Life Span Development

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Life Span Development Robert Diaz 9/9/13 PSY/375 Shaun-Katherine Robles The human life is developed from the time a person is born until their death. However long (or short) a person's life span is, over time, they develop both physically and cognitively. Many psychological researchers look to see how a person develops and why. Prominent figures in psychology like Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget, along with so many others, have spent good portions of their own lifespan trying to answer these questions and give a better picture of how a person develops throughout their entire lives. Both Piaget and Freud looked at development over a life span in stages. In addition to these theories there has been a debate of "Nature vs. Nurture" that raises questions of what has more influence in development; A person's nature and innate qualities or the external experiences they experience? Looking at development through the lens of an entire lifespan has been something explored for quite a long time. Ancient societies had various viewpoints of an individual's development believing in things like destiny and definite role in life in which a person would develop (Guest,2011), but over time through the simplest method of human observation there was noticed of changes affected by experience that created a debate "between an assumption that people have inherent developmental destiny, and the knowledge that what happens to people in the social world can alter that destiny". Looking at development through lifespan can help us as individuals through the rest of our years as well as help shape future generations by identify key segments during their own development over time.

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