Qualitative Vs Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology involves the study of the changes or variations that happen throughout the lifespan, which are mainly categorised into two groups: qualitative change and quantitative change. Since the emergence of developmental psychology, psychologists have performed studies orientated to study either or both of these changes in an attempt to understand better the process of development in babies, children and adults. Nowadays, it is presumed that psychologists are focusing more on studying qualitative change, rather than quantitative change. There are some advantages in the study of qualitative change that quantitative change does not have; however, these do not fully justify an exclusive approach to this change in particular. Both

Quantitative change is said to be the quantity or “amount of change” (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, & Hood, 2016), whereas qualitative change is the variation in the quality of response that a child could give (Schacter et.al, 2016). For example, in the case of acquiring and producing language, a child learning more words is a quantitative change, while a child improving the capability to employ more complex concepts when speaking is a qualitative change. The use of both approaches is crucial to study the underlying mechanisms of development. Though psychologists could be more interested in qualitative change since it shows more outstanding variations; or it could be because, as Piaget & Inhelder (1956) suggest, the quantitative changes that are produced throughout development end up becoming qualitative changes. Therefore, studying qualitative changes directly could appear as the more logical thing to do, since it involves the final result of a process of variation from quantitative change to qualitative

Quinn (2008) criticises Kagan by stating that certain processes, such as conceptual development, that involve a gradual change from childhood to adulthood is certainly a quantitative change since it explains more accurately the mechanism that is performed. It could appear as Quinn is trying to explain that some of the behaviours or learning processes that happen during child development are clearly resulting in quantitative changes. Moreover, he illustrates how this approach explores better mechanisms like conceptual knowledge and that trying to link it to qualitative changes might complicate the findings. It is important to have in mind the advantages of looking at things from the perspective of a qualitative approach, however, it might be that in some cases a quantitative approach is the more effective way to explain the results of what is being