Child Development Theories Essay Example

Child Development: An Examination of Three Theories There are a lot of theories regarding child development. Three of these theories are Bioecological Theory, Social-Cognitive Theory and Information-Processing Theory. This paper will discuss these theories by comparing and contrasting them. The first theory is the Bioecological Theory developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner. This theory is based on the nature vs. nurture idea. Bronfenbrenner believed development of a child was determined by the relationships among the environment or environmental systems around them. Within this environment there are five distinct systems which are related to a child’s relationship with the school environment, family environment and their recreational environment which includes church and sports leagues. These systems include the microsystem, the mesosytem, the exosystem, the macrosystem and the chronosystem. It is within these systems that a child develops as all five of these systems work simultaneously with the other. All of these systems change over time and a change in one system can and will often affect the other systems. How a child develops is based on the environment within these systems and what they are subjected to within them. “For Bronfenbrenner, development is a complex interaction of the changing child within a changing ecological context.”(Mossler, 2011). The Social Cognitive Theory was introduced by Albert Bandura. Bandura showed us that the social environment and cognition have interactive roles in behavior and learning among children. He further proposed with this theory that children learn simply by observing both the environment and the people around them. “…suggestions by gesture and action first serve to guide us in learning…” (Boodin, 1914). Like Bronfenbrenner he developed stages or steps within his theory to demonstrate the interaction of his principles and cognition (thinking). The four steps are attention, retention,