Age psychology is one of the branches of psychological science. She studies the laws and facts of human development, as well as his psyche and its age dynamics.
The object of studying age psychology isnormal, healthy, changing and developing in ontogeny. She identifies various age changes in human behavior and tries to explain them, to uncover all the patterns of acquiring knowledge and experience. In the focus of this area of psychological science are various forms of psychic organization, which are typical for individual periods and stages of people's lives. Its main task is to study and explore the mental development of a person from birth until his death.
The subject of age psychology is the agethe periods of development, the mechanisms and causes of the transition from one to the other, the general tendencies and patterns, the direction and pace of the mental development of man in ontogeny.
The most important part of age psychology -child psychology. The concept of the subject matter of this science has been transformed over time due to the fact that the methodology of research has changed. At the beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scientists sought to accumulate specific data, empirical information, to study the phenomenology of mental development precisely in childhood. They were interested in what happens during this period in children's development, what new skills appear in the child, in what sequence and when. This task was carried out using methods such as observation and a cut-off experiment.
In the mid-20th century, researchers began to paymore time to what are the conditions, factors and driving forces of mental development. At the present time, it is possible to single out the theoretical problems of age psychology. First, to study the driving forces, mechanisms and sources of mental development throughout the life course of man. Secondly, to make a periodization of the mental development of people in ontogeny. Thirdly, to study the different age features, as well as the patterns of the course of mental processes (attention, memory, perception), that is, how they arise, go the way of becoming, change, improve, degrade and compensate. Fourth, establish the age features, regularities, the possibility of implementing certain types of activities, the process of learning. Fifthly, to investigate the development of the individual.
A large number of scientists who left a significant trace in science, necessarily engaged in issues that are solved by age psychology. Great attention was paid to children's psychology LS. Vygotsky.
Age psychology has a number of practicaltasks. First, it is designed to determine the age norms of various mental functions, to reveal the creative potential of a person and his psychological resources. Secondly, to create a service to monitor the entire course of mental development, to provide every possible help to parents who are in problem situations. Thirdly, to conduct age and clinical diagnostics. Fourth, to perform the functions of psychological support, to help in times of crisis. Fifthly, it is optimal to organize the educational process.
Age psychology uses knowledge and experiencerelated sciences: general, genetic, pedagogical and social psychology. In addition, it relies on various knowledge of natural sciences: gerontology, culturology, pedagogy, medicine, sociology, ethnography, logic, linguistics, art criticism, literary criticism and other areas of science. Age psychology reveals the patterns of the development of the psyche and makes them public.
