Annotated Bibiography

Developmental Psychology

Name

Institutional Affiliation

Developmental Psychology

Keijsers, L., & Poulin, F. (2013). Developmental changes in parent-child communication throughout adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 49(12), 2301-2308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0032217

When analyzed from a methodical perspective, developmental psychology is the study of continuous psychological changes that take place as the human body and mind ages. Originally, the science was applied to infants and children, but with interests in the changes that take place in adolescence, it changed to encompass the whole human lifespan. Overall, developmental psychology reviews on the manner by which patients think, feel, and change their behaviors as they age.

It should be understood that it has three essential goals, they are description, explanation, and optimization of development from the current state. When describing the development, it is crucial to emphasize on the typical and individual variations in patterns of change. Psychologists after describing the patterns must create explanations for the changes. They have to relate the changes to normative processes and individual patterns. It should be noted that describing development is much easier and simpler compared to explaining it. The final step in developmental psychology is applying the theories to help the patient. This step is the optimization of the development stage. This final stage’s outcomes mostly rely on the commitment of the patient as the psychologist only gives instructions that are to be followed.

When normative development is analyzed it results in the notion of recurrent and collective processes. The notion of continuity assumes that change is regular in that children undergo progressive changes, in the same manner, they physically change as they age. However, the discontinuity notion presumes that development is abrupt. In that, the changes take place in successions in specific life periods known as stages. Psychologists who prefer the discontinuity perception believe that everyone has the same order of stages only that it is not essential at the same speed. In the second step of developmental psychology; explaining development, the contributions of nurture and nature have to be taken into consideration. Where nature discusses the biological development and inheritance, nurture, on the other hand, considers the environmental impacts such as the learning through experience. The nature-nurture studies have been made effective in two means, the use of the twin studies, and the study of identical twins. The other is the adoption study, the similarities that exist between biological and adoptive family support structures.

Stability is the ability of a personality or trait to be present from infancy to death whereas change according to theorists is the modification of character through interaction. This ability to change is regarded to as plasticity and is a vital tool need for optimization of development. All these terminologies are important to understanding when as they are key in understanding developmental changes in the parent-child communication in adolescence. Communication is an important tool for parenting, however, by not understanding the relationship that exists between the two the action can be difficult. This is essential as parents are not automatically aware of information that is not shared by their adolescent children. After several experiments, it was concluded that the early stages of adolescence are the best time to apply changes in the mode of communication. This is because this time presents the changes regarding secrecy and reduced communication. By encouraging disclosure that is by understanding the stage of development and applying nurture and change, the secrecy and lack of communication are expected to fade with time. This is because the parents will have a better understanding of the patterns of development. Overall, from a gender perspective, it was identified that boys show higher rates of change.

References

Keijsers, L., & Poulin, F. (2013). Developmental changes in parent-child communication throughout adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 49(12), 2301-2308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0032217