Developmental Psychology — subject primer
This page is a Chinese-language primer on developmental psychology. The outline below summarises it in English.
Overview
Developmental psychology studies continuity and change across the whole lifespan — physical growth, cognition, language, social-emotional development and morality — and the individual differences around them.
Core themes
Attachment and temperament, Piagetian and information-processing accounts of cognitive change, language acquisition, identity in adolescence, and ageing.
Key theories and figures
Erikson's psychosocial stages, Piaget's constructivism, Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, Bowlby and Ainsworth on attachment, Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems.
Research methods
Longitudinal, cross-sectional and cohort-sequential designs; observation and experimental tasks; behaviour genetics and cross-cultural comparison.
Applications
Parenting and early childhood education, school psychology, child and adolescent counselling, gerontology and family policy.
In China
Developmental psychology has a strong research base in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and normal universities; child-rearing traditions, left-behind children and population ageing are central research questions.
Appendices
A quick-reference table of stages and concepts, plus further reading (textbooks, journals, organisations and standards).