Lifespan development- Lecture 1 Flashcards
What is lifespan development?
Study of stability and change across the lifespan
Has primarily been focus on childhood,
But development is a life long process
Cavanaugh and blanchard-Fields (2011)
Understanding change and development throughout life course
Hendricks (2012)
Factors influencing change, including:
- biological
- social
- psychological
- historical
- geographic
Early phase
Childhood and adolescence
characterised by rapid age-related changes in people’s size and abilities
Later phase
young adulthood, middle age and old age
characterised by slower changes, but abilities continue to develop as people continue adapting to the environment (Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006).
Lifespan transitions
Four forms
- Change in cultural context
- change within persons sphere of experience
- Change in relationships and interactions
- Change from within a person
Zittoun (2006)
4 Lifespan transitions
- not mutually exclusive
Miller (2010)
Sees lifespan transitions as ‘life stressors’- pathologising
BUT this overlooks positive change
PERSON CENTRED theory of lifespan development
Erikson (1958)- Psychodynamic theory- stages of developement
Psychodynamic theory of lifespan development
- Each stage has conflicts/crisis that needs to be resolved to progress-can become stuck or move backwards
- Part of ego development
- By resolving person acquires a virtue’; an ego strength or special quality.
Examples of stages in Person centred Psychodynamic theory
- In childhood: trust vs mistrust
- Into adulthood: identity vs role confusion
Evaluation of Erikson’s (1958)
+ Recognises that psychological dev. continues through life
+ Emphasis on individual and society in affecting personal development
- Linear scale and unidirectional- not flexible- human dev. is plastic
- Outliers as abnormal
- Most dev. in childhood, lack of in adulthood- looks at it VERY NARROW OUTLOOK
- Not UNIVERSAL omits cultural difference, context importance and person-environment interaction
Peck (1968)
Stages of psychological development in second half of life
Subdivided middle and old age into additional sub stages-
Middle age- 4 crises
Old age- 3 crises
Positives of Peck (1968)
Characterised later life more positively, as time for growth
Contemporary Lifespan development theories acknowledge…
- Embeddedness (Acknowledging full context of the Individual)
- Developmental contextualism (persons development is inextricably and reciprocally linked to the multiple contexts of individuals’ lives)
- Dynamic interactionism (change in one variable can cause changes in other variables- not possible to separate biology and psychology)
- Sociocultural lens (reflect diversity)
FUNCTION CENTRED-
3 Lifespan developmental theories
> Ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979)
> SOC model of development (Baltes, 1987)
> Lifespan model of developmental challenge (Hendry & Kloep, 2002)
Ecological systems theory
Bronfenbrenner (1979)
Development due to individuals interaction with an evolving environment
Ecological environment is a nest of structures within each other:
>Microsystem
>Mesosystem
>Exosystem
>Macrosystem
Microsystem
Ecological systems theory
Face-to-face interactions activities and roles
Mesosystems
Ecological systems theory
Interaction between two or more microsystems e.g. family vs work friends
Exosystems
Links between two or more settings the person is not actively part of but may affect person e.g. parents work stress
Macrosystems
Cultural values, attitudes and resources in the environment
SOC model of development
Baltes (1987)
Development = dynamic interactions between growth & decline
Internal and external resources are finite as we age
3 fundamental processes:
-Selection
-Optimisation
-Compensation
Selection process (SOC model)
Selecting fundamental domains on which to focus one’s limited resources
Optimisation
SOC model
Maximising gains by acquiring the correct means for optimal goal achievement
Compensation
SOC model
Compensating for losses
like restructuring ones goal system- making new attainable goals and binning unattainable goals
Lifespan model of developmental challenge
Hendry & Kloep (2002)
Challenges in life can act as catalysts for change- depending on resources available
- Variable number and type of challenge per individual
-Processes and mechanisms of development the same
-Avoiding a challenge carries risk of developmental stagnation
- Challenges met with set of social, cognitive, biological resources
Key criticisms of Ecological systems theory Bonfenbrenner (1979)
-Don't know the mechanisms of how the systems interact -No hierarchy of importance -Crowded theory that becomes dilute as each factor is in little detail ...Thus is hard to make predictions from
Evaluation of SOC model Baltes (1987)
+More focused and explains interactions between things
+ More dynamic and flexible
MULTIDIMENSIONAL LIFESPAN APPROACH
Cavanaugh & Blanchard fields (2015)
4 Interactive forces -Biological forces -Psychological forces -Sociocultural forces >Life-cycle forces
Biopsychosocial framework
Adopts all of the interactive life- cycle interactive forces
Miller (2009)- model in which many factors contribute to health snd wellbeing- expanding from a purely psychological context
What makes a good lifespan theory? Evaluating principles
Hendricks (2012)
- Recognise our ties to others?
- Dimensions of time or context play a part?
- Place and location addressed?
- Personal agency?
Individual differences in health and wellbeing
How we address these
Incorporate mediating relationship between multidimensional risk factors (biopsychosocial), age and health and wellbeing.
Age is often a mediating factor
Martin et al (2001)
> Age differences indicating higher levels of well-being in the younger age group in relation to risk factors of stress and social resources as compared to older age group
-Age mediates wellbeing
