Common methods used in developmental psychology

Developmental psychology is a promising, relevant area of ​​scientific research aimed at studying the facts, mechanisms and patterns of personality development at various age periods; identification of age-related dynamics of the psyche. The scientific field is aimed at studying the patterns of formation and development of the psyche, exploring the driving forces and mechanisms of this process, analyzing various scientific approaches to understanding the nature, genesis, and functional potential of the psyche, identifying various aspects of the formation of the psyche, its changes in the process of realizing cognition, communication, and activity.

Developmental psychology is divided into child and adolescent psychology, psychology of adolescence, adulthood, and gerontopsychology. Each of the scientific areas studies the dynamics of the psychological life of an individual within a certain age period.

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The scientific field notes all the relatively slow quantitative and qualitative changes that occur in the psyche of an individual during his transition from one age period to the next.

Basic Concepts

Factors in human personality development - what they include

The main provisions that developmental psychology deals with are :

• development of the individual;
• age (period).

Attention! Development is a term (definition) meaning a transition from a lower qualitative state to a higher (new) state.

In this case, mental development due to physical changes taking into account social reasons is subject to study. Such studies make it possible to draw up norms of behavior for people at different ages. For example, studying changes in a child’s development as he grows and matures makes it possible to create a scale of age norms in different areas of the child’s life. This further helps to develop methods of psychological correction for abnormally developing children.

Psychological development correction classes

Human development proceeds in the following directions:

• physical – changes in the size and shape of internal organs, body, brain structure, sensory, motor skills and other things;
• cognitive – development of mental abilities (memory, thinking, speech, attention, perception, etc.);
• psychosocial – the acquisition of social skills, personality characteristics, perception of the surrounding world and emotional reactions.

Important! For the full development of personality, all directions must be interconnected and not lag behind each other in time.

The process of human development has features that include:

• mandatory qualitative change and transition to a new level of behavior;
• impossibility of a reverse process - it is impossible to return to the previous state;
• when choosing development in one direction, other functions (elements of progress and regression are necessarily combined) remain unrealized;
• unevenness - sharp qualitative leaps are replaced by slow accumulations of quantitative changes;
• zigzag - completely new signs of development are formed that function worse at their beginning (a child who crawls well when taking his first steps walks poorly);
• development of stages into levels - after the appearance of the next stage, the previous one becomes one of the levels of the new structure, and does not disappear without a trace.

Age is divided into types: chronological, biological and psychological. Psychological development is mainly based on the ontogenetic methodological approach. With its help, they keep track of the entire development process: from birth to old age. This makes it possible to study developmental disorders in mental terms. The execution by an organism of the genetic program embedded in it under the influence of certain external conditions is called ontogenesis.

Aspects of study

Subject of developmental psychology

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Age-related psychology

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Table of contents

Part 1 Developmental Psychology

Chapter I Methodological foundations of developmental psychology

1. 1 Subject of developmental psychology……………………………………………………3

2.1 Methods of developmental psychology……………………………………..9

3.1 History of the development of child psychology…………………………..16

4. 1 Areas of mental development………………………………….24

5.1 Factors determining mental development………………27

6.1 Patterns of mental development…………………………30

7.1 Mechanisms of mental development……………………………35

8. 1 Age category and approaches to age periodization….39

Chapter II Theoretical approaches to the problem of development ………….55

Theories of endogenous direction (biogenetic approach)...57

2.2 Developmental approach in psychoanalysis……………………………64

3.2 Cognitive theory of J. Piaget……………………………………………………….74

4.2 Stages of moral development J. Piaget, L. Kohlberg………..81

Theories of exogenous direction (sociogenetic approach)84

Approaches to mental development in Russian

Psychology………………………………………………………..91

7.2 Cultural-historical concept of L.S. Vygotsky……….94

8.1 Activity theory in Russian psychology………..101

Part 2 Developmental psychology

1. Newborn period………………………………………….111

2. Infancy……………………………………………………….118

3. Early age………………………………………………………129

4. Preschool age……………………………………………146

5. Junior school age…………………………………….175

6. Adolescence…………………………………………….198

7. Period of youth………………………………………………………239

8. Period of youth…………………………………………………..247

9. Maturity in ontogenesis………………………………………………………258

10. Period of gerontogenesis………………………………………………………………227

Literature

Introduction

The development of the psyche in psychology, both in phylogenesis (the evolution of the species) and in ontogenesis (individual development of the organism from birth to the end of life), began to be actively studied at the end of the 19th century.

In the process of the formation of science, the conceptual apparatus was expanded and clarified, revealing the patterns of human development and the concept of development.

Development

– a process of interconnected quantitative and qualitative changes in natural phenomena and living organisms that occur over time.

Changes in development can be both quantitative and qualitative; both continuous and discrete, spasmodic; both universal and individual; both reversible and irreversible; both targeted and undirected; both isolated and integrated; both progressive (evolutionary) and regressive (involutionary)1.

In domestic psychology I.M. Sechenov was the first to formulate the problem of a special study of individual human development, which later determined the identification of ontogenesis as an independent problem of science.

Ontogenesis is the process of individual human development. Human development begins from the moment of conception and ends at the end of life. The prenatal phase of development (development of the embryo and fetus) occupies a special position due to the dependence of vital functions on the maternal body.

“Ontogenetic development,” notes Stepanova, “is not limited to the variability of only the natural properties of a person, it extends to such properties that are determined by the historical course of its development. A person manifests himself at different stages of age development as an individual, a personality, a subject of activity, and individuality.”2

Recently, science has defined an approach to ontogenesis as an integral cycle of individual development, which is determined by a biological, social and ontogenetic program.

Biological program - determines development by hereditary (determined by the gene apparatus) and congenital (determined by intrauterine development) factors.

Social program - the influence of living conditions on a person: habitat, life system, nationality, etc.

The ontogenetic program is the development of a person as an individual at different periods of his life.

Throughout a person’s life, programs interact with the predominance of one or another program at different age periods. The combination of genetic, social, ontogenetic programs determines the psychophysiological, mental, individual-typical characteristics of a person as an individual and subject of activity.3

1. E.E. Sapogova Psychology of human development. – M., 2001

2. E.I. Stepanova Psychology of adults: experimental acmeology. – St. Petersburg, 2000

3. E.I. Stepanova Psychology of adults: experimental acmeology. – St. Petersburg, 2000

Subject of developmental psychology

Developmental psychology studies the patterns of the formation of the psyche, exploring the mechanisms and driving forces of this process, analyzing various approaches to understanding the nature, functions and genesis of the psyche, various aspects of the formation of the psyche - its changes in the process of activity, communication, cognition. She also considers the influence of different types of communication, learning, different cultures and social conditions on the dynamics of the formation of the psyche at different ages and at different levels of mental development.

The concept of developmental psychology is narrower than the concept of developmental psychology, since development in the section of developmental psychology is considered only as a function of either chronological age or age period, therefore developmental psychology can only be a part of developmental psychology, although sometimes they are used as synonyms.

Developmental psychology studies the facts, patterns of development of the human psyche and the development of his personality at different stages of ontogenesis.

The structure of developmental psychology is represented by the psychology of childhood, the psychology of adolescence, the psychology of youth, the psychology of adulthood, and the psychology of old age.

Developmental psychology is the most general and theoretical course compared to developmental and child psychology. This is a kind of methodological basis for developmental and child psychology. The focus of developmental psychology is on the content and various aspects of the application of the principle of development, one of the most important methodological principles of all sciences.

The principle of development as a philosophical, general scientific and psychological way of cognition is internally connected with the principles of determinism and systematicity.

The main principle of developmental psychology is the principle of historicism , which makes it necessary to reveal the psychological content of the stages of ontogenesis, to study the connection between the history of childhood and other stages of development with the history of society. The historical principle of developmental psychology manifests itself in the fact that the chronological framework and characteristics of each age are not static - they are determined by the action of socio-historical factors, the social order of society. S.L. Rubinstein in “Fundamentals of General Psychology” writes that “the psyche at all its levels, including its natural prerequisites, is a product of history, since the bearer of the psyche itself - an integral human individual - realizes itself as an active subject only in its own multidimensional relationship to historically developing social existence.”1

The principle of determinism implies that all mental phenomena are connected according to the law of cause-and-effect relationships, i.e. everything that happens in our soul has some reason that can be identified and studied and which explains why this particular consequence arose and not another.

The principle of systematicity describes and explains the main types of connections between different aspects of the psyche, spheres of mental development. He assumes that individual mental phenomena are internally interconnected, forming an integrity and acquiring new properties thanks to this connection. “The systems approach in psychology, as in science in general, is a methodological principle, the main task of which is to develop methods for research and design of complexly organized objects - systems of different types and classes.”2

The principle of development states that the psyche is constantly changing and developing, therefore an adequate way to study it is through research.

1. Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology. - M. 1989. vol. 1

2. P.S. Gurevich Psychology and pedagogy. - M., 2005

understanding the patterns of this genesis, its types and stages. S.L. Rubinstein

included this principle in the system of concepts of general psychology and gave it the place of the most important methodological principle of psychological science. “The development of the psyche is for us,” he wrote, “not only a more or less interesting area of ​​research, but also a general principle or method for studying all problems of psychology. The laws of all phenomena, including mental ones, are learned only in their development, in the process of movement and change, emergence and death.”1

Development acts as a process of directed, irreversible and natural changes, leading to the emergence of quantitative, qualitative and structural transformations of the human psyche and behavior.

Types of development. A preformed type of development (“presence of a form in advance”) is a type when, at the very beginning, both the stages that the organism will go through and the final result that it will achieve are specified, fixed, and recorded. An example is embryonic development.

An untransformed type of development is a development that is not predetermined in advance. This is the most common type of development on our planet. This includes the development of the Galaxy, the Earth, the process of biological evolution, the development of society, as well as the process of human mental development. Distinguishing between preformed and non-preformed types of development,

L.S. Vygotsky classified the mental development of a child as the second type of development. “The development of a child is the process of formation or emergence of a person, a human personality, which occurs through the continuous emergence of new characteristics, new qualities, new properties, new formations specific to a person, prepared by all previous

general course of development, but not contained in finished form at earlier stages.”2

Developmental psychology is associated with various fields of science and

1. Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology. - M. 1989. vol. 1

2. Vygotsky L.S. Lectures on pedology. – Izhevsk, 2001

culture, which actually makes it possible to build a methodology and put forward hypotheses in an experimental study of the dynamics of the formation of the psyche. The fundamental areas of scientific knowledge on which developmental psychology is based are philosophy and natural science. At the same time, developmental psychology is associated with the physiology of higher nervous activity, ethology, cultural anthropology and ethnology, sociology, mathematics, logic, linguistics, and psychological disciplines.

The closest connection between developmental psychology and general psychology with a single object of study is man. They are in a complementary relationship to each other. General psychology examines the psyche of an adult, and developmental psychology examines its formation. The subject of the study of developmental psychology is the age-related variability of mental phenomena, the development of the psyche and personality.

The main goal of developmental psychology is to create a system of knowledge and methods that holistically reveals the object and subject of study

Solving theoretical problems is aimed at studying the driving forces and sources of human mental development; constructing a periodization of mental development in ontogenesis; characteristics of the qualitative uniqueness of personality development and mental processes at each age stage.

Practical problems in developmental psychology find their solution in controlling the dynamics of mental development; prevention, correction and optimization of development, based on training and education opportunities. In the process of solving these problems, various concepts and theories of mental development arise.

In psychology, one can count about two dozen conceptual approaches to human mental development: from the maturation theory of A. Gesell, the ethological theories of K. Lornetz, N. Tinbergen and J. Bowlby, the psychological and pedagogical theory of M. Montessori, the orthogenetic theory of H. Werner, conditionally -reflex theories of I.P. Pavlov, J. Watson, B. Skinner, social learning theory of A. Bandura, psychoanalytic theory of Z. Freud, theories of cognitive development of J. Piaget and moral development of L. Kohlberg, ecological theory of J. Gibson, theory of linguistic development of N. Chomsky, theory the teenage period of K. Jung, the stage theory of E. Erikson to the cultural-historical theory of L. Vygotsky and its modified modern versions in the form of the activity approach of A.N. Leontyev - A.R. Luria and the theory of the gradual formation of mental activity by P.Ya. Galperina.1

The variety of approaches to the problem of development, on the one hand, shows the crisis of science, and on the other, the significance and relevance of the problem under study, its key position in understanding the nature of the psyche and its development.

A.G. Asmolov, based on an analysis of theoretical concepts of human mental development, identifies three main approaches to understanding the course of this development.

Firstly, this is a biogenetic approach, the focus of which “is on the problems of human development as an individual with certain anthropogenetic properties (inclinations, temperament, biological age, gender, body type, neurodynamic properties of the brain, organic motivations, etc.), which undergoes various stages of maturation as the phylogenetic program is implemented in ontogenesis.”

Secondly, this is a sociogenetic approach, whose representatives focus on the study of the processes of “socialization of a person, his mastery of social norms and roles, the acquisition of social attitudes and value orientations...”

Representatives of the personogenetic approach put at the forefront “the problems of activity, self-awareness and creativity of the individual, the formation of the human “I”, the struggle of motives, the education of individual character and abilities, the self-realization of personal choice, the constant search

1. Mitkin A.A. On the way to systemic developmental psychology. Psychological Journal. T.18, No. 3, 1997. pp. 3-12.

the meaning of life in the course of an individual’s life path”1.

In modern psychology, most scientists study the development of the psyche from the point of view of a systems approach, which considers the “subject-environment” system not from the inside, but from the outside.

There are no established systematic theories of mental development yet, although there are enough prerequisites for the creation of such theories - this is the theory of V.N.D. Pavlova I.P. and its employees; theory of functional systems Anokhin P.K.; theory of dynamic localization of mental functions Bekhtereva V.M., Lu

Rii A.R., Bernshteina N.A.; cultural-historical concept of L.S. Vygot-

skii and his followers, the theory of Ury Bronfenbrenner and others.

According to philosophers, “the orderliness of a system is based on certain properties. The system consists of many components connected according to the laws of integration. The internal organization of a system is made up of its structure, which is a way of connecting the components included in the whole system. The system is distinguished by such integral properties that may not be manifested in each of the individual components.”

According to philosophers, “there is a subordination between the structural levels of the organization of matter, manifested in the subordination of the lower level to the higher one. A relationship is established between different levels that form a single system of structures (components), which manifests itself in the development of the system as a whole and its structural transformations. Subordination does not imply only strict subordination of a simple component to a more complex component. The formation of an integral system proceeds as a complex and contradictory process.”2

1. Asmolov A.G. Historical-evolutionary approach to personality psychology. Diss. in the form of scientific reports. for applicants uch. step. Doctor of Psychology M., 1998. – P.12.

1. Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. – M., 1998

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What aspects does it deal with?

Psychology of human personality

The object of study of this section of psychology as a science invariably remains a person in a certain period of life. His behavior and changes in the psyche relative to age are the main aspect of research. The prospectors are faced with the following tasks:

• detection and elaboration of isolated and general patterns for a specific age category;
• constructing a psychological picture of an individual’s stage-by-stage maturation;
• resolving problems of human personality development;
• discovery of psychological capabilities for each age.

For your information. Developmental psychology (AP) establishes its laws based on data taken from such fields as medicine, pedagogy, and ethnography. The results of work in the field of EP, which have become public domain, are applied in practice.

Sections of developmental psychology (EP)

How to humiliate a person morally and without swearing - the psychology of humiliation

VP is designed to study the following sections of psychology:

• childhood;
• youth;
• middle age (adult);
• old age (gerontopsychology).

The section of child psychology includes the following age categories:

• infant;
• early;
• preschool;
• primary school student;
• teenager

In other words, the section of child psychology studies children from zero to 14-15 years of age. The sub-branch monitors the formation of conditions and driving forces that control the development of the child’s psyche. The activity of the child as an individual is examined, and the features of his development are established.

VP structure

By the way. At the childhood stage, special attention is paid to developmental crises leading to physical, mental and intellectual developmental delays. The difficulties of establishing a child as an individual in a social environment are studied. Hidden and obvious complexes are identified, and ways to get rid of them are worked out.

In the section of youth, psychology works with the mental characteristics of older adolescents who are experiencing a teenage crisis. At the same time, the psyche breaks down as a result of the transition period. At this time, it is important to study the range of children's life positions and identify the essence of impulses towards self-determination. For psychology, it is interesting to understand such points as:

• nuances of cognitive and emotional activity;
• formation of worldview positions;
• change in self-awareness.

All situations of social development of boys and girls, as well as their age-related new formations, come into view. Psychologists study people of mature age with the aim of understanding the personality of an adult and the crises that accompany it during these years.

Interesting. The study by psychologists of a complex situation called a “midlife crisis” made it possible to smooth out as much as possible the consequences of life problems caused by changes in the psyche of an adult.

At this stage, people aged 30 to 60 years are considered. Middle adulthood occurs differently for everyone, depending on the rate of maturation, which is affected by the following factors:

• Family status;
• social status;
• level of personal psychological development.

At this moment, the person is not yet old, but not too young either. In addition to negative thoughts about the meaning of life and missed opportunities, age makes it possible to achieve an understanding of one’s essence. During this period, a reassessment of life values ​​occurs, the soul longs to achieve balance, and the mind can help it with this.

Important! Developmental psychology claims that by the age of 30 a person is ripe for reasonable positive changes. Youth is behind us, but old age is still far away. There is time for long-term, deliberate projects, in which the accumulated knowledge and experience can help.

Middle age crisis

Gerontopsychology is a section of EP responsible for identifying and studying tendencies of an involutionary nature. In old age, some physiological functions attenuate: reproduction, tissue regeneration properties, metabolism, formation of neural connections in the brain, etc.

On the mental side, mental stability decreases, and there is a decline in activity and defensive reactions. Studying individuals of this age period, gerontopsychology focuses on behavioral features associated with positions:

• family relationships;
• life assessments;
• social activity;
• professional sphere;
• anxiety and various phobias.

Based on these studies, practical psychological assistance is provided to old people, and measures are developed to ensure the conditions for their personal safety.

Old age

Goals and objectives of developmental psychology

Definition 3

The main goal of developmental psychology is to optimize the individual’s sense of self within a particular age stage, harmonize relationships with society, and accept one’s own personality at any age.

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The main objectives of the scientific discipline are the following:

• study of the driving forces and mechanisms of mental development throughout the life of an individual;
• periodization of individual mental development;
• study of age-related characteristics and patterns of mental processes at a certain age stage;
• identification of age-related opportunities, patterns of activity implementation;
• determination of age norms of mental functions, psychological resources and creative potential of the individual;
• creation of a service for systematic monitoring of the progress of the child’s development, his mental state, providing assistance to parents in problematic situations;
• clinical, age-related diagnostics;
• implementation of psychological support during crisis periods in a person’s life;
• optimization of the organization of the educational process.

Research methods in developmental psychology

The means and techniques by which changes in developmental psychology are studied are called methods.

B. G. Ananyev, a Soviet psychologist, proposed dividing them into four groups:

• organizational;
• empirical;
• data processing;
• interpretive.

Organizational methods are as follows:

• comparative – used in developmental psychology in the form of “cross-sectional” sections: the use of the same psychological tools for different age groups;
• longitudinal – a long-term study of specific people (longitudinal) using additional techniques (observation, tests, experiments);
• complex - combines, in addition to psychology, methods used in other sciences.

If we consider a short list of empirical methods, it consists of the following points:

• observation of the subject under study (external) and self-observation (internal) - behavior is studied to recognize the characteristics of the individual psyche;
• survey: oral or written (testing) – allows using test surveys or test tasks to obtain the result of a qualitative or quantitative assessment of the state of the psyche;
• practical experiment - the creation of an artificial situation in which, by observing the subject, they cause the manifestation of the necessary psychological reactions;
• modeling – symbolic (simulation of mental processes) and reproduction of a certain type of human activity in an artificially constructed environment (laboratory), used when other methods are unavailable.

Methods of data processing are quantitative (statistics) and qualitative (working with material divided into groups, with a description of individual cases, both exceptional and those with common positions).

The fourth group of methods are interpretive methods, these include:

• genetic method – determines genetic connections between levels and stages of development;
• structural method - reveals connections between personal characteristics studied during the research process.

Attention! In the first method of communication they are called “vertical”, in the second – “horizontal”.

VP methods

What methods are used?

Developmental psychology uses the same methodological developments that are actively used by other scientific disciplines. The main and most frequently used methods include experiment and observation.

Observation method

The advantage of the observation process is the ability to obtain accurate and varied information about the object, the features and nuances of its behavior. The method of obtaining valuable information can cover only a certain area of ​​a person’s life or be completely devoted to his activities. The following points are considered to be the advantages of the observation method:

• obtaining a large amount of data for analysis;
• versatility of information about the object of observation;
• objectivity and impartiality of opinion;
• ability to trace relationships.

Observing an individual’s behavior presupposes systematicity and regularity, so the method allows you to track connections with the goal. Subsequently, the data is subject to evaluation and analysis, which allows obtaining a descriptive part and drawing conclusions. With the help of observation, a psychologist obtains information in general about the individual and can monitor the characteristics of behavior depending on statements spoken or heard, actions and other actions important to the individual.

The peculiarity of the method is that the researcher has the right only to observe the object of research, but cannot interfere with what is happening or have a corrective effect. The technique is aimed at recording information, but cannot form individual mental characteristics.

Conducting an experiment

The experiment aims to study human reactions that are not associated with spontaneous manifestations. The psychologist intentionally creates certain conditions or changes the familiar environment in order to observe the changes that occur.

The methods of developmental psychology allow for combination, and in practice, researchers often combine the method of observation and experiment. As a result, based on the data obtained, conclusions can be drawn about the degree of development of personal qualities and indicators of the level of intellectual abilities. There are targeted techniques that can be used to influence a person, developing in him the required skills and abilities.

Informative sources

It is important for a psychologist to obtain the maximum amount of information, therefore, various methods are used to collect information about an object and the characteristics of its behavior. Common ones include:

• modeling - involves recreating the expected mental situation;
• study of conditioned reactions - a person by nature has swallowing, sucking, grasping and other reflexes;
• psychogenetic method - based on the analysis of pedigree, information about loved ones, the presence of twins in the family and other information;
• historical analysis - provides information about the life path of other individuals, the reasons for important changes and decisions.

When conducting research, a psychologist often independently chooses the most appropriate methodology, giving preference to conversation, questionnaires or testing. The optimal way to obtain information is often determined by the age of the individual, which determines the characteristics of his development and behavior.

Periods of human development

Psychology experts argue that the study of psychological development is, first of all, a division into special chronological periods of an individual’s life. There are age classifications that can be divided into groups:

• private – considering individual segments of the life cycle;
• general – including the whole life.

A private group includes the classification of the development of intelligence (compiled by J. Piaget). The Swiss psychologist identified periods of intelligence development:

• from 0 to 2 years – sensorimotor intelligence;
• from 3 to 15 years – organization of certain operations.

During this period, he identified two segments: from 8 to 11 years (specific operations) and from 12 to 15 years (formal operations). The general classification proposed by D. Birren covers the interval from infancy to old age. It looks like:

• from 0 to 2 years – infancy;
• from 2 to 5 years – pre-school period;
• from 5 to 12 years – childhood;
• from 12 to 17 years – adolescence;
• from 18 to 25 years – the period of early adulthood;
• from 25 to 50 years – maturity;
• from 51 to 75 years – late maturity;
• from 75 years to death - old age.

There are many classifications, each has its own characteristics, disadvantages and advantages, but basically they form one system.

Modern age periodization

Based on the concept of age as a subject that helps the study of psychological development, modern psychologists have identified a system shown in the table below.

Modern age periodization

Developmental psychology helps psychologists and psychiatrists correctly diagnose and prescribe treatment. With its help, deviations from the norm are timely identified during human development and his subsequent existence in society.