Umm Al-Qura University

College of Applied Medical Sciences

Department of Physiotherapy
Second Year

PSYCHOLOGY of HANDICAPPED
Lecture 4: Developmental Psychology

Dr: Amir El-Fiky

‫ هــ‬1446
Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology: It is the study of the growth and

maturation of the individual over an extended span of time. Child psychology
is a subset of developmental psychology. It concerns itself primarily with the
study of the individual from birth to the beginning of adolescence (usually
around the age of twelve or thirteen), This particular branch focuses on the
mind and behavior of children. Adolescent psychology is also a subset of
developmental psychology. It concerns itself primarily with the study of the
individual from the beginning of adolescence to its end (usually around the
age of eighteen). Sometimes child psychology refers loosely to both child and
adolescent psychology.
What Is Development?
Development describes the growth of humans throughout the lifespan,
from conception to death. The scientific study of human development seeks to
understand and explain how and why people change throughout life. This
includes all aspects of human growth, including physical, emotional,
intellectual, social, perceptual, and personality development.
The scientific study of development is important not only to psychology,
but also to sociology, education, and health care. Development does not just
involve the biological and physical aspects of growth, but also the cognitive
and social aspects associated with development throughout life.
The study of human development is important in a number of subjects,
including biology, anthropology, sociology, education, history, and
psychology. Most important, however, are the practical applications of
studying human development. By better understanding how and why people
change and grow, we can then apply this knowledge to helping people live up
to their full potential.
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Child Development Theories

Child development that occurs from birth to adulthood was largely

ignored throughout much of history. Children were often viewed simply as
small versions of adults and little attention was paid to the many advances in
cognitive abilities, language usage, and physical growth. Interest in the field of
child development began early in the 20th-century and tended to focus on
abnormal behavior.
The following are just a few of the many child development theories that
have been proposed by theorists and researchers. More recent theories outline
the developmental stages of children and identify the typical ages at which
these growth milestones occur.
Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development:
Freud’s theory of development has been highly influential. First proposed
about eighty years ago, it has had a large impact on the way in which both
psychologists and parents have thought about sexual development in children.
It has also influenced child-rearing practices.
According to Freud, there are five stages in psychosexual development.
Psychosexual development refers to the development of a sexual identity,
attitudes toward sexual behavior, and emotional reactions to sexual stimuli.
Sexual development, in Freud’s view, is much more than biological. Identity,
attitudes, and emotional reactions are psychological in nature. That is why
Freud used the term psychosexual instead of simply sexual to refer to the kind
of development he wanted to study.

The five stages of psychosexual development are: (1) oral, (2) anal, (3)
phallic, (4) latency, and (5) genital. In order to appreciate Freud’s theory, it is
necessary to introduce a concept he employed called libido. Libido is thought
of as psychosexual energy, and Freud hypothesized that it is invested in
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different zones of the body during the various stages of psychosexual
development. These zones, or areas, of the body are called the erogenous
zones, and they are associated with sexual pleasure. The principal erogenous
zones are the oral, anal, and genital areas of the body.
The oral stage lasts for about two years (infancy). During this stage the
infant obtains a substantial amount of pleasure from sucking, biting, chewing,
and so forth.
The anal stage lasts for about one or two years (the stage of the toddler).
During the anal stage the toddler obtains a substantial amount of pleasure
from, at times, withholding fecal matter and, at other times, expelling it. Note
that this stage coincides with the time at which most children are toilet trained.
The phallic stage lasts for about three years (the stage of the
preschooler). During the phallic stage the preschooler, according to Freud,
obtains a substantial amount of pleasure from self-stimulation of the phallus.
The phallus in the male is the penis. In the female it is the clitoris. The phallic
stage ends at about the age of six.
The latency stage lasts for about six years. It begins at age six or seven
and ends at age twelve or thirteen. In effect, it ends when puberty begins. The
libido has migrated from the oral to the anal to the phallic zone. Now it goes
underground and becomes, to surface appearance, dormant. The libido goes
underground not because of a lack of biological maturation, but because of
psychological conflict. Freud suggested that the child has a certain amount of
dawning sexual desire and tends to make the parent of the opposite sex the
focus of this desire. However, due to moral development, guilt sets in and the
libido goes into hiding. It is repressed to an unconscious level.
The emotional conflict associated with the child’s forbidden wish to seek
sexual expression with a parent is called the Oedipus complex. Writing in
German in Austria, Freud used the term Oedipus complex to refer to either
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males or females. Later authors, writing in the United States, sometimes use
the term Oedipus complex to refer to males and Electra complex to refer to
females.
The genital stage begins at twelve or thirteen and continues throughout
adulthood. With puberty, biological maturation can no longer be denied. The
repression lifts and the individual becomes intensely conscious of sexual
interest. Libido makes a final shift from the phallus to a more general interest
in the opposite sex. In normal development, the individual transfers sexual
interest away from the parent and toward potential partners who are not
members of the family.
Freud’s outline suggests that much can go wrong with sexual
development. There can be too much excitation and arousal associated with
one of the stages. Or, conversely, there can be too much inhibition,
punishment, or emotional injury associated with one of the stages. Freud
indicated that either too much excitation or too much inhibition can induce a
fixation of libido, meaning the libido is to some extent “stuck” in one
particular erogenous zone. According to Freud, such fixations may play a role
in various problems and maladaptive behaviors, including overeating,
constipation, pedophilia, exhibitionism, fetishism, and sexual dysfunctions.

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Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development:

Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is one of the best-known

theories of personality in psychology. Much like Sigmund Freud, Erikson
believed that personality develops in a series of stages. Unlike Freud’s theory
of psychosexual stages, Erikson’s theory describes the impact of social
experience across the whole lifespan.
One of the main elements of Erikson’s psychosocial stage theory is the
development of ego identity. Ego identity is the conscious sense of self that
we develop through social interaction. According to Erikson, our ego identity
is constantly changing due to new experience and information we acquire in
our daily interactions with others. In addition to ego identity, Erikson also
believed that a sense of competence also motivates behaviors and actions.
Each stage in Erikson’s theory is concerned with becoming competent in an
area of life. If the stage is handled well, the person will feel a sense of
mastery, which he sometimes referred to as ego strength or ego quality. If
the stage is managed poorly, the person will emerge with a sense of
inadequacy.
In each stage, Erikson believed people experience a conflict that serves
as a turning point in development. In Erikson’s view, these conflicts are
centered on either developing a psychological quality or failing to develop
that quality. During these times, the potential for personal growth is high, but
so is the potential for failure.
According to Erikson, there are eight stages in psychosocial
development: (1) trust versus mistrust, (2) autonomy versus shame and doubt,
(3) initiative versus guilt, (4) industry versus inferiority, (5) identity versus
role confusion, (6) intimacy versus isolation, (7) generativity versus self-
absorption, and (8) integrity versus despair.

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In each stage the first attribute mentioned is a positive, or desirable,
personality trait. The second attribute is a negative, or undesirable, personality
trait. Trust, for example, is positive. Mistrust is negative. At each stage of
development, the individual is challenged by life to form the positive trait.

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

Stage Basic Important Outcome

Conflict Events
Infancy (birth Trust vs. Feeding Children develop a sense of trust when caregivers
to 18 months) Mistrust provide reliability, care, and affection. A lack of this
will lead to mistrust.
Early Autonomy vs. Toilet Training Children need to develop a sense of personal control
Childhood (2 Shame and over physical skills and a sense of independence.
to 3 years) Doubt Success leads to feelings of autonomy, failure results
in feelings of shame and doubt.
Preschool (3 Initiative vs. Exploration Children need to begin asserting control and power
to 5 years) Guilt over the environment. Success in this stage leads to
a sense of purpose. Children who try to exert too
much power experience disapproval, resulting in a
sense of guilt.
School Age (6 Industry vs. School Children need to cope with new social and academic
to 11 years) Inferiority demands. Success leads to a sense of competence,
while failure results in feelings of inferiority.
Adolescence Identity vs. Social Teens needs to develop a sense of self and personal
(12 to 18 Role Confusion Relationships identity. Success leads to an ability to stay true to
years) yourself, while failure leads to role confusion and a
weak sense of self.
Young Intimacy vs. Relationships Young adults need to form intimate, loving
Adulthood (19 Isolation relationships with other people. Success leads to
to 40 years) strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness
and isolation.
Middle Generativity Work and Adults need to create or nurture things that will
Adulthood (40 vs. Stagnation Parenthood outlast them, often by having children or creating a
to 65 years) positive change that benefits other people. Success
leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment,
while failure results in shallow involvement in the
world.
Maturity(65 to Ego Integrity Reflection on Older adults need to look back on life and feel a
death) vs. Despair Life sense of fulfillment. Success at this stage leads to
feelings of wisdom, while failure results in regret,
bitterness, and despair.

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Although the individual has very little control over the first few stages of
life, with adolescence and adulthood there is greater self-consciousness. There
is a growth in the ability to reflect and think. Consequently, the individual
bears some responsibility for the self-fashioning of the later stages.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development:

Jean Piaget, often recognized as the foremost child psychologist of the

twentieth century, made the growth of the child’s ability to think his particular
domain of investigation.
Piaget, working primarily at Geneva University in Switzerland, began
his investigations into the workings of the child’s mind because of an interest
in epistemology. Epistemology, a branch of philosophy, is the study of
knowing. Piaget wanted to discover how we come to know what we know.
Or, more accurately, he wanted to discover how we come to think we know
what we think we know.
The method that Piaget used to study the child’s mind is called the
phenomenological method. The phenomenological method is characterized
by asking a child a series of carefully worded questions that direct the child’s
attention to particular details of the child’s immediate world. The child’s
responses reveal the way in which he or she thinks about the world. Piaget’s
investigations suggest that there are four stages of cognitive development,
the development of the way in which the child thinks. Informally, cognitive
development may be thought of as the “growth of the mind.”
According to Piaget, there are four stages of cognitive development: (1)
the sensorimotor stage, (2) the preoperational stage, (3) the concrete
operations stage, and (4) the formal operations stage.

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The sensorimotor stage is associated with infancy (birth to two years
old). During this stage the infant has consciousness, but not self-
consciousness. He or she is aware of the environment. There are reflexes. A
stimulus induces a patterned, predictable motor response. This provides a clue
to the term sensorimotor and why Piaget chose it. The infant senses the world
and, without reflection or analysis, acts in response to his or her impressions.
In the older infant there is even a certain amount of intentional
behavior. But the infant does not know that he or she exists in the same way
that an older child or an adult knows that he or she exists. There is no way to
establish these assertions beyond doubt, because a verbal interview with an
infant is impossible. However, an infant acts as if self-consciousness is absent.
For example, one-year-old Mahmoud is shown his reflection in a mirror. He is
curious and reaches out to touch the reflection. But he does not seem to know
that he is seeing himself. There appears to be no sense of recognition. A
postage stamp is lightly stuck to his forehead. He touches it in the mirror, but
doesn’t peel it off of his forehead. Tested again, when he is a little over two
years old, Mahmoud immediately recognizes that the stamp is on his own
forehead, and, using the mirror, peels it off. He has developed self-
consciousness, a characteristic not of infancy, but of the next stage.
The preoperational stage is associated with toddlerhood and the
preschool age (two to seven years old). The term preoperational is used to
suggest that during this stage the child has not yet grasped the concept of
cause and effect. Instead, the child tends to think in magical terms. Magical
thinking is characterized by an absence of the recognition of the importance
of the laws of nature. Four-year-old Khaled sees no problem when a magician
instructs a carpet to fly.

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Two additional characteristics of the preoperational stage are
anthropomorphic thinking and egocentrism. Anthropomorphic thinking is
characterized by a tendency to explain natural events in terms of human
behavior. Consequently, leaves turn various colors in the fall because Jack
Frost paints them. The huffing and puffing of an invisible giant is the cause of
a windy day.
Egocentrism is a tendency to perceive oneself as existing at the center
of the universe. Everything revolves around the self. Consequently, five-year-
old Lama, when riding in a car at night with her parents, asks, “Why is the
Moon following us?” Two days later Lama falls and scrapes her knee. She
believes that her mother can feel the pain. Six-year-old Yasser thinks that
people in a foreign country on the other side of the world are upside down. He
reasons that if the world is round, and we’re right side up, then they have to be
upside down. If an adult tells Yasser that the people are right side up, he will
be confused.
The concrete operations stage is associated with middle childhood
(seven to twelve years old). The child at this stage can think in terms of cause
and effect. However, most of the thinking is “concrete,” meaning that
cognitive processes at this stage deal well with what can be seen or otherwise
experienced, not with abstractions. For example, eight-year-old Ryan can
easily understand that 3 + 7 = 10 because, if necessary, this can be
demonstrated with physical objects such as pennies or chips. On the other
hand, Ryan can’t grasp that x + 8 = 11 in problem 1, and that x + 8 = 24 in
problem 2. If Ryan is told that x is a variable, and that it can have more than
one numerical value in different problems, he will have a hard time
appreciating this fact. In brief, Ryan can understand arithmetic, but he can’t
understand algebra.

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During the stage of concrete operations, children are usually interested
in how clocks work, how measurements are made, and why this causes that to
happen. They often like to assemble things. A game such as Monopoly, with
its play money, property deeds, and tokens, is attractive.
The formal operations stage is associated with adolescence and
adulthood. (Adolescence begins at twelve or thirteen years old). The formal
operations stage is characterized by the ability to think in abstract terms. The
adolescent and adult can understand algebra. Subjects such as philosophy,
with its various viewpoints on life, become accessible. Not only thinking, but
thinking about thinking is possible. This is called metathought.
Formal operational thought makes it possible to use both inductive and
deductive logic. The adult can reflect, analyze, and rethink ideas and
viewpoints. This kind of thought opens up avenues of mental flexibility not
available to children.
Piaget’s theory presents a blueprint for cognitive development that
captures the spectrum of thinking from its primitive beginning to its most
sophisticated level.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development:

Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist associated with Harvard

University, has drawn from Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and
applied it to moral development. Moral development is the development of
the individual’s sense of right and wrong. A high level of moral development
is built on a foundation of cognitive development. But, of course, more is
involved.
Prior to Kohlberg’s actual research with subjects, theories of moral
development were based largely on speculation. The philosophers Plato and
Immanuel Kant believed that the moral sense is inborn, that it is a given of the
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human mind. On the other hand, the philosophers Aristotle and John Locke
assumed that moral development requires learning and experience. Kohlberg’s
approach tends to favor the learning hypothesis. Human beings acquire a
moral sense by learning to think clearly, by the example of role models, and
by social reinforcement.
According to Kohlberg, there are three principal levels of moral develop-
ment: (1) the premoral level, (2) the conventional level, and (3) the principled
level. (There are six stages associated with the three levels, two stages to each
level. The differences between the stages are subtle, and they will not be
specified.)
The premoral level is associated with early childhood (from about two to
seven years old). The theme of this level is power orientation, meaning that
to a child thinking at this level, “might makes right.” The parents are seen as
“right” because they are bigger and stronger than the child. Five-year-old
Ahmed is considering whether or not he should steal a half-Riyal bill from his
mother’s purse. His hesitation, if there is any, is based on the fear of being
caught, not on guilt. He is Amoral, meaning that he has no actual moral
sense, no internal feeling that he is wrong to do something that is forbidden.
The conventional level is associated with late childhood and adolescence
(seven to eighteen years old). Also, many, probably most, adults continue to
operate at the conventional level, never progressing to the principled level.
The theme of the conventional level is “law and order.” Right is right
because human beings have codes of conduct and written laws. Fifteen-year-
old Samira identifies with her family the family has a certain religion, certain
attitudes, and well-defined notions of what is and is not socially acceptable
behavior. Samira doesn’t question the family’s values. She doesn’t examine or
challenge them. She is operating at the conventional level. Thirty-four-year-
old Ibrahim pays his taxes, has earned an honorable discharge from the army,
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and thinks of himself as a “good citizen.” Ibrahim, like Samira, is operating at
the conventional level.
The principled level is associated with a relatively small percentage of
adults. These are people who think for themselves about what is right and
wrong. They are not chaotic in their thought processes. They are logical and
clear sighted. In certain cases, they may decide that a law or a group of laws
are unjust, and they may rebel. The founding fathers of the United States, men
such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, fall in this last category.
Saints, great leaders, and prophets also fall in the principled category.
It is clear that not all adults outgrow even the first level, the premoral
level. Dictators who rule by brute force, who punish in accordance with their
personal whims, operate at the premoral level.
❖ Parental Style:
Whether it be psychosexual, psychosocial, cognitive, or moral
development is greatly influenced what parents say and do. The general
approach taken toward child rearing by a parent is called parental style.
Research conducted by developmental psychologists such as Stanley
Coopersmith and Diane Baumrind, both affiliated with the University of
California, suggests that there are two primary dimensions of parental style.
These are: (1) authoritarian-permissive and (2) accepting-rejecting.
The authoritarian-permissive dimension consists of bipolar opposites.
At the one extreme, parents who manifest an authoritarian style are highly
controlling, demanding, possessive, and overprotective. At the other extreme,
parents who manifest a permissive style are easygoing, overly agreeable,
detached, and easily manipulated by the child or adolescent. Such parents tend
to avoid setting well-defined limits on behavior.
The accepting-rejecting dimension also consists of bipolar opposites.
At the one extreme, parents who manifest an accepting style provide the child
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with unconditional love, meaning that love is not withdrawn when a child’s
behavior is unacceptable. The child is loved for being himself or herself, and
affection does not stop just because the parent is sometimes disappointed in
something the child has done. There is much confusion about this particular
point. Unconditional love does not mean unconditional acceptance of all
behavior. It is possible to reject unacceptable behavior without rejecting the
whole person.
Parents who manifest a rejecting style provide the child with either
conditional love or no love at all. Conditional love is characterized by
providing the tokens of love (e.g., kisses and hugs) only when they have been
earned by certain behaviors such as getting good grades, doing chores, and
being polite. A parent who provides no love seldom, if ever, brings forth
demonstrations of love in either words or actions. The child acquires the
impression that the parent wishes he or she had never been born.
The two dimensions generate five distinct categories of
parental style: (1) authoritarian-accepting, (2) permissive-accepting, (3)
authoritarian-rejecting, (4) permissive-rejecting, and (5) democratic. The first
four styles are all flawed, and each of them is likely to generate difficulties in
the child’s adjustment to life. The fifth style is the optimal style. The word
democratic is used to indicate an optimal midpoint on the authoritarian-
permissive dimension. Parents who manifest a democratic style give a child
real options. The child is allowed to make choices and important decisions.
However, the democratic parent also sets realistic limits. If the child’s choices
are unacceptable and likely to create eventual problems for the child, then the
democratic parent draws a line and is capable of being firm. Research
suggests that a parent who manifests a democratic style tends to induce
optimal social behaviors in the child. This style tends to nurture the
intelligence, creativity, emotional adjustment, and self-esteem of the child.
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