Developmental Psychology

Stage Prenatal Infancy Early Childhood Middle Childhood Adolescence Early Adulthood Middle Adulthood

Age Range Conception through Birth Birth – 2 years old 2 – 5 years old 6 – 11 years old 12 – 18 years old 19 – 34 years old 35 – 64 years old

Late Adulthood 64 years of age and up One thing not included in the table is death and dying, but it is a part of the lifespan, and each case of death and dying are different in each person. Some die from old age, some die from cancer which can occur at any age. The chart above is not completely accurate as far as the ages are concern, but this table can be used as a general guideline as it helps provide a guideline to approximate ages and the stage of the lifespan. 1.2 Domains of Development Here are three different domains when it comes to developmental psychology. It is much easier to study developmental psychology when the three main perspectives are broken down into components. Let’s look at these three components: • Biosocial Domain o Think about the word biosocial. Let’s break it down. Part of the study focuses on the brain and bodily changes (Bio). Combine this with the societal influences (social), and you will come up with the word biosocial. Let’s look at a brief example. Let’s say that a researcher is looking at the affect’s nutrition has on physiological development. What this dilemma combines are socioeconomic status and societal influences and mixed into the combination is biological concepts. Therefore, if a child is poor and has very little access to healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, then the child may not grow properly, and may end up with a plethora of health issues in the future. Within the biosocial domain, we also look 2 types of development:  Potential Development : Defined as the maximum a child could grow and develop in ideal conditions  Actual Development : Defined as howmuch a child actually grows and develops. • Cognitive Domain o This domain deals with some of the areas of cognition. These areas include When researchers study the cognitive domain, there are some questions that come to mind. One question is how children acquire language, as well as questioning if perception is influenced during development. Listed below are some of the areas of cognition that are studied.  Thought  Perception  Language  Other mental activities

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