Lifespan Development Research Paper

Running head: LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT AND PERSONALITY PAPER

Lifespan Development and Personality Paper
Soni Nijjar
University of Phoenix

Lifespan Development and Personality Paper Psychology addresses various aspects of human development, such as biological, cognitive, and psychosocial. Biological development includes bodily changes, maturation, and growth. Mental processes of knowing, which includes imagining, perceiving, reasoning, and problem solving comes in cognitive development. Psychosocial holds the process of emotions, personality, and social interactions and expectations. These developments take place from birth through the life span. One of the stages of development as this paper will focus on is childhood (ages 3-12). In
childhood, physical development holds three different stages, early childhood (ages 2-6), middle childhood (ages 7-9), and late childhood (ages 10-12). In early childhood, the brain develops faster than any other body part attaining 90% of its adult weight by age 5. Physical strength increases and body weight becomes more adult-like. Athletic skills improve dramatically in early childhood, such as running and jumping. Tiger wood is the best golfer in the world because his father started teaching him how to golf when he was a year old. However, the fine motor skills, drawing and writing, develop slowly. The child starts to understand the gender differences. In middle childhood, brain and physical growth slows, but height grows. Athletic and fine motor skills become more advanced. Puberty begins with rising hormone levels in late childhood. Gender specific physical changes appear, such as enlargement of breasts in girls and testes in boys. In physical maturation, on average, boys lag 2 years behind girls. Variations in onset of puberty impact personality development. Cognitive development is the mental process of knowing. Children learn how to use words and symbols. Children’s language ability develops rapidly, learning vocabulary and gaining grammatical knowledge by age 6. Social interactions with parents and playmates teach children about the world. They get the ability to communicate with others. In middle childhood, they start to understand the process of logical principles. Their capacity of memory grows. Their ability to think about their own thoughts increases. Children’s use of language becomes more rational. In this stage, children have the ability to learn different languages. From age’s ten to twelve, children’s long term knowledge base grows. Their language skills expand including synonyms, categories, double meaning, metaphors, humor, and complex grammatical structure. They also gain logical thinking process. Their planning skills and memory strategies improve through the years of late childhood. In childhood, the process of emotion and personality is psychosocial development.
Children become aware of playing alone or with others using their imagination. Children have the ability to initiate new activities. Their first awareness of gender roles emerges, understanding the difference between a girl and a boy. Parenting style influences children’s psychosocial development. Children learn what they are being taught by their parents. However, Socialization in school encourages them to think about world outside their home. Looking for help, trust, and similar interest becomes needed more from their peers and friends. The more involved children are in the outside world the better their understanding of the importance of family, economics, and political conditions. Their motivation for affiliation with others, competence, and personal achievement increases. Children find better strategies for dealing with their stress and problems. They also develop strategies to help them understand other’s behavior. Between the ages of ten and twelve, appreciation of connection between moral rules and social conventions strengthens. They learn how to get into peer groups, and often peer groups divide into elites. Issues increases around independence, sibling competition, and separation from family. In addition, their knowledge of gender stereotypes continues to increase as they
grow. Lifespan is a process of development stages, such as biological, cognitive, and psychosocial. Various aspects of human development change through life. Different development stages hold a different process of change, physically, mentally, and socially in childhood. As this paper explains, changes in biological development are bodily changes, maturity, and growth. Cognitive development, on the other hand, is a process of knowing which includes imagining, problem solving, and reasoning. Emotions, personality, and social interactions come in psychosocial development.

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