-By Timothy Lyons
In the early years of developmental psychology, the focus was on the development of the child. As the filed began to expand it quickly developed into the study of psychological changes of humans of the course of a lifetime. This includes any factors such as language development, motor skills, emotions, identity and self-awareness. The science of Developmental psychology is the study of the changes in humans over the course of their lifetime.
In order to truly understand the manner in which humans develop, contemporary developmental psychology had to adopt a number of scientific methods from other fields. With the inclusion of domains from biology, emotional and cognitive studies, sociology and even history, this type of psychology integrates a vast array of sciences. This allows the study of the development of a person to eschew reductionist methods which might paint the one dimensional picture of a person.
Developmental psychology
The modern developmental psychology is an all-inclusive systematization of the person seen as a whole. This is performed through the study of the person as a mixed and integral part of society using a number of variables taken from an equally great number of organized studies using biology, psychology and sociology. Developmental psychology also includes a number of other practices such as, educational, forensic, cultural and cognitive psychologies as well as child development. In this way there is a synthesis of fields that culminate in the true understanding of development.
A note on the view of many developmental psychologist is that there may be predominance to embrace the cognitive model. This is evident in the Theory of Mind concept that discusses and looks at a child’s ability to differentiate others as being able to think differently from themselves. From this the psychologist would look at this time frame in the child’s life and attempt to view it from a social psychological and biological frame.
Relational Frames
There is an alternative to the cognitive view of theory of mind which comes from the viewpoint of relational frame theory (RFT). In that RFT is a contextual psychology and is normally considered within the family of behaviorism, Developmental psychology may also be seen as having some basis in the behaviorist understanding. RFT sees behavior as having a specific function. This function could be related to a purpose. This does, of course, imply that the conceptual theory behind theory of mind is based on contextual behaviorism and not cognitive theory. This might further developmental psychology in that it truly synthesizes any number of psychological disciplines and viewpoints in the understanding of how the human species develops.
Developmental psychology has a pronounced commingling of theories, philosophies, and methods. It also has value in the understanding that comes about in regards to the basic developmental process while giving clinical applications which can assist in human development.
Reference
Barnes-Holmes, Y., McHugh, L., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (n.d.). Perspective-Taking and Theory of Mind: A relational frame approach. THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST TODAY, 5(1), 15-25.
Lerner, R. M., Easterbrooks, M. A., & Mistry, J. (2006). Handbook of Psychology Volume 6 Developmental Psychology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Strangor, C. (2014). Introduction to Psychology Version 2.0 (14 ed.).