Development over the Lifespan

On October 13, 2017, our Life-Span Development class had the opportunity to observe the physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development of Levi, a seventeen-month-old male toddler. When he came to the observation with his mother, father, and sister. With the whole family coming to the observation, we were able to observe more interactions, and learn more from the parents. The observation was conducted at Dordt College in room 1309, and the infant’s parent consented to participate in the live observation.

|9 |Can sit independently and will be finding ways to be |Baby realises that when something or someone |Will understand no, bye-bye and other key words,|Can find partially hidden object/toys and will |

Conception also known as fertilisation is the fusing of two gametes. This creates an embryo which will eventually develop into a baby. All human life begins with conception. A fertile woman will usually produce one egg a month around 2 weeks after the last menstrual period.

I was born May, 30th 1989 at Wadley Medical in Texarkana, Ar. I was born to Kym Crispino from Queens, NY and William Lee of Hot Springs, Ar. My parents were young when they had me. We were very poor at times, but they always made sure I had what I needed. I was an only child, but grew up around plenty of cousins. I have lived in Texarkana my entire life. My parents split up when I was twelve, and my mother and I moved out into the country on a dead-end street with no children in the area, I became very sheltered and a little socially awkward.

For Life-Span Development class, on February 13, 2017, the class had the opportunity to observer the physical, cognitive and social development. In this observation the class Riley, a five month old, female toddler. As a class at the Dordt College, gave the class the opportunity to live observe in the child with the infant’s parent consent.

B. F. Skinner thought of personality in terms of the effects external stimuli have on behavior. This emphasized the mutual interaction of the person or "the organism" with its environment. An example of this is something a baby learns. If a baby cries and receives attention, it teaches the baby that in order to get attention they need to cry. Princess Diana learned that external stimuli have a huge effect on her behavior.

Life span developmental psychology takes a scientific approach to human growth and change, focusing on change during the life span. There are three main aspects to life span development: cognitive, social, and physical development. This class is not simply a discussion of nature vs. nurture, it explores the interaction between genetic and environmental factors that orient us towards specific behaviors. Initially, my views on life span development were limited to more sociological factors, and did not take into consideration physical developments of the brain. In relation to my personal and professional identity this course has made me realize that development occurs on a spectrum and that not everyone develops at the same time, in the same ways, making me more understanding and compassionate towards those who developed differently than me. The three most important lessons I have learned from this class are that development occurs throughout the entire life span, infants begin learning at a very young age, and that senescence begins as early as young adulthood.

     Going back forty-five years is not an easy task to complete because I can’t remember some of the finer details of my childhood. I know I was born on a hot August afternoon in Birth Year at Place Of Birth in City ands State. My mother was just twenty-two at the time and was already the mother of two, I was her third child. My father was twenty-one and already a workaholic, I know because my mother would constantly remind me not to be like that. My mother and father were good parents and they tried to give us the best upbringing they could. My father was the kind of person that believed he should provide and protect his family, and he did a very good job of doing that.

When it comes to life span development you have to understand what it is and where it comes from or even how it got its name. As it was said by Boyd and Bee that life span development is the name that psychologists have given to the physical and cognitive changes that occur throughout a person’s life (Boyd & Bee, 2009). So I will be first explaining the life span of development, along with summarizing two different theories of life span development, and then the last one is just explaining how heredity and the environment interact to produce individual difference in the development.

Elderly people physically slow down and have lower energy levels. There are changes in the body systems and organs that can usually result in all types of

Life is a series of continuous ebbs and flows. Life span development goes through the cycles and stages of infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early or emerging adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood; it is the definitive culmination to the end of life (Berger, 2008). Lifespan development focuses on human development. Although there are develop mentalists who study the course of development in nonhuman species, the vast majority examines growth and change in people. Some seek to understand universal principles of development, whereas others focus on how cultural, racial, and ethnic differences affect the course of development. Still others aim to understand the unique aspects of individuals, looking at the traits

There are three known major areas of study in Lifespan Development which are the Physical, Cognitive, and personal and social development. These groups have to do with age and range of Lifespan Psychology. Lifespan literally connotes from cradle to grave, in other words from conception to death. Lifespan is divided into these following age periods; prenatal, infancy, toddlerhood, middle childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, late adulthood and death.

Emily Dickinson (n.d.) once said, “The brain is wider than the sky”. This quote was made evident by the text written on the six theoretical perspectives on life span development. These perspectives include psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, contextual and evolutionary. The writing prompt gave one the image of a sweet 12-year-old girl in the seventh grade having difficulties with math. This exercise will allow one to dive deep into the depth of the perspectives and the limitations to explain Alice’s behavior.

Developmental psychology, or psychology of the lifespan, is the scientific approach that aims to explain how individuals change over time and focuses on a wide range of theoretical areas such as, biological, social, emotional, and cognitive processes (McLeod, 2012). When describing development, it is typically explained in terms of normative development and idiographic development, or the individual variations in patterns of change (McLeod, 2012). Studying life across the entire lifespan is necessary because it takes into account the developmental stages that occur throughout every phase of someone’s life from the time they were conceived until the time they die (Berger, 2011). Furthermore, this view of human development is characterized in numerous ways including, multicontextually, multiculturally, multidisciplinary, multidirectional, and can involve economic constraints, family patterns, and historical conditions implanted within our genes (Berger, 2011).

The life-span perspective is a modern scientific approach to the study of human development that accounts for all phases of life including childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and it breaks each phase into individual stages of development (Berger,2014). This perspective suggests that development is multidirectional, metacontextual, and all stages of development are important and play a crucial role in the individuals cognitive health (Berger,2014). The stages of development are categorized as infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood, adulthood, and late adulthood. For the purpose of this paper I will be focusing on the infancy stage due to the importance of cognitive development before the age of two, middle childhood due to a child’s social structure becoming a defining factor in their lives, and emerging adulthood due to the stresses that an individual must endure while maturing into a young adult.