Welcome to the Developmental Psychology Student NetLetter's Theories and Research page. This page was born Fall 98 semester. Just as you started out as a zygote (first cell union), so did our page. The zygote develops into the embryo. Our page started as a simple idea and is developing into an indepth overview of a number of major theoretical perspectives. Just as you grew from an embryo to a fetus, a fetus to a neonate, and a neonate to an infant, our page will grow. It's now in the infancy stage, and like infants, will experience rapid growth. Infants grow to three times their birth weight by their first birthday. If our page follows suit, expect it to grow rapidly!

Let's get started with some basic information about the discipline and theories, because like an infant, we must crawl before we can walk.

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. For example, psychology studies the brain, sensation and perception, motivation, intelligence, emotions, memory, psychological disorders, and much more.
Developmental Psychology (the fun part) is a subfield of psychology. It's focus is on studying the changes that take place across our life span. Development is defined as changes in our physical structure, thought, and behvior due to genetics or the environment. Development is lifelong.

What is the purpose of Developmental Psychology?
Simply speaking the purpose is to DEPC (a little mneumonic device to help you remember):

A Theory is a coherent set of ideas that helps to explain data and to make predictions. A theory is consists of hypotheses, or assumptions that can be tested to determine their accuracy (Santrock, Life-Span Development, 7th ed.). These assumptions, once supported by evidence, become the new "theories" for future research. Researchers use theories as a tool to guide them in their observations and to generate new information. Theories, therefore, are the basis for all research.

"Never trust an experimental result until it has been confirmed by a theory."
- Sir Arthur Eddington

There are six major theoretical approaches used in the study of human development. These are listed, and linked, below. Plus, a couple of highlights are noted alongside of each.

Theoretical Perspectives

Psychodynamic Perspective	Conscious VS Unconscious	Psychosocial Stages
Cognitive Perspective	Assimilation and Acommodation	Information Processing
Learning Perspective	Conditioning	Self-efficacy
Humanistic Perspective	Self-Concept	Basic needs
Ethological or Biological Perspective	Critical Periods	Biology
Contextual Theories	Ecological	Life-Course