This e-book focus on theories of child development. There are many theories but it will focus on Jean Piaget and Brofenbrenner theories, Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson theories, Albert Bandura,. Also, it will look at Piaget and Kohlberg theory of moral development
This e-book focus on theories of child development. There are many theories but it will focus on
Jean Piaget and Brofenbrenner theories, Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson theories, Albert Bandura,.
Also, it will look at Piaget and Kohlberg theory of moral development. .
, CHAPTER ONE
BROFENBRENNER’S ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORY
1.0 Introduction
Urie Bronfenbrenner is generally regarded as one of the world's leading scholars in the field of
developmental psychology. His Ecological Systems Theory holds that development reflects the
influence of several environmental systems, and it identifies five environmental systems.
Conceptualized the child’s environment as having different interconnected layers nested together
with agents that influence the child’s development with varying degrees of directness. The
systems model involving micro, meso, exo, macro and chronosystems are arranged in rings from
those that have direct influence to the child to those whose influence are distant with indirect
influence to the child.
1.1 The Systems
The systems include:
Micro system which refers to the setting in which the individual lives. These contexts
include the person's family, peers, school, and neighborhood. It is in the micro system
that the most direct interactions with social agents take place; with parents, peers, and
teachers. The individual is not a passive recipient of experiences in these settings, but
someone who helps to construct the settings.
Mesosystem refers to the relationships between micro systems or connections between
contexts. Examples are the relation of family experiences to school experiences, school
experiences to church experiences, and family experiences to peer experiences. For
example, children whose parents have rejected them may have difficulty developing
positive relations with teachers.
Exosystem: This involves links between a social setting in which the individual does not
have an active role and the individual's immediate context. For example, a husband's or
child's experience at home may be influenced by a mother's experiences at work. The
mother might receive a promotion that requires more travel, which might increase
conflict with the husband and change patterns of interaction with the child.
Macrosystem: Describes the culture in which individuals live. Cultural contexts include
developing and industrialized countries, socioeconomic status, poverty, and ethnicity.
Chronosystem: This refers to the patterning of environmental events and transitions over
the life course, as well as socio-historical circumstances. For example, divorce is one
transition. Researchers have found that the negative effects of divorce on children often
peak in the first year after the divorce. By two years after the divorce, family interaction
is less chaotic and more stable. As an example of socio-historical circumstances, consider
how the opportunities for women to pursue a career have increased during the last thirty
years
,Unlike Bronfenbrenner who described the ecological systems as nested within one another, Neal
and Neal (2013) maintain that the ecological systems are networked where each system is
defined in terms of the social relationships surrounding the child and the different levels relating
to one another in an overlapping but non-nested way. They further argue that the family is a
microsystem where the child has direct experiences and interactions with family members face to
face. Mesosystem according to them, could involve the interaction between the parents and
teachers about the child’s behaviour both at home and in school in relation to his/her education
(Neal and Neal, 2013).
Exosystems involve settings that influence the child’s life but in which the child does not directly
participate. For instance, a child may not be involved in making the education policies but these
policies will influence the child’s school experiences. The macrosystems involves the broad
cultural influences or ideologies that influence the child’s educational experiences. For instance,
societies that emphasize on the importance of teachers being accountable on the standards of
education in the community school, will have an implication on how children will perform in
their education.
The person's own biology may be considered part of the microsystem; thus the theory has
sometimes been referred to "Bio-Ecological Systems Theory." As per this theoretical
construction, each system contains roles, norms and rules which may shape psychological
development. For example, an inner city family faces many challenges which an affluent family
in a gated community does not, and vice versa. The inner city family is more likely to experience
environmental hardships, such as teratogens and crime. On the other hand the sheltered family is
more likely to lack the nurturing support of extended family (Vander, Crandell, Crandell, 2007).
Since its publication in 1979, Bronfenbrenner's major statement of this theory, The Ecology of
Human Development (Bronfenbrenner,1979) has had widespread influence on the way
psychologists and others approach the study of human beings and their environments. As a result
of his groundbreaking work in human ecology, these environments from the family to economic
and political structures have come to be viewed as part of the life course from childhood through
adulthood.
There are many different theories related to human development. But the ecological theory
emphasizes environmental factors as playing the major role to development. This theory does
vary from culture to culture (Santrock, 2007).
Bronfenbrenner theory
, CHAPTER TWO
Erik Erikson’s Theory of Personality Development
2.0 Introduction
Erik Erikson was a German psychologist who suffered serious identity crisis in his youthful
years. His parents divorced when he was a young child and he stayed with his mother. He then
concluded that a need for identity is a major aspect in life. He also felt that the influence of the
society on the development of personality should not be underestimated.
2.2 Erik Erikson’s Theory of Personality Development
The psychosocial development theory as articulated by Erikson explains eight stages through
which a healthily developing human should pass, from infancy to late adulthood. Each stage
involves a crisis that needs to be resolved. If the crisis in a given stage is not resolved, the
individual continues to struggle with it and if not completed, is expected to reappear as problems
in the future. Success in each stage leads to the development of a virtue and lays the foundation
for resolving the crisis at the later stages.
Erikson’s theory
Stage 1: Infancy (Birth to 18 months)
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