Lifespan Development, Global Edition

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Impactful Career Connections featuring 35 careers rooted in developmental science, cover career pathways for students and highlight career contexts to consider at every stage of life.

Sigmund Freud introduced the Psychosexual Theory of Development. He believed that our personality is shaped by our experiences in early childhood and that there are certain fixations that happen during each stage: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, and Genital. His theory is an example of discontinuity. Ainsworth's Attachment Theory Lifespan in Developmental Psychology involves the study of an individual's development over the course of their life as they age. It is related to the study of evolution and life factors that affect the growth and aging process. There are multiple ways that researchers study the human lifespan. Longitudinal ResearchAs with other major contributors of theories of development, several of Piaget’s ideas have come under criticism based on the results of further research. For example, several contemporary studies support a model of development that is more continuous than Piaget’s discrete stages (Courage & Howe, 2002; Siegler, 2005, 2006). Many others suggest that children reach cognitive milestones earlier than Piaget describes (Baillargeon, 2004; de Hevia & Spelke, 2010). Lifespan development involves the exploration of biological, cognitive, and psychosocial changes and constancies that occur throughout the entire course of life. It has been presented as a theoretical perspective, proposing several fundamental, theoretical, and methodological principles about the nature of human development. An attempt by researchers has been made to examine whether research on the nature of development suggests a specific metatheoretical worldview. Several beliefs, taken together, form the “family of perspectives” that contribute to this particular view. The topics, theories, and examples used in this text ensure this is relevant material which can be used for teaching purposes in developmental learning environments for quite some time. While topics are up-to-date, edits would not be difficult to implement given the design of the text. For the most part, this strange arrangement of topics under any particular stage heading seems to be consistent.

Culture is an extremely important context for human development and understanding development requires being able to identify which features of development are culturally based. This understanding is somewhat new and still being explored. So much of what developmental theorists have described in the past has been culturally bound and difficult to apply to various cultural contexts. For example, Erikson’s theory that teenagers struggle with identity assumes that all teenagers live in a society in which they have many options and must make an individual choice about their future. In many parts of the world, one’s identity is determined by family status or society’s dictates. In other words, there is no choice to make.

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are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written The text contains suitable language. It provides excellent introductions of concepts and applications. Te text is clear and accessible! This has been exemplified in numerous studies, including Nesselroade and Baltes’, showing that the level and direction of change in adolescent personality development was influenced as strongly by the socio-cultural settings at the time (in this case, the Vietnam War) as age-related factors. The study involved individuals of four different adolescent age groups who all showed significant personality development in the same direction (a tendency to occupy themselves with ethical, moral, and political issues rather than cognitive achievement). Similarly, Elder showed that the Great Depression was a setting that significantly affected the development of adolescents and their corresponding adult personalities, by showing a similar common personality development across age groups. Baltes’ theory also states that the historical socio-cultural setting had an effect on the development of an individual’s intelligence. The areas of influence that Baltes thought most important to the development of intelligence were health, education, and work. The first two areas, health and education, significantly affect adolescent development because healthy children who are educated effectively will tend to develop a higher level of intelligence. The environmental factors, health and education, have been suggested by Neiss and Rowe to have as much effect on intelligence as inherited intelligence. People in early adulthood (i.e., 20s through early 40s) are concerned with intimacy versus isolation. After we have developed a sense of self in adolescence, we are ready to share our life with others. Erikson said that we must have a strong sense of self before developing intimate relationships with others. Adults who do not develop a positive self-concept in adolescence may experience feelings of loneliness and emotional isolation. The textbook is accurate and contains up-to-date and relevant information as would typically be seen on this topic.

Like Freud and Erikson, Piaget thought development unfolds in a series of stages approximately associated with age ranges. He proposed a theory of cognitive development that unfolds in four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational ( [link]). Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development Age (years) The content in the textbook is accurate and covers the main concepts of development seen in most textbooks. The textbook is consistent in terms of terminology used, also the framework of of the text itself. The system is a bit difficult to use, but as stated previously this would probably change and improve the more the user used the textbook. Normative age-graded influences are those biological and environmental factors that have a strong correlation with chronological age, such as puberty or menopause, or age-based social practices such as beginning school or entering retirement. Normative history-graded influences are associated with a specific time period that defines the broader environmental and cultural context in which an individual develops. For example, development and identity are influenced by historical events of the people who experience them, such as the Great Depression, WWII, Vietnam, the Cold War, the War on Terror, or advances in technology.This textbook follows a typical flow for it’s type. All of the content is relevant and is predicted to remain relevant for years to come. It’s nice to see an updated version (2021) with updated materials.

The book does well on the topics it covers. However, the topics covered are more a selection than anything else. For instance, physical development is left out entirely, while the text has a thorough and sophisticated coverage of theories of development and research methods. For instance, there is thorough and modern coverage of contextual theories of development where many texts limit themselves to classical theories like Erikson. The text has neither index or glossary. Further examples: Unit 5 on Early Childhood covers self-regulation and cognitive development. Both are well-described, but social-emotional development and physical development (as noted earlier) are left by the wayside. Outstanding cultural contexts throughout (including videos, references and discussions in each topical area). Coverage of cultural diversity is interesting and relevant. When people reach their 40s, they enter the time known as middle adulthood, which extends to the mid-60s. The social task of middle adulthood is generativity versus stagnation. Generativity involves finding your life’s work and contributing to the development of others, through activities such as volunteering, mentoring, and raising children. Those who do not master this task may experience stagnation, having little connection with others and little interest in productivity and self-improvement. The text is very clear and readable. The content and presentation is very clean, which makes it easy to understand. Culture is often referred to as a blueprint or guideline shared by a group of people that specifies how to live. It includes ideas about what is right and wrong, what to strive for, what to eat, how to speak, what is valued, as well as what kinds of emotions are called for in certain situations. Culture teaches us how to live in a society and allows us to advance because each new generation can benefit from the solutions found and passed down from previous generations.Reviewed by Kelli Rogers, Assistant Professor Practice, University of Texas at Arlington on 12/12/22 It is important to realize that even those people who have the most sophisticated, post-conventional reasons for some choices may make other choices for the simplest of pre-conventional reasons. Many psychologists agree with Kohlberg’s theory of moral development but point out that moral reasoning is very different from moral behavior. Sometimes what we say we would do in a situation is not what we actually do in that situation. In other words, we might “talk the talk,” but not “walk the walk.” Psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley (2006) spent their careers looking at early language ability and progression of children in various income levels. In one longitudinal study, they found that although all the parents in the study engaged and interacted with their children, middle- and high-income parents interacted with their children differently than low-income parents. After analyzing 1,300 hours of parent-child interactions, the researchers found that middle- and high-income parents talk to their children significantly more, starting when the children are infants. By 3 years old, high-income children knew almost double the number of words known by their low-income counterparts, and they had heard an estimated total of 30 million more words than the low-income counterparts (Hart & Risley, 2003). And the gaps only become more pronounced. Before entering kindergarten, high-income children score 60% higher on achievement tests than their low-income peers (Lee & Burkam, 2002). According to Erikson (1963), trust is the basis of our development during infancy (birth to 12 months). Therefore, the primary task of this stage is trust versus mistrust. Infants are dependent upon their caregivers, so caregivers who are responsive and sensitive to their infant’s needs help their baby to develop a sense of trust; their baby will see the world as a safe, predictable place. Unresponsive caregivers who do not meet their baby’s needs can engender feelings of anxiety, fear, and mistrust; their baby may see the world as unpredictable.