Life Course And Human Development

The life course approach started in the 1960’s prior to this the life cycle approach was used which as Bengston et al (Reference) stated did not really consider the psychological or sociological aspects. The life cycle approach focused on life events that an individual was likely to go through such as marriage and child bearing, whilst the life cycle approach can offer some beneft to showing intergenerational patterns and it is useful to show the cycle of

Lifespan development is a scientific approach to questions about growth, change, and stability in physical, cognitive, social, and personality characteristics at all ages from conception to death (Feldman, 2014 Seventh Edition). In reading the chapter I found three theories very interesting evolutionary, cognitive, and psychodynamic. The reason I find evolutionary perspective because I feel as though this perspective or theory is the base of study. When we are born we have genetic make-up for two people with two family trees. The blending is sometimes a hard transition. We all have been around child and seen their parents’ characteristics in the child. Evolutionary perspective attributes to the genetic inheritance from our ancestors, contending that genes determine not only traits such as skin and eye color, but certain personality traits and social behaviors (Feldman, 2014 Seventh Edition). We all see and new edition in a family and sit and try and pick out which parent the child looks like. We are a very diverse place. The traits and genetic studies are a constant for new developments and updated current practices. Education on social norms of new populations are a must. As we learned throughout history change is a shock. We need to educate and adapt to the societal new comers. Problems occur in the lag between establishment of new members and educative process which has caused some havoc for community members. With more and more cultural differences and blending there

P1 – Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Social Development of the Individual through the Life Stages

The life-course-theory explores each phase of the life cycle from birth into adulthood and identifies the various influences in an individual’s ability to perceive and respond according to multifaceted influences via neurological and psychological deficits as well as environment and social context.

Charles Darwin was not only a pioneer in evolutionary psychology, also today’s theories of modern lifespan development draw on and are influenced by Darwin’s ideas. His functionalist perspective primarily focused on the reason for development of specific human characteristics over many generations, and therefore an enormously long timescale. However, inspired by the observations in the development his own son, Darwin also acknowledged that “an individual is the result of a gradual sequence of prior changes, both in a broad evolutionary sense and within individual’s own lifetime and further development and changes lies ahead” (Cooper and Roth, p.50, 2003). This notion provided the basis for other researchers to further explore the

The life course theory is a theory of “life progression” through time of birth to death. The life course epidemiology is considered to be the study of long-term biological, behavioral, and psychological developments that brings the link between adult and the potential of disease risk as a result of physical or social exposures proceeding from conception, during childhood, adolescence, early adulthood or through generations (Nickitas, Middaugh, & Aries, 2010). Essentialy, the theory stipulates that biological and social components interact with each other to produce health conditions during an individual’s lifetime (Nickitas, Middaugh & Aries, 2010).

The three theories I have chosen to discuss are all extremely relevant ideas; although I prefer Erik Erikson’s stage of psychosocial development. Erik Erikson’s theory covers a person’s entire lifespan showing the many different stages throughout one’s life. A person is always

Chapter 15 offers positive aspects as well as challenges to growing older (Rice, 2001). While transitioning through this stages the author mentions several important dimensions including social, legal, biological and emotional dimensions which can enhance or causes a degree of instability for the developing adult (Rice, 2001). The author discusses several other models such as Gould’s Phases of Life, Levinson’s Seasons of life, Vaillant’s Adaptation to Life, Normative–Crisis Model, and Timing of Events Model to provide information and different perspectives on the aging process. The chapter closes discusses the change or stability of personality throughout adulthood. The chapter mentions that there are five cluster of personality traits which remains stable through adulthood (Rice,

A theory of development should reflect an attempt to relate behavioral to chronological age; that is the diverse behavioral characteristics should be related to specific stages of growth. The rules governing the transitions between these growth states also must be identified. The dominant developmental theories are Freud's theory of personality development and Piaget's theory of perception and cognition. Both explain human development in terms of interactions of biological determinants

The five defining principles of life course theory was the founded by sociologist Glen Elder, Jr. He built the five principles based off the changes of the historical and social context on life and the natural occurrence of the human development and aging. The first theory tp the principle of life span development. This is exemplifying that your health and well-being is a lifelong journey and may impact yourself or even offspring in the future. The second principle is of human agency. This is bringing attention that different goals and values that you live by can also effect you health outcome that can contribute to birth outcome. The third principle is timing. Timing is shaped by what happens to us , when it happen in life span, how long

Developmental psychology is a branch of the study that characterizes the human life span through physical, cognitive and social change. A human goes through three distinct life span stages, including infancy and childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The study of developmental psychology focuses on three major issues starting with nature and nurture, which deals with interactions between genetic inheritance and experiences to alter human development (Myers & Dewall, 2015). The second issue is the continuity and stages of the human life span. This issue targets the gradual and continuous parts of development and also the abrupt changes throughout each stage of life. Even though all individuals may pass through each stage of life at a different pace, everyone faces them in the same order. The last of the three aspects of developmental psychology is stability and change. This study identifies which human traits carry throughout the entire life span and how they change with age. Stability and change are both key aspects in the progression of age. Part of a human’s identity is shown through their stability. If an individual is stable with themselves in life, it allows them to depend on others and feel sympathy and care for the development of a healthy child. To see a better future, one must first be open to change. With an outgoing personality and receptive mindset, one will have a greater chance of living an excellent life. A human’s potential for change stimulates concerns

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.

In this chapter they discuss the life span development perspective. They talk about the different methods of changes in human during their life span. The connection of the biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional process. Human development change trough family influences as well as society, brain development (cognitive), friends, media, and so on. The developmental theories contribute in the view of the human development in some similar ways and different perspectives. I personally like more Erickson theory with Piaget’s cognitive development and Banduras social cognitive theory, (Santrock, 2015).

As described in Hutchison (2013), the life course perspective occupies traditional theories of developmental psychology, which look at the events that normally occur in individual’s

The constraints to life course and lifespan are not as clear as once assumed. With suitable policies and programs, people can stay healthy and independent even during old age and contribute to their communities and families (Davey Smith et al., 2000). The life course approach to hypothesizing health and well-being has developed from research supporting the key role played by the early life events in determining an individual’s health trajectory. The relationship of risk and protective factors, such as socioeconomic status, toxic environmental exposures, health behaviors, stress, and nutrition, effect health during one’s lifetime (HRSA, n.d.).