Introduction to

Developmental Psychology
By
Ahmer Abdullah
 Developmental Psychology

• It is a branch of Psychology which is concerned with the changes in cognitive,

motivational, psychophysiological and social functioning that occur
throughout the life span.
• Developmental psychology is also known as Life Span Psychology.
• It is also defines as:
“The continuities and changes an individual experiences from womb to tomb”
• Here development refers to the systematic continuities and changes in the
individual that occur between conception (when the father’s sperm
penetrates the mother’s ovum, creating a new organism) and death.
 Historical Development Of The Field
• In the 19th and early 20th centuries, developmental psychologists were
interested in child psychology.
• Charles Darwin was regarded as the first to study developmental
psychology via his study on innate communication forms titled as "a
biographical sketch of an infant" which he recorded in the year 1877 .
His observation was surrounded by senses and fundamental signs of
development like
touch, hearing, vision, anger, fear, pleasurable sensations, affection,
association of ideas, moral sense, unconsciousness shyness and
means of communication.
• William Preyer published a book on infants' abilities titled as "mind
of a child" in the year 1882. He recorded the language development
of his own son. He was amongst the first who use careful systematic
methods of observations of developing children.
• He postulated about the relationships between the children's brain
and language development. His work has been recognized as the first
milestone in the field of language development and language
pathology.
• One of the most prominent achievement in 19th century was through
the famous experiment conducted in the year 1897 of a Russian
Physiologist, Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov conducted experiment on dogs and
their conditioned responses against unconditional stimuli. He coined
the term classical conditioning.
• In the late 20th century, the developmental psychologists had
become interested in many broad issues and 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. The emergence of genetic studies
also influenced the view point of the domain study.
The most prominent scholars of 20th century whom work has significant
impact on contemporary developmental psychology are:

• J.b Watson 1913

• B.F. Skinner 1930
• Sigmund Freud 1923 -1961
• Jean Piaget – 1928
• Erik Erikson 1959
• Lev Vygotsky 1978
• John Bowlby 1958
• Albert Bandura 1977
• In 1913 J.B Watson (a behaviorist) published a paper in which he
proposed to control some aspects of development by training.
• Moreover, in the era of 1950s, the scope was broadened and scholars
exploring the relationship of personality variables vis-à-vis child
rearing.
• The behavioral theories of B.F. Skinner and the cognitive theories of
Jean Piaget were concerned with the growth and development of
children through adolescence.
• A German Psychologist Erik Erikson suggested that child psychology
alone is not enough because there are other stages of adult
psychology which may impart meaningful impact on development.
Erikson was the proponent of the notion that Psychological and
social development both are deemed necessary for pragmatic
development process.
What causes developmental changes?
• Maturation and learning are the two processes that are largely
responsible for developmental changes.
• Maturation is the biological change which are largely hereditary
dependent. The species-typical program or genetic blue print
predetermine the stages or milestones of any specie especially human
beings. For instance, how a fetus develop through different stages
including in-utero and post-birth life cycle till demise.
• Learning is very critical developmental process. It usually imprints
permanent changes in feelings, thoughts and behavior. Learning
theories explain the phenomenon in detail.
 Aspects Period of Human Development
Period of life Approximate age range
1. Prenatal period Conception to birth
2. Infancy Birth to 18 months
3. Toddlerhood 18 months old to 3 years
4. Preschool period 3 to 5 years of age
5. Middle childhood 5 to 12 years of age
6. Adolescence 12 or so to 20 years of age (many developmentalists
define the end of adolescence as the point at which
the individual begins to work and is reasonably
independent of parental sanctions)
7. Young adulthood 20 to 40 years of age
8. Middle age 40 to 65 years of age
9. Old age 65 years of age or older
 Nature vs Nurture: What influences on
Development
• The debate has been a debate since the beginning of the
Psychology as a distinct medium from Philosophy.
• The proponents of the debate argued between the viewpoints
that which factor is dominant in shaping human psychology, genes
or environment.
• Nativist (extremist believer of Nature) are those who believed
that certain human skills are hardwired into the brain or
genetically predetermined.
• Empiricist (extreme believer of Nurture) or in other words
believed that human mind is “tabula rasa” or like a “blank slate”.
They believed that every trait and characteristic is learned through
environment.
 Normative influences on Development
• Normative influences can be defined as
“The occurrences and happening that influences across the cohort, group of
community, culture, race gender”
Normative age-graded influences Normative history-graded influences
This is related to chronological age. These There are the influences which are
are experiences caused by biological and experienced by most of the people
environmental(physiological belonging to that particular culture or
psychological) factors. It is highly cohort at the same event or time. It also
correlated with chronological age. has biological and environmental factors.
Puberty and Menopause are examples of The pandemic (corona virus) and internet
biological whereas graduation and revolution are typical examples of
retirement are environmental influence on biological and environmental influences on
development. development respectively.
 Non-Normative (Idiosyncratic) influences
on Development
• These are rare or random events which may be particular to an
individual who is experiencing and not experienced by most people in
that culture or cohort.
• For instance, accident, divorce, chance meeting, sudden death of
loved ones.
• Non-normative events are particularly significant during middle and
late adulthood.
 Theories and Research in Developmental
Psychology
• Developmental theories are set of ideas that systematically explains
thought, behavior and emotions in interaction with prenatal and
postnatal stages. Developmental theories are used to identify behavior,
thought, emotion as well as drawing inferences for future course of
action or treatment.
• Longitudinal, cross-sectional and sequential researches are the most
common research designs widely used by developmental psychologists.
• The naturalistic observation, ERPs (Event related Potentials), parent-
report questionnaires are most widely used data collection techniques
used with infants, children.