Developmental Psychology

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

PSYCH 101

In Developmental psychology there are four theories that psychologist apply to the development of the human mind. Developmental psychologist always question how much of you is due to your genes or to the environment in which your in. After reading about each of these theories, I can't say that I believe one theory to hold all the answer to the human psyche. But I do believe more strongly in some then others whether through personal experience or through observational learning. I don't think any psychologist is right by saying one theory is right, when it can be a combination of all of them because our minds have different sections too. Now I'll go into more details about each of the four theories.

The first theory for Developmental psychology is Maturational theory. This theory tries to state that just like a fruit, through life we must grow and mature as people. Humans in general, learn for the most part the same way and develop the same way, when we're younger but just like fruit we mature and become who we are. And the main difference between people and fruit is our genes, they determine a lot of what type of person your going to be, anything from how smart you are to the color of your eyes. The psychologist who have faith in this theory believe some of the main differences in people and developing is due to our genes and what we inherit from our parents, instead of the socio-cultural view which says we are a product of our environment.

The second theory in Developmental psychology is the Psychoanalytic theory in which one of the most influential psychologist, Sigmund Freud, tried to explain, " children are driven by impulses of sex and aggression." (Kosslyn,2005). Personally, I don't agree with this theory because as a child I did have impulses but more than ninety percent of the time I was always of aware of what I was doing and thought problems through before I would act upon them, for the most part that is. Though I am sure I do not know a whole lot about this theory, I almost see no real reasoning for Freud's theory to be based on children developing who they are based on these "sexual impulses and aggression" due to the their situation and the needs or wants they assume they need as children.

The Learning theory in Developmental psychology says that the children's perception of the world and society is largely based on his/her own experiences through life. The child for example must learn how to read, write, how to treat others, and how to represent themselves in society through learning from others. As a parent or guardian for your child you must know how to show your child what's right and wrong by either showing them reinforcement or punishment for their actions. This is one of best theories I have heard in psychology for the short time I have been studying it, because it's easy to see how it ties into people's lives and what they should or shouldn't do in a certain situation.

The last theory