Introduction to Psychology
Fields

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Developmental psychology

The study of how people change over time. Its main research society, SRCD, draws members from psychology, anthropology, education, neuroscience, economics and other disciplines.

Also called: developmental science, life-span developmental psychology

Core subfieldDevelopment

Type of entry
Core subfieldA long-standing main area of research in psychology. Types are editorial labels, not an official classification.
Cluster
Development and learningChange across life, learning, schooling and behavior analysis.
Sources opened
4 of 41 read as a full page, 3 as selected text or an abstract, 0 not verified.
Independent review
Admitted after correctionsClaude Code reviewer agent, separate from the writer, 2026-10-21. 8 claims checked against 4 sources opened by the reviewer.

What it studies

Developmental psychology studies how people change over time. The Society for Research in Child Development describes its own mission as advancing the developmental sciences, and its members come from psychology, anthropology, education, neuroscience and economics. The area is shared with neighboring disciplines rather than owned by psychology alone.

History and people

Observation of children has early roots: Charles Darwin published 'A Biographical Sketch of an Infant' in the journal Mind in 1877, based on a diary kept decades earlier. Institution building came later. The National Research Council founded a Committee on Child Development in 1925. The Society for Research in Child Development was launched in June 1933 and held its first meeting in 1934, and it did not become fully independent of the council until 1948.

People and documented roles

  • Charles Darwin. Author of an 1877 published sketch of an infant's development
    • Published 'A Biographical Sketch of an Infant' in Mind, drawing on a diary he kept on one of his own infants. [3]
  • Robert S. Woodworth. Psychologist at Columbia appointed to the National Research Council's Committee on Child Development and later its chair
    • With Lawrence K. Frank, helped decide that child development was an interdisciplinary endeavor rather than child psychology. [2]
  • Paul B. Baltes. Author of a 1987 article on life-span developmental psychology
    • Published 'Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline' in Developmental Psychology. [4]

The sources opened document only a few named roles: Darwin as author of an 1877 sketch, Woodworth and Frank in an early committee decision, and Baltes as author of a 1987 article. They do not document other early or non-US contributors, and none of these roles is a founder claim.

Dated milestones

  • 1877Publication. Year.Darwin's 'A Biographical Sketch of an Infant' appears in Mind (publication, not the start of the field). [3]
  • 1925Society or organization formed. Year.National Research Council founds the Committee on Child Development. [1]
  • June 1933Society or organization formed. Month and year.About 100 researchers meet in Chicago at the committee's fourth conference and launch the Society for Research in Child Development. [2]
  • 1934Event. Year.First meeting of the Society, in Washington, D.C., according to the Society's own page. [1]
  • 1948Society or organization formed. Year.The Society becomes completely free of the National Research Council, according to a history written for the Society. [2]
  • 1987Publication. Year.Baltes's article on life-span developmental psychology appears in Developmental Psychology. [4]

Methods

The sources opened here do not describe current research methods in detail. Darwin's sketch is a diary-based observation of one infant. One history of the society reports that the committee's leaders, during its early years, defined child development as an interdisciplinary endeavor, with disciplines ranging from anatomy and anthropology to child welfare. From the late 1950s, the same history says, research emphasized experimental and basic work.

Training and applications

The Society's constitution lists encouraging applications of research findings among its purposes. The sources opened here do not describe training routes, university programs or credentials for developmental psychology, so this guide states none. Clinical work with children and families is covered in separate profiles, where titles and licenses are set by regulators in each jurisdiction, not by this guide.

Boundaries and limits

Developmental psychology overlaps with child and adolescent development, adult development and aging, and clinical child work. The committee's leaders distinguished child development from child psychology, and from the late 1950s research and training moved toward psychology as the dominant discipline. The dates above describe one society, one committee and individual publications, not the origin of the field, and the sources do not document the history of the area in other regions.

Evidence behind the claims

  • The Society for Research in Child Development describes its mission as advancing the developmental sciences and promoting the use of developmental research, and says its members come from fields including psychology, anthropology, education, neuroscience and economics.

    What it studiesThe organization's own descriptionSource: [1]Where: Who We Are page, mission paragraph and membership paragraph

  • The National Research Council founded the Committee on Child Development in 1925; the society's page says it became the Society for Research in Child Development in 1933 and that its first meeting took place in 1934 in Washington, D.C.

    History and peopleThe organization's own descriptionSource: [1]Where: Who We Are page, history paragraph

  • In June 1933, 100 researchers met in Chicago for the fourth conference of the Committee on Child Development and to launch the Society; the Society did not become completely free of the National Research Council until 1948.

    History and peopleDocumented in the sourceSource: [2]Where: Page 2, paragraph beginning 'The years from 1925 through 1933'

  • Robert S. Woodworth, who was appointed to the Committee on Child Development and later chaired it, worked with Lawrence K. Frank of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund to decide that child development was not child psychology but an interdisciplinary endeavor, with disciplines ranging from anatomy and anthropology to child welfare.

    MethodsDocumented in the sourceSource: [2]Where: Pages 1-2, paragraph beginning 'Perhaps the most important decision made by the NRC'

  • The Society's constitution (1933) lists encouraging applications of research findings among its purposes, alongside stimulating and supporting research and encouraging cooperation among scientists of child development.

    Training and applicationsDocumented in the sourceSource: [2]Where: Page 1, footnote 1 quoting Constitution Article I, Section I

  • Charles Darwin published 'A Biographical Sketch of an Infant' in the journal Mind in 1877; he says he reviewed a diary kept on one of his own infants 37 years earlier and was prompted by M. Taine's account of an infant's mental development.

    History and peopleDocumented in the sourceSource: [3]Where: Opening paragraphs of the transcription; header line gives Mind, 2, 285-294, 1877

  • Paul B. Baltes published an article titled 'Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline' in Developmental Psychology, volume 23, issue 5, pages 611-626, in 1987.

    History and peopleDocumented in the sourceSource: [4]Where: 1987 entry in the publications list

  • The society's history reports that child development research in the late 1950s and 1960s became more experimental, psychological and basic, and that research and training programs moved toward psychology as the dominant discipline.

    Boundaries and limitsDocumented in the sourceSource: [2]Where: Page 2, paragraph beginning 'The aims of research and application'

Where it appears

University examples

Examples show documented structures. They are not a ranking, a census, or a statement about admission or licensing.

In the Psy101 course

This is course relevance only. It is not evidence for the historical or practice claims on this page.See the full course map.

Sources and inspection

4 of 4 sources were opened and read at the level shown. A source marked as not verified supports no claim on this page by itself.

  1. [1]
    Who We AreSociety for Research in Child Development, undated. Professional association. Supports the definition of the area.Selected text readRead through the fetch tool's extraction of the page: mission statement, membership description and the short history paragraph; the full page layout and any linked pages were not read.
  2. [2]
    SRCD and Social Policy 1976-2008Society for Research in Child Development (author John W. Hagen, University of Michigan), undated. Society history. Supports the history.Full page readRead all six pages of the PDF as rendered pages, including footnotes and references. The document shows no single publication date; the title names the span 1976-2008.
  3. [3]
    A Biographical Sketch of an InfantMind, vol. 2, 1877, pp. 285-294 (transcription in Classics in the History of Psychology, York University), 1877. Original publication. Supports the history.Selected text readRead the opening paragraphs and a summary of the sections through the fetch tool; the full observations were not read.
  4. [4]
    Paul B. Baltes - Publications (1987 listing)Max Planck Institute for Human Development, undated. Reference work. Supports the history.Selected text readSaw only the bibliographic entry (author, title, journal, volume, pages) for the 1987 article; the page shows no abstract, so no content of the article was read.

Independent source review: Claude Code reviewer agent, separate from the writer, 2026-10-21. Verdict: Admitted after corrections. Of 8 claims checked, 8 were supported as written, 0 were reworded and 0 were removed.