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Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

Spring 2011

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Some Notes from Class – 2/23

February 23, 2011 by Kim Rybacki

What is a theory?

  • Set of interconnected statement used to describe unobservable structures, mechanisms, or processes and to relate them to each other and to observable events
    • Assumptions (axioms, postulates),
    • hypothetical constructs
    • hypotheses (possible explanations precise enough to be shown true or false)
    • laws,
    • facts
    • observations
  • “Reality” of theories = sloppy, biased, social practices (cultural, political, economic, etc) rely on social context or zeitgeist
  • Criteria for theories:
    • logically sound,
    • empirically sound (credibility/external validity)
    • clear,
    • testable (i.e., falsifiable) and parsimonious,
    • integrate previous research
    • usefulness (promote optimum development)

What purposes do theories serve?

  • Organize data
  • Shape future Research
  • Practical implications
  • basic, applied, action research

Developmental Theories

· Focus on change

· 3 tasks

o Describe change within area

o Describe change among areas

o Explain change

The Questions of Developmental Psychology: Three Approaches

Miller LCC Bergen
  • Human Nature
    • Mechanistic
    • Organismic
    • Contextual
  • Nature Nurture
  • Quali vs. Quant
  • Unit of Analysis
  • Source of development
  • Plasticity
  • Continuous vs Discontinuous
  • Individual Differences
  • Types of change
  • influential factors (biological, environmental)
  • Timing
  • Site of change (i.e. structures)
  • Why? (process, functions)

Main Frameworks

* Biological/maturational

* Environmental/Learning

* Constructivist

* Cultural/Contextual

Grand Theories

* Psychodynamic Theories

* Social Learning Theories

* Piaget’s Constructivist Theory

* Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

“Modern” Theories

* Evolutionary Theories

* Information-Processing Theories

* Systems Theories

o Dynamic

o Ecological

* Critical Theories

Categorizing Theories (Bergen, pg 11)

Empiricist Rationalist Sociohistorical
knowledge as acquired by a process in which humans detect stimuli… “concerned with observing processes of stimuli discrimination, encoding, association, and transfer” (pg 10) human mind imposes order on data concerned with observing changes in foundational concepts knowledge has origin in social and material history of the culture … interested in social and physical aspects of human culture
learning theory, information processing theory Freud, Erikson, Piaget Vygotsky, Bronfenbrenner (ecological systems theory) dynamic systems theory

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