Introduction to Unit Eight
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Introduction to Unit Eight
Introduction
Examining how people learn new information and how they develop is an essential aspect of developmental psychology. According to behaviourism theory by J.B Watson, people or children learn through different types of association and conditioning. In this unit, I seek to establish how learning and development occur in people.
In classical conditioning, the stimulus precedes a behaviour but the need or urge to alter particular behaviour depend on the amount of reinforcement involved (Crain, 2015). For instance, I have learned not to procrastinate things through classical conditioning because I find myself with a lot of free time when I do something early in advance. In operant conditioning, the consequences come after a behaviour and alter that behaviour. Because I hate taking out the trash, I make sure that I am the first one to wash my used dishes.
In observational learning, one learns through observing and modelling other people’s emotional expressions, attitudes, and behaviour (Crain, 2015). My brother passed a middle-level examination, and I failed. I observed how my brother reacted to his performance and his attitudes towards education and felt we should be at the same level. This helped me to catch up on the next level of education.
I choose nature versus nurture. While some scholars argue that people are what they are because of their inborn abilities and capabilities, others say that the environment plays a critical role in shaping one’s behaviour and development (Crain, 2015). I think the environment shapes the character and conduct of people more because of the exposure to different stimuli.
I identify Erik Erikson. He advanced the theory of personality by Sigmund Freud. He argued that personality development happens over the entire course of a person’s life. I think this theory is essential to me because it shows that at each phase of development, there are challenges and the outcomes are dependent on how one handles the problems.
Reference
Crain, W. (2015). Theories of development: Concepts and applications: Concepts and applications. Psychology Press.