What is developmental psychology and why is it important?

What is developmental psychology?

Developmental psychology, also calledPsychology of Human Development, is a branch of general psychology, which focuses on the study of the evolutionary changes that human beings experience throughout each stage of their lives in the psychic and organic aspect. (1)

In itself, this discipline is concerned with knowing and understanding the reason why physical and neurological changes occur in the human being, taking into consideration that these changes constitute facts that are part of the biological origin of the evolution of psychic life, since man is a child until his death.

The object of study of this discipline, is the scientific study of the changes and stability of the individual throughout the stages of his life cycle and his purpose isto know why people develop cognition as they advance in age or why they do not continue to be the same despite their advance in age.

Note: This discipline serves as a basis and support for other branches within psychology such as clinical psychology, family psychology, social psychology, forensic psychology, health psychology, neuropsychologyand evenwork psychology.

What is the importance of developmental psychology?

Next, we describe to you exactly What is the importance of developmental psychology :

1. It allows determining individual and collective behavior

One of the relevant aspects of developmental psychology is that through its studies it allows establishing the characteristics of human behavior in the individual and collective aspect through the different stages of its evolution.

To highlight:  The psychology of development supports its postulates in different theories, among which we can mention the Organic Theories, the Mechanistic Theories and the Sociocultural Theories . (two)

2. Optimize education and teaching methods

or life cycle, increasing their particular skills.

You should know: As human beings develop cognitively, their demands increase in terms of acquiring new knowledge, so educational strategies must evolve in the same direction.

3. Promotes human development

Human growth is one of the facets that is of interest to developmental psychology. And it is that development not only refers to cognition, it also includes how the individual evolves in his relationship with the environment, with his parents, with his family and with society.

What does developmental psychology study?

Developmental psychology studies various aspects directly related to man , which we mention below:

1. Physical development

This point refers to the Physiological and morphological changes that the human body undergoes in its height, body weight, brain development , sensory capacity, among others.

Note: These physical changes in healthy subjects influence intellect, , personality, , and behavior.

2. Cognitive development

From a psychological perspective, it refers to the development of cognitive processes because these changes are related to emotional and motor aspects.

and must go hand in hand in healthy subjects.

3. Social and personal development

To highlight: Changes to this aspect affect cognitive and biological development.

Key Findings

• Developmental psychology is devoted to the Study of the evolutionary changes that human beings experience in life.
• Developmental psychology is concerned with knowing and understanding the reason why physical and neurological changes occur in humans.
• The object of study of this discipline is the scientific study of the changes and stability of the individual.
• The purpose of this discipline is to know why people develop cognition as they advance in age.