"Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives."
Concerned with the study of behavior and psychological processes over the entire lifespan, from infancy to old age.
Nature vs. Nurture: The debate about the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on development.
Critical Periods: Specific time periods during which certain experiences are crucial for optimal development.
Attachment Theory: The idea that early attachments between infants and caregivers sets the stage for future relationships.
Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory: The theory that children construct their understanding of the world through a series of stages characterized by increasingly complex mental processes.
Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory: The theory that there are eight stages of development, each characterized by a specific crisis or challenge.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: The theory that human needs are organized into a hierarchy, with physiological needs at the base and self-actualization at the top.
Social Learning Theory: The theory that behavior is shaped by the environment and the consequences of that behavior.
Operant Conditioning: The theory that behavior is shaped by its consequences, with rewards increase the likelihood and punishment decreasing the likelihood of that behavior.
Classical Conditioning: The theory that behavior is shaped through associations between stimuli and responses, with one stimulus eliciting a response that was originally elicited by another stimulus.
Language Development: The process by which children acquire language, including the role of innate capacities and the importance of social interactions.
Moral Development: The process by which children develop values, beliefs, and behaviors related to right and wrong.
Gender Development: The process by which children learn about and adopt gender roles and gender identity.
Adolescent Development: The physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional changes that occur during adolescence.
Adulthood and Aging: The developmental processes that occur during adulthood, including physical changes, sociocultural factors, and psychological changes.
Cross-cultural Perspectives: The ways in which cultures and societies shape development, and the ways in which individuals from different cultures experience and navigate developmental processes.
Cognitive development: The study of how children learn and understand basic concepts such as language, thinking, memory, logic, and problem-solving.
Social development: Researches how children develop their social skills, emotional regulation, temperament, and relationships with others.
Emotional development: Focuses on how children develop emotional awareness, regulation, empathy, and emotional expression in themselves and others.
Moral development: Examines how children develop their sense of right vs. wrong, justice, and moral reasoning.
Attachment theory: Analyzes the nature of attachment relationships between infants and caregivers, as well as their impact on later life outcomes.
Psychosocial development: Explores how individuals develop across the lifespan in domains such as work, intimacy, generativity, and integrity vs. despair.
Developmental psychopathology: Concerns the study of abnormal development and the emergence of psychopathological behavior in childhood.
Neuropsychology: Focuses on how brain development interacts with development in other domains, such as cognitive, social, and emotional functioning.
Nature vs. Nurture: The debate on the relative influence of genes and environment on development.
Developmental disabilities: Investigation of conditions that cause developmental delays and impairments, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and intellectual disabilities.
"The field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan."
"Developmental psychologists aim to explain how thinking, feeling, and behaviors change throughout life."
"The three major dimensions are physical development, cognitive development, and social-emotional development."
"Within these three dimensions are a broad range of topics including motor skills, executive functions, moral understanding, language acquisition, social change, personality, emotional development, self-concept, and identity formation."
"Developmental psychology examines the influences of nature and nurture on the process of human development, as well as processes of change in context across time."
"Many researchers are interested in the interactions among personal characteristics, the individual's behavior, and environmental factors."
"Ongoing debates in regards to developmental psychology include biological essentialism vs. neuroplasticity and stages of development vs. dynamic systems of development."
"At the moment, researchers are working to understand how transitioning through stages of life and biological factors may impact our behaviors and development."
"Developmental psychology involves a range of fields, such as educational psychology, child psychopathology, forensic developmental psychology, child development, cognitive psychology, ecological psychology, and cultural psychology."
"Influential developmental psychologists from the 20th century include Urie Bronfenbrenner, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, Jean Piaget, Barbara Rogoff, Esther Thelen, and Lev Vygotsky."