Lifespan Development Reflective Paper

Lifespan Development Reflective Paper
Capella University

Reflective Paper
According to Boyd & Bee (2006), lifespan development is the scientific study of age-related changes which occur throughout individuals’ lives which influence behavior, thinking, emotion and personality. Lifespan development or human development involves every stage of life from conception to death. Some events in life, such as achieving sexual maturity, are mostly governed by heredity. Others such as learning to swim, or use a computer, are primarily a matter of environment. Prior to analyzing human development through the scientific study, philosophers offered theories to explain age related differences observed in individuals of different ages. Many of these theories continue to influence the field of human development and many Western beliefs in practiced today, originated from those theories (Boyd & Bee, 2006). This paper will consider human development in the areas of prenatal, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. Developmental theories pertaining to the various stages of development will be explored as will the affect early stages have on later development. Finally, this future clinician will attempt to evaluate how the knowledge learned in this class will influence planning inventions in her specialization of clinical psychology.
Prenatal
The physical and physiological characteristics handed down from parent to children through genetic transmission are referred to as heredity (nature). During conception when a sperm unites with an ovum, numerous personal features are established. The nucleus of every human cell contains 46 chromosomes; these threadlike structures contain the coded instructions of heredity. Chromosomes are made up of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which acts as a code for genetic information. The DNA in each cell contains three billion base pairs which is sufficient to record all...