What is life span development?

Life span psychology studies human development from conception to death. Development is a
life-long process complex, intriguing and filled with unanswered questions. One of our goals is
to identify those developmental features that are common to us all. For example, we grow
physically we become more comfortable with abstract ideas as the year's pass. And we attempt to
control our emotions as we mature.

The Historical Prospective

The maximum span of human life is approximately 120 years. This upper boundary has not
changed since the beginning of the recorded history however in other ways the life span has
varied in striking ways over the centuries.

The importance of life span development

How might people from examining life span development? Most development involves growth
but it also includes decline. In exploring development we will examine the life span from the
point of conception until the time when life ends. You will see yourself as an infant as a child and
as an adolescent and be stimulated to think about how those years influenced the kind of
individuals you are today and you will see yourself as a young adult as a middle-age adult and as
an adult in old age and be motivated to think about how your experience today will influence
your development through the remainder of your adult years.

Characteristics of life span perspective

The belief that development is life-long is central to the life span perspective but according to
leading theorist and researcher Paul belts, the life span perspective includes several additional

characteristics.

Development is life-long:

In the life span perspective, early adulthood is not the endpoint of development rather no age

period dominates development.

Development is multidimensional:
Development consist of biological, cognitive, socio emotional, dimensions each dimensions has
many component. For example the cognitive dimension includes abstract intelligence, non verbal
intelligence and social intelligence.

Development is multi-directional:

Both growth and decline characterize development. Some dimensions or components of a

dimension may expand and other shrink and as individuals development. In language
development, for example, the capacity of acquiring second and third language decreases later in
development, especially after early childhood.

Periods of development

A developmental period referred to a time frame in a person's life that is characterized by certain
features for organization and understanding we commonly describe development in terms of
these periods. The most widely used classification of the developmental period involves the
eight-period sequence.

Early childhood

2 to 7 years. A qualitative change occurs as the child reaches the pre-operational at about two
years of age. Early childhood is still a period of rapid growth but growth is far less explosive
than in infancy and decline in rates annually. Great improvement in the coordination of small and
large muscle of groups takes place during this period, which sees the emergence of hopping,
skipping, throwing and the other motor behaviors that are so much a part of early childhood.

Middle childhood

7 to 11 years. These are the elementary school year. It is no accident that formal education begins
in earnest during this period because most children are then intellectually and socially ready for
the demands of school. Physical growth proceeds at a fairly slow pace in middle childhood but it
is a healthy period in which most children experience little illness. The continued improvement
in strength and coordination are the only, not able advances.

Adulthood
Early Adulthood:

17 to 45 years. Erickson discusses the purpose stage of adult life in terms of the challenges faced
at each stage and consequence of the successfully or unsuccessfully meeting those challenges.
These adult stages are the continuation of the stage of child and adolescent development.
Erickson refers to early adulthood as the stage of anti-Macy isolation the challenge of this stage
is to enter into a committed loving relationship with others that partially replace the bound with
parents. If we are successful in this task we will have the anti-Macy needed to progress in adult
life; if not, we will become isolated and less capable of full emotional development, According
to Erickson.

Middle Adulthood:
40 to 65 years. During the transition of this phase of life, we often take the stock of who we have
become. This represents a marked sheet from focusing on who is becoming in our twenties and
thirties to thinking about who is during middle age. For some people, this is a positive experience
their happy with their adult selves at the transition to middle life. For many others, this is a time
of at least some disappointment.

Later adulthood

65 years on. Levinson devotes little of his theory to the later adult years and adds little to
Erikson's ideas. The older adults who see meaning in her or his life when considered as a whole
continues to live satisfying existence instead of merely staying life. The person who sees life as a
collection of unmet goal and unanswered riddles may despair of ever achieving a meaningful life
and will often withdraw and live out the remaining years like prison sentence. Too often we think
of older adults as leading colorless, joyless, passionless lives. It is surprising to some of us to
learn that real living usually continuous until death.

Death and dying "the final stage"

Everything has an end including each of our lives. The life cycle begins with the life of a single
cell and ends with the death of a person who unfolded from a dead cell. In recent years the topic
of death and dying has received some long-overdue scientific attention, which has produced
some interesting results.

Thoughts of death are an important part of the last stages of life for many individuals. Older
adults spend more time thinking about death then do younger adults. Contemplating and
planning for one's death is a normal part of old age. Older adults tend to be less frightened by
death than are younger adults. Older adults often come to accept their inevitability with little
anguish. Indeed, it often helps them make the most out of the time remaining. The new important
insights into the process of dying;

Denial:

At first the individual strongly resisted the idea of death by denying the validity of information
about his or her terminal illness.

Anger:

After the initial denial, the terminally ill persons react to the fact of her or his impending death
with anger.

Bargaining:

The anger and the denial of the impending death are largely gone by this third stage, and the
terminally ill person fully realizes that death is coming. But death is not still accepted as
inevitable. Instead, the person tries to strike bargains to prolong his or her life. These bargains
may be in the form of willingness to undergo painful treatment to extend life, but they are more
often silent deals with God.

Depression:

Eventually the reality of impending death leads to a loss of hope. Bargains no longer seem
possible; death is coming no matter what. The person often begins to feel guilty about leaving

loved ones behind, feels incapable of facing death with dignity and feels quite depressed.

Acceptance:
In time, the depression lefts and a person finally achieves and acceptance of death. This generally
is not a happy feeling of acceptance but a state of emotional exhaustion that leaves the individual
peacefully free of negative emotions.

Conclusion

This assignment presents the center of life span development and two levels of theory about the
nature of ontogeny. In this section, we outline how these different concepts and level of theory
may be addressed in the design and interpretation of research. The life span development
integrates the number of interrelated the proposition of the overall architecture and change
mechanism that characterized the human life course. The development has a long history. Child
psychologists, as well as a researcher of the adolescence, adulthood, old age, are concerned
equally with a question about commonalities, inter-individual, differences, and inter-individual
variability in development. The life span development challenges researcher who focus on one
age period (e.g. childhood, adulthood or old age ) to consider their data in the broader context of
the life course and overall proposition about the structure and mechanism of ontogeny.