Human development is a lifelong process characterized by growth, change, and adaptation. Psychologists have long debated the nature of this development, particularly in terms of whether it follows a continuous or discontinuous trajectory. Continuous development suggests that growth and change occur gradually and incrementally over time, while discontinuous development posits that development occurs in distinct stages or steps.
The Foundations of Continuous and Discontinuous Development
Continuous Development
Continuous development is rooted in the idea that human growth and change occur gradually and cumulatively, with no distinct stages or abrupt transitions. It is often associated with quantitative changes, where individuals acquire new skills, knowledge, and abilities incrementally. Key foundations of continuous development include:
Quantitative Change: Continuous development is characterized by quantitative changes in abilities, behaviors, and skills. These changes are gradual and build upon existing capabilities.
No Clear Stages: In continuous development, there are no clearly defined stages or distinct phases of development. Instead, development is viewed as a continuous and ongoing process.
Environmental Influence: Continuous development emphasizes the role of the environment in shaping individuals’ growth. Environmental factors, such as learning experiences, play a significant role in the acquisition of new skills.
Behaviorism: Behaviorist theories, such as those proposed by B.F. Skinner, align with the concept of continuous development. Behaviorism focuses on observable behaviors and how they are shaped through reinforcement and conditioning.
Discontinuous Development
Discontinuous development, on the other hand, posits that human development occurs in distinct stages or steps, often marked by qualitative changes. These qualitative shifts are seen as transitions from one stage to another, with each stage having unique characteristics and challenges. Key foundations of discontinuous development include:
Qualitative Change: Discontinuous development involves qualitative changes in an individual’s cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning. These changes represent shifts to a new developmental stage.
Distinct Stages: Discontinuous development is characterized by distinct stages or phases, each with its own set of characteristics, challenges, and milestones. Transitions between stages are often marked by significant changes.
Innate Factors: Discontinuous development theories often emphasize the role of innate factors, such as genetics or cognitive maturation, in driving developmental changes.
Piaget’s Theory: Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is a prominent example of discontinuous development theory. Piaget proposed distinct stages of cognitive development, including the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages.
Theories of Continuous Development
1. Behaviorism
Behaviorism is a psychological perspective that aligns with the concept of continuous development. Behaviorists, such as B.F. Skinner, emphasize the role of environmental reinforcement and conditioning in shaping human behavior. According to behaviorist principles, individuals gradually acquire new behaviors through repeated experiences and reinforcement.
2. Social Learning Theory
Social Learning Theory, proposed by Albert Bandura, also supports continuous development. This theory emphasizes the role of observational learning and modeling. Individuals learn new behaviors by observing others and gradually incorporating those behaviors into their own repertoire.
3. Information Processing Theory
Information Processing Theory, which draws from computer science, suggests that cognitive development occurs through incremental improvements in information processing capacity. As individuals age, they become more proficient at processing, storing, and retrieving information, leading to continuous cognitive growth.
Theories of Discontinuous Development
1. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development is a seminal example of discontinuous development theory. Piaget proposed that cognitive development occurs in distinct stages, with each stage characterized by qualitatively different ways of thinking and understanding the world. The four stages in Piaget’s theory are the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages.
2. Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of development suggests that individuals progress through eight distinct stages across the lifespan. Each stage presents a unique psychosocial crisis that individuals must resolve to achieve healthy development. These stages, such as trust vs. mistrust and identity vs. role confusion, represent significant shifts in psychosocial functioning.
3. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Theory of development proposes that individuals pass through five distinct stages, each characterized by the focus on a specific erogenous zone and a corresponding developmental challenge. Freud’s stages include the oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages.
Implications for Different Aspects of Human Development
Cognitive Development
Continuous Development: In continuous development, cognitive growth is seen as a gradual accumulation of knowledge and skills. Learning experiences and environmental influences play a significant role in shaping cognitive development.
Discontinuous Development: Discontinuous theories, such as Piaget’s, propose that cognitive development occurs in stages, with each stage marked by qualitative shifts in thinking. These stages represent distinct cognitive milestones.
Social and Emotional Development
Continuous Development: Continuous development theories suggest that social and emotional development involves gradual changes in behaviors and emotional regulation. Learning from social interactions and experiences contributes to this growth.
Discontinuous Development: Discontinuous theories, like Erikson’s psychosocial stages, emphasize the presence of distinct psychosocial crises and developmental tasks at different life stages. Successful resolution of these crises leads to psychosocial growth.
Language Development
Continuous Development: Language development is viewed as an incremental process in continuous development. Children gradually acquire language skills through exposure, practice, and reinforcement.
Discontinuous Development: Some aspects of language development, such as the critical period hypothesis, suggest that language acquisition follows a discontinuous pattern, with specific windows of opportunity for language learning.
Moral Development
Continuous Development: Continuous development theories propose that moral development involves the gradual internalization of societal norms and values. Moral reasoning and decision-making evolve over time through experience.
Discontinuous Development: Kohlberg’s stages of moral development theory presents a discontinuous view, with individuals progressing through distinct stages of moral reasoning. Each stage represents a qualitative shift in moral thinking.
Nature vs. Nurture in Continuous and Discontinuous Development
Both continuous and discontinuous development theories recognize the interplay of nature (genetics and biological factors) and nurture (environmental influences) in shaping human development. However, their emphasis differs:
Continuous Development: Continuous development theories often place greater emphasis on environmental influences, suggesting that gradual changes result from learning experiences and interactions with the environment.
Discontinuous Development: Discontinuous development theories, particularly those proposing stages, acknowledge the role of both nature and nurture. While genetic factors may drive transitions between stages, environmental experiences are crucial for successfully navigating each stage.
Developmental Milestones and Individual Differences
Continuous Development: In continuous development, there are no distinct developmental milestones or fixed timelines. Individuals may progress at different rates and achieve various skills and abilities at their own pace.
Discontinuous Development: Discontinuous theories propose specific developmental milestones and stages. These stages serve as reference points for understanding typical developmental progress. However, individual differences and variations are also recognized.
Conclusion
The nature of human development, whether continuous or discontinuous, has been a subject of significant debate in psychology. Continuous development theories emphasize gradual, incremental changes in human growth, with an emphasis on learning and environmental influences. Discontinuous development theories propose that development occurs in distinct stages, each characterized by qualitative shifts in thinking, behavior, or emotions.
Both perspectives offer valuable insights into human development, and the choice between them often depends on the specific aspect of development being studied and the questions being addressed. Ultimately, understanding the interplay of continuous and discontinuous elements in human growth provides a richer and more nuanced perspective on the complex journey of human development across the lifespan.
Convergent thinking occurs when the solution to a problem can be found by applying established rules and logical reasoning. Whereas divergent thinking is an unstructured problem-solving method where participants are encouraged to develop many innovative ideas or solutions to a given problem. Where convergent thinking might work for larger, mature organizations where divergent thinking is more suited for startups and innovative companies.
The concept of cognitive biases was introduced and popularized by the work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in 1972. Biases are seen as systematic errors and flaws that make humans deviate from the standards of rationality, thus making us inept at making good decisions under uncertainty.
Second-order thinking is a means of assessing the implications of our decisions by considering future consequences. Second-order thinking is a mental model that considers all future possibilities. It encourages individuals to think outside of the box so that they can prepare for every and eventuality. It also discourages the tendency for individuals to default to the most obvious choice.
Lateral thinking is a business strategy that involves approaching a problem from a different direction. The strategy attempts to remove traditionally formulaic and routine approaches to problem-solving by advocating creative thinking, therefore finding unconventional ways to solve a known problem. This sort of non-linear approach to problem-solving, can at times, create a big impact.
Bounded rationality is a concept attributed to Herbert Simon, an economist and political scientist interested in decision-making and how we make decisions in the real world. In fact, he believed that rather than optimizing (which was the mainstream view in the past decades) humans follow what he called satisficing.
The Dunning-Kruger effect describes a cognitive bias where people with low ability in a task overestimate their ability to perform that task well. Consumers or businesses that do not possess the requisite knowledge make bad decisions. What’s more, knowledge gaps prevent the person or business from seeing their mistakes.
Occam’s Razor states that one should not increase (beyond reason) the number of entities required to explain anything. All things being equal, the simplest solution is often the best one. The principle is attributed to 14th-century English theologian William of Ockham.
The Lindy Effect is a theory about the ageing of non-perishable things, like technology or ideas. Popularized by author Nicholas Nassim Taleb, the Lindy Effect states that non-perishable things like technology age – linearly – in reverse. Therefore, the older an idea or a technology, the same will be its life expectancy.
Antifragility was first coined as a term by author, and options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Antifragility is a characteristic of systems that thrive as a result of stressors, volatility, and randomness. Therefore, Antifragile is the opposite of fragile. Where a fragile thing breaks up to volatility; a robust thing resists volatility. An antifragile thing gets stronger from volatility (provided the level of stressors and randomness doesn’t pass a certain threshold).
Systems thinking is a holistic means of investigating the factors and interactions that could contribute to a potential outcome. It is about thinking non-linearly, and understanding the second-order consequences of actions and input into the system.
Vertical thinking, on the other hand, is a problem-solving approach that favors a selective, analytical, structured, and sequential mindset. The focus of vertical thinking is to arrive at a reasoned, defined solution.
Maslow’s Hammer, otherwise known as the law of the instrument or the Einstellung effect, is a cognitive bias causing an over-reliance on a familiar tool. This can be expressed as the tendency to overuse a known tool (perhaps a hammer) to solve issues that might require a different tool. This problem is persistent in the business world where perhaps known tools or frameworks might be used in the wrong context (like business plans used as planning tools instead of only investors’ pitches).
The Peter Principle was first described by Canadian sociologist Lawrence J. Peter in his 1969 book The Peter Principle. The Peter Principle states that people are continually promoted within an organization until they reach their level of incompetence.
The straw man fallacy describes an argument that misrepresents an opponent’s stance to make rebuttal more convenient. The straw man fallacy is a type of informal logical fallacy, defined as a flaw in the structure of an argument that renders it invalid.
The Streisand Effect is a paradoxical phenomenon where the act of suppressing information to reduce visibility causes it to become more visible. In 2003, Streisand attempted to suppress aerial photographs of her Californian home by suing photographer Kenneth Adelman for an invasion of privacy. Adelman, who Streisand assumed was paparazzi, was instead taking photographs to document and study coastal erosion. In her quest for more privacy, Streisand’s efforts had the opposite effect.
As highlighted by German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer in the paper “Heuristic Decision Making,” the term heuristic is of Greek origin, meaning “serving to find out or discover.” More precisely, a heuristic is a fast and accurate way to make decisions in the real world, which is driven by uncertainty.
The recognition heuristic is a psychological model of judgment and decision making. It is part of a suite of simple and economical heuristics proposed by psychologists Daniel Goldstein and Gerd Gigerenzer. The recognition heuristic argues that inferences are made about an object based on whether it is recognized or not.
The representativeness heuristic was first described by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. The representativeness heuristic judges the probability of an event according to the degree to which that event resembles a broader class. When queried, most will choose the first option because the description of John matches the stereotype we may hold for an archaeologist.
The take-the-best heuristic is a decision-making shortcut that helps an individual choose between several alternatives. The take-the-best (TTB) heuristic decides between two or more alternatives based on a single good attribute, otherwise known as a cue. In the process, less desirable attributes are ignored.
The bundling bias is a cognitive bias in e-commerce where a consumer tends not to use all of the products bought as a group, or bundle. Bundling occurs when individual products or services are sold together as a bundle. Common examples are tickets and experiences. The bundling bias dictates that consumers are less likely to use each item in the bundle. This means that the value of the bundle and indeed the value of each item in the bundle is decreased.
The Barnum Effect is a cognitive bias where individuals believe that generic information – which applies to most people – is specifically tailored for themselves.
First-principles thinking – sometimes called reasoning from first principles – is used to reverse-engineer complex problems and encourage creativity. It involves breaking down problems into basic elements and reassembling them from the ground up. Elon Musk is among the strongest proponents of this way of thinking.
The ladder of inference is a conscious or subconscious thinking process where an individual moves from a fact to a decision or action. The ladder of inference was created by academic Chris Argyris to illustrate how people form and then use mental models to make decisions.
Goodhart’s Law is named after British monetary policy theorist and economist Charles Goodhart. Speaking at a conference in Sydney in 1975, Goodhart said that “any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.” Goodhart’s Law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
The Six Thinking Hats model was created by psychologist Edward de Bono in 1986, who noted that personality type was a key driver of how people approached problem-solving. For example, optimists view situations differently from pessimists. Analytical individuals may generate ideas that a more emotional person would not, and vice versa.
The Mandela effect is a phenomenon where a large group of people remembers an event differently from how it occurred. The Mandela effect was first described in relation to Fiona Broome, who believed that former South African President Nelson Mandela died in prison during the 1980s. While Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and died 23 years later, Broome remembered news coverage of his death in prison and even a speech from his widow. Of course, neither event occurred in reality. But Broome was later to discover that she was not the only one with the same recollection of events.
The bandwagon effect tells us that the more a belief or idea has been adopted by more people within a group, the more the individual adoption of that idea might increase within the same group. This is the psychological effect that leads to herd mentality. What in marketing can be associated with social proof.
Moore’s law states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years. This observation was made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 and it become a guiding principle for the semiconductor industry and has had far-reaching implications for technology as a whole.
Disruptive innovation as a term was first described by Clayton M. Christensen, an American academic and business consultant whom The Economist called “the most influential management thinker of his time.” Disruptive innovation describes the process by which a product or service takes hold at the bottom of a market and eventually displaces established competitors, products, firms, or alliances.
Value migration was first described by author Adrian Slywotzky in his 1996 book Value Migration – How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition. Value migration is the transferal of value-creating forces from outdated business models to something better able to satisfy consumer demands.
The bye-now effect describes the tendency for consumers to think of the word “buy” when they read the word “bye”. In a study that tracked diners at a name-your-own-price restaurant, each diner was asked to read one of two phrases before ordering their meal. The first phrase, “so long”, resulted in diners paying an average of $32 per meal. But when diners recited the phrase “bye bye” before ordering, the average price per meal rose to $45.
Groupthink occurs when well-intentioned individuals make non-optimal or irrational decisions based on a belief that dissent is impossible or on a motivation to conform. Groupthink occurs when members of a group reach a consensus without critical reasoning or evaluation of the alternatives and their consequences.
A stereotype is a fixed and over-generalized belief about a particular group or class of people. These beliefs are based on the false assumption that certain characteristics are common to every individual residing in that group. Many stereotypes have a long and sometimes controversial history and are a direct consequence of various political, social, or economic events. Stereotyping is the process of making assumptions about a person or group of people based on various attributes, including gender, race, religion, or physical traits.
Murphy’s Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Murphy’s Law was named after aerospace engineer Edward A. Murphy. During his time working at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949, Murphy cursed a technician who had improperly wired an electrical component and said, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.”
The law of unintended consequences was first mentioned by British philosopher John Locke when writing to parliament about the unintended effects of interest rate rises. However, it was popularized in 1936 by American sociologist Robert K. Merton who looked at unexpected, unanticipated, and unintended consequences and their impact on society.
Fundamental attribution error is a bias people display when judging the behavior of others. The tendency is to over-emphasize personal characteristics and under-emphasize environmental and situational factors.
Outcome bias describes a tendency to evaluate a decision based on its outcome and not on the process by which the decision was reached. In other words, the quality of a decision is only determined once the outcome is known. Outcome bias occurs when a decision is based on the outcome of previous events without regard for how those events developed.
Hindsight bias is the tendency for people to perceive past events as more predictable than they actually were. The result of a presidential election, for example, seems more obvious when the winner is announced. The same can also be said for the avid sports fan who predicted the correct outcome of a match regardless of whether their team won or lost. Hindsight bias, therefore, is the tendency for an individual to convince themselves that they accurately predicted an event before it happened.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
Discover more from FourWeekMBA
Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.
