There are three basic theoretical or conceptual questions than guide developmental psychology research. Now, many developmental psychologists are interested in how genetics and environment interact to influence the normal course of changes in an individual's life. Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, was something of a child prodigy himself. He graduated from college with a degree in biology when he was 16. So, he was curious about what kind of environments would influence children's development.
Child learns about the world through senses, action, and direct experience.
Assimilation - interpreting new experiences in terms of one's existing knowledge, prior experiences, and current concepts or schemas. Accommodation - adapting or changing one's existing knowledge, concepts or schemas, to incorporate new and novel experiences. Conservation - the recognition that certain physical properties, such as volume, mass or number, stays the same despite changes in the forms of objects. Bowlby believed that humans are inherently social creatures and desire relationships with others because the relationship satisfies a basic need for social contact. Harlow created two surrogate mothers for newborn rhesus monkeys .