Clinical and Experimental Psychology

Role of Developmental Psychology in People Development

Aisha Mirza^{* *}Correspondence: Aisha Mirza, Department of Psychology, Osmania University, India, Email:

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Introduction

Developmental psychology is a scientific method which seeks to explain growth, change and consistency though the lifetime. Developmental psychology looks at how thought, mood, and behavior change throughout a person’s life.

A substantial number of ideas in this field focus on development throughout childhood, as this is when the biggest change occurs in a person's life.

Biological, social, emotional, and cognitive processes are among the theories studied by developmental psychologists. Psychologists from Western cultures, such as North America and Europe, dominate empirical study in this area, while Japanese academics began to make a significant contribution to the subject in the 1980s.

Developmental psychology has three goals: to characterize, explain, and optimize development (Baltes, Reese, & Lipsitt, 1980). It is required to focus on both typical patterns of change (normative development) and individual variances in patterns of change in order to define development (i.e. idiographic development). Despite the fact that most people will follow similar developmental paths, no two people are alike.

In addition, developmental psychologists must try to explain the changes they've noticed in terms of normative processes and individual differences. It's often easier to describe development than it is to explain how it happens.

Finally, developmental psychologists want to improve people's development by applying their theories to real-life settings (e.g. help parents develop secure attachments with their children).

Questions About developmental Psychology

Continuity vs. Discontinuity

Consider how children develop into adults. Is there a pattern to their intellect, language, and social development that they follow? Is it more common for youngsters to go through gradual or rapid changes? Normative development is usually thought of as a process that happens through time. Change is slow, according to the continuity viewpoint. As children grow taller, they become more skilled in thinking, speaking, and behaving.

The discontinuity perspective views development as a series of changes that result in distinct behaviors in different age-specific life periods known as stages. These modifications are possible due to biological changes.

People frequently refer to children going through "stages" in life (e.g., "sensorimotor stage"). These are known as developmental stages, which are life stages marked by different changes in physical or psychological function.

People go through the same stages, in the same order, but not necessarily at the same rate, according to psychologists who believe in the discontinuity theory.

Nature vs. Nurture

When attempting to understand development, it is critical to examine both nature and nurture's proportional contributions. The goal of developmental psychology is to find answers to two major concerns concerning heredity and environment:

1. What percentage of the total weight does each person contribute?
2. What is the relationship between nature and nurture?

The process of biological maturation, inheritance, and maturation is referred to as nature. Because our common specifies heredity (DNA) guides all of us through many of the same developmental changes at roughly the same points in our lives, one of the reasons why human development is so similar is because our common specifies heredity (DNA) guides all of us through many of the same developmental changes at about the same points in our lives. The impact of the environment, which includes the process of learning through experience, is referred to as nurture.

Nature-nurture research can be done in two ways:

1. Twin studies: Identical twins share the same genotype, but fraternal twins share 50% of their DNA on average.
2. Adoption studies: Similarities between biological and adoptive families in terms of support nature and nurture.

Stability vs. Change

The term "stability" refers to personality features that persist throughout a person's life. Change theorists, on the other hand, argue that interactions with family, school experiences, and acculturation shape people's personalities. Plasticity is the term for this ability to change. Rutter (1981) discovered that when melancholy newborns in understaffed orphanages are put in socially stimulating adoptive households, they often become joyful and affectionate.