Infants and Children in Context. Tara L. Kuther

children’s development guided or pushed by powerful inner forces that they cannot control? Psychoanalytic theories describe development and behavior as a result of the interplay of inner drives, memories, and conflicts we are unaware of and cannot control. These inner forces influence our behavior throughout our lives. Freud and Erikson are two key psychoanalytic theorists whose theories remain influential today.

      Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

      Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), a Viennese physician, is credited as the father of the psychoanalytic perspective. Freud believed that much of our behavior is driven by unconscious impulses that are outside of our awareness. He described development as the progression through a series of psychosexual stages, periods in which unconscious drives are focused on different parts of the body, making stimulation to those parts a source of pleasure. Freud explained that the task for parents is to strike a balance between overgratifying and undergratifying a child’s desires at each stage to help the child develop a healthy personality with the capacity for mature relationships throughout life. Notably, Freud did not study children; his theory grew from his work with female psychotherapy patients (Crain, 2016).

      Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), the father of the psychoanalytic perspective, believed that much of our behavior is driven by impulses that we are unaware of and cannot control.

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      Many of Freud’s ideas, such as the notion of unconscious processes of which we are unaware, have stood up well to the test of time and have permeated popular culture. Notably, Freud’s theory was the first to emphasize the importance of early family experience and especially the parent–child relationship for development (Bargh, 2013). However, the psychosexual stage framework’s emphasis on childhood sexuality, especially the phallic stage, is unpopular and not widely accepted (Westen, 1998). In addition, unconscious drives and other psychosexual constructs are not falsifiable. They are not supported by research because they cannot be directly observed and tested (Miller, 2016).

      Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

      Erik Erikson (1902–1994) was influenced by Freud, but he placed less emphasis on unconscious motivators of development and instead focused on the role of the social world, society, and culture. According to Erikson, throughout their lives, individuals progress through eight psychosocial stages that include changes in how they understand and interact with others, as well as changes in how they understand themselves and their roles as members of society (Erikson, 1950) (see Table 1.1 for a comparison of Freud’s and Erikson’s theories). Each stage presents a unique developmental task, which Erikson referred to as a crisis or conflict that must be resolved. How well individuals address the crisis determines their ability to deal with the demands made by the next stage of development. For example, children’s success in achieving a sense of trust in others influences their progress in developing a sense of autonomy, the ability to be independent and guide their own behavior. Regardless of their success in resolving a crisis of a given stage, individuals are driven by biological maturation and social expectations to the next psychosocial stage. No crisis is ever fully resolved, and unresolved crises are revisited throughout life.

      Erik Erikson (1902–1994) posited that throughout their lifetime, people progress through eight stages of psychosocial development.

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Table 1.1

      As one of the first lifespan views of development, Erikson’s psychosocial theory views development as spanning well beyond childhood. Erikson’s theory offers a positive view of development and includes the role of society and culture, largely ignored by Freud. In addition, Erikson based his theory on a broad range of cases, including larger and more diverse samples of people than did Freud. Largely viewed as unfalsifiable, Erikson’s theory is criticized as difficult to test. Yet it has nonetheless sparked research on specific stages, most notably on the development of identity during adolescence and the drive to guide youth and contribute to the next generation during middle adulthood (Crain, 2016). Erikson’s ideas can help us understand children’s socioemotional development. We will revisit his theory throughout this book.

      Behaviorist and Social Learning Theories

      In response to psychoanalytic theorists’ emphasis on the unconscious as an invisible influence on development and behavior, some scientists pointed to the importance of studying observable behavior rather than thoughts and emotion, which cannot be seen or objectively verified. Theorists who study behaviorism examine only behavior that can be observed and believe that all behavior is influenced by the physical and social environment. For example, consider this famous quote from John Watson (1925), a founder of behaviorism:

      Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant, chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. (p. 82)

      By controlling an infant’s physical and social environment, Watson believed he could control the child’s destiny. Behaviorist theory is also known as learning theory because it emphasizes how people and animals learn new behaviors as a function of their environment. As discussed in the following sections, classical and operant conditioning are two forms of behaviorist learning; social learning integrates elements of behaviorist theory and information processing theories.

      Classical Conditioning

      Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which a person or animal comes to associate environmental stimuli with physiological responses. Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), a Russian physiologist, discovered the principles of classical conditioning when he noticed that dogs naturally salivate when they taste food, but they also salivate in response to various sights and sounds that occur before they taste food, such as their bowl clattering or their owner opening the food cupboard. Pavlov tested his observation by pairing the sound of a tone with the dogs’ food; the dogs heard the tone, then received their food. Soon the tone itself began to elicit the dogs’ salivation. Through classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus (in this example, the sound of the tone) comes to elicit a response originally produced by another stimulus (food). Many fears, as well as other emotional associations, are the result of classical conditioning. For example, some children may fear a trip to the doctor’s office because they associate the doctor’s office with the discomfort they felt upon receiving a vaccination shot. Classical conditioning applies to physiological and emotional responses only, yet it is a cornerstone of psychological theory. A second behaviorist theory accounts for voluntary, nonphysiological responses, as described in the following section.

      Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) discovered classical conditioning when he noticed that dogs naturally salivate when they taste food, but they also salivate in response to various sights and sounds that they associate with food.

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      Operant Conditioning

      Perhaps it is human nature to notice that the consequences of our behavior influence our future behavior. A teenager who arrives home after curfew and is greeted with a severe scolding may be less likely to return home late in the future. A child who is praised for