A branch of scientific psychology is developmental psychology. It explores human development from birth to death in all psychological conditions and the associated changes in human behavior and experience, including, for example, the development of personality, language, thinking and all learning processes based on them. Accordingly, the entire life span of a person is considered, while changes due to moods or external influences play a role only to a very limited extent. For description, developmental psychology uses social science methods in the form of surveys, observations and various experiments.
What is developmental psychology?
Developmental psychology studies human development from birth to death in all psychological conditions and the accompanying changes in human behavior and experience. Whether human development is now rather influenced by biological or environmental factors, whether development according to Jean-Jaques Rousseau and nativism takes place due to the predispositions that a child brings along, while upbringing and environment inhibit them, or whether the child according to John Locke rather comes into the world without skills and knowledge to learn all this first, these are fundamental questions that developmental psychology asks itself. By means of different theories and models it tries to explain the human being in his changes. The most important ones were established by Albert Bandura, Jean Piaget, Sigmund Freud, Erik H. Erikson Jane Loevinger and John Bowlby.
Focal points and theories
Bandura developed the social learning theory, which included that the observational learning process is what makes social skills possible in the first place and occurs through an acquisition and execution phase. The acquisition phase is determined by attentional and memory processes, and the execution phase is determined by motor reproduction, reinforcement, and motivation processes. Among other things, expectations also play an important role, which are decisive for imitation, thus for the learning process. The model of stage theory has been developed by Jean Piaget. It describes the different stages of human cognitive development and specifies for each stage the existing cognitive abilities, which in turn determine which cognitive tasks the person can solve at that time. Freud developed the structural model of the psyche, presupposing three instances, which he divided into id, ego and superego. Secondly, he established the five stages of psychosexual development, which have influence on developmental psychology. In turn, Erik H. Erikson’s stage model of psychosocial development is based on this model. It describes the tension between all the desires and needs of a child and the changing demands placed on it by the environment and interpersonal contact as it develops. Equally important is Loevinger’s stage model, which assumes ego development as a specific pattern through which the person perceives and interprets himself and his environment. This ego structure undergoes several changes in the course of development that lead to higher awareness. Thus, Loevinger assumes a process of thought and experience, not a psychic entity like psychoanalysis. John Bowlby, in turn, posited attachment theory, which entails that children form strong, emotional bonds with those close to them through nonverbal communication and physical signs, which change as they develop. His concern as a child psychiatrist was to explore the effect of family and generational influences on a child’s development. All these models, of which there are many more, show that developmental psychology deals with a wide range of topics. The main focus remains on infant and toddler research, the relationship between child and parents, which takes place on a non-verbal level, and the accompanying social, emotional and motor developments and changes or disorders in the developmental processes. In addition, the general life span of a person up to old age is also studied.
Research Methods
The concept of development is becoming broader under modern conditions, so that any kind of change is considered development, and even interindividual or environmental differences have recently been included, in which case we speak of ecological or differential developmental psychology. Traditionally, however, the concept of development has been relatively narrow. It is viewed as a discontinuous process, with changes remaining qualitative-structural transformations that always progress toward a higher level and are directed toward a final state of maturity. Functions such as emotion, cognition, motivation, language, morality and social behavior play an important role in their processes of change. The family is considered in a social context. Here, how psychological functions change with growing up and aging is examined. Age, in turn, provides information for developmental psychology about the motivational and mental limitations of the individual at this time. It is based on the assumption that a person has to cope with tasks at different stages of development, which reflect different aspects of his life, personality, interpersonal relationships and physiological functions as a basic requirement. For example, an adolescent is raised in a society to break away from parents, find his identity, and prepare for a career. If there are disruptions in this process, difficulties arise in coping with all further steps, since they build on each other. The result is dissatisfaction, frustration and fear of failure. Early childhood in particular is based on social-emotional development, including phases of defiance and possible developmental disorders. These can manifest themselves in dissociation, impairment in language, communication and social bonding. Part of the theories in developmental psychology is also the concept that humans actively shape their development. It is not determined by hereditary factors alone, but depends on a person’s experiences, life circumstances, and aspired goals, again with quite a few variations.
