Life Span Perspectives Paper

In order to truly understand the life span perspectives we must first define developmental psychology, which is a field that falls under the topic of psychology that is centered on describing how individuals change and grow throughout the stages of their life. This field has also been noted to be one of the more popular fields to be studied. We, as humans, must first grasp the concept that before there can be an outcome there has to be a process or a beginning. We can always trace anything that exists back to a beginning, for people this beginning is birth and the developmental processes that follow are individual pieces of the life processes. Charles Darwin had a longing to understand just what evolution was and exactly how it worked; from this desire he drew the study of lifespan development. Adolescence and norms were first introduced to those in the field of science by way of a G. Stanley Hall publication (Boyd & Bee, 2006). Within this book these scholarly individuals could read about the first observational studies of children. Within this paper you will find the definition of lifespan development, a description of the many characteristics of the lifespan perspective, and the identifying factors of the human developmental domains and periods. Lifespan Development We recognize that within the lifespan there had to be a beginning; we know this because of the work of Charles Darwin. Darwin began the inner workings of human developmental studies and those early evolutionists who shared his opinions were soon to join in his studies. Darwin’s goal was to prove his theory of evolution; it was his belief that his best chance of proving his theory was to engage in intense studies of human development (Boyd & Bee, 2006). According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a lifespan is the average amount of time that an organism, material, or object can be expected to survive or last. If we look for further detail and look for the definition of development, we find that development based on biology is the process of organic growth in an individual organism, we also see that this an be defined as a biological occurrence of events in which an organism changes gradually from a simple to a more complex level (Collins English Dictionary, 2003). When we combine these two individual words we end up with a term that defines the individual changes associated with life progresses that can be tracked in correspondence to the individual’s age. People will change many times over throughout their lifetime; these developme ntal periods are the prenatal period, infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. In order for one to experience growth developmental change must occur. Life span development will occur over and over, again and again throughout the individual’s life time. Although there are positives and negatives in the developmental process, developmental research and advances will continue to occur throughout an individual’s entire life cycle. Characteristics of the Lifespan Perspective All individuals develop on their own schedule and at their own pace, depending on many internal and external factors. Due to improved nutrition and health and medical knowledge a sharp rise in the average life expectancy has recently been observed. The characteristics of the lifespan perspective are lifelong, multidirectional, plasticity, contextual, multidisciplinary, and multidimensional. One’s development continues throughout their lifespan, there is no certain age that appears to be heavier in this area than others. Continued growth paired with decline affects development which can be said to attribute to the multidirectional portion of the lifespan. Many will seem to focus on the plasticity of the human lifespan, one can see this in the example of a child who has been malnourished, this child may suffer from a diminished intellect but given proper nutrition over an extended period of time the child will, indeed, regain much f the lost function and should eventually catch up to the average for his age. There are many outside forces that have a great effect on human development, these forces can be biological, historical, social, and cultural (Berk, 2007). Lifespan Domain Human Development domains all work together and are affected by one another. The categories of the domains of development are social, physical, and cognitive (Boyd & Bee, 2006). The social domain encases the changes that one may find necessary in order to adapt to a new social environment, or situation, this might include developing and maintaining relationships, and improvement upon general social skills. The physical domain can be defined as the way the humans change their physical appearance. A good example of a physical change is when a child enters puberty, and again as the child becomes elderly. Within this domain it is seen that as the physical appearance changes so will the views that the individual possesses in life. Human Development Periods Psychoanalytic, cognitive, and learning are the three theories that have been shown to produce the most information on human development (Boyd & Bee, 2006). Within these theories we can find information that best explains how one transitions from one moment within their life and essentially evolves to the next level. In discussing human development we must recognize the age old debate of nature versus nurture. Within this theory we must ask which, if either, is truly the strongest influence? Does the environment or genetics play the biggest part in this factor? Conclusion There are many answers that are yet to be discovered in the field of psychology in spite of the fact that there have already been so many discoveries. In the beginning there was Darwin and his theory of evolution†¦.. we do not yet know where the end may take us.