First, you need to figure it out: What is child psychology?
When it comes to psychology, it is generally said that there are four major goals. The goals of psychology are to describe behavior, to explain behavior, to predict behavior, and to eventually change behavior.
These four goals work in tandem to lead all manner of psychologists to analyze a variety of things both inside of and outside a subjects mind and body. This is done in the hopes of eventually bettering them to a degree and optimizing their manner for an enhanced positive effect both for them and for the world around them, as changed through their methods.
We can then bring this definition over to the field of child psychology, or developmental psychology as it is sometimes known. What is the goal of child psychology?
We can see that the main goal in child psychology would be to attempt to curb and abate negative behaviors in children while they’re young and determine the factors that can go into making a troubled child into a troubled adult. Once this is fully understood, the idea is that a better future may then be created both for the child and for everyone who will ever be around the child.
Describing The Behavior of Children.
The child psychologist will spend a lot of time analyzing data collected about children. They will also observe children in different settings to better understand their behaviors. In child psychology, new terms are created daily to allow for the faster conveyance of information through given psychological schools of thought, creating a continually increasing understanding and lexicon which attributes all the various manners associated with children to a proper and sustained definition.
There are many different places a child psychologist can work, whether they are private or public institutions. These many varied situations child psychologists can find themselves in can grant them a wide variety of means for viewing many different kinds of children in many different kinds of habitats and cultures, thus giving the entire field a greater understanding and definition of all forms of childhood behaviors.
Like many sciences, child psychology is a constantly progressing work of art, like a puzzle that has yet to be completed. With every new piece put into place, the big picture becomes that much clearer, and it is through the description and the definition of this large image as it comes into focus that we are able to add new pieces to it.
Explaining The Behavior of Children.
Once behaviors have been described, they are then ready to be theoretically explained. Whereas the description of manners merely requires the careful monitoring of the child themselves, attempting to actually explain these behaviors may take you to many different places away from and around the child.
Explaining habits can lead you to all sorts of factors, both personal and environmental, whether they are at home or at school. As well, many child psychologists are often considering the effect both the media and the culture at large can have on children that may cause them to act out in ways they otherwise wouldn’t. These can be things that are ostensibly very far away from the child, yet affect them personally as if they were happening within their own family and home life.
There is never a solid answer for why someone does what they do, and there is always going to be a little bit more to the story, but child psychology will always work tirelessly to better understand what makes children act out the way they sometimes do. It will do this so that human development may eventually be totally understood in regards to all the factors affecting it.
Predicting The Behavior of Children.
Once the behavior is explained, the description and explanation of the manners are put to the scientific test. Here, theories are used to try to predict the behavior of children. This is a largely experimental realm where new entries and modes in the field of the science are put into practical application to see how much sticks and how much doesn’t.
It is through this process that new information in child psychology is solidified and inaugurated into the field permanently. This experimentation can be done subversively in government institutions to unwitting subjects, but can also be done commercially, such as in marketing, or in other ways. It is through predicting habits successfully that child psychologists can learn how to appropriately change behaviors and know that they have deciphered the underlying causes of behaviors properly.
Changing The Behavior of Children.
This is the main and cumulative intention of child psychology. If you can take a troubled child and keep them from becoming a troubled adult, you have solved a problem that the criminal justice system has failed to for a century. It is commonly regarded as fact that aberrant and criminal behavior is rampant throughout the world, and has been for a seeming eternity. For as long as there has been man, there has been aberrancy. The field of psychology as a whole looks to change that.
Child psychology, or developmental psychology, is possibly the most important and effecting branch of psychology. It’s aim is to change this habits in children before it really ever truly blossoms into criminality.
By first describing and defining habits, so they can be named, and then explaining them, so they can be understood, child psychology works to understand the why and how of negative behaviors so that they may be altered. This may provide a better alternative future for the many at-risk youth in the world, as well as for the world itself.
If you’ve ever wondered what is the goal of child psychology, hopefully this article cleared some things up for you. Child psychology is a branch of science that will never stop growing as it works towards the betterment of all children and the future of the world. If we can alter the behavior of children, we can possibly alter the future of our planet for the better. Child psychology looks to define, explain, predict, and eventually change the behavior of children in hopes of a better future society.
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