Developmental psychology is the study of the development of human behavior, especially in terms of cognitive, emotional, physical and social changes over the life span. It studies how these changes come about and their implications for future behavior. Developmental psychologists are mainly interested in two main questions: Why do people develop differently? Why do people change over time?
Developmental psychologists use their knowledge to investigate issues such as how children learn to read or why teenagers are at risk for self-harm. They also help identify ways to address challenges and improve outcomes for children and families. Developmental psychology is sometimes divided into subfields by age group (infancy, childhood, adolescence) or level of development (cognitive development, personality development).
The field of developmental psychology has its roots in several older disciplines: biology (developmental biology), philosophy (ontogeny), history (history of childhood) and sociology (socialization). Many early researchers believed that a person’s future could be predicted from studying his or her past experiences, such as Jean Piaget’s theory that children pass through four stages of cognitive development during the preschool years. Today developmental psychologists use many methods to study human development such as experiments on babies and children; observations
Scope Of Developmental Psychology In Pakistan
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of human development. Developmental psychologists study the processes that contribute to the changes that occur in an individual’s life from conception to death. These processes are studied at different levels of organization and in different contexts, including the micro-level (e.g., neuropsychology), meso-level (e.g., family dynamics) and macro-level (e.g., cultural influences). Developmental psychology is not a unitary field, but rather a conglomerate of specialties focused on diverse topics related to human development.
In Pakistan, developmental psychology is growing as a field of study with students from different universities joining this field. However, there are not many resources available for them to learn about this new field of study. This article aims at providing an overview on developmental psychology in Pakistan and its scope as well as limitations
