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Life-span psychology can be defined as the exploration of biological, cognitive, and psychosocial changes and constancies that occur throughout the course of life. [6] It has been presented as a theoretical perspective, proposing several fundamental, theoretical, and methodological principles about the nature of human development.
The lifespan perspectives of personality are based on the plasticity principle, the principle that personality traits are open systems that can be influenced by the environment at any age. [5] Large-scale longitudinal studies have demonstrated that the most active period of personality development appears to be between the ages of 20–40. [5]
So far, empirical research from a life course perspective has not resulted in the development of a formal theory. [8] Glen Elder theorized the life course as based on five key principles: life-span development, human agency, historical time and geographic place, timing of decisions, and linked lives. As a concept, a life course is defined as "a ...
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John B. Watson are typically cited as providing the foundation for modern developmental psychology. [7] In the mid-18th century, Jean Jacques Rousseau described three stages of development: infants (infancy), puer (childhood) and adolescence in Emile: Or, On Education.
The development of the human mind is complex and a debated subject, and may take place in a continuous or discontinuous fashion. [4] Continuous development, like the height of a child, is measurable and quantitative, while discontinuous development is qualitative, like hair or skin color, where those traits fall only under a few specific phenotypes. [5]
Erik Erikson and Carl Jung proposed stage theories [2] [3] of human development that encompass the entire life span, and emphasized the potential for positive change very late in life. The concept of adulthood has legal and socio-cultural definitions. The legal definition [4] of an adult is a person who is fully grown or developed.
The constructive developmental framework (CDF) is a theoretical framework for epistemological and psychological assessment of adults. The framework is based on empirical developmental research showing that an individual's perception of reality is an actively constructed "world of their own", unique to them and which they continue to develop over their lifespan.
Additionally, evolutionary developmental psychologists emphasize research on psychological development and behaviors across the lifespan. Pioneers of EDP contrast their work with that of mainstream evolutionary psychologists, who they argue focus primarily on adults, especially on behaviors related to socializing and mating.