Developmental Psychology:

Developmental psychology is a vast and diverse field of psychology. Some

developmental psychologists conduct research on conception, the early
breaths of life, and the unfolding maturation of infants. Many others focus
on children, their steady growth, accumulating cognitive and social skills,
and awakening independence. Development of adolescents is equally of
interest: the gravity of pubescence, the search for achievement, and the
hovering influences of peers and schools. Developmental psychology is
also about launching into adulthood, initiating and nurturing mature
relationships, propagating families, and pursuing specializations and
careers. Recently, some scholars have addressed concerns about settling
into midlife, with shifting constraints and redefined opportunities. Finally,
there have been long-standing developmental interests in aging
throughout late life, a long period in which many changes are more likely
to be losses than gains.

After scouring a wide range of textbooks, handbooks, and journals, one’s

impression may very well be that developmental psychology is about the
sum of all of the above—and more. Indeed, it concerns the normative
changes that occur during these phases of life, but it is also about the
differences and variations in individuals’ lives—the diversity of
development—as well as the biological and cultural conditions that
occasion unique developments. Given the breadth of the field, however,
the published works in developmental psychology are more selective
about the issues, theories, and methods to which they attend. For this
reason, a simple but broadly accommodating definition of developmental
psychology is offered here. Following the definition, a brief analysis of
some of the key concepts in developmental psychology is presented.
Subsequently, both the emergence and present structure of the field are
sketched.

A deliberately simple definition is as follows: developmental psychology is

the study of psychological phenomena that change at any point in the life
span. This seemingly uncontroversial rendition, however, contains several
terms that require elaboration, if not clarification. Notably, all of the key
terms of the definition—viz., developmental, study, psychological
phenomena, change, and life span—may be interpreted differently and
perhaps even contested by notable developmental scholars. Accordingly,
the field of developmental psychology may actually be described as
containing multiple legitimate clusters of developmental psychologies.
Although these clusters share some common assumptions, interests, and
themes, they differ—sometimes dramatically so—from one another in
these and other respects.

Unpacking the seemingly simple definition above into its principal terms
provides insight into the present status of developmental psychology. In
so doing, both the commonalities and the diversities of contemporary
developmental psychologies are exposed.
Concept of Development

The fact that there is commonality and diversity in developmental

psychology is embodied in the terms development and change. Most
contemporary theorists and approaches would subscribe to an underlying
developmental perspective, or the notion that an understanding of the
present psychological moment (i.e., behaviour, belief, knowledge,
performance, phenomenon) requires attention to the conditions and
processes that led to it. Concurring that developmental psychology directs
attention to the sources and courses of psychological phenomena does
not imply, however, that there is agreement on whether all (or, if not,
which) changes constitute developmental change.

The ‘concept of development’ refers to the criteria (if any) for

differentiating change from development. This concept varies across
approaches to developmental psychology. For example, there is
disagreement about whether developmental changes can or should be
universal (i.e., occurring to all individuals), irreversible (i.e., not naturally
reversible or even immune to intervention), qualitative (i.e., stage-like
rather than step-like and gradual), or goal directed (related or unrelated
to a possible end state). Legitimate, but contrasting, developmental
psychologies rest on dissimilar conceptual assumptions concerning the
extent of the difference, if any, between change and development (e.g.,
Harris 1957). For example, developmental theories that derive inspiration
from models of biological maturation may attend principally to early
phases of life (through adolescence) and construct theories that
emphasize progressive and even universal growth. In contrast, other
theories that are inspired by differential influences of proximal contexts,
historical periods, and cultural settings are more likely to emphasize
multiple developmental directions and perhaps even strong interactions
among levels of influences (e.g., biological and cultural). Vivid contrasts in
developmental theories may be viewed in a recent collection of chapters
devoted to theoretical issues in developmental sciences (see Elder 1998,
Gottlieb et al. 1998, Overton 1998, Schweder et al. 1998).

Developmental Research

The study of psychological development refers to the practices and

traditions of scholarly research. A wide range of positions on how
psychological development can or should be studied is evident. Methods
employed in developmental investigations include virtually all those
available in the biological, psychological and social sciences. The reason
for this is that the phenomena investigated in developmental studies
include the full range of processes or performances targeted by other
psychologists, but also the (interactive) influences from biological and
sociohistorical realms. From the social to the cognitive, from the macro to
the micro, methods for investigating developmental change may be
adapted from a wide variety of methods for investigating snapshots and
profiles of human performance.
Notably, developmental psychologists pursuing research under the aegis
of contrasting models or theories may adopt diverging approaches to the
collection, analysis, and interpretation of developmental data. Available
methods of developmental research include the large categories of
experimental and quasi-experimental procedures, individual and profile
difference studies, and qualitative techniques. Each of these categories
may feature information garnered from standardized tests, experimental
tasks, assays, questionnaires, surveys, interviews, textual interpretations,
and combinations thereof. In addition, procedures are available to
accommodate a variety of intentions, including a focus on description
(what is changing or for whom?), explanation (why is it changing or what
causes the change?), and intervention (can the change be remediated or
modified?).

Nevertheless, whatever the research question or procedure, all

developmental methods have a common paramount concern. Specifically,
in developmental research an estimate of chronological age or
developmental time is involved. Thus, typically some variation of cross-
sectional (i.e., comparison of different age groups at one point in time) or
longitudinal (i.e., examining changes in one or more groups across time)
designs is implemented. Whatever one’s assumptions about the concept
of development, generating inferences about developmental change
requires attention to more than one slice of the human life span. Thus,
underlying the methodological diversity is the shared developmental goal
of assessing the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of human change. Moreover, the array of
methods may be necessary for understanding complex phenomena of
individuals developing psychologically in the contexts of biological
processes and social-environmental influences. In this respect,
developmental methods associated with research in such areas as person
and pattern analyses (e.g., Magnusson and Stattin 1998) and life-span
change (e.g., Baltes et al. 1998) embody promising research endeavors.