Child psychology, Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, sociocultural theory, and cognitive theory are all theories that have been used to explain the development of children. Freud's psychosexual theory suggests that child development is a series of stages that focus on different areas of pleasure in the body. During each stage, the child faces conflicts that play an important role in their development. In contrast, Erikson's psychosocial theory looks at lifelong development and the developmental crises that occur at each stage.
Behavioral theories of child development focus on how environmental interaction influences behavior and are based on the theories of John B. Watson. Development is seen as a reaction to rewards, punishments, encouragement, and reinforcement. Cognitive theory looks at how thought processes influence the way we understand and interact with the world.
Erik Erikson's theories of emotional development are the most common, while Jean Piaget's theories of cognitive development and Lawrence Kohlberg's theories of moral development are also widely accepted. Bandura's theory suggests that observation plays a role in learning, while Montessori highlighted that children learn better by using their senses and pursuing their interests. The child's personality and behavior will influence how people interact with them. When they are good at a task, they are more likely to continue to develop their skills in that area.
Failure to progress through a stage may result in a fixation at that point in development, which Freud believed could influence adult behavior. National institutes have done research to help us understand child development and the factors that contribute to it during a child's lifetime. There are many factors that influence a child's development and many theories have been postulated on this topic over the years. Bowlby's attachment theory states that much of child development is based on children's innate need to form attachments.
As in any other scientific discipline, these theories are some of the fundamental pillars of psychology and the study of child development. Erikson saw the world as a series of developmental crises of the same age, while Gil Noam has pointed out that Erickson seemed to be skipping an important stage between the values of competition and fidelity. Children start life with genetic factors that can affect their cognitive and emotional development.
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