Theories of Development

William Crain is professor of psychology at The City College of New York. A social activist, Dr. Crain served nine years on the Teaneck, NJ, school board and works for student access to higher education and the protection of nature and animals.  He and his wife Ellen F. Crain, a pediatrician, have three grown children.

Introduction; Chapter 1 Early Theories: Preformationism, Locke, and Rousseau; Chapter 2 Gesell’s Maturational Theory; Chapter 3 Ethological Theories: Darwin, Lorenz and Tinbergen, and Bowlby and Ainsworth; Chapter 4 Montessori’s Educational Philosophy; Chapter 5 Werner’s Organismic and Comparative Theory; Chapter 6 Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory; Chapter 7 Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development; Chapter 8 Learning Theory: Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner; Chapter 9 Bandura’s Social Learning Theory; Chapter 10 Vygotsky’s Social-Historical Theory of Cognitive Development; Chapter 11 Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory; Chapter 12 Erikson and the Eight Stages of Life; Chapter 13 Mahler’s Separation/Individuation Theory; Chapter 14 A Case Study in Psychoanalytic Treatment: Bettelheim on Autism; Chapter 15 Schachtel on Childhood Experiences; Chapter 16 Jung’s Theory of Adulthood; Chapter 17 Chomsky’s Theory of Language Development 1This chapter was written in collaboration with Stephen Crain.; Chapter 18 Conclusion: Humanistic Psychology and Developmental Theory; epi A Developmental Perspective on the Standards Movement;