Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of the evolution of human thought process, behavior and emotions across all stages of psychological development. Such development occurs at the prenatal stage, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. Some of the areas covered in this domain are language acquisition, motor skills, personality, moral understanding, emotional development and identity formation. Such studies are approached from the theories of psychosexual, psychosocial, moral and cognitive development. The influence of nature, nurture, stability, change and other factors in the intellectual development of an individual is also examined in this field. Besides delving into the evolution of the human mind, developmental psychology also probes into the internal workings of the mind that cause the psychological changes that occur with time. Such studies are guided by developmental models, which may be computational. Such models of development generally use connectionist, symbolic or dynamical systems. This book provides comprehensive insights into the field of developmental psychology. It attempts to understand the multiple debates and approaches that fall under this umbrella discipline and how such concepts expand our current understanding of the human mind. For someone with an interest and eye for detail, this book covers the most significant topics in the field of developmental psychology.