Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Biological Basis of Development

Attachment Theory: This concept revolves around the bond between infants and their caregivers. It highlights the role of secure and insecure attachment styles in shaping an individual’s behavioural patterns and mental health.
Nature versus Nurture Debate: A significant part of this field is deciding how much human development is influenced by genetic factors (nature) versus environmental factors (nurture).

Stages of Development

Piaget’s Cognitive Development Stages: These four stages (sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational) represent the progression of a child’s cognitive abilities.
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages: This controversial theory suggests that children pass through five stages of sexual development, each associated with a particular erogenous zone.

Theory of Mind: The understanding that others have thoughts, feelings, and beliefs different from one’s own. This cognitive ability usually emerges around age four.
Morality Development: The process of learning to distinguish between right and wrong. Theorists like Kohlberg and Gilligan have proposed stages of moral development

Language Development

The Role of Nature and Nurture: Does language result from innate abilities (as Chomsky suggests with his universal grammar theory) or is it learnt from the environment (as the behaviourist perspective proposes)?
Language Acquisition Stages: From babbling to holophrastic speech and then to telegraphic and full sentences, children progress in predictable stages as their language skills mature.

Adolescent Development

Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages: Erikson proposed eight sequential stages of identity development, each characterised by a crisis to be resolved.
Puberty and Brain Development: The surges in hormones that accompany adolescence are associated with significant physical changes and can have effects on mood and behaviour.