Developmental Psychology Lesson 1

Developmental Psychology

• Branch of psychology that studies intraindividual changes and interindividual changes within these intraindividual changes
• Focuses on age-related changes in behavior and covers the life span from conception to death
• Explains physical, social, emotional, moral, and intellectual development over a person's life span

Key Concepts

• Development: Progressive series of changes that occur as a result of maturation and experience
• Maturation: Unfolding of traits potentially present in the individual, considering their hereditary endowment
• Learning: Result of activities or day-to-day experiences on the person himself
• Gerontology: Science of aging
• Geriatrics: Branch of medicine concerned with diseases of old age

Factors of Development

• Maturation: Unfolding of individual's inherent traits
• Learning: Development that comes from exercise and effort on the individual's part

Rate of Development

• Rapid Development: Observed during the prenatal period and continues throughout babyhood up to the first six years
• Slow Development: Starts from six years to adolescence

Significant Facts About Development

• Early foundations are critical
• Roles of maturation and learning in development
• Development follows a definite and predictable pattern
• All individuals are different
• Each phase of development has characteristics pattern of behavior
• Each phase of development has hazards
• Development is aided by stimulations
• Development is affected by cultural changes
• There are social expectations for every stage of development

Laws of Developmental Direction

• Cephalocaudal Law: Development spreads over the body from head to foot
• Proximodistal Law: Development spreads outward from the central axis of the body to the extremities

Developmental Tasks

• Task that arises at or about a certain period in the life of the individual
• Purpose: Provides guidelines, motivates individual, and shows individuals what lies ahead

Stages of the Life Span

• Prenatal Period: Conception to birth
• Infancy: Birth to the end of second week
• Babyhood: End of the second week to the end of second year
• Early Childhood: Two to six years
• Late Childhood: Six to ten or twelve years
• Puberty or Preadolescence: Ten or twelve to thirteen or fourteen years
• Adolescence: Thirteen or fourteen to eighteen years
• Early Adulthood: Eighteen to forty years
• Middle Adulthood: Forty to sixty years
• Late Adulthood: Sixty years onwards