Developmental Theories - Essay Example

Developmental Theories Behavioural development and learning processes were initially defined through grand and emerging theories of development. These theories, though highly variable in terms of explaining how children form behavioural patterns and how they absorb information from external stimuli, all have the premise of being able to explain how these certain patterns of behaviour and development are linked to how a child grows and changes into a mature adult (Berger 33). While it can be lauded that the theories are instrumental in initiating information about the mind, these are not infallible and are only able to give explanations to further understand the human thinking and learning processes as deemed applicable by their creator-theorists (34, 48).

For example, Psychoanalytic theory was criticised since it cannot be measured scientifically and it undermined the effects of human bonding among people, giving way for the creation of Behaviourist theories that uses scientific methods for validation (42). Cognitive theory on the other hand was developed from the earlier two theories because both were unable to explain how an individual changes both mentally and behaviourally during aging, as well as understanding the importance of the relationship between how a person thinks and assimilates information, and how this guides behavioural patterns or choices (48).

Thus these three grand theories are limiting and need a wider perspective to address all kinds of people with different cultural and academic backgrounds. The emerging theories on the other hand were formed due to addressing the need for a multidisciplinary and multicultural approach, which were not mentioned by the three grand theories due to their singular and western approaches. The sociocultural theory of development is able to explain why the individual’s growth and development is strongly-connected to the society one grows up in, the universal perspective delves into the common needs of all humans, as well as the shared needs and impulses characterised in every culture and generation, and the evolutionary theory focuses on the genetic and hereditary aspects of behavioural development through the interaction of the environment and natural selection (48, 51, 53).

However, it is important to consider that these emerging theories still need additional studies in order for them to be fully acceptable to the whole scientific community due to being relatively recent in comparison to the grand theories. Nevertheless, these new theories are also able to change the field of psychology gradually by studying behaviour and development under various perspectives and fields of study, which is an unknown concept during the early stages of psychology.Work CitedBerger, K. S. (2012).

The developing person through the life span. (8 ed.). New York, NY: Worth Pub