“o what extent do the different theories of development discussed in Book 1, Chapter 2 take account of the role of social experiences in child development? Use examples in your essay to illustrate different aspects of child development.”

This essay will look at the four grand theories on child development. These four grand theories have had a great influence on the development psychology; there are so much more other theories on child development psychology. The four contrasting developmental theories will be introduced and evaluated throughout the essay are: behaviourism (development as discipline), social learning theory (development as experience), constructivism (development as natural stages) and social constructivism (development as interaction).

Firstly, behaviourism commonly referred as learning theory has a foundation of developing psychology as a science. This theory put forward that all behaviour is learned and maintained by consequences and concentrates merely on the observations of a childs behaviour and measurable events and therefore does not speculate on cognition or theorize on …(short extract)