A branch of psychology devoted to the study of age-related change in psychological functions in both humans and animals, using a variety of both experimental and observational methods. It has theoretical implications for other branches of psychology and practical applications (e.g., in providing more effective techniques for teaching children who are developmentally delayed). More recently, lifespan psychology has extended the focus of study to adult development in considering systematic change from conception to death as its subject matter. The areas covered include cognitive, emotional, perceptual, moral, motor, language, memory and social development, with increasing attempts to forge theoretical links between them (e.g., between developmental cognitive and developmental social psychology). Overall, the main defining feature of developmental psychology (or at least it should be), and one that distinguishes it from child psychology, is a concern to account for inter-individual differences in intra-individual change.
See Child development, Child psychology, Developmental cognitive neuroscience, Developmental epistemology, Developmental psychobiology, Discipline, Intra-individual differences, Psychology, Social psychology