditioning defines a consequence.
Social learning theory explains it best. Nobody rewarded the child before the new "thank you"; the child watched a parent do it and then copied it. Operant conditioning could add a later question: if the librarian smiles, does the child say it more often?
Initiative vs. guilt is stage 3, at about 3 to 6, and industry vs. inferiority is stage 4, at about 6 to 11. A 7-year-old sits near the edge between them, and the ages are approximate, not deadlines. Erikson's stages are patterns of concern, so a child may still show stage 3 concerns at 7 without being "behind."
The course teaches the sensitive period: a time of special readiness when learning comes most easily, after which learning is still possible. For most human abilities, the fixed-window idea of a critical period has largely given way to that view, so a 14-year-old can still learn a new language.

Next up in this module: the Readings & Resources page, the lecture tutorial, the practice set, the quiz, the discussion, and the assignment. Next week, the running record becomes the first observation method you use to test these theories fairly.

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