Lifespan Development

Five stages of life infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and elderhood.

Development is a process which exhibits a pattern of change in the growth of someone throughout his/her lifespan.

The lifespan Perspective emphasizes that human development is a lifelong process and it is affected by multidimensional factors, such as biological, individual, social, and cultural factors.

Cognitive processes arise from the mental state of an individual, such as thought, memory, attention, language acquisition, etc., Whatever an individual does during mental processing can affect the change in cognitive processes, and, in turn, human development.

The prenatal period refers to the process in the womb, which approximately takes 37-40 weeks in order to complete its full term. A single cell gradually evolves into embryo, fetus, and baby.

Toddlerhood is the period from 18-24 months to 36 months of age. This is the time for toddlers to explore the environment both physically and psychologically. They discover themselves and others in this period, which includes a dramatic increase in terms of different aspects of development. this period functions as a kind of bridge between infancy and early childhood.

Adolescence is the period from 10-12 years to 18-21 years of age and starts with the signs of puberty. In this period dramatic changes in hormones and physiology take place. These changes include voice, growth of facial and pubic hair and breasts. Psychological development also consists of visible changes such as, becoming more independent from parents and spending lots of time with friends. This period is valid also for identity development.

Erikson proposed that human development follows a process based on psychosocial stages rather than psychosexual stages. Contrary to Freud’s theory, Erikson suggested that the basic motivation of humans is being social and associating with other human beings, beyond sexual instincts. Freud considers early life experiences as the main determinants.

According to Piaget’s theory, children follow four developmental stages: the sensorimotor stage, the pre-operational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. During these stages; two processes help children to construct their mind: and shape their way of thinking about the world as they go through these stages: organization and adaptation. Each stage represents a distinct way of thinking, and a child adopts a different way of thinking in each stage.

Infants’ motor development consists of basically three skills: reflexes, gross motor skills, and fine motor skills.

The proximodistal pattern is the physical developmental pattern from the center to the extremities.

Reflexes are uncontrolled-automatic reactions to external stimuli and they have a survival value.

In contrast to gross motor skills, fine motor skills are involved in small muscle movements and activities, that occur in the hands and fingers. Grasping the mother’s finger, holding up a milk bottle, using a spoon, or playing with toys requiring hand-eye coordination are all examples of activities involving fine motor skills.

Assimilation takes place when a child encounters with new information and uses his/her already existence schemes to handle this in coming information.

Coordination of senses and movements with the help of reflexive reactions; such as sucking and grasping.

Goodness of Fit is the match between the infant’s temperament and environmental demands.

Animism is the thinking that inanimate objects have the same qualities as animate beings and thus they act like animate beings.

Socio-emotional Development: During this period; children’s self-concept and self understanding develop to include various aspects of social and psychological development. Children in this period start to compare themselves with others, especially peers, in social context. They also gain capability to take others perspective into account and exhibit sophistication in their mental processes.

Puberty is a process that starts in early adolescence. It is results from the changes in the brain-neuroendocrine system and it triggers rapid physical changes.

In terms of cognitive changes, one of the most popular topic that has been studied in middle adulthood is memory. While some researchers propose that memory capacity declines during this term, other researchers emphasize that there is no or minimal decline in memory capacity and performance. Basic conclusion on this topic is that more scientific research needs to be conducted in order to have an inference. In terms of other cognitive tasks, expertise has an influence on success. Expertise occurs usually in middle adulthood rather than early adulthood since being an expert on something needs lots of time, lots of practice and experience, and effort.