Developmental psychology and child psychology?

blogs, contributions, summaries, study assistance and experiences abroad

Image
Table of related content to: Developmental psychology and child psychology

   

More supporting content:
What is developmental psychology?

What is developmental psychology?

Developmental psychology is a fascinating field that explores the lifespan changes in human beings. It delves into the physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and moral development that individuals experience from conception to death.

What are the main features of developmental psychology?

  • Lifespan Approach: It examines development across all stages of life, from prenatal development to old age.
  • Multidimensional Focus: Developmental psychology recognizes that growth occurs in various domains – physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and moral.
  • Nature vs. Nurture: This field explores the complex interplay between biological (genetic) predispositions and environmental influences on development.
  • Continuity vs. Discontinuity: Developmental psychologists debate whether development is a gradual, continuous process or punctuated by distinct stages.

What are important sub-areas in developmental psychology?

  • Prenatal Development: Examines the growth and development of the fetus from conception to birth.
  • Infancy and Childhood: Focuses on rapid physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development during the early years.
  • Adolescence: Studies the physical, cognitive, and social changes experienced during puberty and teenage years.
  • Emerging Adulthood: Explores the development of identity, relationships, and career paths in young adulthood.
  • Middle Adulthood: Examines changes in physical health, cognitive abilities, and family dynamics during middle age.
  • Late Adulthood: Studies the physical, cognitive, and social changes associated with aging.

What are key concepts in developmental psychology?

  • Critical Period: A specific time window when an organism is highly susceptible to environmental influences impacting development.
  • Maturation: The biological unfolding of genetic potential, leading to physical growth and development.
  • Attachment Theory: Explores the importance of early emotional bonds with caregivers for healthy emotional and social development.
  • Cognitive Development: The process of acquiring knowledge, skills, and thinking abilities throughout life.
  • Social Development: The process by which individuals learn to interact with others and form relationships.
  • Moral Development: The development of an understanding of right and wrong, and a sense of ethical principles.

Who are influential figures in developmental psychology?

  • Jean Piaget (Psychologist): Pioneered the theory of cognitive development, proposing stages of cognitive growth in children.
  • Lev Vygotsky (Psychologist): Emphasized the role of social interaction and culture in cognitive development, introducing the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development.
  • Erik Erikson (Psychologist): Developed the theory of psychosocial development, proposing eight stages of psychosocial challenges individuals face throughout life.
  • John Bowlby (Psychoanalyst): Pioneered attachment theory, highlighting the significance of early emotional bonds with caregivers for healthy development.
  • Mary Ainsworth (Psychologist): Expanded upon attachment theory, identifying different attachment styles (secure, anxious, avoidant) formed in early childhood.

Why is developmental psychology important?

  • Understanding Human Development: Provides a deeper understanding of how humans grow and change throughout life.
  • Early Childhood Intervention: Helps design programs and interventions to support healthy development in children, especially those facing challenges.
  • Education: Developmental psychology informs educational practices by tailoring teaching methods to different age groups and developmental stages.
  • Parenting and Family Support: Offers insights into child development stages, fostering positive and supportive parenting practices.
  • Aging Well: Helps us understand the aging process and develop strategies to promote healthy aging physically, cognitively, and socially.

How

.......read more
Access: 
Public
What is child psychology?

What is child psychology?

Child psychology is a specialized field within developmental psychology that focuses specifically on the mental, emotional, social, and cognitive development of children from prenatal development through adolescence.

What are the main features of child psychology?

  • Focus on Childhood: It delves into the unique aspects of development during the early years of life.
  • Multifaceted Approach: Examines a variety of domains, including emotional well-being, cognitive abilities, social skills, and moral development.
  • Developmental Stages: Child psychology acknowledges that children progress through distinct stages with specific challenges and milestones.
  • Play and Exploration: Recognizes the importance of play and exploration in learning and development.

What are important sub-areas in child psychology?

  • Prenatal Development: Examines how experiences in the womb can impact a child's physical and mental development.
  • Infant Development: Focuses on rapid physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development during the first year of life.
  • Early Childhood Development: Studies the cognitive, social, and emotional growth that occurs between the ages of 2 and 6.
  • Middle Childhood Development: Examines the physical, cognitive, and social changes experienced during the school years (ages 6-12).
  • Adolescence: Studies the physical, cognitive, and social changes experienced during puberty and the teenage years.

What are key concepts in child psychology?

  • Attachment Theory: The importance of early emotional bonds with caregivers for healthy emotional and social development.
  • Developmental Milestones: The expected skills and abilities children acquire at different ages.
  • Cognitive Development: The process of acquiring knowledge, skills, and thinking abilities throughout childhood.
  • Social Development: The process by which children learn to interact with others and form relationships.
  • Play Therapy: A therapeutic approach using play to help children express themselves, process emotions, and develop coping mechanisms.
  • Temperament: Inborn behavioral styles and characteristics influencing children's responses to their environment.

Who are influential figures in child psychology?

  • Jean Piaget (Psychologist): Pioneered the theory of cognitive development, proposing stages of cognitive growth in children.
  • Lev Vygotsky (Psychologist): Emphasized the role of social interaction and culture in cognitive development, introducing the Zone of Proximal Development.
  • Erik Erikson (Psychologist): Developed the theory of psychosocial development, proposing eight stages of psychosocial challenges individuals face throughout life, including challenges specific to childhood.
  • John Bowlby (Psychoanalyst): Pioneered attachment theory, highlighting the significance of early emotional bonds with caregivers for healthy development.
  • Mary Ainsworth (Psychologist): Expanded upon attachment theory, identifying different attachment styles (secure, anxious, avoidant) formed in early childhood.

Why is child psychology important?

  • Promoting Healthy Development: Provides insights for optimizing a child's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional well-being.
  • Early Intervention: Helps identify developmental delays or challenges early on, allowing for timely intervention and support.
  • Understanding Behavior: Provides a framework for understanding children's behavior and responding appropriately.
  • Positive Parenting: Offers guidance on effective parenting practices that foster healthy development and nurturing relationships.
  • Educational Practices: Informs the development of age-appropriate curriculum and teaching methods in schools.

How is child psychology applied in practice?

  • Early Childhood Education: Provides the foundation for designing effective preschool and kindergarten programs.
  • Parenting Education and Support: Offers guidance on child development stages and
.......read more
Access: 
Public
Developmental psychology and child psychology: The best textbooks summarized

Developmental psychology and child psychology: The best textbooks summarized

Summaries and Study Assistance with Developmental psychology and child psychology

Table of content

  • Summary with the book: A Critical Introduction to Sport Psychology by Moran and Toner - 3rd edition
  • Summary with the book: Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology by Wicks-Nelson and Israel - 8th edition
  • Summary with the book: Adolescence by Steinberg - 12th edition
  • Summary with the book: An Introduction to Developmental Psychology by Slater and Bremner - 3rd edition
  • Summary with the book: Child and Adolescent Therapy: Cognitive-Behavioral Procedures by Kendall - 4th edition
  • Summary with the book: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Children and Families by Graham and Reynolds - 3rd edition
  • Summary with the book: How Children Develop by Siegler a.o. - 6th edition
  • Summary with the book: Life-Span Human Development by Sigelman and Rider - 9th edition
  • Summary with the book: The boy who was raised as a dog by Perry

About developmental psychology and child psychology

  • Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how people change and grow throughout their lifespan. Child psychology is a subfield of developmental psychology that focuses specifically on the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children.
Access: 
Public
Developmental psychology: the best scientific articles summarized

Developmental psychology: the best scientific articles summarized

Study guide with articles for Developmental psychology

Summaries and study assistance with articles for Developmental psychology

  • for 60+ summaries with articles for Developmental psychology, see the supporting content of this study guide

Related summaries and study assistance

Summaries and supporting content: 
Access: 
Public
Developmental psychology: The best concepts summarized

Latest

Latest changes and updates tagged with: Developmental psychology and child psychology

Weersing, Schwartz, & Bolano (2015). Moderators and mediators of youth treatment outcomes.” – Article summary

The prevalence of depression is 5% with the prevalence being between 10% to 20% in adolescence. It is associated with a host of negative outcomes and is comorbid with other mental health problems (e.g. anxiety). It is also a risk factor for the development of substance use and abuse. Depression in youth is a risk factor for the recurrence of depressive disorder across the lifespan.

Mild severity refers to meeting the minimal diagnostic criteria for a depressive disorder. Moderate or severe severity refers to people with clinical symptom levels (1), longer term histories of depressive illness (2), more impairment across several areas of their life (3) or a high level of suicidality (4).

CBT or IPT are efficacious for depressed adolescents with mild to moderate depression. A combination of CBT with medication may be most effective for those with moderate to severe depression. CBT

.........Read more
Access: 
Public

Prins, Ollendick, Maric, & MacKinnon (2015). Moderators and mediators of youth treatment outcomes.” – Article summary

Almost one-third of children being treated do not improve. There are two ways in which the efficacy of a treatment can be tested:

  • Find predictors and moderators of treatment outcome
    This allows treatments to be given to specific subgroups of children under select treatment context to make sure that treatment has a maximum impact.
  • Find mediators
    This allows treatments to focus on the mechanisms and change to improve treatment outcomes.

Moderators refer to variables for which treatment has differential effect at different values of the moderating variables. Mediators refer to variables that describe the process through which treatment achieves its effects. There is no causal relationship between the treatment and the outcome for moderators but there is a causal relationship for mediators.

Predictors refer to pre-treatment variables which have a main effect on treatment outcomes but no interactive effect.

.........Read more
Access: 
Public

Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents by Weisz and Kazdin (third edition) – Chapter 20 summary

Substance use disorders typically emerge after age 14 though the precursors can be seen before adolescence. The most prominent influences are the family (e.g. conflict; parent substance use), larger social-ecological context (e.g. drug availability) and the adolescents’ genetic vulnerability (e.g. poor impulse control). Substance use is common and substance abuse is prevalent at 8% for youth between the ages of 12 and 17 and 20% for youth aged 18 to 25.

Youth with substance use disorders often first use to pursuit specific pharmacological effects (e.g. managing negative emotions) but it is associated with high risk for long-term functional impairments (e.g. cognitive deficits).

Adolescents are vulnerable to the consequences of substance use because they have a fully functional reward-seeking and pain-avoidance system in place and less impulse control and judgement. Substance use disorders typically first appear during adolescence and is associated with susceptibility to comorbidity.

.........Read more
Access: 
Public

Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents by Weisz and Kazdin (third edition) – Chapter 29 summary

Some structured, manual-guided treatments may show reduced effects when they are implemented in more clinically representative contexts and compared to usual practice in those contexts. This may be because treatments tend to be developed away from the clinical practice. There are several potential mismatches between evidence-based practice and real-world clinical care:

  1. Clinicians in practice settings typically carry diagnostically diverse caseloads but most evidence-based practices on one problem or a homogeneous cluster.
  2. Clinically referred youth typically present with comorbidity.
  3. Treatment may need to shift during treatment while evidence-based practice often does not take this into account.
  4. Everyday clinical care often has an unpredictable course contrary to the design of evidence-based practices which are standardized.

The deployment-focused model of treatment development and testing includes a series of steps aimed at building and testing interventions with the clients and clinicians and within real-world contexts.

.........Read more
Access: 
Public

Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents by Weisz and Kazdin (third edition) – Chapter 17 summary

Difficulties in social communication in ASD may result in disruptive behaviours (e.g. aggression). This is a significant source of stress to families.

Researchers have attempted to identify pivotal responses. The idea is that when certain core areas are targeted, widespread changes in numerous other untargeted behaviours would occur, leading to fluid and integrated behavioural gains.

Motivation to respond to social and environmental stimuli is essential for typical development. However, children with ASD may fail to understand the interconnection between their behaviour and the consequences from their environment as a result of repeated failures and non-contingent assistance and reinforcement from adults as a result of their social communication problems. This will, eventually, lead to an overreliance on adult support (i.e. learned helplessness).

Pivotal response training (PRT) focuses on decreasing the presence of learned helplessness by enhancing the relationship between children’s responses and reinforcement. This

.........Read more
Access: 
Public

Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents by Weisz and Kazdin (third edition) – Chapter 16 summary

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction. In addition to that, there is a presence of restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities. The symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning.

The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is a treatment that addresses the needs of children with ASD under three years of age. It is designed for children ages 12 to 60 months who are diagnosed with ASD or are at risk for ASD. The goal is to accelerate children’s developmental rates in cognitive, social-emotional, language, and adaptive domains and to reduce the disabling effect of ASD symptoms.

The Denver Model states that it is important to build close relationships between children with ASD and other children and adults to facilitate development. Following this model, EDSM includes sensory social

.........Read more
Access: 
Public

Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents by Weisz and Kazdin (third edition) – Chapter 13 summary

Interventions for ADHD need to be constructed in a way which allows them to be conducted for years and it needs to be implemented across settings since ADHD is a chronic disorder. The most common treatment is medication with central nervous system stimulants. This leads to short-term improvements. However, there are several limitations to medication:

  • It is not preferred by parents.
  • Medication is not sufficient to normalize functioning.
  • Medication has a limited impact on key domains of functioning.
  • Long-term compliance is poor.
  • Mediation alone does not lead to good long-term outcomes.
  • The long-term safety of stimulant medications has not been established.

Behaviour modification is another common treatment for ADHD. This teaches skills to parents, teachers and children to overcome some of the key functional impairments associated with ADHD. However, outpatient behavioural interventions alone may not be sufficient to improve

.........Read more
Access: 
Public

Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents by Weisz and Kazdin (third edition) – Chapter 15 summary

Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT) addressed problems specifically associated with traumatic events that children experience or witness (e.g. PTSD). TF-CBT targets PTSD symptoms and outcomes associated with trauma. A PTSD diagnosis is not required.

PTSD includes negative cognitions about oneself, others or the world and negative affective states. There may be dysregulation in affective, behavioural, cognitive and physiological areas of functioning. TF-CBT targets reregulation in each of these areas with the goal of optimizing children’s adaptive functioning after trauma.

The main goal of TF-CBT is to help children overcome traumatic avoidance (1), shame (2), sadness (3), fear (4) and other trauma-specific emotional and behavioural difficulties (5). TF-CBT is not a first line treatment but can help children after they have stabilized.

TF-CBT includes cognitive-behavioural, attachment, family, humanistic, and psychodynamic therapy principles. The overall level s of adjustment in all areas (e.g. physiological;

.........Read more
Access: 
Public

Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents by Weisz and Kazdin (third edition) – Chapter 12 summary

Multisystemic therapy refers to a treatment for adolescents with severe antisocial behaviour and includes their families. It is appropriate and cost-effective for youth referred to by the juvenile justice system with serious and chronic patterns of offending and at high-risk of out-of-home placement due to the relative intensity of the treatment. Teenagers with conduct disturbances and substance abuse problems can also be included.

MST aims to address multiple risk factors associated with juvenile offending and bases itself on Bronfenbrenner’s model. Therefore, MST tries to target risk actors at multiple levels (e.g. individual; family; peer; school). MST also needs to address difficulties between the systems (e.g. caregiver interaction with teachers and peers). The factors that create barriers to the effective functioning of proximal systems must be addressed. MST thus tries to understand behaviour within its naturally occurring context. The intervention is delivered in ecologically valid environments (e.g.

.........Read more
Access: 
Public

Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents by Weisz and Kazdin (third edition) – Chapter 2 summary

Anxiety disorders are common in youth with a prevalence rate of 10% to 20%. It is associated with difficulties in academic achievement, social and peer relations and future emotional health. It is a risk factor for comorbidity and comorbidity is also very common.

Anxiety consists of a behavioural (1), physiological (2) and cognitive component (3). Anxiety is part of normal development (i.e. it cautions one against danger) and can bolster performance (e.g. tests). However, too much anxiety can quickly become distressing. Youth with anxiety view the world as dangerous (1), experience physical complaints (2) and avoid certain situations (3). Avoidance reinforces feelings of anxiety and avoidance behaviours.

Coping Cat is a treatment for anxiety disorders for children from the age of 7 to 13. This treatment targets all aspects of anxiety (i.e. tripartite model). It includes psychoeducation (1), somatic management skills (2), cognitive restructuring

.........Read more
Access: 
Public
Check or search within topic: Developmental psychology and child psychology
Displaying 113 - 116 of 435

Pages

Check or search within: all content
Check or search within: topics, countries and studies only

Search countries, goals, studies, topics or working fields

Spotlight: selection

Selected spotlight content related to Developmental psychology and child psychology
Developmental psychology: the best scientific articles summarized

Study guide with articles for Developmental psychology Summaries and study assistance with articles for Developmental psychology

  • for 60+ summaries with articles for Developmental psychology, see the supporting content of this study guide

Related summaries and study assistance

Spotlight: favorites

Spotlight stories and suggestions related to Developmental psychology and child psychology
Spotlight summaries related to Developmental psychology and child psychology
Image

What can I find on this page? On this page, you can find a summary for all the study materials you need for the developmental specialization of the Psychology bachelor's programme at the University of Amsterdam. There is a link for all the separate courses. The courses have been organized into ...

Image

What?

  • On this page we discuss questions students have with the 2022/2023 course "Developmental Psychology" at the University of Amsterdam
  • You have the opportunity to ask any questions you might have and I will try and answer them
  • On 30/1/2023 you can ask questions!

Selected Worldsupporter pages in relation with the topic