Developmental psychology, also known as
human development, is the
scientificScience is in its broadest sense to any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome...
study of systematic
psychologicalPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
changes that occur in
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
beings over the course of the life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include
adolescenceAdolescence Adolescence Adolescence (lat adolescere, (to grow) is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. This transition involves biological (i.e. pubertal), social, and psychological changes, though the biological or...
and
adult developmentAdult Development is a branch of Developmental Psychology. One simple breakdown of the field is to look at its three dimensions.*Dimension 1: Change: Loss, Stasis, Positive Adult Development...
, aging, and the entire life span. This field examines change across a broad range of topics including
motor skills and other psycho-physiological processes; cognitive development involving areas such as
problem solvingProblem solving is a mental process and is part of the larger problem process that includes problem finding and problem shaping. Consideredthe most complex of all intellectual functions, problem solving has been defined as higher-order cognitive process that requires the modulation and control of...
,
moral understandingMorality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or belief concerning matters of what is moral or immoral...
, and conceptual understanding;
language acquisitionLanguage acquisition is the study of the processes through which humans acquire language. By itself, language acquisition refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, whereas second language acquisition deals with acquisition of additional...
; social, personality, and emotional development; and self-concept and
identity formationIdentity formation is the process of the development of the distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity in a particular stage of life in which individual characteristics are possessed by which a person is recognised or known . This process defines individuals to others...
.
Developmental psychology includes issues such as the extent to which development occurs through the gradual accumulation of
knowledgeKnowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or awareness or familiarity gained...
versus stage-like development, or the extent to which children are born with innate mental structures versus learning through
experienceExperience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event. The history of the word experience aligns it closely with the concept of experiment.The concept of experience generally...
. Many researchers are interested in the interaction between personal characteristics, the individual's behavior, and environmental factors including social context, and their impact on development; others take a more narrowly focused approach.
Developmental psychology informs several applied fields, including:
educational psychologyEducational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
,
child psychopathologyChild psychopathology is the manifestation of psychological disorders in children and adolescents. Oppositional defiant disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder are examples of child psychopathology...
, and
forensic developmental psychologyForensic Developmental Psychology is a field that has emerged over the past two decades. The term was developed by Bruck and Poole and includes autobiographical memory, memory distortion, eyewitness identification, narrative construction, personality, and attachment as topics covered by this field...
. Developmental psychology complements several other basic research fields in
psychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
including
social psychologySocial psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
,
cognitive psychologyCognitive psychology is a discipline within psychology that investigates the internal mental processes of thought such as visual processing, memory, problem solving, and language....
,
ecological psychologyEcological psychology is a term claimed by a number of schools of psychology. However, the two main ones are one on the writings of J. J. Gibson, and another on the work of Roger G. Barker, Herb Wright and associates at the University of Kansas in Lawrence...
, and
comparative psychologyComparative psychology usually refers to the study of the behavior and mental life of animals other than human beings. However, psychologists and scientists do not always agree on this definition. Comparative psychology has also been described as branch of psychology in which emphasis is placed on...
.
Approaches
Many theoretical perspectives attempt to explain development; among the most prominent are;
Jean PiagetJean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and philosopher, well known for his pedagogical studies...
's
Stage TheoryThe Theory of Cognitive Development, is a developmental stage theory first developed by Jean Piaget.-Sensorimotor period:The Sensorimotor Stage is the first of the four stages of cognitive development...
,
Lev VygotskyLev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist and the founder of cultural-historical psychology.- Biography :...
's Social Contextualism (and its heirs, the Cultural Theory of Development of Michael Cole, and the
Ecological Systems TheoryEcological Systems Theory, also called Development in Context or Human Ecology theory, specifies four types of nested environmental systems, with bi-directional influences within and between the systems.- Overview :...
of
Urie BronfenbrennerUrie Bronfenbrenner was an Russian American psychologist, known for developing his Ecological Systems Theory, and as a co-founder of the Head Start program in the United States for disadvantaged pre-school children....
),
Albert BanduraAlbert Bandura is a psychologist specializing in social cognitive theory and self-efficacy. He is most famous for his social learning theory.- Education and academic career :...
's
Social learning theorySocial learning theory or SLT is the theory that people that learn new behavior through overt reinforcement or punishment, or via observational learning of the social factors in their environment...
, and the
information processingInformation processing is the change of information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process which describes everything which happens in the universe, from the falling of a rock to the printing of a text file from a digital computer system...
framework employed by cognitive psychology.
To a lesser extent, historical theories continue to provide a basis for additional research. Among them are
Erik EriksonErik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
's eight
stages of psychosocial developmentErikson's stages of psychosocial development as articulated by Erik Erikson explain eight stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds on the successful...
and
John B. WatsonJohn Broadus Watson is an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism, after doing research on animal behavior. He also conducted the controversial "Little Albert" experiment...
's and
B. F. SkinnerBurrhus Frederic Skinner was an American psychologist, author, inventor, advocate for social reform, and poet. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974...
's
behaviorismBehaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things which organisms do — including acting, thinking and feeling — can and should be regarded as behaviors...
(for more on behaviorism's role see
Behavior analysis of child developmentChild development in behavior analytic theory has origins in John B. Watson’s behaviorism. Watson wrote extensively on child development and conducted research . Watson was instrumental in the modification of William James’ stream of consciousness approach to construct a stream of behavior theory...
).
Many other theories are prominent for their contributions to particular aspects of development. For example,
attachment theoryAttachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet of attachment theory is that a young child needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development...
describes kinds of interpersonal relationships and
Lawrence KohlbergLawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Harvard University. Having specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, he is best known for his theory of stages of moral development...
describes
stages in moral reasoningKohlberg's stages of moral development constitute an adaptation of a psychological theory originally conceived of by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget...
.
Theorists and theories
- John Bowlby
John Bowlby was a British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory.- Family background :...
, Harry HarlowHarry Frederick Harlow was an American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which demonstrated the importance of care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development...
, Mary AinsworthMary D. Salter Ainsworth was an American developmental psychologist known for her work in early emotional attachment with "The Strange Situation" as well as her work in the development of Attachment Theory.-Life:...
: Attachment theoryAttachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet of attachment theory is that a young child needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development...
- Urie Bronfenbrenner
Urie Bronfenbrenner was an Russian American psychologist, known for developing his Ecological Systems Theory, and as a co-founder of the Head Start program in the United States for disadvantaged pre-school children....
: the social ecology of human developmentEcological Systems Theory, also called Development in Context or Human Ecology theory, specifies four types of nested environmental systems, with bi-directional influences within and between the systems.- Overview :...
- Jerome Bruner
Jerome Seymour Bruner is an American psychologist who has contributed to cognitive psychology and cognitive learning theory in educational psychology, as well as to history and to the general philosophy of education. Bruner is currently a senior research fellow at the New York University School...
: CognitiveCognitive psychology is a discipline within psychology that investigates the internal mental processes of thought such as visual processing, memory, problem solving, and language....
(constructivistConstructivism is a psychological theory of knowledge which argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences. Constructivism is not a specific pedagogy, although it is often confused with constructionism, an educational theory developed by Seymour Papert...
); learning theoryIn psychology and education, a common definition of learning is a process that brings together cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences and experiences for acquiring, enhancing, or making changes in one's knowledge, skills, values, and world views . Learning as a process focuses on what...
/ Narrative construction of reality
- Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
: Erikson's stages of psychosocial developmentErikson's stages of psychosocial development as articulated by Erik Erikson explain eight stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds on the successful...
- Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology...
: Psychosexual developmentThe concept of psychosexual development, as envisioned by Sigmund Freud at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, is a central element in his sexual drive theory, which posits that, from birth, humans have instinctual sexual appetites which unfold in a series of stages...
- Jerome Kagan
Jerome Kagan is one of the key pioneers of developmental psychology. He is Daniel and Amy Starch Research Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Harvard University, and co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute...
: A pioneer of developmental psychology
- Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Harvard University. Having specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, he is best known for his theory of stages of moral development...
: Kohlberg's stages of moral developmentKohlberg's stages of moral development constitute an adaptation of a psychological theory originally conceived of by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget...
- Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and philosopher, well known for his pedagogical studies...
: Theory of cognitive developmentThe Theory of Cognitive Development, is a developmental stage theory first developed by Jean Piaget.-Sensorimotor period:The Sensorimotor Stage is the first of the four stages of cognitive development...
, Genetic epistemologyGenetic epistemology is a study of the origins of knowledge , which was established by Jean Piaget.The goal of genetic epistemology is to link the validity of knowledge to the model of its construction. In other words, it shows that the method in which the knowledge was obtained/created affects...
- Lev Vygotsky
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist and the founder of cultural-historical psychology.- Biography :...
: Social contextualism; Zone of proximal developmentThe zone of proximal development , often abbreviated ZPD, is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help...
- Reuven Feuerstein
- Overview :Reuven Feuerstein is a Israeli clinical, developmental, cognitive psychologist who is renowned for his theory of intelligence which states “it is not ‘fixed’, but rather is a modifiable”...
: Social contructivismSocial constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge that applies the general philosophical constructionism into social settings, wherein groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings...
;Structural Cognitive Modifiability- THE THEORY OF STRUCTURAL COGNITIVE MODIFIABILITY :The theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability grew out of Israeli psychologist, Reuven Feuerstein interest to see people whose functioning was low and in certain cases extremely low, in turn became able to modify themselves through cognitive...
- Judith Rich Harris
Judith Rich Harris is a psychologist and the author of The Nurture Assumption, a book criticizing the belief that parents are the most important factor in child development, and presenting evidence which contradicts that belief....
: Modular theory of social developmentNo Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality is a book by psychology researcher Judith Rich Harris. It was published in February 2006. Harris attempts to explain why people are so different in personality, even identical twins who grow up in the same home....
Piagetian stages of cognitive development
Piaget was a French speaking Swiss theorist who posited that children learn through actively constructing knowledge through hands-on experience. He suggested that the adult's role in helping the child learn was to provide appropriate materials for the child to interact and construct. He would use Socratic questioning to get the children to reflect on what they were doing. He would try to get them to see contradictions in their explanations. He also developed stages of development. His approach can be seen in how the curriculum is sequenced in schools, and in the pedagogy of preschool centers across the United States.
Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory
Vygotsky was a theorist from the Soviet era, who posited that children learn through hands-on experience, as Piaget suggested. However, unlike Piaget, he claimed that timely and sensitive intervention by adults when a child is on the edge of learning a new task (called the "
zone of proximal developmentThe zone of proximal development , often abbreviated ZPD, is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help...
") could help children learn new tasks. This technique is called "scaffolding," because it builds upon knowledge children already have with new knowledge that adults can help the child learn. Vygotsky was strongly focused on the role of culture in determining the child's pattern of development, arguing that development moves from the social level to the individual level.
Ecological Systems Theory
Also called "Development in Context" or "Human Ecology" theory, Ecological Systems Theory, originally formulated by
Urie BronfenbrennerUrie Bronfenbrenner was an Russian American psychologist, known for developing his Ecological Systems Theory, and as a co-founder of the Head Start program in the United States for disadvantaged pre-school children....
specifies four types of nested environmental systems, with bi-directional influences within and between the systems. The four systems are Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, and Macrosystem. Each system contains roles, norms and rules that can powerfully shape development. Since its publication in 1979, Bronfenbrenner's major statement of this theory,
The Ecology of Human Development has had widespread influence on the way psychologists and others approach the study of human beings and their environments. As a result of this conceptualization of development, these environments — from the family to economic and political structures — have come to be viewed as part of the life course from childhood through adulthood.
Attachment theory
Attachment theory, originally developed by
John BowlbyJohn Bowlby was a British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory.- Family background :...
, focuses on close, intimate, emotionally meaningful relationships. Attachment is described as a biological system or powerful survival impulse that evolved to ensure the survival of the infant. A child who is threatened or stressed will move toward caregivers who create a sense of physical, emotional and psychological safety for the individual. Attachment feeds off of body contact and familiarity. Later
Mary AinsworthMary D. Salter Ainsworth was an American developmental psychologist known for her work in early emotional attachment with "The Strange Situation" as well as her work in the development of Attachment Theory.-Life:...
developed the Strange Situation Protocol and the concept of the secure base. See also the critique by developmental psychology pioneer
Jerome KaganJerome Kagan is one of the key pioneers of developmental psychology. He is Daniel and Amy Starch Research Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Harvard University, and co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute...
.
Unfortunately, there are situations that inhibit a child from forming attachments. Some babies are raised without the stimulation and attention of a regular caregiver, or locked away under conditions of abuse or extreme neglect. The possible short-term effects of this deprivation are anger, despair, detachment, and temporary delay in intellectual development. Long-term effects include increased aggression, clinging behavior, detachment, psychosomatic disorders, and an increased risk of depression as an adult.
Nature/nurture
A significant issue in developmental psychology is the relationship between innateness and environmental influence in regard to any particular aspect of development. This is often referred to as "
nature versus nurtureThe nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities versus personal experiences The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature", i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences...
" or
nativismIn the field of psychology, nativism is the view that certain skills or abilities are 'native' or hard wired into the brain at birth. This is in contrast to empiricism, the 'blank slate' or tabula rasa view, which states that the brain has inborn capabilities for learning from the environment but...
versus
empiricismIn philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from sense experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know "things," part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "the Theory of Knowledge"...
. A nativist account of development would argue that the processes in question are innate, that is, they are specified by the organism's
genesGênes is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy. It was named after the city Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa. Its capital was Genoa. It was divided into the arrondissements of Genoa, Bobbio, Novi Ligure, Tortona and...
. An empiricist perspective would argue that those processes are acquired in interaction with the environment. Today developmental psychologists rarely take such extreme positions with regard to most aspects of development; rather they investigate, among many other things, the relationship between innate and environmental influences. One of the ways in which this relationship has been explored in recent years is through the emerging field of
evolutionary developmental psychologyEvolutionary developmental psychology, , is the application of the basic principles of Darwinian evolution, particularly natural selection, to explain contemporary human development...
.
One area where this innateness debate has been prominently portrayed is in research on
language acquisitionLanguage acquisition is the study of the processes through which humans acquire language. By itself, language acquisition refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, whereas second language acquisition deals with acquisition of additional...
. A major question in this area is whether or not certain properties of human language are specified genetically or can be acquired through
learningLearning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.Human learning may...
. The empiricist position on the issue of language acquisition suggests that the language input provides the necessary information required for learning the structure of language and that infants acquire language through a process of statistical learning. From this perspective, language can be acquired via general learning methods that also apply to other aspects of development, such as perceptual learning. The nativist position argues that the input from language is too impoverished for infants and children to acquire the structure of language. Linguist
Noam ChomskyAvram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as...
asserts that, evidenced by the lack of sufficient information in the language input, there is a
universal grammarUniversal grammar is a theory of linguistics postulating principles of grammar shared by all languages, thought to be innate to humans . It attempts to explain language acquisition in general, not describe specific languages...
that applies to all human languages and is pre-specified. This has led to the idea that there is a special cognitive
moduleModularity of mind is the notion that a mind may, at least in part, be composed of separate innate structures which have established, evolutionarily developed functional purposes. Proponents believe this view is implied by Noam Chomsky's concept of a universal, generative grammar...
suited for learning language, often called the
language acquisition deviceThe Language Acquisition Device is a postulated "organ" of the brain that is supposed to function as a congenital device for learning symbolic language . First proposed by Noam Chomsky, the LAD concept is a component of the nativist theory of language...
. Chomsky's critique of the behaviorist model of language acquisition is regarded by many as a key turning point in the decline in the prominence of the theory of behaviorism generally. But Skinner's conception of "Verbal Behavior" has not died, perhaps in part because it has generated successful practical applications.
Mechanisms of development
Developmental psychology is concerned not only with describing the characteristics of psychological change over time, but also seeks to explain the principles and internal workings underlying these changes. Psychologists have attempted to better understand these factors by using models. Developmental models are sometimes computational, but they do not need to be. A model must simply account for the means by which a process takes place. This is sometimes done in reference to changes in the
brainThe brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as jellyfish and starfish have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all...
that may correspond to changes in behavior over the course of the development. Computational accounts of development often use either symbolic,
connectionistConnectionism is a set of approaches in the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience and philosophy of mind, that models mental or behavioral phenomena as the emergent processes of interconnected networks of simple units...
(neural network), or
dynamical systemThe dynamical system concept is a mathematical formalization for any fixed "rule" which describes the time dependence of a point's position in its ambient space...
s models to explain the mechanisms of development.
Cognitive development
Cognitive development is primarily concerned with the ways in which infants and children acquire, develop, and use internal mental capabilities such as problem solving, memory, and language. Major topics in cognitive development are the study of language acquisition and the development of perceptual and motor skills. Piaget was one of the influential early psychologists to study the development of cognitive abilities. His theory suggests that development proceeds through a set of stages from infancy to adulthood and that there is an end point or goal. Other accounts, such as that of Lev Vygotsky, have suggested that development does not progress through stages, but rather that the developmental process that begins at birth and continues until death is too complex for such structure and finality. Rather, from this viewpoint, developmental processes proceed more continuously, thus development should be analyzed, instead of treated as a product to be obtained.
Modern cognitive development has largely moved away from Piagetian stage theories, and is influenced by accounts of
domain-specificDomain specificity is a theoretical position in cognitive science that argues that many aspects of cognition are supported by specialized, presumably evolutionarily specified, learning devices...
information processing, which posit that development is guided by innate evolutionarily specified and content-specific information processing mechanisms.
Social and emotional development
Developmental psychologists who are interested in social development examine how individuals develop social and emotional competencies. For example, they study how children form friendships, how they understand and deal with emotions, and how identity develops. Research in this area may involve study of the relationship between cognition or cognitive development and social behavior.
Research methods
Developmental psychology employs many of the
research methodsA wide range of research methods are used in psychology.Most methods gather either qualitative data, quantitative data or both. Here are the main research methods:* Laboratory experiment* Field experiment* Quasi experiment* Correlational...
used in other areas of psychology. However, infants and children cannot always be tested in the same ways as adults, so different methods are often used to study their development.
Methods and techniques
Techniques for studying infants
Psychologists often use the
habituationHabituation is the psychological process in humans and animals in which there is a decrease in psychological response and behavioral response to a stimulus after repeated exposure to that stimulus over a duration of time.- Background :...
methodology to assess infant ability. Typically, infants prefer stimuli that are novel relative to those they have encountered previously. Demonstrating a preference for one stimulus over another demonstrates that the infant can discriminate between them. Several methods are used to measure infants' preference. In the high-amplitude sucking procedure infants suck on a
pacifierA pacifier is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple given to an infant or other young child to suck upon. In its standard appearance it has a teat, mouth shield, and handle...
more or less depending on their level of interest. In other methods, infants kick their legs to indicate preference, or their level of interest is measured by the amount of time spent looking in a particular direction.
Habituation has been used to discover the resolution of perceptual systems by habituating an infant to a particular stimulus. If an infant is able to discriminate between an initial "habituated" stimulus and a novel stimulus, they will show a preference for the novel stimulus after habituation. More and more similar stimuli are presented to determine the smallest degree of difference detectable by the infant.
Children
Adolescents
When studying older children, especially adolescents, adult measurements of behavior can often be used, but they may need to be simplified to allow children to perform certain tasks.
Adults
(refers specifically to this section above)
Research design
Developmental psychologists have a number of methods to study changes in individuals over time.
In a
longitudinal studyA longitudinal study is a correlational research study that involves repeated observations of the same items over long periods of time — often many decades. It is a type of observational study. Longitudinal studies are often used in psychology to study developmental trends across the life...
, a researcher observes many individuals born at or around the same time (a
cohortIn statistics and demography, a cohort is a group of subjects who have shared a particular experience during a particular time span . Cohorts may be tracked over extended periods of time in a cohort study. The cohort can be modified by censoring, i.e...
) and carries out new observations as members of the cohort age. This method can be used to draw conclusions about which types of development are universal (or
normativeSocial norms are the behavioral expectations and cues within a society or group. This sociological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors." These rules may be explicit or implicit...
) and occur in most members of a cohort. Researchers may also observe ways in which development varies between individuals and hypothesize about the causes of variation observed in their data. Longitudinal studies often require large amounts of time and funding, making them unfeasible in some situations. Also, because members of a cohort all experience historical events unique to their generation, apparently normative developmental trends may in fact be universal only to their cohort.
In a
cross-sectional studyCross-sectional studies form a class of research methods that involve observation of some subset of a population of items all at the same time, in which, groups can be compared at different ages with respect of independent variables, such as IQ and memory...
, a researcher observes differences between individuals of different ages at the same time. This generally requires less resources than the longitudinal method, and because the individuals come from different cohorts, shared historical events are not so much of a
confounding factorIn statistics, a confounding variable is an extraneous variable in a statistical model that correlates with both the dependent variable and the independent variable...
. By the same token, however, cross-sectional research may not be the most effective way to study differences between participants, as these differences may result not from their different ages but from their exposure to
different historical events.
An accelerated longitudinal design or cross-sequential study or cohort-sequential design combines both methodologies. Here, a researcher observes members of different birth cohorts at the same time, and then tracks all participants over time, charting changes in the groups. By comparing differences and similarities in development, one can more easily determine what changes can be attributed to individual or historical environment, and which are truly universal. Clearly such a study can be even more resource-consuming than a longitudinal study.
Additionally, these are all
correlationIn statistics, correlation indicates the strength and direction of a relationship between two random variables. The commonest use refers to a linear relationship. In general statistical usage, correlation or co-relation refers to the departure of two random variables from independence...
al, not
experimentIn scientific research, an experiment is a method of investigating causal relationships among variables, or to test a hypothesis. An experiment is a cornerstone of the empirical approach to acquiring data about the world and is used in both natural sciences and social sciences...
al, designs, and so one cannot readily infer
causationCausality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is a direct consequence of the first....
from the data they yield. Nonetheless, correlational research methods are common in the study of development, in part due to
ethicalResearch ethics involves the application of fundamental ethical principles to a variety of topics involving scientific research. These include the design and implementation of research involving human experimentation, animal experimentation, various aspects of academic scandal, including scientific...
concerns. In a study of the effects of poverty on development, for instance, one cannot easily
randomly assignRandom assignment or random placement is an experimental technique for assigning subjects to different treatments . The thinking behind random assignment is that by randomizing treatment assignment, then the group attributes for the different treatments will be roughly equivalent and therefore any...
certain families to a poverty condition and others to an affluent one, and so observation alone has to suffice.
Pre-natal development
Pre-natal development is of interest to psychologists investigating the context of early psychological development. For example, some
primitive reflexesPrimitive reflexes are reflex actions originating in the central nervous system that are exhibited by normal infants but not neurologically intact adults, in response to particular stimuli. These reflexes disappear or are inhibited by the frontal lobes as a child moves through normal child...
arise before birth and are still present in newborns. One hypothesis is that these reflexes are vestigial and have limited use in early human life . Piaget's
Theory of cognitive developmentThe Theory of Cognitive Development, is a developmental stage theory first developed by Jean Piaget.-Sensorimotor period:The Sensorimotor Stage is the first of the four stages of cognitive development...
suggested that some early reflexes are building blocks for infant sensorimotor development. For example the tonic neck reflex may help development by bringing objects into the infant's field of view.. Other reflexes, such as the walking reflex disappear to be replaced by more sophisticated voluntary control later in infancy. This may be because the infant gains too much weight after birth to be strong enough to use the reflex, or because the reflex and subsequent development are functionally different. It has also been suggested that some reflexes (for example the
moroThe Moro reflex, also known as the startle reflex, is one of the infantile reflexes.It may be observed in incomplete form in premature birth after the 28th week of gestation, and is usually present in complete form by week 34...
and walking reflexes) are predominantly adaptations to life in the womb with little connection to early infant development. Primitive reflexes reappear in adults under certain conditions, such as neurological conditions like
dementiaDementia is a serious cognitive disorder. It may be static, the result of a unique global brain injury or progressive, resulting in long-term decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the body beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
or traumatic lesions.
UltrasoundUltrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. Although this limit varies from person to person, it is approximately 20 kilohertz in healthy, young adults and thus, 20 kHz serves as a useful lower limit in describing ultrasound...
has shown that infants are capable of a range of movements in the womb, many of which appear to be more than simple reflexes. By the time they are born, infants can recognise and have a preference for their mother's voice suggesting some pre-natal development of auditory perception. Pre-natal development and birth complications may also be connected to neurodevelopmental disorders, for example in
schizophreniaSchizophrenia , from the Greek roots skhizein and phrēn, phren- is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality...
. With the advent of
cognitive neuroscienceCognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological substrates underlying cognition, with a specific focus on the neural substrates of mental processes. It addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive functions are produced by the brain...
,
embryologyEmbryology is the study of the development of an embryo. An embryo is defined as any organism in an early stage well before birth or hatching, or in plants, before germination occurs....
and the neuroscience of pre-natal development is of increasing interest to developmental psychology research.
Infancy
From birth until the onset of speech, the child is referred to as an
infantAn infant or baby is the term used to refer to the very young offspring of humans and other primates.-Infant:The term infant derives from the Latin word infans, meaning "unable to speak."...
. Developmental psychologists vary widely in their assessment of infant psychology, and the influence the outside world has upon it, but certain aspects are relatively clear.
The majority of a newborn infant's time is spent in sleep. At first this sleep is evenly spread throughout the day and night, but after a couple of months, infants generally become
diurnalDiurnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the day and sleeping at night. Animals that are not diurnal might be nocturnal or crepuscular . Many animal species are diurnal, including many mammals, insects and birds...
.
Infants can be seen to have 6 states, grouped into pairs:
- quiet sleep and active sleep (dreaming
Dreaming and similar may refer to:* Dream, the experience of envisioned images, sounds, or other sensations during sleep* Dreaming , Indigenous Australian cosmology and spirituality-In music:...
, when REM occurs)
- quiet waking, and active waking
- fussing and crying
The term crying commonly refers to the act of shedding tears as a response to an emotional state in humans. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secretomotor phenomenon characterized by the shedding of tears from the lacrimal apparatus, without any irritation of the ocular structures".A...
Infants respond to stimuli differently in these different states.
Habituation (see above) has been used to discover the resolution of perceptual systems. Infants have significantly worse
visionVisual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight or vision...
than older children. Infant sight, blurry in early stages, improves over time. Colour perception similar to that seen in adults has been demonstrated in infants as young as four months, using habituation methods.
HearingHearing is one of the traditional five senses. It is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear...
is well-developed prior to birth, however, and a preference for the mother's heartbeat is well established. Infants are fairly good at detecting the direction from which a sound comes, and by 18 months their hearing ability is approximately equal to that of adults.
SmellOlfaction refers to the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates...
and
tasteTaste is a form of direct chemoreception and is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances such as food, certain minerals, and poisons. In humans and many other vertebrate animals the sense of taste partners with the less direct sense of smell,...
are present, with infants showing different expressions of disgust or pleasure when presented with pleasant odours (honey, milk, etc) or unpleasant odours (rotten egg) and tastes (e.g. sour taste). There is good evidence for infants preferring the smell of their mother to that of others.
Infants have a fully developed sense of touch at birth, and the myth believed by some doctors even today that infants feel no pain is inaccurate. Doctors are slowly becoming aware of the need for pain prevention for newborns.
PiagetJean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and philosopher, well known for his pedagogical studies...
asserted that there were several sensorimotor stages within his broader
Theory of cognitive developmentThe Theory of Cognitive Development, is a developmental stage theory first developed by Jean Piaget.-Sensorimotor period:The Sensorimotor Stage is the first of the four stages of cognitive development...
.
- The first sub-stage occurs from birth to six weeks and is associated primarily with the development of reflex
A reflex action, also known as a reflex, is an involuntary and nearly instantaneous movement in response to a stimulus. In most contexts, in particular those involving humans, reflex actions are mediated via the reflex arc; this is not always true in other animals, nor does it apply to casual uses...
es. Three primary reflexes are described by Piaget: sucking of objects in the mouth, following moving or interesting objects with the eyes, and closing of the hand when an object makes contact with the palm (palmar grasp). Over these first six weeks of life, these reflexes begin to become voluntary actions; for example, the palmar reflex becomes intentional grasping. (Gruber and Vaneche, 1977).
- The second sub-stage occurs from six weeks to four months and is associated primarily with the development of habit
Habituation is the psychological process in humans and animals in which there is a decrease in psychological response and behavioral response to a stimulus after repeated exposure to that stimulus over a duration of time.- Background :...
s. Primary circular reactions or repeating of an action involving only ones own body begin. An example of this type of reaction would involve something like an infant repeating the motion of passing their hand before their face. Also at this phase, passive reactions, caused by classicalClassical conditioning is a form of associative learning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov. The typical procedure for inducing classical conditioning involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance...
or operant conditioningOperant conditioning is the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behavior. Operant conditioning is distinguished from classical conditioning in that operant conditioning deals with the modification of "voluntary behavior" or operant behavior...
, can begin (Gruber et al., 1977).
- The third sub-stage occurs from four to nine months and is associated primarily with the development of coordination between vision
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight or vision...
and prehension. Three new abilities occur at this stage: intentional grasping for a desired object, secondary circular reactions, and differentiations between ends and means. At this stage, infants will intentionally grasp the air in the direction of a desired object, often to the amusement of friends and family. Secondary circular reactions, or the repetition of an action involving an external object occur begin; for example, moving a switch to turn on a light repeatedly. The differentiation between means also occurs. This is perhaps one of the most important stages of a child's growth as it signifies the dawn of logicLogic, from the Greek λογική is the art and science of reasoning. More specifically, it is defined by the Penguin Encyclopedia to be "The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning". As a discipline, logic dates back to Aristotle, who established its...
(Gruber et al., 1977). Towards the late part of this sub-stage infants begin to have a sense of object permanenceObject permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Jean Piaget argued that object permanence is one of an infant's most important accomplishments, as without this concept, objects would have no separate, permanent existence...
, passing the A-not-B errorA-not-B error is a phenomenon uncovered by the work of Jean Piaget in his theory of cognitive development of children...
test.
- The fourth sub-stage occurs from nine to twelve months and is associated primarily with the development of logic and the coordination between means and ends. This is an extremely important stage of development, holding what Piaget calls the "first proper intelligence." Also, this stage marks the beginning of goal orientation, the deliberate planning of steps to meet an objective (Gruber et al. 1977).
- The fifth sub-stage occurs from twelve to eighteen months and is associated primarily with the discovery of new means to meet goals. Piaget describes the child at this juncture as the "young scientist," conducting pseudo-experiments to discover new methods of meeting challenges (Gruber et al. 1977).
- The sixth sub-stage is associated primarily with the beginnings of insight
Insight can be used with several related meanings:*a piece of information*the act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively in Greek called noesis*an introspection...
, or true creativityCreativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. Creativity is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight...
. This marks the passage into the preoperational stage.
Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Jean Piaget argued that object permanence is one of an infant's most important accomplishments, as without this concept, objects would have no separate, permanent existence...
is an important stage of cognitive development for infants. Numerous tests regarding it have been done, usually involving a toy, and a crude barrier which is placed in front of the toy, and then removed, repeatedly. In sensorimotor stages 1 and 2, the infant is completely unable to comprehend object permanence.
Jean PiagetJean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and philosopher, well known for his pedagogical studies...
conducted experiments with infants which led him to conclude that this awareness was typically achieved at eight to nine months of age. Infants before this age are too young to understand object permanence, which explains why infants at this age do not cry when their mothers are gone. "Out of sight, out of mind." A lack of Object Permanence can lead to
A-not-B errorA-not-B error is a phenomenon uncovered by the work of Jean Piaget in his theory of cognitive development of children...
s, where children reach for a thing at a place where it should not be. (see also: Infant metaphysics)
There are
critical periodsThis article is about a critical period in an organism's or person's development. See also America's Critical Period.In general, a critical period is a limited time in which an event can occur, usually to result in some kind of transformation...
in infancy and childhood during which development of certain perceptual, sensorimotor, social and language systems depends crucially on environmental stimulation . Feral children such as
GenieGenie is the pseudonym for a feral child who spent nearly all of the first thirteen years of her life locked inside a bedroom strapped to a potty chair. She was a victim of one of the most severe cases of social isolation in American history...
, deprived of adequate stimulation, fail to acquire important skills which they are then unable to learn in later childhood. The concept of critical periods is also well established in
neurophysiologyNeurophysiology is a part of physiology. Neurophysiology is the study of nervous system function...
, from the work of Hubel and
WieselTorsten Nils Wiesel was a Swedish co-recipient with David H. Hubel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system; the prize was shared with Roger W...
among others. Some feel that classical music, particularly
MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as...
is good for an infant's mind. While some tentative research has shown it to be helpful to older children, no conclusive evidence is available involving infants.
Toddler
Intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures, and memory and imagination are developed. Thinking is done in a nonlogical, nonreversible manner. Egocentric thinking predominates.
Socially, toddlers are little people attempting to become independent at this stage, which they are commonly called the "
terrible twosTerrible twos may refer to the following:* A colloquialism describing a stage in the developmental lines of a toddler* The Terrible Twos, A contemporary children's music band formed by the members of The New Amsterdams...
". They walk, talk, use the toilet, and get food for themselves. Self-control begins to develop. If taking the initiative to explore, experiment, risk mistakes in trying new things, and test their limits is encouraged by the caretaker(s) the child will become autonomous, self-reliant, and confident. If the caretaker is overprotective or disapproving of independent actions, the toddler may begin to doubt their abilities and feel ashamed for the desire for independence. The child's autonomic development will be inhibited, and be less prepared to successfully deal with the world in the future.
Early childhood
When children attend preschool, they broaden their social horizons and become more engaged with those around them. Impulses are channeled into fantasies, which leaves the task of the caretaker to balance eagerness for pursuing adventure, creativity and self expression with the development of responsibility. If caretakers are properly encouraging and consistently disciplinary, children are more likely to develop positive self-esteem while becoming more responsible, and will follow through on assigned activities. If not allowed to decide which activities to perform, children may begin to feel guilt upon contemplating taking initiative. This negative association with independence will lead them to let others make decisions in place of them.
Childhood
In middle childhood, intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. Operational thinking develops, which means actions are reversible, and egocentric thought diminishes.
Children go through the transition from the world at home to that of school and peers. Children learn to make things, use tools, and acquire the skills to be a worker and a potential provider. Children can now receive feedback from outsiders about their accomplishments. If children can discover pleasure in intellectual stimulation, being productive, seeking success, they will develop a sense of competence. If they are not successful or cannot discover pleasure in the process, they may develop a sense of inferiority and feelings of inadequacy that may haunt them throughout life. This is when children think of them selves as industrious or as inferior.
Adolescence
Adolescence is the period of life between the onset of puberty and the full commitment to an adult social role, such as worker, parent, and/or citizen. It is the period known for the formation of personal and social identity (see
Erik EriksonErik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
) and the discovery of moral purpose (see
William DamonWilliam Damon is a Professor of Education at Stanford University, Director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence, and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. Damon has helped develop innovative educational methods such as peer collaboration, project-based learning,...
). Intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts and formal reasoning. A return to egocentric thought often occurs early in the period. Only 35% develop the capacity to reason formally during adolescence or adulthood. (Huitt, W. and Hummel, J. January 1998)
The adolescent subconsciously explores questions such as "Who am I? Who do I want to be?" Like toddlers, adolescents must explore, test limits, become autonomous, and commit to an
identityIdentity is an umbrella term used throughout the social sciences to describe an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity. This term, though generic, can be further specified by the disciplines of psychology and sociology, including the two forms of social psychology...
, or sense of self. Different roles, behaviors and ideologies must be tried out to select an identity. Role confusion and inability to choose vocation can result from a failure to achieve a sense of identity.
Early adulthood
The person must learn how to form intimate relationships, both in friendship and love. The development of this skill relies on the resolution of other stages. It may be hard to establish intimacy if one has not developed trust or a sense of identity. If this skill is not learned the alternative is alienation, isolation, a fear of commitment, and the inability to depend on others.
A related framework for studying this part of the life span is that of
Emerging adulthoodEmerging adulthood is a phase of the life span between adolescence and full-fledged adulthood, proposed by Jeffrey Arnett in a 2000 article in the American Psychologist...
, introduced in 2000 by Jeffrey Arnett. Scholars of emerging adulthood are interested not only in relationship development (focusing on the role of dating in helping individuals settle on a long-term spouse/partner), but also the development of sociopolitical views and occupational choice.
Middle age
Middle adulthood generally refers to the period between ages 40 to 65. During this period, the middle-aged experience a conflict between generativity and stagnation. They may either feel a sense of contributing to the next generation and their community or a sense of purposelessness.
Physically, the middle-aged experience a decline in muscular strength, reaction time, sensory keenness, and cardiac output. Also, women experience
menopauseMenopause is the time in a woman’s life when menstruation ends. It is part of a biological process that begins, for most women, in their mid-fifties. During this time, the ovaries gradually produce lower levels of natural sex hormones—estrogen and progesterone...
and a sharp drop in the hormone
estrogenEstrogens are a group of steroid compounds, named for their importance in the estrous cycle, and functioning as the primary female sex hormone, their name comes from estrus/oistros + gen/gonos = to generate.Estrogens are used as part of some oral contraceptives, in estrogen replacement...
. Men do have an equivalent to menopause, it is called "Andropause," which is a hormone fluctuation with physical and psychological effects similar to menopause. Lowered testosterone levels result in mood swings and a decline in
spermA sperm, from the ancient Greek word σπέρμα and and more commonly known as a sperm cell, is the haploid cell that is the male gamete. It joins an ovum to form a zygote. A zygote is a single cell, with a complete set of chromosomes, that normally develops into an embryo.Sperm cells contribute...
count and speed of
ejaculationEjaculation is the ejecting of semen from a penis, and is usually accompanied by orgasm. It is usually the final stage and natural objective of sexual stimulation, and an essential component of natural conception. In rare cases ejaculation occurs because of prostatic disease. Ejaculation may also...
and
erectionPenile erection is a physiological phenomenon where the penis becomes enlarged and firm. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular and endocrine factors, and is usually, though not exclusively, associated with sexual arousal. Penile erection can also...
.
Most men and women remain capable of sexual satisfaction after middle age.
Old age
This stage generally refers to those over 75 years. During old age, people experience a conflict between integrity vs. despair. When reflecting on their life, they either feel a sense of accomplishment or failure.
Physically, older people experience a decline in muscular strength, reaction time, stamina, hearing, distance perception, and the sense of smell. They also are more susceptible to severe diseases such as cancer and pneumonia due to a weakened immune system. Mental disintegration may also occur, leading to
DementiaDementia is a serious cognitive disorder. It may be static, the result of a unique global brain injury or progressive, resulting in long-term decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the body beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
or
Alzheimer's DiseaseAlzheimer's disease , also called Alzheimer disease, Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type or simply Alzheimer's, is the most common form of dementia. This incurable, degenerative, and terminal disease was first described by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906 and was...
. However, partially due to a lifetime's accumulation of antibodies, the elderly are less likely to suffer from common diseases such as the cold.
Whether or not intellectual powers increase or decrease with age remains controversial. Longitudinal studies have suggested that intellect declines, while cross-sectional studies suggest that intellect is stable. It is generally believed that crystallized intelligence increases up to old age, while fluid intelligence decreases with age.
Parenting
In Western developed societies,
motherA mother is a biological and/or social female parent of an offspring. Because of the complexity and differences of a mothers' social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to define a mother to suit a universally accepted definition.-Biological mother:In the case of a...
s (and women generally) were emphasized to the exclusion of other caregivers, particularly as the traditional role of the
fatherA father is defined as a male parent of any type of offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother.-Father-child relationship:The Father-child relationship is the defining factor of the fatherhood role...
was more the breadwinner, and less the direct caregiver of an infant, he has been traditionally viewed as impacting an infant indirectly through interactions with the mother of the child.
The emphasis of study has shifted to the
primary caregiverA primary caregiver is the person who takes care of an infant or child most of the time. This is usually the family member but increasingly may be a hired caregiver. Depending on culture there may be other members of the family engaged in care....
(regardless of gender or biological relation), as well as all persons directly or indirectly influencing the child (the family system). The roles of the mother and father are more significant than first thought as we moved into the concept of primary caregiver.
Affirming a role for fathers, studies have shown that children as young as 15 months benefit significantly from substantial engagement with their father. In particular, a study in the U.S.A. and New Zealand found the presence of the natural father was the most significant factor in reducing rates of early sexual activity and rates of teenage pregnancy in girls. Covariate factors used included early conduct problems, maternal age at first childbirth, race, maternal education, father's occupational status, family living standards, family life stress, early mother-child interaction, measures of psychosocial adjustment and educational achievement, school qualifications, mood disorder, anxiety disorder, suicide attempts, violent offending, and conduct disorder. Further research has found fathers have an impact on child academic performance, including involved nonresident fathers. However, father absence is associated with a range of negative outcomes for children, including child and later criminal behavior.
Historical antecedents
The modern form of developmental psychology has its roots in the rich psychological tradition represented by
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
,
TabariAbu al-Hasan Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari was a Muslim hakim, Islamic scholar, physician and psychologist of Persian Jewish or Zoroastrian descent, who produced the first encyclopedia of medicine. He was a pioneer of pediatrics and the field of child development...
, Rhazes, Alhazen, and Descartes.
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
had his melancholy character
Jacques (in
As You Like ItAs You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The work was based upon the novel Rosalynde by Thomas Lodge. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in...
) articulate the seven ages of man: these included three stages of childhood and four of adulthood. In the mid-eighteenth century Jean Jacques Rousseau described three stages of childhood:
infans (infancy),
puer (childhood) and
adolescence in
Emile: Or, On EducationEmile, or On Education was considered by Jean-Jacques Rousseau to be the “best and most important of all my writings”. On its first appearance in 1762 it was publicly burned....
. Rousseau's ideas were taken up strongly by educators at the time.
In the late nineteenth century, psychologists familiar with the evolutionary theory of
DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
began seeking an evolutionary description of psychological development; prominent here was
G. Stanley HallGranville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
, who attempted to correlate ages of childhood with previous ages of mankind.
A more scientific approach was initiated by
James Mark BaldwinJames Mark Baldwin was an American philosopher and psychologist who was educated at Princeton under the supervision of Scottish philosopher James McCosh and who was one of the founders of the Department of Psychology at the university...
, who wrote essays on topics that included
Imitation: A Chapter in the Natural History of Consciousness and
Mental Development in the Child and the Race: Methods and Processes. In 1905,
Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud , Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology...
articulated five
psychosexual stagesThe concept of psychosexual development, as envisioned by Sigmund Freud at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, is a central element in his sexual drive theory, which posits that, from birth, humans have instinctual sexual appetites which unfold in a series of stages...
. Later,
Rudolf SteinerRudolf Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social thinker, architect and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
articulated stages of psychological development throughout human life. By the early to mid-twentieth century, the work of Vygotsky and
PiagetJean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and philosopher, well known for his pedagogical studies...
, mentioned above, had established a strong
empiricalThe word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment. A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses...
tradition in the field.
See also
- Child development
Child development stages describe theoretical milestones of child development. Many stage models of development have been proposed, used as working concepts and in some cases asserted as nativist theories....
- Developmental psychobiology
Developmental psychobiology is an interdisciplinary field, encompassing developmental psychology, biological psychology, neuroscience and many other areas of biology. The field covers all phases of ontogeny, with particular emphasis on prenatal, perinatal and early childhood development...
- Developmental psychopathology
Developmental psychopathology is the study of the development of psychological disorders, such as psychopathy, autism, schizophrenia and depression, with a lifecourse perspective....
- Developmental stage
One of the major controversies in developmental psychology centres around whether development is continuous or discontinuous. Stage theories of development rest on the assumption that development is a discontinuous process involving distinct stages which are characterised by qualitative differences...
- Evolutionary developmental psychopathology
Evolutionary developmental psychopathology is an approach to the understanding of psychiatric disorders based on the following: that human adaptations were forged to function in past environments rather than the current environment; that investigations of brain-damaged patients should be included...
- Microgenetic design
Microgenetic design is a method of scientific examination in developmental psychology in which the same children are studied repeatedly over a short period of time. In contrast to cross-sectional and longitudinal designs which provide broad outlines of the process of change, microgenetic designs...
- Ontogenetic parade
In developmental psychology, the ontogenetic parade is the term introduced by Isaac Marks for the predictable pattern of the development of normal childhood fears: emergence, plateau, and decline....
- Perceptual narrowing
Perceptual narrowing is the process that takes place during the critical periods of psychological development. This allows distinct areas of the brain to specialise their functions. Without this process, the brain would be overloaded with information, and the brain would develop abnormally...
- Pre- and perinatal psychology
Prenatal and perinatal psychology is an interdisciplinary study of the foundations of health in body, mind, emotions and in enduring response patterns to life...
- Scale error
In developmental psychology, a scale error is a serious attempt made by a child to perform a task that is patently impossible because of the extreme differences in the size of the objects involved...
- Sociometric status
Sociometric status is a measurement that reflects the degree to which someone is liked or disliked by their peers as a group.-Developmental psychology:...
Further reading
- Bjorklund, D. F. & Pellegrini, A. D. (2000). Child Development and Evolutionary Psychology. Child Development, 71, 1687-1708. Full text
- Bornstein, M. H. & Lamb, M. E. (2005). Developmental science: An advanced textbook. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2005.
- Johnson-Pynn, J., Fragaszy, D.M., & Cummins-Sebree, S. (2003). Common territories in comparative and developmental psychology: The quest for shared means and meaning in behavioral investigations. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 16, 1-27. Full text
- Lerner, R. M. Concepts and theories of human development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002.
- Reid, V., Striano, T., & Koops, W. Social Cognition During infancy. Psychology Press. 2007
External links
Outline of psychology