Introduction To Lifespan Development
Introduction To Lifespan Development
Introduction To Lifespan Development
DEVELOPMENT, DEFINITION,
CONCEPT AND CHARACTERISTIC
FEATURES
Structure
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Life Span Development
1.2.1 Issues in Human Development
1.2.2 Stages of Development
1.0 INTRODUCTION
From the moment the human child is first conceived, to the day the individual dies,
they keep changing constantly and developing. While some of the changes humans
undergo are as a result of chance incidents and personal choices, the vast majority
of life changes and stages the human passes through are due to certain common
biological and psychological factors partly inherited and partly environmental and
are shared by all people.
Life span development deals with important common developmental stages that
human beings pass through: birth, infancy, adolescence, adulthood, old age and
finally death. As the humans grow up from stage to stage they learn to make use
of their body parts, learn how to express themselves and communicate with
others, how to form relationship with others, how to care for others, how to love
and how to work. In this unit we will be presenting Meaning of Development,
issues and stages in development of humans, and then put forward the concept
of life span development, and its characteristics and theories of child development.
1.1 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
define and describe human development;
define life span development; 5
Life Span Development: identify the human developmental periods;
Introduction
describe the processes involved in development;
explain the key issues involved in human development; and
analyse the characteristic features of life span development.
The life span perspective argues that significant modifications take place throughout
development. It consists of development of humans in multidimensional,
multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual factors. The development
involves growth, maintenance and regulation.
Changes that occur are interpreted in terms of the requirements of the culture and
context of the occurrences. According to Paul Baltes, humans have the capacity,
plasticity and the ability for positive change to the environmental demands that are
being made on the individual constantly. Throughout life the individual learns ways
and means to compensate and overcome difficulties. According to Baltes positive
characteristics of growing old such as learning ways to compensate and overcome
(Boyd and Bee, 2006) as an important characteristics of old age. These
characteristics form a family of beliefs which specify a coherent view of the nature
of development. It is the application of these beliefs as a coordinated whole which
characterises the life-span approach. The important characteristics beliefs of the
life span approach are given below:
1) Development is Lifelong: This belief has two separate aspects. First, the
potential for development extends across the entire life span: there is no
assumption that the life course must reach a plateau or decline during adulthood
and old age. Second, development may involve processes which are not
present at birth but emerge throughout the life span. No age period dominates
during development. Researchers increasingly study the experiences and
psychological orientations of adults at different points in their development.
Gains and losses in development occur throughout the life cycle.
2) Development is Multidimensional: Multidimensionality refers to the fact
that development cannot be described by a single criterion such as increases
or decreases in a behaviour. It occurs in the biological, cognitive and social
emotional domains.
3) Development is Multidirectional: The principle of multidirectional maintains
that there is no single, normal path that development must or should take. In
other words, healthy developmental outcomes are achieved in a wide variety
of ways. Development is often comprised of multiple abilities which take
different directions, showing different types of change or constancy. Some
dimensions or aspects of development may be increasing while others are
declining or not changing.
4) Development is Plastic: Plasticity refers to the within-person variability
which is possible for a particular behaviour or development. For example,
infants who have a hemisphere of the brain removed shortly after birth (as
a treatment for epilepsy) can recover the functions associated with that
hemisphere as the brain reorganises itself and the remaining hemisphere takes
over those functions. A key part of the research agendas in developmental
psychology is to understand the nature and the limits of plasticity in various
domains of functioning. Development can be modified by life circumstances
to some extent. Plasticity involves the degree to which characteristics change
or remain stable.
5) Development is Contextual: Development varies across the different contexts
in which we live our lives. For example, social and rural environments are
associated with different sets of factors which have the potential to impact 11
Life Span Development: on development; understanding how development differs for individuals within
Introduction
these two settings requires an understanding of the differing contexts. It
occurs in the context of a person’s biological make-up, physical environment
and social, historical and cultural contexts.
6) Development is Multidisciplinary: The study of developmental psychology
is multidisciplinary. That is, the sources of age-related changes do not lie
within the province of any one discipline. For example, psychological
methodologies may not be appropriate for understanding factors that are
sociological in nature. Rather, an understanding of human development will
be achieved only by research conducted from the perspective of disciplines
such as sociology, linguistics, anthropology, computer science, neuroscience
and medicine.
7) Development involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation: The mastery
of life involves conflict and competition among three goals of human
development: growth, maintenance and regulation
8) Development is Embedded in History: Development is also historically
situated and is always influenced by historical conditions. The historical time
period in which we grow up affects our development.
9) Normative Age Graded Influences: Biological and environmental influences
that are similar for individuals in a particular age group (example: Childhood,
Puberty) also influences development.
10) Normative History Graded Influences: Biological and environmental
influences that are associated with history that are common to people of a
particular generation (example: Depression, The AIDS epidemic) also
influences.
11) Non-normative Events: Unusual occurrences that have a major impact on
an individual’s life; the occurrence, the pattern, and sequence of these events
are not applicable to most individuals (e.g. Death of a parent at young age,
getting a serious illness, winning a lottery).
Self Assessment Questions
1) Define life span development.
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2) What are the different periods of development?
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3) What are the various domains of human development?
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12
Introduction to Life Span
Development, Definition,
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Features
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4) List out the characteristics of life span development.
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1.7 LET US SUM UP
Development describes the growth of humans throughout the lifespan, from
conception to death. It refers to development as patterns of change over time. It
does not just involve the biological and physical aspects of growth, but also the
cognitive and social aspects associated with development.
Life span development includes issues such as the extent to which development
occurs through the gradual accumulation of knowledge versus stage like
development, or the extent to which children are born with innate mental structures
versus learning through experience. As for issues in development, a number of
major issues have emerged in the study of human development. These issues
16 include whether development is influenced more by nature or nurture, whether
development occur slowly and smoothly, and whether changes happen in stages. Introduction to Life Span
Development, Definition,
Then we discussed about continuity and discontinuity in development. This was Concept and Characteristic
followed by discussion on stability versus change in development. Features