Lifespan And Human Developement

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Life Span Perspective Paper Patricia A. Walker University of Phoenix Psy 375 Life Span and Human Development July 26, 2010 Instructor: Ronald Goodnight Individual Assignment: Life Span Perspective Paper Define life span development. Lifespan development includes all phases of human development beginning with one’s birth and ending with one’s death. It is the pattern of physical and psychological changes that occur during our lifetimes. This sequence begins at conception and progresses in time-intervals that are connected with the individual’s level of functioning. The major developmental intervals are classified as follows: child and adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood and late adulthood. An individual’s transition through each interval is accompanied by a character change which can take up to six years to complete (Smith, 2009). Life span development studies are viewed in the context of the surrounding culture and environment. Viewing things from a lifespan perspective entails seeing the aging process in terms of the physical, cognitive, and social domains (Martinez, 2008). Describe the characteristics of the life span perspective. According to Baltes, Reese, and Lipsit (1980), there are seven characteristics of life span perspectives; lifelong, multidirectional, multidimensional, plastic, multidisciplinary, contextual and involving growth, maintenance, and regulation. Life expectancy, the age at which one-half of the country’s population of a given age can be expected to live, has continued to increase over the years. These increases are most likely due to better nutrition and medical know-how. The lifelong perspective is multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual. Multidisciplinary development is important to the life span perspective for this is when a child is growing and changing physically (Boyd &

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