Paper Topic:

Life Span Perspective

Life Span Perspective

Name

University of Phoenix

DEFINE LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT

Human development is understood only in the light of thorough knowledge and understanding of the complete makeup of man (Berk , 2000 . However the accumulation of bases and proofs for the evidences in this understanding would not be possible without utilizing scientific methods . These evidences helped cement psychology 's place in the realm of scientific knowledge . Only when psychology employed scientific methods did it come to be a force to reckon with among many of the pure and applied

sciences (Bootzin , 1991 . In other words life-span development deals with an individual 's behavioral development in its entirety . It directs the reader or student to the studies on the nuances of changes of an individual from the prenatal stage until the aging years . Development does not end once a person reaches physical maturity but continues throughout life . Developmental psychologists seek to describe and analyze the regularities of human development across the entire life span . These specialists focus primarily on those aspects of development that make one person similar to another as a species (Berk 2000

DESCRIBE the CHARACTERISTICS of the LIFE SPAN PERSPECTIVE

Describe the characteristics of the life span perspective

According to Baltes , the life span perspective employs the approach based on the following key principles

Development is considered as plastic or has an inherent plasticity which is the characteristic of a certain individual trait as flexible or adaptable in terms of its performance

Development is considered multidirectional and at the same time multidimensional

Development is dependent on history and context

Development is considered as lifelong

These characteristics have proven as descriptive of the changes that are standard or considered as operational during most of the human being 's ' history (Papalia et al , 2002

IDENTIFY the HUMAN DEVELOPMENT DOMAINS and PERIODS

- Periods of Human Development

Every human life starts with the union of male and female sex cells the sperm , and the ovum or egg . From here , human development can occur in an ly and sequential pattern that is often always predictable (Papalia et al , 2002 . It is amazing to imagine the difficulties that the egg and sperm go through just before they meet and nature 's way of providing that these two will unite and form into either a male or a female human being

Prenatal period

The ly development of the human organism begins as soon as a spermatozoon fertilizes the ovum . This is the prenatal period extending from conception to birth and lasts about 266 days (around nine months During this period , a single cell divides and grows to form 200 billion cells . It consists of three successive phases : the germinal , embryonic and fetal periods (Papalia et al , 2002

Infancy

The postnatal period refers to birth and onward . Birth changes all the prenatal , watery environment of the fetus . The newborn child during the first month of life outside the mother 's uterus is called a neonate Immediately after being born , a newborn 's physiology undergoes...

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