There are various careers in psychology that one can pursue. However, this paper focuses on developmental psychology. According to Dittmann (2004), the profession entails the scientific study of why and how human beings change in their lifetime. Initially, the field was mainly concerned with children and infants. However, it has expanded to encompass not only adolescents but also adults, the aging population and the entire lifespan. The main concepts covered in developmental psychology include moral understanding, social change, personality, language acquisition, executive function; identify formation, self-concept and emotional development. A developmental psychologist can work in schools, research centers, and health care organizations and private practice. Through their skills, developmental psychologists can provide family, couples, group or individual therapy using person-centered approaches. In research, developmental psychologists study human behavior to determine necessary actions as well as ways of promoting appropriate behaviors. They can work as consultants in institutions such as schools, security firms, and insurance agencies. One can decide to specialize in one area or become certified in multiple related fields of developmental psychology.
Various Aspects of Developmental Psychology Career
Education
Since developmental psychologists are authorities in the cognitive, personal and behavioral improvement of persons through their lifespans, they require different academic and professional qualifications. Mainly, the task of developmental psychologist requires a person to have a doctorate either doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) and licensure from relevant institutions (Dittmann, 2004). A candidate can commence their career as a developmental psychologist with bachelors or master’s degree. The degree or master’s program entails hands-on experience, lecture-based courses, and research opportunities. Masters programs can be tailored more to students with particular interests such as forensic developmental psychology, ecological psychology, educational psychology or cultural psychology. Five-year doctoral programs are mainly research intensive. For one to enroll in a bachelor’s degree program, you will need a high school diploma. Doctoral and master’s program needs one to have had a bachelor’s degree in psychology (APA, 2018).
For one to get licensure, he/she needs a doctoral degree in psychology, accrues between 1,500 to 6,000 supervised hours, passes the examination for professional practice where relevant and approvals from state licensing boards (Dittmann, 2004). Students need to accrue 2000 hours during an APA accredited internship. For school psychologists, a license or certificate from states department of education is required to work in such environments is needed. Additionally one may need to pass teacher certification test. There are various licensing boards including the American Board of Clinical Child and Adolescent psychology (Careers in Psychology, 2018).
Work Environment
A developmental psychologist works in various settings including government agencies, academia, health facilities, and schools. Work in universities or colleges tend to focus on research and teaching, collaborating with students and researchers to solve the challenges faced in the profession. They may collaborate with colleagues or public research facilities to publish scientific papers. School developmental psychologists help assess potential barriers to learning and work with teachers, pupils, and parents to promote healthy social and communication skills. For those working in healthcare settings, their role is to collaborate with patients, caregivers, colleagues, and institutions to assess, evaluate and treat persons with developmental challenges. DP’s may also work as consultants in hospitals, mental health clinics, prisons, assisted living homes and home for the elderly to assess diagnose and treat psychological issues, interpreted test for patients referred by their doctors (Careers in Psychology, 2018).
Client Population
A developmental psychologist focuses on people throughout their lifespans. Child developmental psychologist helps children and families to deal with life-altering issues and events such as anxiety and depression, trauma and problem coping in school. In hospitals, clinics, social service agencies, universities or mental health centers, a developmental psychologist may meet people from all genders and age groups ranging from children to the elderly who have a developmental impairment, experiencing traumatic events or struggling with various life stages (Careers in Psychology, 2018). Other populations include those needing special care such as trauma-focused therapy, anger coping therapy, physical disabilities, autistic or ADHD children and persons who have undergone sexual or emotional trauma. One of the services that target children is play therapy, education, counseling, and awareness. A developmental psychologist employs the role of play and imagination to promote communication and may also use cognitive behavioral therapy, group therapy and family therapy and pharmacological approaches where necessary (APA, 2018).
Career Example
The article by Park, Weismer, " Kaushanskaya (2018) explores ways of improving the practice of developmental psychology, particularly in multilingual and monolingual school-age youngsters. The researchers examined three executive functions- inhibition (the Flanker task), task shifting (DCCS) and updating (Corsi blocks task) in the targeted sample population of 41 monolingual and 41 bilingual children aged between eight and twelve years at two points, 12 months apart. The study found out that the two groups did not significantly contrast in their development of updating but not for inhibition. While the groups differed in mixing costs, they did not vary in developmental pattern for switching and shifting costs. In general, the researchers found out that bilingual experience has the potential to modulate developmental rates of some aspects of executive functions at certain developmental time points.
Conclusion
Developmental psychologists study in broad conceptual areas such as moral understanding, social change, personality, language acquisition, executive function, identify formation, self-concept and emotional development with the aim of describing explaining and optimizing development. There are various educations requirements that one needs to fulfill before starting to practice. Mainly, the task of developmental psychologist requires a person to have a doctorate or doctors of philosophy (Ph.D.) qualification and licensure from relevant institutions. A candidate can launch his/her career with bachelors or master’s degree. The candidate needs to get a license from relevant institutions. While the occupation was mainly concerned with development during childhood, it has since expanded to include youths, adults and the elderly. Hence, one can work in various settings including private practice, research institutions, schools, hospitals, mental health clinics, prisons, assisted living homes and home for the elderly. Working in universities or colleges tends to focus on research and teaching, collaborating with students and researchers to solve the challenges faced in the profession. There is also a necessity to understand how different executive functions are affected by various factors such as language abilities.
References
APA. (2018). Careers in Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/careers/resources/guides/careers.aspx
Careers in Psychology. (2018). Child and developmental psychology careers. Retrievedfrom https://careersinpsychology.org/what-is-developmental-psychology/
Dittmann, M. (2004). What you need to know to get licensed. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2004/01/get-licensed.aspx
Park, J., Weismer, S., " Kaushanskaya, M. (2018). Changes in executive function over time in bilingual and monolingual school-aged children. Developmental Psychology Journal, 54(10), pp. 1842-1853: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000562.
