PSYC 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Psychoanalytic Theory, Social Learning Theory, Theory-Theory

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 250
• Professor: Tanya Broesch

Document Summary

Psychoanalytic theories (can read about in text) Importance of theories of social development - attempt to account for how children"s dev"t is affected by people and social institutions around them. Ex. psychoanalytic, learning, social cognitive and ecological perspectives. 3 reasons why theories are important: provide a framework for understanding, raise crucial questions about human nature, motivate new research. Continuity (no stages) - idea that the same principles control learning and behaviour throughout life. Focus on mechanisms of change (i. e. principles of learning - reinforcement and observational learning ) Differences arise b/c of different histories of reinforcement and observation. Believed that psychologists should study only objectively verifiable behavior, not the mind Believed that children"s development is determined by their social environment and that learning through conditioning was the primary mechanism of development o. Classical conditioning (little albert) - pairing of a neutral stimulus with a biological response (ex. fear) o. Emphasis on conditioning is simplistic to extinguish fears.