Development psychology
introduction
Development psychology is a science responsible in examining the changes that people undergo throughout their lifetime. The development life cycle tends to explain the broad changes undertaken from childhood, adolescent up to adult life.
Difference in the kind of thoughts in the mind of the young and adults
From the development psychology, there is a difference in the kind of thoughts in younger ones as compared to the aged. Researchers planned an experience sampling technique to find the thoughts in the mind of the young people and the aged. From the techniques used, people aged between 18 to 75 years were selected for the research. The researchers approached the selected participants at randomly to get the king of thoughts they had before being interrupted. Each moment the participants were interrupted, they were asked to say the kind of moments they were in at that particular period. Participants were approached physically or through phone calls. This could be over a given period of time or just an hour. Researchers noted that around 10% of the participants approached at random were thinking about their past experience often referred as autobiographical memory. From this percentage, there was a slim difference between the young people and the aged. The probability of the young ones engaging themselves in future thoughts was very negligible unlike the aged whose probability of having future thoughts afterwards was very high. It was actually twice more than that of the young people. Within the same time scale of prompts from the participants, majority of future thoughts were from the aged. This is because they spend more time thinking about their future plans unlike the young people who mostly have thoughts about their past experience.
The researcher had an age range of participants. The range of 18-75 was so limited. They could have randomly selected participants without an age limit. They could have lowered the age limit to included 10-year-old kids because they also have thoughts as well whether future or past thoughts. The research was meant for Gardner and Ascoli who had asked questions regarding the kind of thoughts in young ones and the aged. From the research, they were a general weakness. From the age range of 18-75, the researchers did not give a range that distinguishes young ones and the age. At times they could say they ‘young adults’ which was so confusing.
Children are always young optimists
With no doubt kids are ever positive. They are always positive as compared to adults. This reason gave an associate professor of psychology Prof. Janet J. Boseovski the do some research on why children are ever optimistic. She noticed that people are always optimistic at a young age and the optimistic mind in them fades slowly as the person grows. This is because of the experiences the person undergoes as he grows. As people grow, they associate with liars, thieves, the corrupt and this contributes to the lack of an optimism in them. The professor found out that its easier for children to trust positive behavior in a person compared to negative claims. The professor again did some research in children aged between 3-6 years. She noticed that children can a judge a person’s behavior as good just from a single encounter but they will need several encounters to judge someone as bad. Actually, children were reluctant in trusting people who are making negative comments about others. Therefore, children easily accept positive traits as compared to the negative traits. As the kids grow, they are exposed to a harsh environment and the ability to clearly reason widens. They start to experience some evaluative feedback from friends, teachers and relatives and this makes them to start having some negative thoughts about people.
From the research, the professor did not come up with ways in which children can be made to trust bad traits as well. She didn’t outline the procedure she used during the research. Whether she used just one approach or different approaches. Perhaps the kind of approach used can determine whether children can trust negative traits like they do to positive traits. One of the merits of optimism in children is that it enabled them to try something new without fear of failure. It also makes them have a friendly relation with others unlike the adults.
How dads improve children’s lives
Father’s day has always been known as a day to celebrate fathers for their good work and care they have shown. Whether the father is a single father, from a guy family they have big impact in children and therefore the day is not only for thanking the fathers for their fatherly work but also to assess the influences they have to children This made a candidate in developmental psychology to study how the father’s relation contributes to the life of young ones. From the research, it was found that children who have close relations with their father always have a high self-esteem and a better behavior. Actually, children who maintain close relationship have a higher self-esteem. This is because they acquire the skills from their fathers as they interact with other people. The research also showed that children who play physically with their fathers become more competent with their friends. As they maintain their father-child experience the children get lasting effects in their lives.
Conclusion
From the various articles on developmental psychology, it was noted that the reasoning of a person is highly influenced by their age. Their thinking changes throughout their life cycle because of the kind of exposure they get as they grow. Children were found to be optimism. This is because they have little or no negative life experiences. Both children and adults experience future and past thoughts. There was a slim difference on past thoughts between the two groups but there was a large gap in future thoughts in adult as compared to children hence the need to study developmental psychology.
References
Gardner, R., & Ascoli, G. (2015). The natural frequency of human prospective memory increases with age. Psychology And Aging, 30(2), 209-219. doi: 10.1037/a0038876
Aberle, I., Rendell, P. G., Rose, N. S., McDaniel, M. A., & Kliegel, M. (2010). The age prospective memory paradox: Young adults may not give their best outside of the lab. Developmental Psychology, 46, 1444–1453
Cameron, P., Desai, K. G., Bahador, D., & Dremel, G. (1977). Temporality across the life-span. nternational Journal of Aging & Human Development, 8, 229–259
Hashtroudi, S., Johnson, M. K., & Chrosniak, L. D. (1990). Aging and qualitative characteristics of emories for perceived and imagined complex events. Psychology and Aging, 5, 119 –126.
Developmental psychology
