Life Span Perspective: Understanding Of The Developmental Process

Life Span Perspective

Life Span Perspective An understanding of the developmental process through generations of living is an important characteristic in developing a life span perspective. Life span development is the process in which each individual go through from the time of conception to the time of death, but it is the time in between that is primarily studied. The developmental stages of an individual’s life are an important factor in regards to determining human behavior; this is studied through looking at heredity (nature), and the environmental (nurture) effects that both play significant roles. For many years there has been a great deal of debate over perspectives of the human life span and its development;
Life span development is referring to the many faceted layers of human growth; these layers are characterized through multi-cultural, multi-contextual, multi-disciplinary, multi-directional, and plasticity. Each of these characteristics of development brings about their own implications (Berger, 2011). Life span development is multi-cultural, meaning that there is a system of development within cultures; each culture, be it a nation, an ethnic group, or a society, plays an important role in individual development (Berger, 2011). Life span development is multi-contextual, meaning that there are multiple contexts in an individual’s life span that play a role in their development. These include an individual’s climate, surrounding sounds, population, family patterns, and historical conditions which are ingrained into an individual’s life (Berger, 2011). Life span development is multi-disciplinary, which means that there are many different disciples, or concepts related to the developmental process of an individual. Some of these disciplines include psychology, biology, sociology, anthropology, historical, and education. All these forms of discipline, or domains, have
Freud’s theory of development consists of three stages; the oral stage, the anal stage, and the phallic stage. Each stage is part of individual development, and is the focus of attention during that stage. During the oral stage, (which ranges from birth to the age of one) a baby’s main focus is oral, the mouth, tongue, and lips. During the anus stage, (which ranges from one to three years of age) the child is most focused on the anus. At the age of preschoolers, the focus is the penis, which is also where the phallic stage comes in (Berger, 2011). Latency and genital stages occur after the phallic stage and according to Freud’s theory, these early stages of development influence individual personality and habits as an adult (Berger,