| Developmental psychology comprises a unique, comprehensive, and significant domain of intellectual endeavor for three main reasons. First, developmental psychologists offer a crucial perspective on psychological theory and research. When, for example, psychologists conduct experiments in perception, investigate language, or study personality, they usually concentrate on perception, language, or personality in individuals of a particular agechildren, college students, or the elderly. In so doing, they gain important knowledge about perception, language, or personality. To study psychological phenomena at only one point in the life cycle, however, is to limit the knowledge acquired by failing to consider such factors as stability or instability and continuity or change that are the province of developmental study. Indeed, it could be argued that when we undertake a comprehensive analysis of any psychological phenomenon, we necessarily incorporate the developmental perspective. The question is, how well is that perspective addressed? The chapters in this volume on substantive areas of psychologyperception, cognition, language, emotion, and social interactionall demonstrate that the developmental perspective transcends and enriches any narrower focus on particular points in the life span. One purpose of this volume, then, is to furnish inclusive developmental perspectives on major substantive areas in psychology, and the substantial differences among the chapters included in this, as opposed to earlier editions, underscore the dynamic and exciting status of contemporary developmental psychology. |
|
