PART ONE: INTRODUCTION & GIBSON’S THEORY OF PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

VCE UNIT 1 PSYCHOLOGY 2012

Chapter 5: Theories of Psychological Development

Introduction

How have you changed and

developed since birth?

In what ways will you continue

to change?

The answers to these questions

can be found in many of the

different developmental

theories that have been

constructed by psychologists

What is a theory?

A theory is a set of ideas which

are proposed to organise,

describe and explain a set of

observations and the

relationships between them. A

psychological theory explains

how and why certain things

occur, usually on the basis of

scientific evidence.

Stages of theory development

Why so many theories?

No single theory of development

is comprehensive enough to

explain all areas of development

across the entire lifespan

Most theories focus on 1 specific

aspect or area of development

Often there is more than one

theory to explain a particular

area of development

Psychological

Development

Perceptual Emotional

Cognitive

Moral

Psychosocial

Why so many theories?

This year we will cover the

following areas of

development:

Perceptual – Gibson

Emotional – Bowlby, Ainsworth,

Harlow

Cognitive - Piaget

Moral -Kohlberg

Psychosocial – Erikson

Psychological

Development

PerceptualGibson

EmotionalBowlby,

Ainsworth & Harlow

CognitivePiaget

MoralKohlberg

Psychosocial

Erikson

Gibson’s theory of perceptual development

Human perceptual systems include

sight, sound, touch, taste and smell

These are all functioning from birth

and are important to survival

Perceptual development continues

throughout the lifespan, however

the greatest changes occur in the

early years of life

Cont.

Eleanor Gibson conducted

many experiments on

different aspects of

perception, particularly on

visual perception in infants

Gibson developed her

theories based on her

research findings

American experimental psychologist

Eleanor Gibson (1910-2002)

Gibson’s theory

Emphasised key processes involved in

perceptual development. These

include:

Role of the infant as an active explorer

The affordance (perceived qualities) of

objects or events that are experienced

The way perceptual exploration

becomes more and more specific and

differentiated (selective) with age

According to Gibson (1983), the infant is

an active explorer in the constantly

changing environment.

When awake, it monitors what is

happening in its environment and actively

searches for and obtains information

about it.

It then uses this information to guide its

actions.

Gibson proposed that these activities are

essentially what perception is.

Perceptual development

The process of continuous

modification and refinement of

perceptual abilities through

experience with incoming sensory

information.

Generally self initiated by the infant-

as the infants abilities develop it

explores the environment more and

learns more about people, events

and objects

Perceptual development cont.

Exploration and the search for

affordances are important

features of perceptual

development

Affordances are the perceived

and actual properties of

something in the environment

that suggest how it should be

used.

Example

If a surface of land is perceived by the animal as

nearly horizontal (instead of slanted), nearly flat

(instead of convex or concave), having sufficient

length and width (in relation to the size of the

animal), and is rigid (can hold the weight of the

animal), then the surface affords support. Since

it is perceived as a surface of support, it can be

considered ‘stand-on-able’, and therefore ‘walk-

on-able’ and ‘run-overable’. It is not ‘sink-into-

able’ like a surface of water or a swamp would

be for a heavy land-dwelling animal. For a

different animal, such as a water bug, the

affordance of support would be different if the

surface is water.

Affordance

Varies from one animal or

person to another as it is a

two way relationship between

something in the environment

and a person or animal (a

persons relationship to

something can differ from an

animals relationship to

something)

Affordances are discovered

through ongoing interaction

with the environment

When this happens

differentiation occurs.

Differentiation is the ability to

selectively perceive differences

between things in the

environment

Example

A two-year-old child may initially

confuse rabbits and cats

because they are both furry

animals about the same size.

However, the child will

eventually discover that

rabbits have long ears — a

distinctive feature that

differentiates them from cats,

guinea pigs, possums and

other small, furry animals.

Differentiation

We become more efficient at

differentiation through

experience and ongoing

interaction with things in the

environment.

So with greater experiences

(as we become older) we

become more efficient or

better at differentiation

An experiment by Gibson on differentiation