Mainly focusing on the development of the human mind
through the life span, developmental psychology seeks
to understand how people come to perceive, understand,
and act within the world and how these processes change
as they age. This may focus on intellectual, cognitive,
neural, social, or moral development. Researchers
who study children use a number of unique research
methods to make observations in natural settings or
to engage them in experimental tasks. Such tasks often
resemble specially designed games and activities that
are both enjoyable for the child and scientifically
useful, and researchers have even devised clever methods
to study the mental processes of small infants. In
addition to studying children, developmental psychologists
also study aging and processes throughout the life
span, especially at other times of rapid change. Urie
Bronfenbrenner's theory of development in context
is influential in this field, as are those mentioned
in "Educational psychology" immediately
below, as well as many others. Developmental psychologists
draw on the full range of
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