The Study of Development Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that describes, explains, predicts, and sometimes aims to modify age-related behaviors from conception to death; this field emphasizes maturation, early experiences, and various stages in development. All fields of psychology are faced with theoretical issues. There are three theoretical issues in human development; nature versus nurture, continuity versus stages and stability versus change. The first issue is nature versus nurture. This controversy goes back …showed first 75 words of 412 total…

…showed last 75 words of 412 total…in the environment. Physical changes and skills, such as motor skills, are believed to be primarily continuous in nature, while cognitive skills usually develop in discrete stages. Some traits are stable and some vary across the individual's lifetime. All three issues have good arguments on both sides. The answers to these debates lie somewhere in the middle. Each one is a combination of both sides of the argument. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- source:psychology in action-6th edition