The Developmental Perspective
In this course we are essentially discussing how humans change over time. We examine this issue from a multitude of perspectives, but overall, we are concerned with, and we are informed in our investigations by taking the Developmental Perspective or "DP".
The DP is very simple. When we are faced with a question in Psychology we affirm that the answer to that question may very well be impacted by how OLD the person is.
In this class we will be studying what NORMALLY happens across the lifespan and based on that knowledge we can take the DP on any topic. Here are some examples:
"How does divorce effect the children?"
This is obviously a great question, but for this class it is incomplete. Before we can really answer this question we need to know how old the kids are. We know that changes in family structure can have profound impacts on an individual but these impacts will be different based on how old the person is.
Let's say the person we are asking this about is 10 years old. What is "normally" going on in the life of a 10-year old that may be impacted by a divorce?
What if the person we are asking this about is 17? What if they are 25? What if they are 50? (Remember, a divorce can happen at any time in the lifespan). It should be apparent to you now that it is quite difficult to answer a question without asking how old the person is.
Note: Taking the DP is not the same as applying Developmental Theory. You are NOT taking the DP when you ask something like "How does intelligence change over childhood?" or if you ask "How does memory change in late adulthood?" These are simply applications of theory and knowledge.
The DP ADDS age to the equation of a question that is not about age (to begin with). So we ask questions like these:
- How well do people remember things? (DP---Depends on how old the person is!)
- How fast can a person learn a new skill? (DP---Depends on how old the person is!)
- How will losing a job impact a person? (DP---Depends on how old the person is!)
- How will having children impact a person's plans? (DP---Depends on how old the person is!)
- How will a serious injury impact someone? (DP---Depends on how old the person is!)
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