Human Development Associate's Degrees

Human DevelopmentAre you interested in how the human body develops? Are you curious about how human development relates to psychology? Do you find that you are equally interested in psychology and human development? If this sounds like you were just perfectly described, then perhaps you should pursue a career path in developmental psychology. Although the field of developmental psychology initially just focused on infants and children, in recent years it has expanded to include adolescents, adults, and the elderly community. In fact, in your work in developmental psychology, you would have the opportunity to choose a specific developmental area to focus your studies on. For instance, you would probably spend much of your time uncovering the psychological changes, the perception changes, and the emotional changes that happen to individuals over a certain time frame. Keep in mind, the nature of this branch of psychology will be for you to correlate the psychology end with the scientific end in order to determine the needs for each specific patient.

On any given day, you will be spending the majority of your time studying the changes that occur across cognitive development areas, psycho-physiological processes, and motor skills. It will be important for you to adequately address topics with your patients that include moral understanding, conceptual understanding, problem solving, emotional development, language acquisition, social development, self-concept, identity formation, and personality development. It will be crucial that you can correlate a patient’s cultural context, social context, and socioeconomic context in order to achieve maximum success when dealing with their issues. Keep in mind, it is extremely common for developmental psychologists to focus their works on a specific age development, as well as a specific context area or type of development area. The branch of developmental psychology actually employs many other branches of psychology; therefore, the content area is large and very complex. For example, child psychopathology, forensic developmental psychology, and educational psychology are all contained within the field of developmental psychology. In addition, the fields of cognitive psychology, comparative psychology, social psychology, and ecological psychology are all relative when practicing developmental psychology.

Most developmental psychologists work to better understand the psychological changes that occur over a time period. However, it is also important that the principles and internal makeup of these changes can be explained. It is likely that in your capacity as a developmental psychologist, you will spend much of your time creating models that will help to define the factors that contribute to a person’s development in all areas. In a further hope of explaining the mechanisms of development, computational models may also be incorporated. These will show dynamical systems, the neural network, or symbolic representation of development as it occurs. Another main area of focus for developmental psychologists is the controversy of nature versus nurture. This dispute argues whether environmental factors ultimately influence how a person is, how their personality develops, and how they exhibit themselves among others.

Typical research methods that are used in other branches of psychology are also used within developmental psychology. Of course, infants and children cannot always be evaluated in the same manner as adolescents and adults; therefore, developmental psychologists often must employ additional research methods for this purpose. It is common for developmental psychologists to use naturalistic observations, systematic observations, structured observations, case studies or clinical methods, ethnography, and clinical or structured interviews. Regardless of which of these study methods a developmental psychologist deems as appropriate, each of them are designed with the intention of enabling a psychologist to effectively chart their patient’s progress over a given time period.

Human Services
Have you heard of people who enter the career field of human services? Were you not sure what this referred to or what this occupation involves? Well, keep reading! Below you can learn all of the important information about this exciting career path, so that you may be able to make an informed decision regarding your professional pursuits.

Human services are the term that is used to refer to the many different public delivery systems that our society uses. This includes the educational system, the social welfare spectrum of our world, all forms of healthcare, and any mental health services. Depending upon which avenue of this professional world you decide to pursue, you could provide direct services to a wide range of clients or you could work to help clients access the services that they need. It is also common for individuals to become employed through a human service professional agency that provides all human related services to the community.

It is important to keep in mind that due to the fact that human service professionals are actively engaged with human conditions, they may also find themselves involved in advocacy for their patients as well as policy development. In addition, you should note that it will be possible for you to practice this profession by obtaining your associate’s degree, your bachelor’s degree, or your graduate level degree. Since there are over six hundred human services program throughout the United States, there are positions available no matter which of these degree programs you decide best fits your goals.

In your capacity as a human service professional you will be working as an agent who assists individuals, families, communities, or groups. It will be your responsibility to help prevent, eliminate, or teach them coping methods for areas of crisis, stress, or change. Ultimately, you will be working to help them better deal with and function in every area of life. Keep in mind, you will have a goal of helping these individuals have a more satisfying and more productive life. Of course, you will have to utilize the knowledge, technological advances, and resources that are made available within the community you are practicing in. Furthermore, you will be expected to work alongside other professionals who are working within the same goals and mindset. It is important to understand that as a human service professional you will not be expected to conduct in-depth therapy services; however, you will work with your clients to set goals, objectives, and tasks that can help your client achieve success.

This occupational path is projected to have a significant amount of growth through the year 2016 and there are three major roles that you can work within in this industry. You could choose to perform administrative work to the public, to work within the community in a variety of capacities, or you could provide a direct service to the community. As an added benefit, many individuals who work within the human services sector choose to obtain a certification. Should you decide to obtain your Human Services Board Certified Practitioner credential it will show that you are a competent service provider who is committed to a high level of standards within your work.

In addition, this certification will demonstrate that you are willing and capable of consistently providing quality services, that you will adhere to the NOHS ethical standards of human service professionals, and that you will work with a goal of solidifying the professional identity that human services practitioners uphold within our society. It will be possible for you to work as a counselor, an advocate, a research evaluator, an outreach worker, a community planner, or a case manager.