Developmental psychology

Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the changes in cognitive, motivational, psychophysiological, and social functioning that occur throughout human life. Investigators have identified and analyzed with increasing precision the diverse perceptual, cognitive, and numerical abilities of infants and traced their developmental course, while others have focused on life-span development and mental and behavioral changes in the aging process. Developmental research provides clear evidence that humans do not enter the world with a blank mental slate but rather with extensive preparation for all sorts of cognitive and skill development. At the same time, research also has yielded equally impressive evidence for the plasticity of the human brain and the possibilities for change in the course of development.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, developmental psychologists were concerned primarily with child psychology. The Soviet psychologist L.S. Vygotsky (1896–1934), for example, introduced a theory according to which meaningful cognitive development through childhood relies primarily on culture and social interactions. Vygotsky’s work proved influential among other psychologists, including his former student A.R. Luria (1902–77), who studied the role of speech in mental development and intellectual disability, and the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980), who identified a series of stages through which the mind of a child evolves to adulthood.

Piaget’s mental evolution encompasses four age-related stages:

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• The sensorimotor stage During the first two years of life, a child learns to control innate physical reflexes and to extend them to pleasurable or interesting actions. Children also become aware of themselves as separate physical entities and realize that the objects around them are also separate.
• The preoperational stage From age two to age six or seven, children learn to manipulate their environment symbolically through inner representations, or thoughts; to represent objects in the form of words; and to manipulate such words mentally.
• The concrete operational stage From age seven to age 11 or 12, children begin to use logic in their thought processes and to classify objects according to their similarities and differences.
• The formal operations stage From age 12 into adulthood, children come to master logical thought, to manipulate abstract ideas, and to understand the implications of their own thoughts and those of others.

In the 1950s psychologists became interested in the relationship between personality variables and child rearing. The behavioral theories of the American psychologist B.F. Skinner (1904–90) and the cognitive theories of Jean Piaget were concerned with the growth and development of children through adolescence. At the same time, the German-born American psychoanalyst Erik Erikson insisted that there are meaningful stages of adult psychology that have to be considered in addition to child development. Erikson conceived of eight stages of development, each confronting the individual with its own psychosocial demands, that continue into old age. Personality development, according to Erikson, takes place through a series of crises that must be overcome and internalized by the individual in preparation for the next developmental stage.

Developmental psychologists also began to consider the processes that underlie the development of behavior in the total person from birth to death, including various aspects of the physical-chemical environment that can affect the individual during the intrauterine period and at birth. Teratogens, or chemicals that can cause birth defects, often have major psychological and behavioral effects.

Developmental psychologists are currently interested in many broad issues dealing with the psychological process throughout life, including the relation of heredity and environment, continuity and discontinuity in development, and behavioral and cognitive elements in the development of the total person.

See also child psychology; psychological development.

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