Human development theory

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I – I hardly know, Sir, just at present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar, sternly. “Explain yourself!”“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, Sir,”said Alice, “because I am not myself, you see.”

— Carroll, L. (1865). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, New York:MacMillan.

Who am I? Who am I becoming? Where do I belong? What is my identity? What am I going to do with my life? How do I explain myself? How do I cope with this pressure? Why do I feel like this?

As young people leave childhood behind and transition into adulthood, as they question, test and explore the boundaries of who they are and what life is, those of us fortunate enough to work with young people at this moment in their lives have a precious task.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Youth Development strategy aims to see young people develop as full human beings, strongly connected to others and participating in New Zealand society and life.

“Youth development is about young people gaining a:

• sense of contributing something of value to society
• feeling of connectedness to others and to society
• belief that they have choices about their future
• feeling of being positive and comfortable with their own identity.

It’s about building strong connections and active involvement in all areas of life including:

• family and whanau
• schools, training institutions and workplaces
• communities (sports, church, cultural groups)
• peer groups.

It’s also about young people being involved and having a say in decision that affect them, their family, their community and their country and putting into practice and reviewing those decisions.”

Ministry of Youth Development. (n.d.) Youth development approach. New Zealand’s Ministry of Youth Development strategy for New Zealand’s youth is based on six principles:

• Needs good information
• Shaped by the 'big picture'
• Is about young people being connected
• Happens through quality relationships
• Happens when young people fully participate
• Uses a consistent strengths-based approach

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You can learn more about these six principles of New Zealand’s Youth Development Strategy from the Ministry of Youth Development website

Why do we behave the way we do? Why do young people behave the way they do? How much of what humans do is learned? How much is due to age, personality, relationships, the environment, family, social expectations, or innate human biology? How should we understand and explain ourselves and others throughout the human lifespan? These questions and many, many more are what human development theory attempts to answer.

So, what is a theory? Basically, it is an attempt to look at a phenomenon like human behaviour and try to find the underlying principles and concepts to describe and explain it. The development of theory is a critical part of academic work. In all fields of study there are many different theories that have developed over time.

Theory is dynamic. It is always being challenged, debated, and updated. As we learn more or think about things in new ways, existing theories are researched and interrogated. Over time a theory is built on and adapted to incorporate changing information and ideas. At times, a whole new theory is developed out of the bones of the old. New theory often is developed as a rejection of older theory or to fix its flaws and oversights.

How we think about theory that seeks to explain human behaviour and its development is always changing. Some key concepts of past grand old theories are today viewed as outdated and/or incomplete. New theory emerges to better describe and explain. Sometimes new theory will focus only on narrow segments of human behaviour. Sometimes it will draw together theories and integrate them with new research and ideas from other fields of academic study.

Theory is interesting, but is it useful? Exploring human development theory can help us think more deeply about ourselves and the younger human beings we work with. It can help us interrogate and articulate what we are doing and why we are doing it. Theory gives us a framework to more meaningfully question our work practices, institutions, policies, approaches, assumptions, and even our terminology. Theory can provide insights and explanations on human growth, behaviour, motivation, society, culture and individuals within our particular youth work contexts; which we can use to be more intentional about our work practices, decisions and interactions with others and the systems we operate within.

Any overview of human development theory quickly highlights that not a single approach or theory remains unchallenged. As we learn from theory and apply its insights and principles to our practice, we need to stay open, humble and willing to change.

Over the years, many important human development theories emerged that changed how we live and think about ourselves in very significant ways. Even theory we no longer use can still be important as part of the history of our professions, institutions and society. For example, therapists and counsellors today may reject a lot of Sigmund Freud’s original work, but it was central to how their professions even came to exist. Here we will explore a handful of the key theories of human development, but there are many, many more.

Most closely associated with Sigmund Freud (1856–1936), this theory is the ancestor of modern counselling and psychotherapy. Freud’s original theories on personality and psychosexual development are today mostly criticised and have been superseded, but it is hard to imagine the modern world without the influence of his work. His theories radically changed the way we view mental illness and what today we call psychology.

Freud’s primary contributions to our understandings of human development that are still highly influential today include:

• unconscious motivations of human behaviour
• early childhood experiences as a key influence on who a person becomes and what motivates their behaviour (although the degree of that influence remains controversial)
• talking about mental or psychological problems as therapy can help to resolve those problems.

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If you would like a brief overview of Freud’s theories, you may find this short article interesting.

Cherry, K. (2020, March 27). An overview of Sigmund Freud’s theories. verywellmind.

Why are Freud’s theories, for the most part, no longer a part of modern practice?

• Key concepts like the libido are difficult to investigate or clarify.
• Research based on his theories produced data that contradicted key claims made by the theory.
• Generalisations made within the original theories are based on case studies of adult patients recalling childhood experiences not observations of actual children or empirical data.
• Childhood experience as a predictor for behaviour decades later is very difficult to measure scientifically and does not account of all the other multiple and complex variables of human existence.

One of the most influential theories in psychology and the development of personality, psychosocial theory is associated with Erik Homburger Erikson (1902–1994).

Key concepts many view as still relevant today are:

• we develop in stages across our lifespan
• social experiences are what influence those stages the most
• focus of development is the ego — a conscious sense of self we develop though our interactions with other people and our society
• ego identity changes as we experience new things and get new information through our interactions with other people
• an individual feeling of competence is what motivates human behaviour and action.

What is the role of competence in Erikson’s view of human development?

At each development stage, we seek to become competent in particular ways. If a development stage goes well, our ego feels strong and competent, but if it goes badly, we feel inadequate. At each stage, there is a conflict. This then becomes a turning point in which we either grow into our potential or fail to develop our potential.

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Erikson’s theory has eight stages of psychological development. If you would like to learn more about how psychosocial theory explains these stages, please read this article: Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development (verywellmind.com)

Cherry, K. (2020, June 26). Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. verywellmind.

The two stages that relate most to youth work practice are stage 5 and stage 6.

Stage 5: Adolescence

We explore our independence and develop our sense of self.

If we get encouragement from others and reinforcement through personal exploration we gain a strong sense of self; we feel independent and in control.

If we do not get this we remain unsure of our beliefs and desires; we feel insecure and confused about who we are.

A successful transition produces someone who can live by society's standards and expectations.

Stage 6: Early Adulthood

We focus on exploring personal relationships. It is very important to develop close, committed, secure relationships with other people at this stage.

If we leave stage 5 with a strong sense of personal identity we have what is necessary to develop close relationships with others.

If we gain a poor sense of self in stage 5 we are less able to form committed relationships, and are likely to have higher levels of emotional isolation, loneliness and depression.

A successful transition produces someone who can love and form lasting, meaningful relationships with other people.

Psychosocial theory is useful because it provides a framework for human development across the whole lifespan with an emphasis on the social nature of human beings and the key role social relationship play in our development. Research into key aspects of the theory seems to support parts of the theory related to identity formation and has also uncovered different sub-stages of identity formation. Research also seems to back up the claim that those who develop strong personal identities in adolescence are able to form better intimate or close relationships with others in early adulthood.

However, psychosocial does leave some major questions poorly answered. Exactly which types of experiences are necessary to successfully resolve conflicts and move onto the next stage, and what is necessary to be successful at a given stage?

Behaviourism emerged during the first half of the 20th century as a reaction against introspective theories like psychoanalysis or structuralism because they did not use empirical data or the scientific method to build knowledge. Behaviorists developed a scientific approach to study human behavior as something that could be measured, quantified and described in terms of environmental impacts. The focus of study was on how human behaviour is learned – the learning theories.

Many people were involved in the development of behaviorism but the ones who are best remembered today are John Watson with his hugely influential work Behaviorism (1924), the famous dogs of Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning and B.F. Skinner’s equally influential theory of operant conditioning. For the Behaviorists, learning happened through a process of association and reinforcement and that by studying the effect of reinforcement and punishment they could understand human development.

What we now call Classical Behaviorism is today mostly rejected as a foundational basis for understanding human development despite its enormous importance for the development of our understanding. Why?

• Behaviorists were only interested in what they could observe and measure using established scientific methods. They wanted the study of human motivation and development to be as objective and experimental as physics or chemistry. So, they explicitly ignored things like ideas, emotions or our inner mental experiences and brain activity as too subjective for serious study.
• A person was defined as a biological organism that simply responded to stimuli (conditions) set by the external environment (or internal biology).
• ‘Consciousness’ was rejected as an unusable concept, like the religious concept of the ‘soul’.

Behaviorism has been pursued through many different theories and behaviorist principles are still used today; for example, in behaviour therapy practices that focus on changing outward behaviour over foregrounding thoughts and feelings – learning or relearning healthy behaviour patterns to break or change destructive ones through associations and responses to external stimuli.

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If you would like to know more about the principles of behaviorism as a coherent theory and get an overview of its key contributions, you may like to read this article [Behaviourist Psychology].

Walinga, J. (2014). Behaviourist Psychology. In Walinga, J. & Stangor.C. Introduction to psychology. BCCampus Open Education.

Read about how Classical Conditioning is used today to treat food avoidance in some people, as an example of where we can still see Watson style Behaviorism informing practice: Avoidance of Certain Foods and Classical Conditioning

Most closely associated with Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory builds on a behaviourist approach with a key insight into the role of modelling and observation in learning. While Bandura liked how Behaviourists could test learning scientifically and its practical application, he was bothered by the lack of attention paid to the effects of genetic processes and changes over the human lifespan. He saw Behaviourism as too narrow and he was able to show in his work the powerful impact observation and modelling can have on learning.

A key concept of social learning theory is that norms, attitudes, expectations and beliefs are developed through observation mediated through internal mental processes and that not all learning inherently changes behaviour. Observational learning, which can include verbal explanations and reading, happens as the interplay between external reinforcement or punishment from the environment and what Bandura called intrinsic reinforcement – internal rewards like feeling successful.

Observational learning needs:

• a model that can keep the attention and focus on what will be learned
• retention of what has been observed by the learner
• change in behaviour as a reproduction of the model
• motivation to continue to produce the new behaviour through internal and external rewards and punishments.

Social learning theory is different to Behaviourist theory in that it is not the external environment that determines learning behaviour, but that the environment and the behaviour can cause each other. We can be driven by internal motivators to act on the environment. This aspect of social learning theory is defined by the term ‘prosocial behaviour’. Also, learning can happen without it being performed or reinforced.

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Together these two articles should provide a good overview of how social learning theory operates and how it different to both Behaviourism and Cognitive theory, although it incorporates concepts from both approaches.

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

How Social Learning Theory Works

Cognitive development theory challenges both the Behaviourist emphasis on behaviour learning and introspective emotional psychology (psychoanalytic theory) as the primary mechanism for learning, human development and motivation.

Cognitive development theory focuses on the development of thought processes and how they influence an individual’s understanding of themselves and the world around them. Jean Piaget and his stages of cognitive development has been one of its most influential theorists. Piaget argued that children’s cognition is different to adults, and that intellectual development passes through sequential stages of cognitive process and ability: action-based in early childhood and later on changing to be about mental operation.

Today, theories of cognitive development are very influential in parenting and education. Many of the key concepts within the theory are well supported by research. However, it is often criticized because of how it often ignores or downplays the role of emotional and social-cultural factors in human development.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development has four stages. Of most interest to those working with young people is the fourth or Formal Operation stage that begins in adolescence and progresses through to adulthood. During this stage our ability to use logic, deductive reasoning and understand abstract ideas increases. For Piaget intellectual development is a qualitive change that takes place in how we think as we gradually progress through the four stages.

Each of Piaget’s four stages are based on four key influences (how we learn and grow), as explained below:

1. Schema

   • The mental and physical action involved in understanding and knowing
   • Both a category of knowledge and a process for getting that knowledge
   • Used to help us interpret and understand the world
   • New experiences give us new information to modify previously existing schema

2. Asssimilation

   • The subjective process we use to take new information into our existing schema
   • Pre-existing beliefs modify our experiences and new information as our existing scheme informs our understanding and interpretation of new experience and information

3. Accommodation

   • We can alter existing schema in light of new information and as a result of new experiences
   • New schema may develop as part of this process

4. Equilibration

   • Process to maintain a balance between assimilation and accomodation
   • Passing through development stages as we apply new knowledge to what we already know (assimilation) and change behaviour to account for new knowledge (accommodation)
   • Explains how we developed through the stages—what enabled us to progress

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Learn about the four stages of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.

The Four Stages of Cognitive Development

And the key aspects of what to expect of young people at the Formal Operational Stage. The Formal Operational Stage of Cognitive Development

Piaget is not the only important theorist to incorporate cognitive development principles and concepts into their work. There are many others that are worth exploring. Today, with the emergence of new imaging technology and advances in neuroscience, there has been a renewed interest in theories of cognitive psychology and human development.

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory is an expansion of the general principles of cognitive development theory. Vygotsky was a contemporary of both Piaget and the Behaviourists like Skinner, but his ideas only became popular much later in the academic history of child development, psychology and education.

Vygotsky defines learning as primarily a social process, and that it is the social contribution which matters most. For Vygotsky, understanding human development requires a focus on the interaction between people and culture. The basis of all learning is interaction with others and an integration of that interaction at the level of the individual. To understand individual learning behaviour you need to know how the influence of adults and peers, cultural beliefs, and attitudes are affecting how learning takes place.

While all children are born with the natural constraints of their biology, what matters is how that biology adapts to what is provided by the culture. We use our natural ability to adapt to the culture in which we live. Vygotsky differs to Piaget in the greater emphasis he puts on how social factors influence development:

Zone of proximal development

This concept – zone of proximal development – is at the heart of sociocultural theory. What is the distance between your actual development level (your independent ability or what you can do by yourself) and the level of your potential (what you would be capable of achieving if you get the right guidance from adults and your more capable peers).

1. What I can do
2. Zone of Proximal Development: Everything I could do with the right supports, models and guidance
3. All things I cannot do yet and would not be capable of doing yet

The zone of proximal development represents all a young person would be capable of understanding or performing, and all the knowledge and skills they could be capable of developing with the right guidance. Research shows how children can often stretch their skills and knowledge by observing someone who is just a little more capable than them, and in this way keep progressing as they move their zone of proximal development. This concept is often used in education to organise learning and plan lessons. The popular educational theory of scaffolding is based on this principle.

Overall, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory is popular in education and in any work with children or young people that involves learning or modelling desirable social outcomes. Activities and learning plans that emphasise socialization and imaginative play to stretch thinking processes and knowledge of the world are probably using sociocultural principles of human development. Common activities include learning through imaginary play, role-playing games and reenactments of real events.

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If you would like to learn more about the Zone of Proximal Development read this short article

For a fuller explanation of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory beyond just the Zone of Proximal Development you might enjoy this article [Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory]

Urie Bronfenbrenner’s theory sees human development not as an individual process but as one that happens within the context of a complicated system of environmental relationships at multiple levels. It is not simply the interaction between internal processes and the immediate environment but that interaction within a much wider and more complex environment of systems. Development is a lasting change in the way we see and deal with our environments.

The environment of systems that impact human development has five layers: the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem and the chronosystem. The one with the most influence on the individual is the microsystem – the immediate environment of family and school. However, all the layers are interrelated and what impacts one will impact all.

Like the theories of Vygotsky and Bandura, interaction with the environment is a critical mechanism for how development happens. But Bronfenbrenner’s emphasis on the interplay with systems and defining what those are is more pronounced:

• Child
• Microsystem:
  • School
  • Peers
  • Neighbourhood playground
  • Daycare facility
  • Religious organisation
  • Health services
  • Family
• Mesosystem: Mesosystems is the interaction of two or more microsystems on each other; they are interconnected and assert influence on each other. For this could be when the parents of a child gets called into school about their child’s behavior.
• Exosystem:
  • Extended family and neighbours
  • School board
  • Government agencies
  • Social services and health care
  • Mass media
  • Parents' economic situation
• Macrosystem: Attitudes and ideologies of the culture
• Chronosystem:  Environmental changes that occur over the life course

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Learn more about each layer of the environment of systems and what it means in terms of human development; you can also learn more about which types of relationships and interactions within the environment are positive and which are more likely to have negative impacts.

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System’s Theory

Have you read through the examples of human development theory and explored further the ones that you find particularly interesting?

• Which of these theories do you find the most interesting?
• Which theory or theories do you find yourself agreeing with the most?
• For each theory, see if you can think of an example of this theory ‘in action’ in your own life, your family or the young people you work with.
• Are there any theories of human development you know that should be on the list but are not? This list of examples is far from complete. Theory on human development is a vast subject, and this is just a taster that will hopefully have you wanting to know more.

You are now ready to complete Task 1 of Assessment 1.1.