Lifespan Development and Personality
Lifespan Development and Personality
By
Denise Isaac
Carroll Lytch
Psych 103
April 28, 2010
Developmental psychology seeks to address various aspects of human development, including physical, cognitive, social, moral, and personality development. In developmental psychology the debate about nature versus nurture, continuity versus stages, and stability versus change are still ongoing. According to the nature position, human behavior and development are governed by automatic, genetically predetermined signals in a process known as maturation. Humans crawl before we walk and walk before we run. One of several critical periods during our lifetime is, when an organism is especially sensitive to certain experiences that shape the capacity for future development. On the other side of the debate, those who hold an extreme nuturist position argue that development occurs by learning through personal experience and observation of others. Continuity proponents believe that development is continuous, with new abilities, skills, and knowledge being gradually added at a relatively uniform pace. Therefore, the continuity model suggests that adult thinking and intelligence differ quantitatively from a child 's. Stage theorists, on the other hand, believe that development occurs at different rates, alternating between periods of little change and periods of abrupt, rapid change. Psychologists who emphasize stability in development hold that measurements of personality taken during childhood are important predictors of adult personality. Of course, psychologists who emphasize change disagree. Like the nature versus nurture debate, the debates about continuity versus stages and stability versus change are not a matter of “either-or.” Physical development and motor skills, for example, are believed to be primarily continuous in nature, whereas cognitive skills usually develop in discrete stages. Similarly, some traits are stable, whereas others vary greatly across the
By
Denise Isaac
Carroll Lytch
Psych 103
April 28, 2010
Developmental psychology seeks to address various aspects of human development, including physical, cognitive, social, moral, and personality development. In developmental psychology the debate about nature versus nurture, continuity versus stages, and stability versus change are still ongoing. According to the nature position, human behavior and development are governed by automatic, genetically predetermined signals in a process known as maturation. Humans crawl before we walk and walk before we run. One of several critical periods during our lifetime is, when an organism is especially sensitive to certain experiences that shape the capacity for future development. On the other side of the debate, those who hold an extreme nuturist position argue that development occurs by learning through personal experience and observation of others. Continuity proponents believe that development is continuous, with new abilities, skills, and knowledge being gradually added at a relatively uniform pace. Therefore, the continuity model suggests that adult thinking and intelligence differ quantitatively from a child 's. Stage theorists, on the other hand, believe that development occurs at different rates, alternating between periods of little change and periods of abrupt, rapid change. Psychologists who emphasize stability in development hold that measurements of personality taken during childhood are important predictors of adult personality. Of course, psychologists who emphasize change disagree. Like the nature versus nurture debate, the debates about continuity versus stages and stability versus change are not a matter of “either-or.” Physical development and motor skills, for example, are believed to be primarily continuous in nature, whereas cognitive skills usually develop in discrete stages. Similarly, some traits are stable, whereas others vary greatly across the
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