Human development research seeks to understand age-related differences. Cross-sectional studies assess a number of people at one point in time, which allows us to compare age characteristics or particular age groups. This allows us to compare characteristics of particular age groups. When evaluating cross-sectional studies, one must look out for cohort effects, differences not attributable to age but to the particular time period in which the individual lived. This confounding effect obscures any relationship between age and experiences that might contribute to an understanding of development. Longitudinal studies, in contrast, are far more reliable and can be used to support definitive studies. “Longitudinal studies assess the same participants
Understand the expected pattern of development for children and young people from birth to 19 years
The expected pattern of children and young people’s development from birth to 19 years has many areas of development, starting from birth.
This paper serves to apply the knowledge learned throughout the course, COUN 502, to the development and growth in my lifespan. I will aim to demonstrate a working knowledge of the theories, terminology, and concepts of human growth and development. I will show how these disciplines apply to my own life experiences and how I did throughout my key life events, through the use of empirical studies.
The field of study that examines patterns of growth, change, and stability in behavior that occur throughout the entire lifespan is called lifespan development. Lifespan development takes a scientific approach in its study of growth, change, and stability. This development emphases on human development. Developmentalists study the course of development in nonhuman species, the most popular examine growth and change in people. In contrast I will focus on the ways people and myself change and grow during our lives, with the consideration of stability in our live span. Together, these findings suggest that we will go through
Understand the expected pattern of development for children and young people from birth – 19 years.
Human development is a process that occurs throughout the lifespan, and lifespan development theories offer frameworks for which to understand human growth. Different approaches focus on specific aspects of human life to determine which has the most significant influence on development. However, one theory usually does not account for all variables of human growth so more than one perspective may be used to analyze development. Two such perspectives, the behavioral and the contextual, explain development in different ways. The behavioral perspective focuses on observable behavior, while the contextual perspective focuses on interrelated systems that influence development. When applied to the case study in the index, the differences in the behavioral and contextual theories become evident.
Feldman, R (2011). Development Across the Life Span (6th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
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.
Post-Doctoral Fellowship: Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, 1979-1982. Institute for Advanced Studies in
The development of a child is viewed from a number of different perspectives by several developmental theorists. While some say that development continues throughout the life, others would hold an opinion that children stop to develop as soon as they mature. Therefore, lifespan developmental theorists have focused on a number of areas while studying the development of an individual. Some of these areas include cognitions, social development, sexual development, moral development and more. Each of these theories is important in order to completely analyze the process whereby which a child matures and transitions into an adult.
Amoran and Iyaniwura (2012) carried out an analytical cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence and determinants of preventive treatment of malaria methods of pregnant women in a rural town in Western Nigeria. A total of 225 pregnant women that were due for delivery at primary health care centers were recruited for a structured questionnaire. Slightly more than half of the women knew that malaria was associated with low birth weight and “60.4% of the respondents reported that they received some information on malaria prevention during pregnancy. Doctors and nurses were revealed to be the source of education for 68.9% of women” (Amoran & Iyaniwura, 2012) but for many, family, friends, and community organizations were also informative. The
Development psychology refers to the scientific study of the systematic psychological changes that normally occur to human beings throughout their growth period from birth to old age. It was originally concerned with children and infants, but it has since expanded to include the entire life span of mankind including adolescence and adulthood. Development psychology covers the extent to which human development occurs through gradual accumulation of knowledge, and the extent to which children born with inmate mental structures learn through experience. Several psychological theories and approaches like the behavioral, humanistic, psychoanalytic, biological, and cognitive approaches have been developed to explain the
After reviewing the two articles provided and studies of my proposed topic, there was no evidence of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks in six of my studies. However, there is one theoretical framework in my quantitative study that focuses on the individual and is grounded within the context of the life-span perspective of human development theory. Contextual influences include the types of changes in resources that occur in response to the individual's needs for resources throughout a changing life-span. Life-span development involves biological considerations, cultural considerations, and individual factors working together. The life-span perspective put emphasis on the development of the course of a lifetime, and all stages of the
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.