What do people focus on when studying child and teen development for psychology?
I was curious about what people focus on specifically when looking at child and teen development in terms of psychology. Do people study the child or teens environment, family, culture, peers, emotions, etc? #psychology
2 answers
Meghan’s Answer
One of my classes senior year was with a professor who had a PhD in Developmental Psychology. Our entire class was tailored towards her current research project. She was studying the way children learn to speak. She focused on the words they heard from their parents, the toys and objects they could identify at a certain age, and the way they processed and reacted to the information given to them by their parents. She also studied infants and the way they process speech.
Getting a degree in child development and psychology could allow you to go the path of a professor/researcher. You would have the opportunity to run research studies on child development. You can answer some important questions and enlist the help of your students.
I’m sure there are many other options but that was just one way I have see that area of study being used.
I hope this is helpful!
Emmawilson’s Answer
If you're interested in becoming a researcher who focuses on child or teen psychology, you get to decide what you want to focus your research on. If you're asking what someone who is studying child or teen psychology has to learn, then it does include getting a solid understanding of the theories of child and adolescent development, which touch on many of the factors you describe, e.g., the role of nature vs. nurture (environment, family), influence of family, peers, and school, emotional development, etc.
Take a look at http://summer.stanford.edu/programs/curriculum/undergraduate_graduate/psychology, which are summer courses from Stanford on Psychology - each course includes a syllabus with the topics and readings. You might take a look at the course on Developmental Psychology.
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