![]() This approach draws on behaviourism and its principles, where development is characterised as a sequence of behavioural responses to environmental stimuli. Development is primarily seen as the product of environmental influences (external factors), with genetic inheritance and cognitive processes (internal factors) seen as less significant. Freud's ideas were based on the clinical data of psychoanalysis, whereas Piaget's theorizing was based, initially, on observation of his own children - informed by biological, evolutionary and psychometric perspectives.\nIn contrast to the organismic approach, the mechanistic approach to representing human development focuses not on the individual, but on his or her behaviour. Although Freud and Piaget both took an organismic approach, their research methods and psychological traditions are very different. Another developmental approach in the organismic tradition was produced by Piaget, who focused on cognitive development rather than emotional development. ![]() ![]() Like many earlier developmental theories, it tended to conceive of adulthood as a relatively static 'product' of childhood development, rather than seeing it as having its own unique developmental stages. If a crisis occurred during any developmental stage, then it would be reflected in that person's personality. They may slow development down, or accelerate it, or even stop it, but they cannot alter the nature of the stages themselves or the sequence in which they occur.Īn early influential example of such an approach to human development was Freud's theory of psychosexual stages, which a child had to pass through, seen as central to the emotional development of that child. ![]() One of the assumptions of an organismic stage theory is that environmental influences, while important, can only affect the speed of development. It should also be noted that there are distinct 'developmental lines' which tend to develop in parallel, for example cognitive development (cf Piaget) and psychosexual development (cf Freud). Changes in behaviour throughout life are typically presented as a natural sequence of changes that occur sequentially, in a fixed order, so that an individual has to pass through an earlier stage before reaching a later one. That is, the individual (or 'organism') is its main focus. This developed into an approach to studying human development that is known as the organismic approach. when does a child talk for the first time). At the beginning of the 20th Century developmental psychologists were particularly concerned with charting the ages at which certain changes in behaviour 'normally' occur (e.g. This emphasis on gradual and continual change forms the basis of modern lifespan psychology. Throughout, an individual's life further development and change lies ahead. An individual is the result of a gradual sequence of prior changes, both in a broad evolutionary sense and within that individual's own lifetime. Darwin examined the high degree of similarity between adults and children within any one species, as well as degrees of difference, suggesting that some actions must be innate reflexes rather than learned behaviours. The first idea that developmental psychology inherited from Darwin's theory was a functionalist perspective, arguing that if a behaviour is functional it increases the organism's chances for survival. One of the first major influences on developmental psychology was Darwin, whose theory of evolution prompted a radical re-examination of the way people thought about human development. ![]() Cross-sectional studies – which look at different people in different age groups, examing their different capacities in terms of cognition, capacity for social relationships etc.longitudinal studies, Where the same people are followed over time, and their changes in behaviour plotted.Two of the research designs used in developmental psychology are: All these characteristics are seen as interacting: for example the level of biological development influences our cognitive capacity this will in turn have consequences for social interaction and so on. Developmental characteristics studied include personality, development of relationships with others, cognitive capacities, and biological changes. Developmental psychology focuses on how our psychological characteristics change and develop throughout life, from birth (or, indeed, conception) to old age. ![]()
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