Major Theorists & Their Ideas
This psychoanalytic theorist believed early childhood experiences and unconscious motives shape adult personality.
Who is Sigmund Freud?
The Piaget stage (birth–2 years) in which infants learn through senses and actions and develop object permanence.
What is the Sensorimotor stage?
Learning by association — Pavlov’s dogs are most famous for demonstrating this type of learning.
What is classical conditioning
The blueprint of life that contains instructions for growth and traits is called ________.
What is DNA?
Which side explains traits shaped by family, school, and culture — like your accent or favorite music?
What is Nurture?
He proposed that people develop through psychosocial stages, each with a conflict to be resolved.
Who is Erik Erikson?
Piaget’s stage where children use symbols and language but struggle with logic and understanding others’ perspectives.
What is the Preoperational stage?
This researcher is known for operant conditioning and the idea that behavior is shaped by reinforcement and punishment.
Who is B.F. Skinner
These units inside DNA control physical traits, brain development, and even personality.
What are genes?
Which side of the debate explains traits you are born with, like eye color or natural athletic ability?
What is Nature?
This theorist emphasized that cognitive development occurs in distinct stages from birth through adolescence (e.g., sensorimotor, preoperational).
Who is Jean Piaget?
In Erikson’s stages, the conflict that adolescents face in forming their identity and sense of self.
What is Identity vs. Role Confusion?
tThe theory that people observe and imitate others — more than just rewards/punishments — was developed by this theorist.
Who is Albert Bandura
Assigning traits and behaviors based on biology is called __________ theory.
What is Ethological Theory?
If identical twins are raised apart but still share many of the same habits, which side of the debate does this support?
What is Nature?
This theorist believed that an individuals social and Cultural environment shapes cognitive development and that humans need to interact with other people, not just objects.
Who is Lev Vygotsky
In Erikson’s theory, the stage in which adults work toward contributing to the next generation / society vs being self-absorbed or stagnant.
What is Generativity vs. Stagnation?
The behaviorist perspective emphasizes only __________ behavior and environmental influences.
What is observable?
Assigning traits and behaviors based on environment is called __________ theory.
What is Ecological Theory?
If a child becomes aggressive because they see aggression at home, which side of the debate does this support?
This theorist focused on moral reasoning, proposing three levels of moral development.
Who is Lawrence Kohlberg?
The Piaget stage where children begin to think logically about concrete events but struggle with abstract reasoning.
What is the Concrete Operational stage?
Behaviors associated with emotional responses.
What is classical conditioning
Give one example of an environmental factor that can shape a child’s development.
What is family, peers, community, media, health care, nutrition, or physical activity?
Most researchers agree that traits are shaped by both heredity and environment. This is often called the _______ vs. _______ debate.