Vygotsky Freud\'s Theories of Development Have Been

Vygotsky

Freud's theories of development have been profoundly influential upon literature and popular culture. Freud's theory of the Oedipal and Electra complexes suggests that all children form a sexual connection with their mother as their first, primary emotional impulse. Gradually, culture comes to channel children's emotions into more appropriate ways, so that after the repressive phase of childhood, adolescents form sexual attachments to people outside the family. Freud's influence upon educational theory is somewhat limited, given his focus upon the 'family romance.' B.F. Skinner, in contrast, took a diametrically opposed view to Freud and instead emphasized the ability of outside, deliberate forces to 'condition' a subject to engage in behaviors, through a series of rewards and punishments.

While to some degree, Skinner's methods are evident in the behavioral management of children in the classroom, Lev Vygotsky is probably the most influential of the major theorists of childhood development on education today. Vygotsky believed that social influences were the most important aspect of shaping children's perspective upon the world, suggesting that human beings were essentially pliable and could be profoundly shaped by early interactions. Vygotsky's ideas were in notable contrast to his contemporary Piaget, who viewed development as something was hard-wired into the individual's biology. Biological developmental patterns would change children's views of the world with age, more so than teachers.

Vygotsky viewed learning as constituting of two different 'zones.' The Zone of Actual Development (ZAD) is when children can master a task autonomously while the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is when the child still requires assistance in completing the task (Blake & Pope 2008: 60). Stages are determined by the autonomy of the child in relationship to others, and will differ depending on the child's previous social influences. In contrast, Piaget believed that almost all children go through stages of learning at relatively similar times in their lives. He listed four stages in cognitive development: the sensory-motor stage, the pre-operational stage and the concrete and formal development stages (Blake & Pope 2008: 60).

Q2. Bettelheim

In our own era, the most-criticized theories currently advanced regarding the 'causes' of autism are those pertaining to environmental factors, such as vaccinations, heavy metals, or children's diets. There has been a recent spike in the number of children diagnosed with autism, although it is unclear if this is due to the fact that the diagnostic criteria has been expanded; improved detection, or an actual increase in the number of children with the disorder. Before the current epidemic, one of the most popular theories to explain autism in Freudian-influenced psychotherapy was the idea that cold 'refrigerator' mothers caused children to develop abnormally. Bruno Bettelheim was the leading proponent of this theory: little regard was given to biological or environmental causes, in contrast to today, in which genetics and epigenetics are considered the most likely culprits by legitimate scientists and laypersons alike.