Psychology 2040A/B Chapter 1: Chapter 1Introduction to Developmental Psychology

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2040A/B
• Professor: M

Document Summary

Chapter 1 introduction to developmental psychology and its research strategies. Development refers to a systematic continuities and changes in the individual that occur between conception and death. Changes that are systematic are orderly, patterned and relatively enduring. Continuities in development or ways we remain the same or continue to reflect our past. Developmentalist = any scholar who seeks to understand the developmental process. The 3 major goals of the developmental sciences are to: describe, explain, optimize. To adequately describe development it is necessary to focus both on typical patterns of change (normative development) and on individual variations in patterns of change (ideographic development) normative development = developmental changes that characterize most or all members of a species; typical patterns of development. ideographic development = individual variations in the rate, extent or direction of development. Developmentalists also want to explain the changes they have observed.