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Chapter 6: Development

  • Page ID
    10633
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    • 6.1: Research Methods in Developmental Psychology
      This module describes different research techniques that are used to study psychological phenomena in infants and children, research designs that are used to examine age-related changes in development, and unique challenges and special issues associated with conducting research with infants and children.
    • 6.2: Cognitive Development in Childhood
      This module examines what cognitive development is, major theories about how it occurs, the roles of nature and nurture, whether it is continuous or discontinuous, and how research in the area is being used to improve education.
    • 6.3: Social and Personality Development in Childhood
      Childhood social and personality development emerges through the interaction of social influences, biological maturation, and the child’s representations of the social world and the self. This interaction is illustrated in a discussion of the influence of significant relationships, the development of social understanding, the growth of personality, and the development of social and emotional competence in childhood.
    • 6.4: Adolescent Development
      Adolescence is a period that begins with puberty and ends with the transition to adulthood (approximately ages 10-20). Physical changes associated with puberty are triggered by hormones. Cognitive changes include improvements in complex and abstract thought, as well as development that happens at different rates in distinct parts of the brain & increases adolescents’ propensity for risky behavior because increases in sensation-seeking and reward motivation precede increases in cognitive control.
    • 6.5: Emerging Adulthood
      Emerging adulthood has been proposed as a new life stage between adolescence and young adulthood, lasting roughly from ages 18 to 25. Five features make emerging adulthood distinctive: identity explorations, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between adolescence and adulthood, and a sense of broad possibilities for the future.
    • 6.6: The Developing Parent
      This module focuses on parenthood as a developmental task of adulthood. Parents take on new roles as their children develop, transforming their identity as a parent as the developmental demands of their children change. The main influences on parenting, parent characteristics, child characteristics, and contextual factors, are described.
    • 6.7: Aging
      Traditionally, research on aging described only the lives of people over age 65 and the very old. Contemporary theories and research recognize that biogenetic and psychological processes of aging are complex and lifelong. We consider contemporary questions about cognitive aging and changes in personality, self-related beliefs, social relationships, and subjective well-being. These four aspects of psychosocial aging are related to health and longevity.
    • 6.8: Attachment Through the Life Course
      The purpose of this module is to provide a brief review of attachment theory—a theory designed to explain the significance of the close, emotional bonds that children develop with their caregivers and the implications of those bonds for understanding personality development. The module discusses the origins of the theory, research on individual differences in attachment security in infancy and childhood, and the role of attachment in adult relationships.


    This page titled Chapter 6: Development is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by NOBA (The Noba Project) .

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