Chapter 2

Theory and Research

• Experience Human
Development FOURTEENTH EDITION
• Diane E. PAPALIA
• Gabriela MARTORELL

© 2021 McGraw Hill. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom.
No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill.
 Describe the purpose of a theory in
Describe research and two theoretical issues on
which developmental scientists differ.

Summariz Summarize the main theories of human

e development.

Learning
Objectives Describe the methods developmental
Describe researchers use to collect data and the
advantages and disadvantages of each.

Explain ethical guidelines for researchers

Explain who study people.
Basic Theoretical Issues 1

• Theory: coherent set of logically related concepts

that
seeks organize, explain, and predict data, the
information gathered by research.
• Theoretical concepts help us see connections
between isolated pieces of data.
• Hypotheses: possible explanations for phenomena,
used to predict the outcome of research.
Basic Theoretical Issues 2

• Developmental science cannot be completely objective.

• Sometimes, scientists must modify their theories to
account for unexpected data.
• The willingness of scientists to reevaluate their beliefs
in light of new data is one of science’s greatest
strengths.
• The way theorists explain development depends in part
on their assumptions about two basic issues:
• Whether people are active or reactive in their own
development; and
• Whether development is continuous or occurs in
stages.
Issue 1: Is Development Active or Reactive?

• Locke held that a young child is a tabula rasa—a blank

slate.
• Rousseau believed children are born “noble savages.”
• Mechanistic model: model that views human
development as a series of predictable responses to
stimuli.
• Mechanistic researchers want to identify the factors
that make people behave as they do.
• Organismic model: model that views human
development as internally initiated by an active
organism and as occurring in a sequence of
qualitatively different stages.
Issue 2: Is Development Continuous or
Discontinuous?

• Mechanist theories see development as continuous:

as occurring in small incremental stages.
• Quantitative change: changes in number or
amount, such as in height, weight, size of
vocabulary, or frequency of communication.
• Qualitative change: discontinuous changes in
kind, structure, or organization.
• Organismic theorists are proponents of stage
theories in which development is seen as occurring
in a series of distinct stages, like stairsteps.
FIGURE 1 Quantitative and Qualitative Changes

• A major difference among developmental theories is (a) whether it

proceeds continuously, as learning theorists and information-
processing theorists propose, or (b) whether development occurs in
distinct stages, as Freud, Erikson, and Piaget maintained.

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es.
Theoretical Perspectives

• Five major perspectives underlie much influential

theory and research on human development:
• Psychoanalytic;
• Learning;
• Cognitive;
• Contextual; and
• Evolutionary/sociobiological.
Perspective 1: Psychoanalytic Theory

• Sigmund Freud was the originator of the

psychoanalytic perspective: a view of human
development as shaped by unconscious forces that
motivate human behavior.
• Much of development involves learning how to
satisfy urges in socially acceptable ways.
• Early experiences shape later functioning.
• Childhood is the precursor to adult behavior.
Sigmund Freud: Psychosexual Development 1

• Freud proposed three hypothetical parts of the

personality:
• The id governs newborn behavior and operates on
the pleasure principle.
• The ego, which represents reason, develops
gradually in early life and operates under the
reality principle.
• The superego develops later in childhood and
includes the conscience.
• Psychosexual development: in Freudian theory,
an unvarying sequence of stages of childhood
personality development in which gratification shifts
from the mouth to the anus and then to the genitals.
Sigmund Freud: Psychosexual Development 2

Stage Age Unconscious Conflict

Oral Birth to about 15 months Sucking and feeding

Anal 12 to 18 months to 3 years Potty training

Phallic 3 to 6 years Attachment to parents

Latency 6 years to puberty Socialization

Genital Puberty to adult Mature adult sexuality

Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Development 1

• Erik Erikson modified and extended Freudian theory

by emphasizing the influence of society.
• Psychosocial development: in Erikson’s eight-
stage theory, the socially and culturally influenced
process of development of the ego, or self.
• Each stage involves a major psychological
challenge or issue that must be satisfactorily
resolved for healthy development.
Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Development 2

Stage Age Virtue

Basic trust versus mistrust Birth to 12 to 18 months Hope

Autonomy versus shame and 12 to 18 months to 3
Will
doubt years
Initiative versus guilt 3 to 6 years Purpose
Industry versus inferiority 6 years to puberty Skill
Identity versus identity Puberty to young
Fidelity
confusion adulthood
Intimacy versus isolation Young adulthood Love

Generativity versus stagnation Middle adulthood Care

Integrity versus despair Late adulthood Wisdom

Perspective 2: Learning

• Learning perspective: view of human

development that holds that changes in behavior
result from experience or from adaptation to the
environment.
• Behavior is the focus because it is observable and
countable.
Behaviorism

• Behaviorism: learning theory that emphasizes the

predictable role of environment in causing
observable behavior.
• Behavioral research focuses on associative learning,
in which a mental link is formed between two
events.
• Two kinds of associative learning:
• Classical conditioning; and
• Operant conditioning.
Behaviorism: Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning: learning based on

associating a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit
a response with another stimulus that does elicit the
response.
• Ivan Pavlov’s experiments in which dogs learned
to salivate at the sound of a bell that rang at
feeding time.
• John Watson’s study in which fear was conditioned
in an
11-month-old baby known as “Little Albert.”
• Classical conditioning occurs throughout life.
Behaviorism: Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning: learning based on

association of behavior with its consequences.
• Unlike classical conditioning, it involves voluntary
behavior.
• B. F. Skinner:
• Reinforcement: the process by which a behavior
is strengthened, increasing the likelihood that the
behavior will be repeated.
• If a response is no longer reinforced, it is
extinguished.
• Punishment: the process by which a behavior is
weakened, decreasing the likelihood of repetition.
Social Learning (Social Cognitive) Theory 1

• Social learning theory: theory that behaviors are

learned by observing and imitating models.
• Also called social cognitive theory.
• Reciprocal determinism: Albert Bandura’s term
for bidirectional forces that affect development.
• The person acts on the world as the world acts on
the person.
• Observational learning, or modeling: learning
through watching the behavior of others.
Social Learning (Social Cognitive) Theory 2

• Bandura’s (1989) updated version of social learning

theory is social cognitive theory.
• Cognitive processes are at work as people observe
models, learn chunks of behavior, and mentally
put the chunks together into complex new
behavior patterns.
• Through feedback, children gradually form
standards and become more selective in choosing
models.
• They also develop a sense of self-efficacy: one’s
capability to master challenges and achieve goals.
Perspective 3: Cognitive

• Cognitive perspective: view that thought

processes are central to development.
• The cognitive-stage theory of Piaget;
• Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive
development; and
• The information-processing approach.
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive-Stage Theory 1

• Cognitive-stage theory: Piaget’s theory that

children’s cognitive development advances in a
series of four stages involving qualitatively distinct
types of mental operations.
• Cognitive development begins with an inborn
ability to adapt to the environment.
• Organization: creation of categories or systems of
knowledge.
• Schemes: organized patterns of thought and
behavior used in particular situations.
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive-Stage Theory 2

• Adaptation: adjustment to new information about

the environment, achieved through processes of
assimilation and accommodation.
• Assimilation: incorporation of new information
into an existing cognitive structure.
• Accommodation: changes in a cognitive
structure to include new information.
• Equilibration: the tendency to seek a stable
balance among cognitive elements; achieved
through a balance between assimilation and
accommodation.
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive-Stage Theory 3

Stage Age Features

Sensorimotor Birth to 2 years Organizing activities in
relation to the environment
through sensory and motor
activity
Preoperational 2 to 7 years Development of a
representational system; use
of symbols; language and
imaginative play
Concrete 7 to 11 years Logical problem solving when
operations focused on the here and now;
not able to think abstractly

Formal operations 11 years Thinking abstractly, dealing

through with hypothetical situations,
adulthood and thinking about
possibilities
Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

• Sociocultural theory: Vygotsky’s theory of how

contextual factors affect children’s development.
• People learn through social interaction.
• Zone of proximal development: difference
between what a child can do alone and what the
child can do with help.
• Scaffolding: temporary support to help a child
master a task.
The Information-Processing Approach

• Information-processing approach: approach to

the study
of cognitive development by observing and
analyzing the mental processes involved in
perceiving and handling information.
• It is not a single theory but a framework that
supports a wide range of theories and research.
• Some information-processing theorists compare the
brain to a computer:
• There are certain inputs and outputs.
• Theorists use observational data to infer what
goes on between a stimulus and a response.
Perspective 4: Contextual

• Contextual perspective: view of human

development that sees the individual as inseparable
from the social context.
• Bioecological theory: Urie Bronfenbrenner’s
approach to understanding processes and contexts
of human development that identifies five levels of
environmental influence.
• The child is an active shaper of development, but
the child does not exist in isolation.
• The multiple environments surrounding the child
must be considered.
FIGURE 2 Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory

• Concentric circles show five levels of environmental influence on the

individual, from the most intimate environment (the microsystem) to
the broadest (the chronosystem), the perpendicular dimension of
time.
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es.
Perspective 5: Evolutionary/Sociobiological 1

• Evolutionary/sociobiological perspective: view

of human development that focuses on evolutionary
and biological bases of behavior.
• It is influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution.
• Major postulates of Darwin’s theory:
• Organisms vary.
• There are never enough resources for all
organisms to survive.
• Individual differences in organisms are heritable.
• The key feature of “survival of the fittest” is
reproductive success—“fit” characteristics are
selected to be passed on.
Perspective 5: Evolutionary/Sociobiological 2

• Ethology: study of distinctive adaptive behaviors of

species of animals that have evolved to increase
survival of the species.
• Evolutionary psychology: application of
Darwinian principles of natural selection and
survival of the fittest to individual behavior.
• Humans have a large number of cognitive
adaptations, and most are tailored to a specific
problem.
Research Methods

• Researchers in human development work with two

methodological traditions:
• Quantitative.
• Qualitative.
• Each has different goals and different ways of
seeing and interpreting reality.
• Each emphasizes different means of collecting and
analyzing data.
Quantitative and Qualitative Research 1

• Quantitative research: research that deals with

objectively measurable data; based on the scientific
method.
• Scientific method: system of established
principles and processes of scientific inquiry.
• Identification of a problem.
• Formulation of hypotheses.
• Collective of data.
• Statistical analysis of the data.
• Formation of tentative conclusions.
• Dissemination of findings.
Quantitative and Qualitative Research 2

• Qualitative research: research that focuses on

nonnumerical data, such as subjective experiences,
feelings, or beliefs.
• Qualitative researchers might study the same
subject areas as quantitative researchers, but their
perspective informs how they collect data and how
they interpret it.
• Qualitative research is more flexible and informal.
Sampling

• Sample: group of participants chosen to represent

the entire population under study.
• If the sample does not adequately represent the
population under study, the results cannot be
properly generalized, or applied to the population
as a whole.
• Random selection: selection of a sample in such a
way that each person in a population has an equal
and independent chance of being chosen.
• The result is a random sample.
• In qualitative research, samples tend to be
focused
rather than random.
Forms of Data Collection: Self-Reports

• Self-reports are verbal or visual reports made by study

participants.
• Diary or log;
• Visual representation techniques, which don’t rely on
verbal skills;
• Interview—either structured or open-ended; and
• Questionnaire.

• Limitations:
• Participants may not be representative of the
population and may not give accurate responses.
• How a question is asked, and by whom, can affect the
answer.
Forms of Data Collection: Naturalistic and Laboratory
Observation

• Naturalistic observation: research method in

which behavior is studied in natural settings without
intervention or manipulation.
• Laboratory observation: research method in
which all participants are observed under the same
controlled conditions.
• Limitations:
• Neither type explains why people behave as they
do.
• An observer’s presence can alter behavior.
• There is a risk of observer bias.
Forms of Data Collection: Behavioral and
Performance Measures

• Tests and other behavioral and neuropsychological

measures may be used to assess abilities, skills,
knowledge, competencies, or physiological
responses.
• Written tests that compare performance with that of
other test-takers can be meaningful and useful only
if they are both valid and reliable.
• To avoid bias, they must be standardized.
• Sophisticated imaging instruments now make it
possible to see the brain in action.
• Cognitive neuroscience: study of links between
neural processes and cognitive abilities.
Basic Research Designs

Characteristi
Type Advantages Disadvantages
cs
Case Study Study of an Provides a detailed Reduced
individual picture; can generalizability; not
generate directly testable;
hypotheses cannot establish
cause and effect
Ethnograph Study of a Overcome culturally Observer bias
ic study culture based biases; can
test universality
Correlation Finding Enables prediction; Cannot establish
al study positive or can suggest cause and effect
negative hypotheses about
relationships causal relationships
Experiment Controlled Establishes cause Reduced
procedure and effect; generalizability
repeatable
Case Studies

• Case study: study of a single subject, such as an

individual or family.
• May use behavioral or physiological measures and
biographical, autobiographical, or documentary
materials.
• Case studies can learn much about the development
of a single person but the information may not apply
to people in general.
• They cannot explain behavior with certainty or make
strong causal statements because there is no way to
test their conclusions.
Ethnographic Studies

• Ethnographic study: in-depth study of a culture,

which uses a combination of methods including
participant observation.
• Participant observation: research method in
which the observer lives with the people or
participates in the activity being observed.
• Findings are especially open to observer bias but
can help overcome cultural biases in theory and
research.
Correlational Studies

• Correlational study: research design intended to

discover whether a statistical relationship between
variables exists.
• Variables are phenomena that change or vary
among people or can be varied for purposes of
research.
• Positive correlation: two variables increase or
decrease together.
• Negative correlation: as one increases, the other
decreases.
• Correlations are reported as numbers: from −0.1
to +0.1.
• Correlation does not mean causation.
Experiments 1

• Experiment: rigorously controlled, replicable

procedure in which the researcher manipulates
variables to assess the effect of one on the other.
• Today a growing number of researchers are calling
for new guidelines to ensure the integrity of
psychological findings.
Experiments 2

• Experimental group: the group receiving the

treatment under study.
• Control group: a group of people, similar to those
in the experimental group, who do not receive the
treatment under study.
• Random assignment: assignment of participants
in an experiment to groups in such a way that each
person has an equal chance of people placed in any
group.
Experiments 3

• Independent variable: the condition over which

the experimenter has direct control.
• Dependent variable: the condition that may or
may not change as a result of changes in the
independent variable.
• Operational definition: a definition stated solely
in terms of the operations used to measure a
phenomenon.
Laboratory, Field, and Natural Experiments

• Because of the tight control, a laboratory

experiment is best for determining cause and effect.
• A field experiment is a controlled study conducted in
an everyday setting.
• There is more confidence that what is seen is
generalizable to natural behaviors, but
researchers have less control over events that
may occur.
• A natural experiment or quasi-experiment compares
people who have been accidentally “assigned” to
separate groups by circumstances.
• It is correlational in nature.
Developmental Research Designs 1

• Cross-sectional study: study designed to assess

age-related differences, in which people of different
ages are assessed on one occasion.
• Longitudinal study: study designed to assess age
changes in a sample over time.
• Sequential study: study design that combines
cross-sectional and longitudinal techniques.
FIGURE 3 Developmental Research Designs

• In the cross-sectional study, groups of 2-, 4-, 6-, and 8-year-olds were
tested in 2012 to obtain data about age-related differences. In the
longitudinal study, a sample of children were first measured in 2012,
when they were 2 years old; follow-up testing is done when the
children are 4, 6, and 8, to measure age-related changes. Note: Dots
indicate times of measurement.
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es.
Developmental Research Designs 2

Type of Advantages Disadvantages

Study
Cross- Can show similarities Cannot establish age effects;
sectional and differences among masks individual differences;
age groups; speedy, can be confounded by cohort
economical; presents effects.
no problem of attrition
or repeated testing.
Longitudinal Can show age-related Is time-consuming, expensive;
change or continuity; presents problems of attrition,
avoids confounding age bias in sample, and effects of
with cohort effects. repeated testing; results may
be valid only for cohort tested
or sample studied.
Sequential Can avoid drawbacks of Requires large amount of time
both cross-sectional and effort and analysis of very
and longitudinal complex data.
designs.
Ethics of Research 1

• Research must attempt to balance the possible

benefits against the risk of mental, emotional, or
physical injury to participants.
• Considerations:
• Informed consent;
• Avoidance of deception;
• Protection from harm and loss of dignity;
• Privacy and confidentiality;
• Right to decline or withdraw; and
• Responsibility of investigators to correct
undesirable effects.
Ethics of Research 2

• Researchers should be guided by three principles:

• Beneficence;
• Respect; and
• Justice.
• Developmental psychologists must be particularly
careful as their research frequently involves
vulnerable individuals, such as infants or children.
Window on the World: Purposes of Cross-Cultural
Research

• By looking at children from different cultural groups,

researchers can learn:
• In what ways development is universal, and
• In what ways it is culturally determined.
• Cross-cultural studies also help us recognize biases
in traditional Western theories and research.
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