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A Quick Introduction to Developmental Psychology.
For more on the topic, including class notes, check out Lifespan Development.
Transcript
We think of development is acquiring skills and abilities but it isn’t limited to positive change. Bones can break, muscles weaken and diseases spread. As we age, our eyes get worse, our gait is less stable and our internal temperature systems become less responsive. We develop osteoporosis, heart disease and Alzheimer’s.
And development can be rapid or slow. Your hair grows about half a millimeter day. You change taste buds every couple weeks. And about once a month, you get new skin cells to replace some of the old ones.
You are composed of multiple systems, and each is on its own developmental schedule. Changes across the lifespan is so abundant and complex, researchers usually restrict their study to a particular topic or to a particular period of time. Topical researchers select a specific process or faculty. They may follow the rise, maintenance and fall of cognition across the lifespan but they stay with a single topic.
They may track the entire lifespan of language perception or reproductive processes. They might focus on something as specific as fine gross motor skills or something as broad as a sense of self.
The other way to conserve energy is to specialize in a specific period of time. Studying children is still popular but with people living longer more attention is being given to maintaining the health of the elderly. Advances in brain imagery have increased the studying of the rapid brain growth period.
Like alll sciences, developmental psychology has a strong preference for controlled experiments, so studies are conducted laboratory settings. These use random assignment to treatment conditions, clear operational definitions and control groups.
Humans are complex beings, so it’s not surprising that we must be seen within our biological, environmental and social contexts. These contexts impact our decisions and change our personal experiences, and in return, our environment is impacted by our choices of behaviors.
To understand developmental psychology better, I am trying to create a fictional character we can trace over his lifespan. If you’d like to help decide what challenges our fictional friend should face, come to DevelopmentalDave.com and give your input. It’s still under construction, but probably always will be, so come on ahead.
