Issues in the Development of the Life Span

An Introduction

From the moment a human child is conceived until the day an individual dies, they are constantly changing and evolving. While some changes occur as a result of chance events and personal choices, the vast majority of life changes and stages occur as a result of certain shared biological and psychological factors that are partly inherited and partly environmental in nature and are experienced by all people.

The term "life span development" refers to the critical developmental stages that humans experience: birth, infancy, adolescence, adulthood, old age, and finally death. As humans progress through the stages of development, they learn to utilise their body parts, to express themselves and communicate with others, to form relationships with others, to care for others, to love, and to work. This unit will introduce the concept of development, discuss the issues and stages of human development, and then discuss the concept of life span development, its characteristics, and theories of child development.

The term "development" refers to the process by which humans grow throughout their lives, from conception to death. It defines development as the patterns of change that occur over time. It encompasses not only the biological and physical aspects of development, but also the cognitive and social aspects. Human development is a scientific study that aims to comprehend and explain how and why people change throughout their lives. This field investigates changes in a wide variety of subjects, including motor skills and other psychophysiological processes. Cognitive development encompasses such areas as problem-solving, moral comprehension, and conceptual comprehension; language acquisition; social, personality, and emotional development; and self-concept and identity formation. The term "growth" refers to an increase in size, whereas "development" refers to a progression toward maturity.

Life span development encompasses issues such as the extent to which knowledge is acquired gradually versus in stages, or the extent to which children are born with innate mental structures versus those acquired through experience. Numerous researchers are interested in the interaction of an individual's personal characteristics, his or her behaviour, and environmental factors, including the social context, and their effect on development.

Developmental science is critical not only for psychology, but also for sociology, education, and health care. By developing a better understanding of how and why people change and grow, one can then use this knowledge to assist individuals in reaching their full potential.

Issues in the Development of the Life Span

Numerous significant issues have emerged as a result of the study of human development. Among these concerns are the following: Is development more genetic or environmental in nature? Is development gradual and seamless, or do changes occur in stages? Are early childhood experiences the most influential on development, or are subsequent events equally significant?

  • Continuity and Discontinuity: The debate over whether development is entirely and uniformly continuous or punctuated by age-specific periods. The continuous model of development, as advocated by developmental psychologists, describes development as a relatively smooth process devoid of sharp or distinct stages through which an individual must pass.

That is, development is viewed as the process by which a behaviour, skill, or knowledge is gradually accumulated. By contrast, proponents of the second view argue that developmental change is more accurately described as discontinuous in nature.

They describe development as a series of discrete stages, each of which is defined by what occurred previously and the child's ability to master the developmental tasks associated with that stage, etc. These theorists argue that behaviours and skills frequently undergo qualitative change over time and that new organisations of behaviours, skills, and knowledge emerge abruptly or discretely.

  • Stability vs. Change: Another issue that developmental psychologists must address is the issue of stability vs. change. Whether stability is the best way to characterise development; for instance, does a behaviour or trait such as shyness remain stable in its expression over time or does it change? example: Could a person's level of shyness fluctuate over time?
  • Natural Selection vs. Nurture: Whether the child's eventual development of behaviour is due to hereditary or environmental factors. This is a significant issue for psychologists. The debate over the relative contributions of inheritance and environment is one of the earliest philosophical and psychological debates. This debate centres on the relative influence of heredity and learning on an individual's behaviour. Both genetic characteristics and environmental circumstances play a role in an individual's development, though the extent to which they influence one another is not clear. Indeed, one could argue that the individual and his or her circumstances determine how much of an individual's behaviour is determined by heredity and how much by environmental factors. Today, the majority of psychologists believe that development occurs as a result of an interaction between these two forces. Certain aspects of development, such as puberty, are purely biological. However, environmental factors such as diet and nutrition can influence the onset of puberty.

Developmental Stages

Frequently, developmental stages are defined through the use of milestones. The term "milestone" refers to the development that must occur in accordance with the child's age. For example, almost all children begin standing and walking at the age of one and a half to two years, and begin speaking a few words at the age of one and a half to two years. A developmental stage is successfully completed when the child masters the developmental tasks associated with that stage. Often, special milestones, such as walking in infancy and entering school in early childhood, are used to identify children's progress within and between developmental stages.

Children develop new skills and build on existing ones as they progress through the stages; each stage is cumulative. Each stage of development is dependent on the mastery gained in the previous stage, and the current stage of development paves the way for mastering tasks in the subsequent stage. Thus, each stage of development is interdependent on the previous one. It is the tasks and abilities that children master that truly indicate their developmental stage. As a result, children of the same age can expect to be at varying developmental stages.

Children develop at their own pace. Additionally, children develop channels at varying rates. For instance, a twelve-year-body old's may have already reached puberty and may resemble that of an adolescent, but the child may lack the cognitive and social abilities of an adolescent. It will take some time for their mind to catch up with the changes occurring in their body.

Children reach developmental milestones at a variety of ages. Occasionally, children will appear to skip an entire developmental stage in certain channels due to their rapid advancement in a short period of time.

Developmental delays can be caused by disease, injury, mental disability, complications during pregnancy, environmental factors, trauma, or unknown factors. It is widely accepted that children reach a point in their lives when they are biologically mature enough to acquire certain skills that they could not easily acquire prior to that maturation. For example, by the time a child reaches the age of three, he may have developed sufficient muscular coordination to learn to write only a few alphabets when taught. In other words, a certain level of readiness is required to learn a skill, and children develop this readiness at a specific age. For example, you cannot expect a three-month-old baby to stand on two legs due to the immaturity of the organs required for standing.

Children are ready and willing to develop certain abilities at specific stages, but they require a stimulating environment to do so. Infants can grow in length and weight if they receive proper and adequate nutrition. However, if a child is malnourished, he or she will not grow normally. This is why it is critical for parents to understand how their children grow and what nutrition should be provided at what age, among other things.

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