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Life Span Development

The objective of this paper is to briefly discuss how the study of human development emerged as a discipline over the centuries, and to compare and contrast the strengths and limitations of the major research methodologies utilized within developmental psychology.

Developmental psychology is referred to as a scientific study surrounding the psychological changes that occur within people as they age. Developmental psychology is also referred to as life-span psychology, the branch of psychology that is focused on the cognitive, motivational, psycho physiological, and social functioning that occurs throughout the human life span (Britannica, 2006). When traced back to the early 19th and 20th centuries, the primary focus of developmental psychologists was on children. Starting around 1950 the focus changed to include relationships between personality variables, child rearing, and the meaningful stages of adult psychology. (Britannica, 2006). In the last part of the 20th century developmental psychologist started to broaden their horizons to include the relation of heredity and environment, continuity and discontinuity in development, and the behavioral and cognitive elements in the development of the total person (Britannica 2006). Now the field of developmental psychology focuses research, methodology and theories to encompass the entire life span of a human being from conception to death. The roots of developmental psychology can be traced back to Heraclitus, Aristotle and Descartes (Wikipedia, 2006).

William Shakespeare also played a role in developmental psychology with his literary work "As You Like It" (Wikipedia, 2006). Shakespeare's character "Jacques" depicted the "seven ages of man" which included three stages of childhood and four stages of adulthood (Wikipedia, 2006). In 1911 Rudolf Steiner wrote an essay, "The Education of the Child" in which he presented the first three stages of childhood (Wikipedia, 2006). Both of these writers laid...