Understanding Life-Span Development

Lifespan development is essential, as it is the changes that happen to us throughout a person’s lifespan. Our development occurs at ages stages where we develop from infancy till death. This essay will contain my life story to display the domains in 5 age stages in my lifespan development. The domains I will be exploring is in this essay is physical, emotional, cognitive, social, cultural and moral domain. The influence of biological and environmental play a significant role in my development. Development is influenced by nature or nurture and its affect will occur throughout lifespan. The changes that occur during development have stage. Each theorists has stages of development where they display the changes. This essay will explore my

The sensorimotor stage infants develop their schemas through sensory and motor activities. Followed by the preoperational stage where children begin to think symbolically using words, to represent concepts. Next concrete operational stage children display many important thinking skills, like ability to think logically. Finally, formal operational stage young adolescences formulate their operations by abstract and hypothetical thinking. Piaget’s theory provides ample and insightful perspectives, so it remains the central factor of contemporary

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

Kail, R. V., Cavanaugh J. C. , (2013). Human Development: A Life-Span View. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Development of a person throughout his or her whole lifetime can be seen either as a continuous process or as a final status to be attained. Psychologists agree

Who We Are is determined by our individual growth and development. According to Erik Erikson (1971) eight stage developmental theory, humans continue to develop throughout their entire lifespan from birth until death. Each stage representing a key aspect in the development of one’s identity, and personality, and overall well-being. Our personal identity gives each of us an integrated and cohesive sense of self that endures and continues to grow as we age (Santrock 2009). These elements are influenced by factors such as socioeconomic status, location, culture, spiritual beliefs, and meeting of the basic human need. They determine how we grow, develop, and live our daily lives. Traveling through each stage in life from youth, adolescence, and adulthood, we must identify our strength and weaknesses through our choices, experiences, trauma, and death. Each experience influences our structure as it relates to adaptability, resilience, and help identity the consciousness of self. This development analysis is the journey through my life emphasizing on my personal growth and development setting the stage to the person that writes this paper reflecting on her life choices, and experiences in several forms (physically, mentally, and spiritually).

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.

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.

Peer relations is an important factor that affects the lives of many kids during their development. Kids under the popular group tend to be more collaborative with people around them. Those kids are more likely to start and maintain positive relationships. As the book of A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development describes, “ Popular children give out reinforcement, listen carefully, maintain open lines of communication with peers, are happy, control their negative emotions, show enthusiasm and concern for others, and are self-confident without being conceited” (520). The popular group tends to easily interact with other kids and usually express more their feelings and thoughts.

Lifespan Development is the field of study that examines patterns, modes of growth, change, and stability in behavior that occur throughout the entire lifespan of an individual. There are so many things to keep in mind about Lifespan Psychology;

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 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.

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.

According to Crawford and Walker(2010), the life course is defined in literature as, “The progression and path an individual takes from conception to death.” (Crawford and walker, 2012, p.3). The study of the life course and human development is extremely complex and could be described as interdisciplinary as it encompasses many fields of study. When examining the life course of individuals it is necessary to consider all of the various factors that affect human behaviour. These may include; psychological, biological, social, behavioural, cognitive or culture factors. Age can also be considered as a factor that influences lifespan development. In the early 19th century, the term “age related change” was regarded as only applicable to the early childhood stage but in recent years, psychologists have come to accept that age related changes occur throughout the entire life span. According to Boyd and Bee (2014), other earlier theories included Charles Darwin’s suggestion that, “the wide variety of life forms that exist on earth evolved gradually as a result of the interplay between environmental factors and genetic process.” (Boyd and Bee, 2014, p.3) Therefore Darwin proposed that it was either solely, “nature” or “nurture” that influenced the human development, but instead, a combination of both. In this assignment, I am going to focus on the specific psychological factors that influence human behaviour during the life course. I will compare two different psychological

The life span perspective in Paul Baltes ' view is the "study of constancy and change in behaviour throughout the life course from conception to death.” (Baltes, 1987, p.611). Being a development psychologist, Baltes constructed seven frameworks that shows that development is multi directional, which means different processes of change all through the lifespan. Secondly, development is multiply influenced by a person 's development, an effect brought about from both biological and environmental factors. Thirdly, understanding development requires multiple disciplines, development that analyse in all directions so that it can be understood through many perspectives