Life-Span Perspective Paper

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Lifespan Perspective Julieta Renton PSY/375 April 01, 2013 Heather Harrison Life-span Perspective A person’s life-span is from the moment of conception through his or her death. In the field of psychology, life-span development is the various stages that an individual passes through as he or she develops. The perspective of life-span development includes understanding the changes that occur in human development. Freud and Piaget offered different theories concerning life-span development. Freud’s theory is a basis of id, ego, and superego, whereas Piaget’s theory offers an explanation of human development as being cognitive and occurring over a person’s lifetime. The concept of nature and nurture in life-span development are more than just mere perspectives; they both influence development and play a major role in determining the kind of person an individual will be. This paper will explain in further detail the life-span perspective of development; summarize Freud’s and Piaget’s theories of life-span development; and explain how heredity and environment interact to produce individual differences in human development. What is Life-span Development? As aforementioned, a person’s life-span begins with conception. It includes the development and growth of a fetus and continues on to birth and ends when death occurs. The study of human development is a science seeking to understand how humans change over their lifetime (Berger, 2011). The changes that a person experiences as he or she grows and develops, can be linear-gradual, predictable, steady, or as it most often occurs, it can include none of these. The common stages are birth, infancy, adolescence, adulthood, old age, and lastly death. In order to define life-span development, it is imperative to note that humans learn to communicate, to work, love, and learn from relationships in their lifetime. Thus,

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