Developmental psychology is a branch of psychology that studies the development of the human psyche and its characteristics at various age levels. Includes child psychology, psychology of individual development of an adult and gerontopsychology.
On the basis of the development of gerontopsychology and geriatrics, the psychophysiology of aging and old age has developed.
The need to solve the practical problems of adult education and the study of theoretical problems of the development of the psyche led to a special study of the phases of the psychological evolution of an adult.
Methods of developmental psychology
The main methods of obtaining knowledge about the age-related characteristics of the human psyche are the method of «transverse» sections and the method of the so-called «longitudinal» study.
The cross-sectional method consists in studying large groups of people of different ages in order to obtain comparative data on the psychological characteristics of each age.
The longitudinal (longitudinal) method consists in a long-term (years and decades) study of the same subjects in order to trace age-related changes in their psyche. Revealing qualitatively unique stages of mental development and determining their age limits is a very difficult task, since «mental age» is not a simple function of the number of years lived.
Psychology of people of different ages
Radicalism is inherent in youth, older people are more likely to be conservatives. Each age has its own psychological characteristics, and sometimes its own crises. About the peculiarities of the psychology of a child, adolescent, adults and the elderly, see →