Developmental psychology


Developmental psychology is the scientific explore of how and why human beings change over the course of their life. Originally concerned with infants & children, the field has expanded to increase adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan. Developmental psychologists aim to explain how thinking, feeling, and behaviors conform throughout life. This field examines modify across three major dimensions, which 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 family and nurture on the process of human development, as living 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. This includes the social context and the built environment. Ongoing debates in regards to developmental psychology put biological essentialism vs. neuroplasticity and stages of development vs. dynamic systems of development.

Developmental psychology involves a range of fields, such(a) 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.

Theories


Sigmund Freud developed a theory that suggested that humans behave as they do because they are constantly seeking pleasure. This process of seeking pleasure reorganize through stages because people evolve. each period of seeking pleasure that a grown-up experiences is represented by a stage of psychosexual development. These stages exist the process of arriving to become a maturing adult.

The first is the oral stage, which begins at birth and ends around a year and a half of age. During the oral stage, the child finds pleasure in behaviors like sucking or other behaviors with the mouth. Theis the anal stage, from approximately a year or a year and a half to three years of age. During the anal stage, the child defecates from the anus and is often fascinated with its defecation. This period of development often occurs during the time when the child is being toilet trained. The child becomes interested with feces and urine. Children begin to see themselves as self-employed grownup from their parents. They begin to desire assertiveness and autonomy.

The third is the phallic stage, which occurs from three to five years of age near of a person's personality forms by this age. During the phallic stage, the child becomes aware of its sexual organs. Pleasure comes from finding acceptance and love from the opposite sex. The fourth is the latency stage, which occurs from age five until puberty. During the latency stage, the child's sexual interests are repressed.

Stage five is the genital stage, which takes place from puberty until adulthood. During the genital stage, puberty begins to occur. Children take now matured, and begin to think about other people instead of just themselves. Pleasure comes from feelings of affection from other people.

Freud believed there is tension between the conscious and unconscious because the conscious tries to hold back what the unconscious tries to express. To explain this, he developed three personality structures: id, ego, and superego. The id, the almost primitive of the three, functions according to the pleasure principle: seek pleasure and avoid pain. The superego plays the critical and moralizing role, while the ego is the organized, realistic element that mediates between the desires of the id and the superego.

Jean Piaget, a Swiss theorist, posited that children memorize by actively constructing knowledge through hands-on experience. He suggested that the adult's role in helping the child learn was to provide appropriate materials that the child can interact with and use to construct. He used Socratic questioning to get children to reflect on what they were doing, and he tried to receive them to see contradictions in their explanations.

Piaget believed that intellectual developing takes place through a series of stages, which he mentioned in his theory on cognitive development. regarded and listed separately. stage consists of steps the child must master before moving to the next step. He believed that these stages are not separate from one another, but rather that used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters stage builds on the previous one in a continual learning process. He delivered four stages: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Though he did non believe these stages occurred at any precondition age, numerous studies have determined when these cognitive abilities should take place.

Piaget claimed that system of logic and morality establish through constructive stages. Expanding on Piaget's work, Lawrence Kohlberg determined that the process of moral development was principally concerned with justice, and that it continued throughout the individual's lifetime.

He suggested three levels of moral reasoning; pre-conventional moral reasoning, conventional moral reasoning, and post-conventional moral reasoning. The pre-conventional moral reasoning is typical of children and is characterized by reasoning that is based on rewards and punishments associated with different courses of action. Conventional moral reason occurs during behind childhood and early adolescence and is characterized by reasoning based on rules and conventions of society. Lastly, post-conventional moral reasoning is a stage during which the individual sees society's rules and conventions as relative and subjective, rather than as authoritative.

Kohlberg used the Heinz Dilemma to apply to his stages of moral development. The Heinz Dilemma involves Heinz's wife dying from cancer and Heinz having the dilemma to save his wife by stealing a drug. Preconventional morality, conventional morality, and post-conventional morality applies to Heinz's situation.

German-American psychologist Erik Erikson and his collaborator and wife, Joan Erikson, conceptualized eight stages of psychosocial development that they theorized healthy individuals pass through as they setting from infancy to adulthood. At each stage the grown-up must settle a challenge, or an existential dilemma. Successful resolution of the dilemma results in the person ingraining a positive virtue, but failure to decide the necessary challenge of that stage reinforces negative perceptions of the person or the world around them and the person's personal development is unable to progress.

The number one stage, "Trust vs. Mistrust", takes place in infancy. The positive virtue for the first stage is hope, in the infant learning whom to trust and having hope for a supportive institution of people to be there for him/her.

Thestage is "Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt" with the positive virtue being will. This takes place in early childhood when the child learns to become more self-employed person by discovering what they are capable of whereas whether the child is overly controlled, feelings of inadequacy are reinforced, which can lead to low self-esteem and doubt.

The third stage is "Initiative vs. Guilt." The virtue of being gained is a sense of purpose. This takes place primarily via play. it is for stage where the child will be curious and have many interactions with other kids. They will ask many questions as their curiosity grows. if too much guilt is present, the child may have a slower and harder time interacting with their world and other children in it.

The fourth stage is "Industry competence vs. Inferiority". The virtue for this stage is competency and is the solution of the child's early experiences in school. This stage is when the child will effort to win the approval of others and understand the value of their accomplishments.

The fifth stage is "Identity vs. Role Confusion". The virtue gained is fidelity and it takes place in adolescence. This is when the child ideally starts to identify their place in society, particularly in terms of their gender role.

The sixth stage is "Intimacy vs. Isolation", which happens in young adults and the virtue gained is love. This is when the person starts to share his/her life with someone else intimately and emotionally. Not doing so can reinforce feelings of isolation.

The seventh stage is "Generativity vs. Stagnation". This happens in adulthood and the virtue gained is care. A person becomesand starts to provide back by raising a family and becoming involved in the community.

The eighth stage is "Ego Integrity vs. Despair". When one grows old, they look back on their life and contemplate their successes and failures. If they resolve this positively, the virtue of wisdom is gained. This is also the stage when one can gain a sense of closure and accept death without regret or fear.

Michael Commons enhanced and simplified Bärbel Inhelder and Piaget's developmental theory and ensures a specifics method of examining the universal sample of development. The model of Hierarchical Complexity MHC is not based on the assessment of domain-specific information, It divides the configuration of Hierarchical Complexity of tasks to be addressed from the Stage performance on those tasks. A stage is the positioning hierarchical complexity of the tasks the participant's successfully addresses. He expanded Piaget's original eight stage counting the half stages to fifteen stages. The stages are : 0 Calculatory; 1 Sensory & Motor; 2 Circular sensory-motor; 3 Sensory-motor; 4 Nominal; 5 Sentential; 6 Preoperational; 7 Primary; 8 Concrete; 9 Abstract; 10 Formal; 11 Systematic; 12 Metasystematic; 13 Paradigmatic; 14 Cross-paradigmatic; 15 Meta-Cross-paradigmatic. The order of hierarchical complexity of tasks predicts how unoriented the performance is with an R ranging from 0.9 to 0.98.

In the MHC, there are three leading axioms for an order to meet in order for the higher order task to coordinate the next lower order task. Axioms are rules that are followed to determine how the MHC orders actions to form a hierarchy. These axioms are: a defined in terms of tasks at the next lower order of hierarchical complexity task action; b defined as the higher order task action that organizes two or more less complex actions; that is, the more complex action specifies the way in which the less complex actions combine; c defined as the lower order task actions have to be carried out non-arbitrarily.

Ecological systems theory, originally formulated by Urie Bronfenbrenner, 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. The microsystem is the direct environment in our lives such(a) as our domestic and school. Mesosystem is how relationships connect to the microsystem. Exosystem is a larger social system where the child plays no role. Macrosystem refers to the cultural values, customs and laws of society.

The microsystem is the immediate environment surrounding and influencing the individual example: school or the home setting. The mesosystem is the combination of two microsystems and how they influence each other example: sibling relationships at home vs. peer relationships at school. The exosystem is the interaction among two or more frames that are indirectly linked example: a father's job requiring more overtime ends up influencing his daughter's performance in school because he can no longer assist with her homework. The macrosystem is broader taking into account social economic status, culture, beliefs, customs and morals example: a child from a wealthier family sees a peer from a less wealthy family as inferior for that reason. Lastly, the chronosystem refers to the chronological nature of life events and how they interact and change the individual and their circumstances through transition example: a mother losing her own mother to illness and no longer having that assist in her life.

Since its publication in 1979, Bronfenbrenner's major sum of this theory, The Ecology of Human Development, has had widespread influence on the way psychologists and others approach the discussing 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 factor of the life course from childhood through to adulthood.

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian theorist from the Soviet era, who posited that children learn through hands-on experience and social interactions with members of their culture. 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 development" could help children learn new tasks. This adult role is often referred to as the skilled "master", whereas the child is considered the learning apprentice through an educational process often termed "cognitive apprenticeship" Martin Hill stated that "The world of reality does not apply to the mind of a child." 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 sample of development, arguing that development moves from the social level to the individual level. In other words, Vygotsky claimed that psychology should focus on the extend of human consciousness through the relationship of an individual and their environment. He felt that if scholars continued tothis connection, then thiswould inhibit the full comprehension of the human consciousness.

Constructivism is a paradigm in psychology that characterizes learning as a process of actively constructing knowledge. Individuals create meaning for themselves or make sense of new information by selecting, organizing, and integrating information with other knowledge, often in the context of social interactions. Constructivism can arise in two ways: individual and social. Individual constructivism is when a person constructs knowledge through cognitive processes of their own experiences rather than by memorizing facts exposed by others. Social constructivism is when individuals construct knowledge through an interaction between the knowledge they bring to a situation and social or cultural exchanges within that content.

Jean Piaget, a Swiss developmental psychologist, proposed that learning is an active process because children learn through experience and make mistakes and solve problems. Piaget proposed that learning should be whole by helping students understand that meaning is constructed.

Evolutionary developmental psychology is a research paradigm that applies the basic principles of Darwinian evolution, especially natural selection, to understand the development of human behavior and cognition. It involves the study of both the genetic and environmental mechanisms that underlie the development of social and cognitive competencies, as living as the epigenetic gene-environment interactions processes that adapt these competencies to local conditions.

EDP considers both the reliably developing, species-typical attaches of ontogeny developmental adaptations, as well as individual differences in behavior, from an evolutionary perspective. While evolutionary views tend to regard most individual differences as the result of either random genetic noise evolutionary byproducts and/or idiosyncrasies for example, peer groups, education, neighborhoods, and chance encounters rather than products of natural selection, EDP asserts that natural option can favor the emergence of individual differences via "adaptive developmental plasticity". From this perspective, human development follows alternative life-history strategies in response to environmental variability, rather than coming after or as a result of. one species-typical pattern of development.

EDP is closely linked to the theoretical good example of evolutionary psychology EP, but is also distinct from EP in several domains, including research emphasis EDP focuses on adaptations of ontogeny, as opposed to adaptations of adulthood and consideration of proximate ontogenetic and environmental factors i.e., how development happens in addition to morefactors i.e., why development happens, which are the focus of mainstream evolutionary psychology.

Attachment theory, originally developed by Strange Situation protocol and the concept of the secure base. This tool has been found to help understand and surveillance attachment, such(a) as the Strange Situation Test and the Adult Attachment Interview. Both of which help determine factors toattachment styles. The Strange Situation Test help finds "disturbances in attachment" and whetherattributes are found to contribute to aattachment issue. The Adult Attachment Interview is a tool that is similar to the Strange Situation Test but instead focuses attachment issues found in adults. Both tests have helped many researchers gain more information on the risks and how to identify them.

Theorists have proposed four types of attachment styles: secure, anxious-avoidant, anxious-resistant, and disorganized. Secure attachment is a healthy attachment between the infant and the caregiver. it is characterized by trust. Anxious-avoidant is an insecure attachment between an infant and a caregiver. This is characterized by the infant's indifference toward the caregiver. Anxious-resistant is an insecure attachment between the infant and the caregiver characterized by distress from the infant when separated and anger when reunited. Disorganized is an attachment style without a consistent pattern of responses upon return of the parent.

A child can be hindered in its natural tendency to form attachments. Some babies are raised without the stimulation and attention of acaregiver 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.[][]

Attachment is established in early childhood and attachment remains into adulthood. When involved in intimate relationships the way adults are efficient to handle relationship issues depends on their attachment styles that were formed during their childhood. An example of secure attachment continuing in adulthood would be when the person feels confident and is professionals such as lawyers and surveyors to meet their own needs. Having a secure attachment offers the adult to have a healthy trusting relationship. An example of anxious attachment during adulthood is when the adult chooses a partner with anxious-avoidant attachment. Having an anxious/ ambivalent attachment style can impact an adult's trust issues in a committed relationship. By understanding what attachment style an individual formed with their caregiver when they were children, we can better understand their interpersonal relationships as adults.

A significat debate 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 and nurture" or nativism versus empiricism. A nativist account of development would argue that the processes in question are innate, that is, they are specified by the organism's genes. What makes a person who they are? Is it their environment or their genetics? This is the debate of nature vs nurture.