Developmental psychology emerged as a separate discipline only in the 1930s. Before that, people thought of the process of growth as one of learning and behaviorism or Freudian psychoanalysis. Jean Piaget’s idea that our personality changes as we grow up challenges conventional wisdom. It inspired a new field of study – developmental psychology – that examines how these changes affect the way we learn. The term “development” refers to the change from childhood to adulthood and the whole life span. Developmental psychologists investigate how children develop into adults and how they function in society. They examine how the mind works, why we think what we do, and how we behave. They also examine the impact of culture on individual development.
Mind and brain
In many cultures around this world, there is the view that humans have a soul that exists independently of the physical body. For Greek philosophers, the soul was also viewed as the seat of our reasoning abilities - what we would call our minds today. While Aristotle...