Editing Developmental psychology (section)

==Historical antecedents==
[[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] and [[John B. Watson]] are typically cited as providing the foundation for modern developmental psychology.<ref name=Hogan>{{cite book| vauthors = Hogan JD |author-link=John D. Hogan|title=Encyclopedia of Psychology |volume=3|isbn=978-1-55798-652-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofps0000unse/page/9 9–13]|chapter=Developmental psychology: History of the field| veditors = Kazdin AE |editor-link=Alan E. Kazdin|doi=10.1037/10518-003|year=2000|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofps0000unse/page/9}}</ref> In the mid-18th century, Jean Jacques Rousseau described three stages of development: ''infants'' (infancy), ''puer'' (childhood) and ''adolescence'' in ''[[Emile: Or, On Education]]''. Rousseau's ideas were adopted and supported by educators at the time.

Developmental psychology generally focuses on how and why certain changes (cognitive, social, intellectual, personality) occur over time in the course of a human life. Many theorists have made a profound contribution to this area of psychology. One of them is the psychologist Erik Erikson,<ref name="Orenstein Erikson's Stages">{{cite book |last1=Orenstein |first1=Gabriel A. |last2=Lewis |first2=Lindsay |title=StatPearls |date=2025 |publisher=StatPearls Publishing |chapter-url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556096/ |chapter=Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development |pmid=32310556 }}</ref> who created a model of eight phases of psychosocial development.<ref name="Orenstein Erikson's Stages"/> According to his theory, people go through different phases in their lives, each of which has its own developmental crisis that shapes a person's personality and behavior.{{sfn|Erikson|Erikson|1998|p={{pn|date=January 2025}}}}
[[File:Charles Darwin by Julia Margaret Cameron, c. 1868.jpg|thumb|Charles Darwin]]
In the late 19th century, psychologists familiar with the [[evolutionary theory]] of [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] began seeking an [[Recapitulation theory|evolutionary description of psychological development]];<ref name=Hogan /> prominent here was the pioneering psychologist [[G. Stanley Hall]],<ref name=Hogan /> who attempted to correlate ages of childhood with [[human evolution|previous ages of humanity]]. [[James Mark Baldwin]], who wrote essays on topics that included ''Imitation: A Chapter in the Natural History of Consciousness'' and ''Mental Development in the Child and the Race: Methods and Processes'', was significantly involved in the theory of developmental psychology.<ref name=Hogan /> [[Sigmund Freud]], whose concepts were developmental, significantly affected public perceptions.<ref name=Hogan />