How far does the development of children s theory of mind contribute Essay

How far does the development of children s theory of mind contribute to their ability to manage emotions - Essay Example Many branches of psychology do exist but our major concern here is the branch called developmental psychology. When one talks of developmental psychology, he is referring to the systematic study of the psychological changes that occur in humans as they grow and throughout their entire life span. At its inception, the field of developmental psychology targeted mainly infants and children. However, with time, the field has evolved to embrace the adolescents, adults, aging and the entire life span to be precise. The changes studied under developmental psychology range from motor skills to psycho-physiological concerns. Similarly, cognitive changes especially skills such as problem solving, ethical and moral perceptions are also considered (Louw, 2003). Other developmental areas considered include but are not limited to emotional development, conceptual understanding, self-image formation (basically called self-concept) and identity formation. It is important to note that developmental p sychology is concerned with growth as per the gradual accumulation of knowledge and mostly considers individual stages of development such as infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, late adulthood and aging. Each developmental stage has its psychological developments analyzed, compared to the general norm and hence identify anomalies in development. This paper seeks to explain how the development of children’s theory of mind contributes to their ability to manage emotions (Richardson, 2000). The distinction of the age range within each stage of development or within a single stage say childhood or adolescence varies from one community to another. These distinctions are not fixed and they vary greatly depending on the culture and the social orientation of the society doing the distinction. For instance, the age at which an individual is seen as a juvenile varies from one state to another and therefore it is automatic that the age of at which one converts to an adult