Development science

The development of science (Engl. Developmental Science ) is an interdisciplinary approach to developmental psychology , combining concepts and findings from areas previously isolated human researching and non-human development have addresses, such as anthropology , biology , psychology , communication studies , linguistics , Medicine and sociology . This approach examines individuals and communities across the lifespan with the aim of understanding the development of individuals with different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, different economic and cognitive possibilities and living conditions.

One of the main goals of developmental science is to understand how the diverse systems that influence individual development - from cultural processes to genetic and physiological events to social interactions - interact in the course of development. Since it is beyond the possibilities of individual researchers and disciplines to investigate how all these systems change simultaneously and jointly contribute to social and adaptive functions of people and societies, research into development is based on the common basis of many traditional scientific disciplines within the framework of a biopsychosocial approach necessary.

The main aim is to identify the complex mechanisms of action on which the existence and development of living organisms are based. To check such theoretical mechanisms, models are used that obey the same principles without, for example, reproducing the specific underlying physical and chemical properties of neurons, synapses, etc. The use of such computer models in neurosciences (artificial neural networks) or in proteome research makes the need for an interdisciplinary approach clear. B. also includes findings from computer science and bioinformatics .

Web links

literature

F. Petermann, K. Niebank, H. Scheithauer: Development Science . Developmental Psychology - Genetics - Neuropsychology. Springer, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-540-44299-5 .