One Child, Four Theories

Explaining one developmental outcome means running the same case through cognitive, sociocultural, attachment, and psychosocial accounts and comparing what each captures.

One case — a nine-year-old struggling with a new school — explained four ways in full. Piaget on what the child can and cannot yet reason about. Vygotsky on the support available and the gap it must bridge. Attachment on the security the child brings to an unfamiliar setting. Erikson on the competence conflict of this age. Ends by naming what each account predicts differently and which prediction the evidence could distinguish.