F O U N D AT I O N O F

H U M A N B E H AV I O R

P R E S E N TAT I O N
P R O J E C T
O N

D E V E L O P M E N TA L
P S Y C H O L O G Y
To what extent developmental psychology
theories are helpful in classroom.
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why
human beings change over the course of their life
Following Psychologists will be
covered in this presentation:

Jean Piaget and his

theory of Cognitive
Development

Erik Erikson and his

theory of Psychosocial
Development

Lev Vygotsky
 JEAN PIAGET

Piaget studied Cognitive Development by observing children, to

examine how their thought processes changed with age.
Piaget saw the children’s brain as a blank
but functional mechanism in which new
info/experiences accumulates over time
into different mental schemas through
the process of Assimilation and
Accommodation
Assimilation: adding new experiences
into already existing schemas
Accommodation: modifying the existing
schemas – making them more complex –
for the addition of the new experiences.
 A famous series of experiments by Jean Piaget (1896-1980) established the notion
of conservation of number and demonstrated that children mostly lack it up to the age

Experiment
of 7. The idea has had a formative influence on the instruction of mathematics [McK].
Place two rows of different objects in front of a six-year-old. Ask the child whether
there are more circles, more squares, or the same number of each kind. The expected

and Criticisms
answer is "The same." Rearrange one row as shown and ask the same question again.
This time around a child would say "More squares.”

Counter experiment: performed by K.Wynn (1992) indicate that infants know that

1+1=2 and 2-1=1 and appear surprised by attempts to be tricked into thinking that
1+1=1. (Children were shown 1 or 2 objects that subsequently have been hidden
behind a screen. With screen lifted, children were gazing longer when presented with
an unexpected number of objects but not when the size or shape of the objects has
changed.)
Criticism:
• Underestimation of Children's Intellectual Abilities
• Overlooking Cultural Effects
• Unscientific Methods
• Nurture based theory
 Visual Aids Use visual aids and concrete props whenever possible

Short Use short instructions with words or actions

Instructions

How to use No Expectations Don’t expect kids always to view the world with other’s perspectives

Piaget’s
Theory in a Differing Words
and Meanings
Be open to the possibility that words can have different meanings to
kids and they may even invent words.

classroom
Improve Already Give kids much hands-on practice with skills which they can build
Existing Skills upon for more complex skills.

Language and Provide a wide variety of experiences to construct the foundation

Learning for language and concept learning.
Age
Infancy (birth to 18 months)
Early Childhood (2 to 3 years)
Preschool (3 to 5 years)
School Age (6 to 11 years)
Adolescence (12 to 18 years)
Young Adulthood (19 to 40 years) Intimacy vs. Isolation
Middle Adulthood (40 to 65 years)Generativity vs. Stagnation
Maturity (65 to death)
Conflict
Trust vs. Mistrust
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Toilet Training
Initiative vs. Guilt
Industry vs. Inferiority
Identity vs. Role Confusion
Ego Integrity vs. Despair
Important Events Outcome ERIK ERIKSON
Feeding Hope
Will Erik Erikson developed his Psychosocial theory by
Exploration Purpose pursuing psychoanalysis, studying, and observing child
development
School Confidence
He talked about 8 stages during a life of a human being.
Social Relationships Fidelity Each stage in Erikson's theory builds on the preceding
stages and paves the way for following periods of
Relationships Love development. In each stage, Erikson believed people
experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in
Work and Care
development. If people successfully deal with the conflict,
Parenthood they emerge from the stage with psychological strengths
Reflection on Life Wisdom that will serve them well for the rest of their lives. If they
fail to deal effectively with these conflicts, they may not
develop the essential skills needed for a strong sense of
self. While Erikson believed that each stage of
psychosocial development was important, he placed a
particular emphasis on the development of ego identity
 •Hypothesis: The researcher wanted to see the amount of
both factors present in a child simultaneously. The
hypothesis they based their experiment was that a high

Experiment
positive score would mean a low negative score. Like in stage
2 if there was high presence of autonomy in a child this
would mean that they there was supposed to be low level of
shame and doubt in him. They wanted to find the
relationship between positive and negative global questions

•Experiment: The social workers observed children upon

asking them questions both positive and negative. The
children were divided into 3 groups each comprising of 7
children. The 1st being normal children from advantaged
homes 2nd the normal children from deprived homes and 3 rd
group being the handicapped children from both types of
homes that was a controlled group. The observers said the
handicapped were very difficult to observe.

•Results: The table shows the correlation between the

positive and the negative questions. The table showed high
negative correlation when the handicapped were excluded.
But based on the coefficients the hypothesis was not proven
true. However, there were certain significance of the results.
The second hypothesis was proven right which said that as
the child passes from one stage to other as per his age, a
high positive score means a low negative score in the
previous stage and as the children between age 3 to 5 were
asked about stage 2 (they were in stage 3 at that time) the
result showed high correlation while asking about the
current stage they were in the correlation was little.

•Link with Erikson theory: The result showed align with

the statement of Erikson that it is not like that the presence
of a positive trait means that negative trait is extinct but
there is a balance and also that person realizes the
consequences after the stage has passed through just like
what happened in the experiment
 Application in the classroom
Initiative vs Guilt Industry vs Inferiority Identity vs Role
• Give children the • Allow students the Confusion
opportunity to make opportunity to set realistic • Provide a variety of positive
choices and act upon goals. role models for students.
those choices • Assign jobs to the • Provide models of exemplary
• Break instruction and students. work so students know what
activities down into small • Teach children study skills. an excellent project looks like.
• Provide opportunities for
steps. • Provide regular feedback students to bring their own
• Ensure that any to students, particularly interests into projects and
competitive games or those who seem assessments.
activities have well- discouraged. • Criticize behaviors rather than
balanced teams making personal
• Accept mistakes that condemnations of the students
result from students themselves.
• Explain the long-term
attempting activities on
consequences of misbehavior
their own. or poor performance
• Encourage and support
student interests.
 • One major weakness of psychosocial theory is that the exact
mechanisms for resolving conflicts and moving from one stage to the
next are not well described or developed.
• Much research has been done on Erikson's ideas and theories.
According to researchers Marcia (1980) and Waterman (1985), it has been
proven difficult to create objectives to evaluate Erikson's identity
theory.
• According to Cole and Cole (1989),one of Erikson's favorite methods for

Criticism to testing his theory is the biographical case study, using such famous men
as Martin Luther and Mahatma Gandhi. It can be time consuming,
expensive and difficult to apply these methods to an individual
Erikson’s experiencing role confusion.
• He doesn’t consider adults who rediscover themselves and develop a

work different understanding of their lives.

• Another controversial aspect of Erikson's work is his agreement with
Freud that personality differences between sexes are biologically
based
• Critics of Erikson's theory say that his theory is more applicable to boys
than to girls, and that more attention is paid to infancy and childhood
than to adult life, despite the claim to be a life-span theory.
  Lev Vygotsky was a seminal
Russian psychologist who is best
known for his sociocultural theory.
He believed that social interaction
plays a critical role in children's
Lev learning.

Vygotsky • Through such social interactions,

children go through a continuous
process of learning. Vygotsky noted
that culture profoundly influences
this process. Imitation, guided
learning, and collaborative learning
all play a critical part in his theory.
The more Aspects Vygotsky placed
knowledgeable
other
emphasis on
Vygotsky places more emphasis on culture affecting cognitive development.

Vygotsky places considerably more emphasis on social factors contributing

to cognitive development.

Vygotsky states the importance of cultural and social context for learning. Cognitive
development stems from social interactions from guided learning within the zone of
proximal development as children and their partner's co-construct knowledge. To
understand this, you must know: The Zone of Proximal Development

Evidence for Vygotsky and the ZPD

Freund (1990) conducted a study in which children had to decide which items of
furniture should be placed in particular areas of a dolls house. The conclusion being that
guided learning within the ZPD led to greater understanding/performance than working
alone (discovery learning).

Vygotsky places more (and different) emphasis on the role of language in

cognitive development. 
 • Teachers can use information about both levels of Vygotsky’s zone
of proximal development in organizing classroom activities in the
following ways:
1. Instruction can be planned to provide practice in the zone of
proximal development for individual children or for groups of
children.

Classroom 2. Cooperative learning activities can be planned with groups of

children at different levels who can help each other learn.
3. Scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976) is a tactic for helping the

applications child in his or her zone of proximal development in which the adult
provides hints and prompts at different levels.

of Vygotsky’s
• A second important aspect of Vygotsky's theory is the role of play in
his theory. According to this perspective teachers need to provide
children, especially young children, many opportunities to play.

Theory
Through play, and imagination a child's conceptual abilities are
stretched.

• Since language holds a central role in Vygotsky's theory, and is

essential to the development of thinking, the school needs to provide
many opportunities that allow children to reach the third stage of
speech, which is inner speech, since it is this stage which is
responsible for all higher levels of functioning.
 • We support Vygotsky’s theory
because:
1. Not stage based
2. Points like culture are taken
into consideration

Conclusion However, there is gap in his theory

i.e., not many experiments have
been done by him that can be
replicated. But other psychologists
have conducted a few experiments
which support his theory.
References
• https://www.cut-the-knot.org/ctk/inv-piaget.shtml#:~:text=A%20famous%20series%
20of%20experiments,instruction%20of%20mathematics%20%5BMcK%5D.&text=T
his%20time%20around%20a%20child%20would%20say%20%22More%20squares.
%22
• Lindstrom, Roland J.; Lurgio, Ross A.; MacFarlane, Joyce H.; Seyfarth, Leonard H.;
Stenberg, Kay J.; andWadsworth, H. G., "Using Eriksonian concepts in observing
developmental levels in two groups ofpreschool children" (1967). Dissertations and
Theses. Paper 323, page 70-73
• Singh, S., Mathur, S., Sachdev, V., & Jhingan, P. (2019). Child Psychology: The
Science Behind Behaviour Management. Educreation Publishing.
https://books.google.com.pk/books?id=wHGrDwAAQBAJ
• https://www.verywellmind.com/erik-eriksons-stages-of-psychosocial-development-
2795740
• https://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/VYG/APP.HTML
• https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html
• https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-sociocultural-theory-
2795088https://wps.ablongman.com/ab_slavin_edpsych_8/38/9951/2547689.cw/co
ntent/index.html