Slide 1The Life-Span PerspectiveCharacteristics of the Life-Span PerspectiveLife Span versus Life ExpectancyBaltes’s Life Span Approach: 7 Key Principles7 Principles of Life-Span DevelopmentContexts: Three Types of Influences (overview)Age-Graded Normative InfluencesNormative History-Graded InfluencesNon-Normative InfluencesThe Dimensions of DevelopmentPeriods of DevelopmentPeriods of Development con’tConceptions of AgeDevelopmental IssuesDevelopmental IssuesDevelopmental IssuesEvaluating the Developmental IssuesStudying Human DevelopmentIntroductionThe Life-Span Perspective•Development •The pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the human life-span •Why study the life-span?Characteristics of the Life-Span Perspective•Traditional approach emphasizes extreme change from birth to adolescence, little to no change in adulthood, and decline in old age •Life-span approach emphasizes developmental change throughout the full life spanLife Span versus Life Expectancy•Human Life Span•Oldest age documented •Life Expectancy•Average number of years a person born in a particular year can expect to liveBaltes’s Life Span Approach: 7 Key Principles1. Development is lifelong2. Development is multidimensional3. Development is mulitdirectional4. Development shows plasticity7 Principles of Life-Span Development5. Development is multidisciplinary6. Influence of context (History and Culture)7. Development involves changing allocation of resourcesContexts: Three Types of Influences (overview)•Normative Age-graded Influences •Normative History-graded Influences •Non-normative Life Events (Baltes, 2003)Age-GradedNormative Influences•Similar for an age group•Maturational: Fixed in time•Puberty or menopause•Social: Timing is flexible•Marriage or parenthoodNormative History-Graded Influences•Events that shape attitudes of a historical generation•Historical Generation: group that experiences an event at a formative time•Cohort: Group born around the same timeNon-Normative Influences•Unusual events that have a major impact on an individual’s life•Typical events at atypical times •Atypical eventsThe Dimensions of Development •Biological processes produce changes in an individual’s physical nature •Cognitive processes refer to changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence, and language •Socioemotional processes involve changes in the individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personalityPeriods of Development•Developmental period •Periods are often social constructs•prenatal period -- conception to birth •infancy -- birth to 18 or 24 months •early childhood -- end of infancy to age 5 or 6•middle and late childhood -- 6 to 11 years of agePeriods of Developmentcon’t •adolescence -- transition from childhood to early adulthood, approximately 10 to 12 to 18 to 22 years of age •early adulthood -- late teens or early twenties through the thirties•middle adulthood -- approximately 40 to about 60 years of age •late adulthood -- sixties or seventies and lasts until deathConceptions of Age•Chronological age•Biological age•Psychological age•Social ageDevelopmental Issues•Nature and Nurture•The nature-nurture issue concerns the extent to which development is influenced by nature AND by nurtureDevelopmental Issues•Stability and Change•The stability-change issue involves the degree to which early traits and characteristics persist through life or changeDevelopmental Issues•Continuity and Discontinuity•The continuity-discontinuity issue focuses on the degree to which development involves either gradual, cumulative change or distinct stagesEvaluating the Developmental Issues•Most life-span developmentalists acknowledge that development is not all nature or all nurture, not all stability or all change, and not all continuity or all discontinuity•Nature and nurture, stability and change, continuity and discontinuity characterize development throughout the human life span (Gottlieb, 2007; Rutter,