Life Span Perspective

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Life Span Perspective Ruth Hinson Psychology 375 October 1, 2015 Kate Andrews, Ph.D. Life Span Perspective Life span can be defined as the period that extends from conception to death. Thus, life span development is a process that begins at conception and continues to death. The life span perspective sees human development occurring as a result of all the different aspects of life that can promote change, such as school, socioeconomic status, genetics, and so on. The life span perspective uses multiple frameworks to understand how each aspect of life can influence development. These frameworks are multidirectional, multicontextual, multicultural, multidisciplinary and plasticity (Berger, 2011). Additionally, psychoanalytic and behaviorism theories offer a range of ideas regarding the effects and influences of heredity and the environment and how they determine human development (Berger, 2011). Life span perspective of development There are five characteristics that define the life span perspective on human development: multidirectional, multicontextual, multicultural, multidisciplinary, and plasticity. Multidirectional is a characteristic of development referring to its “nonlinear progression” (Hoyer, 2002). For example, as we mature from infancy to childhood, both our size and our verbal skills will increase, however, as children continue to develop into preadolescence, the rate of increase of verbal skills will start to slow down while their sizes continue to grow, until adulthood is reach, and then growth in size will stop. Multicontextual is a characteristic of development referring to the fact that each human life takes place within a number of contexts such as historical, cultural, and socioeconomic (Hoyer, 2002). For example, humans are born in certain places, at certain times, and under certain circumstances, and those places, times,

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