Developmental Psychology Essay

There are three main theories of development that I shall discuss in this assignment, 'Cognitive', the main theorist being, 'Piaget', (1896 - 1980), The, 'Psychosocial Theory', 'Erikson', (1902 - 1994), and, The 'Psychosexual', of, 'Freud', (1856 - 1939).

The field of study that examines patterns of growth, change, and stability in behavior that occur throughout the entire lifespan is called lifespan development. Lifespan development takes a scientific approach in its study of growth, change, and stability. This development emphases on human development. Developmentalists study the course of development in nonhuman species, the most popular examine growth and change in people. In contrast I will focus on the ways people and myself change and grow during our lives, with the consideration of stability in our live span. Together, these findings suggest that we will go through

Why it is difficult for researchers to isolate specific causes of child behaviour - using two of your own examples. How is the term “correlation” a solution to this problem?

As Bernstein (2010) points out, often times people with ADHD “zone out” and miss valuable parts of conversations. This results in them bouncing back, often with a quick lie in order to continue the flow of conversation. These lies occur so quickly in order to fill voids of conversation, and so often, that they can sadly become a habit.

Erikson’s (1968, 1980, 1982) psychosocial stages of development provide a framework for the different stages of development throughout the human lifespan. These stages of development begin at birth and continue until death, and separate the lifespan into eight stages based on chronological age. Within these eight different aging stages are corresponding psychosocial stages. Each of these psychosocial stages represent a conflict between two characteristics of development for that particular time period in a person’s life.

The child I chose to write about for this assignment is two year old Danjuma from Wayne, Ohio. He is the youngest of three children and attends an Early Head Start Program two days a week. The child’s parents have jobs; when the mother is working her sister takes care of Danjuma. The family has financial problems but don’t qualify for any type of public assistance.

Describe the expected pattern of children and young people’s development from birth to 19 years, to include: physical development, communication and intellectual development, social, emotional and behavioural development.

Psychology is diverse, and there are many diverse specialty areas available to individuals seeking a career in the field of psychology. Most Psychologists choose to specialize in subfields that focus on specific subjects. Obtaining a profession in any of the specialty areas would require graduate study in that area of interest. Some professionals have a broad general knowledge, are skilled in several areas, and work with a range of clients. Some are specialist in treating a specific type of psychological disorder, or work with a specific age group. For those interested in specializing in a psychology career, developmental Psychology is one of the many fields available.

When an infant arrives in the world they are helpless tiny humans who depend on adults for every need from love, to feeding them. It is amazing how these tiny babies grow into adults able to make decisions and become self-dependent. There are many theories about how children develop and what roles the environment plays, what people affect their lives and how events can shape their personalities. Some of these children have and easy life and some have a harder time making that journey to adulthood.

Life span developmental psychology takes a scientific approach to human growth and change, focusing on change during the life span. There are three main aspects to life span development: cognitive, social, and physical development. This class is not simply a discussion of nature vs. nurture, it explores the interaction between genetic and environmental factors that orient us towards specific behaviors. Initially, my views on life span development were limited to more sociological factors, and did not take into consideration physical developments of the brain. In relation to my personal and professional identity this course has made me realize that development occurs on a spectrum and that not everyone develops at the same time, in the same ways, making me more understanding and compassionate towards those who developed differently than me. The three most important lessons I have learned from this class are that development occurs throughout the entire life span, infants begin learning at a very young age, and that senescence begins as early as young adulthood.

Feldman, R (2011). Development Across the Life Span (6th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Arguably, the physical and cognitive development of young adults is an issue that has always attracted the attention of many scholars including Schaie and Erikson among others. Schaie is one of the most prominent scholars who have done exhaustive research on individuals’ development. He conducted many studies on areas of intellectual functioning in adults, and from his research, he proposed his theory of stages in cognitive development in human adults. Schaie outlined these stages as the acquisition stage, young adult stage, achieving stage, responsible stage, executive stage, reorganizational stage, reintegrative stage, and legacy creating stage (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016). The achieving stage is just one of the many stages proposed by Schaie in his

Developmentally appropriate practice is based on knowledge about how children develop and learn, what is known about the needs of individual children in a particular group, and on knowledge of both the social and cultural contexts in which children live. (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997, pp. 8–9)

Development psychology refers to the scientific study of the systematic psychological changes that normally occur to human beings throughout their growth period from birth to old age. It was originally concerned with children and infants, but it has since expanded to include the entire life span of mankind including adolescence and adulthood. Development psychology covers the extent to which human development occurs through gradual accumulation of knowledge, and the extent to which children born with inmate mental structures learn through experience. Several psychological theories and approaches like the behavioral, humanistic, psychoanalytic, biological, and cognitive approaches have been developed to explain the

From birth through adolescence, a significant amount of developmental changes occur. Children grow and develop physically, cognitively and emotionally. Each individual aspect of development has an effect on the child as a whole. If a child struggles developmentally in any of the areas (physically, emotionally or cognitively), it can affect one of the other areas of development as well. For example, if a child is underdeveloped physically, they may experience emotional development issues because they may be made fun of and teased by other children.