Review Handout: Specific Developmental Theories

Prepared for Pediatric Dentistry by Sheela Raja, PhD

Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud (late 1800s)
! Emphasized early experiences
! Psychosexual theory-emphasized that parents management of children's sexual
and aggressive drives during the first few years was crucial for healthy
personality development
! A persons personality is composed of three components
1) The Id
Seeks to satisfy desire without delay
Source of basic biological needs and desires, gratification, and pleasures
Unconscious
Seeks to satisfy its impulses without delay
young babies cry vigorously when they are hungry, wet or need to be
held
2) The Ego
Rational; reconciles the demands of the Id, the external world, and the
conscience
Redirects the impulses so they are discharged on appropriate objects at
acceptable times and places
baby stops crying when he sees his mother prepare to feed it
3) The Superego
the seat of conscience
often in conflict with the Ids desires
develops from interactions with parents, who eventually insists that
children control their biological impulses
! Personality disorders come about when there is conflict between the superego and
the ego
! Over the course of childhood, sexual impulses shift their focus from the oral to
the anal to the genital regions of the body
! It is the parents who permit how much or how little of their childrens
gratification is achieved
! Five stages of gratification
1. Oral (birth 1 year)
! ego directs the babys sucking activities towards the bottle or
breast
! early problems lead to nail biting, pencil chewing, overeating and
smoking
2. Anal
3. Phallic
4. Latency
5. Genital

Behavioral Theory
B.F. Skinner (1950s and 1960s)
! Behaviorism-views directly observable events-stimuli and responses-as the
appropriate focus of study and the development of behavior
! Classical and operant conditioning are key concepts
! Inspired by Pavlov who did classical conditioning experiments on dogs, getting
them to salivate at the sound of a bell, because the bell was paired with food (i.e.,
the dogs came to associate the sound of the bell with food).
! Operant conditioning-a childs behavior can be increased by following it with a
wide variety of reinforcers (food, drink, praise, etc.) and decrease through
punishment (withdrawal of privileges, parental disapproval, etc.)
! Infants at an early age respond to their environment by
sucking objects
turning their heads to sounds
interacting with mobiles
mimicry
Key Terms in Behaviorism:
! Behavior modification (definition):
consists of changing the consequences of behavior, removing
consequences which have caused trouble, or arranging new consequences
for behavior which has lacked strength
! Positive Reinforcement
increase in the future frequency of a behavior due to the addition of a
stimulus immediately following a response.
Give the child a toy at the end of the dental appointment. Makes it more
likely theyll sit in the chair next time.
Positive reinforcers are things like rewards, or things we will generally
work to get
! Negative reinforcement
increase in the future frequency of a behavior when the consequence is the
removal of an aversive stimulus.
My child will sit at the table for dinner if I dont make them eat their
broccoli
Child will sit in the dental chair if there are not any sharp objects around

Cognitive-Development Theory
Jean Piaget (1950s and 1960s)
! Children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world
! Cognitive development takes place in stages
! 4 Stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete
operational, formal operational
Much of the intellectual attainments of the child from birth to age 2 results
from the actions of the child with objects in the environment
1) Sensorimotor stage of development (birth to age 2)
Reflexive schemes (reflexes): these are the building blocks of
sensorimotor intelligence
Object permanence: objects continue to exist even when they are not
perceivable by the child
Causality: Objects have uses, and events have causes.
Symbolic play-one object can represent another
Sub-stages of the Sensorimotor Stage:
Birth-1month: Sucking, grasping, and looking quickly change as they are
applied to the environment
1-4 months: Primary circular reaction (infants start to gain limited
voluntary control over their actions by repeating behaviors that lead to
satisfying result)
4-8 months: Secondary circular reaction (infants repeat interesting effects
in the surrounding world that are caused by their own actions)
8-12 months: Coordination of secondary circular reactions, intentional or
goal-directed behavior, object permanence is achieved (because of this,
separation anxiety peaks at 12-18 mos)
12-18 months: Tertiary circular reactions (infants discover new means
through active experimentation and they repeat with variation, provoking
new outcomes)
18-24 months: Mental representations of reality where infants can relate
internal images of absent objects and past events. Deferred imitation
(infants can remember and copy the behavior of models who are not
immediately present)

2) Preoperational stage of development (age 2-7)

preconceptual stage (around age 4)-the childs mind and mental prowess
develop at a rapid rate
Can only focus on one thing
Can think symbolically with mental imagery
Intuitive thought develops (age 4-7)
sophistication of the child's abilities to group objects according to
class, using more complex thought and images and outgrowing the
tendency toward centration
centration is where the child focuses only on one aspect of a task,
ignoring others
this is the period where children acquire reading and writing skills
3) Concrete operational stage of development (7-11 years)
childrens reasoning becomes logical
development of hierarchies of classes and subclasses
better at asking questions and explaining things
4) Formal operational stage of development (11+ years)
no longer require concrete objects to make rational judgments.
capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning.
can consider many possibilities from several perspectives.