EXPLORING LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

Exploring Lifespan Development

Lifespan Development

Development is defined as a pattern, a trend of change, alteration or modification, which begins at the time of inception or birth of the human and tends to develop and groom with the passage of time. Development and progressions that prevail in the life of an individual during their life is one of the most important trends that need to be understood. Since it is a complex system of affirmations and stressors, each and every portion and section of progress and grows, occurring in humans, needs to be discussed and elaborated at length, in order to understand the whereabouts of how far and wide can individuals. Several benefits prevail in which individuals tend to work their way up towards studying development occurring in human beings. One of the most important factors of studying development in human beings is the way individuals work towards discovering themselves and their own set of abilities. Individuals although coming from the same gene having distinctly different abilities to explore themselves and therefore, define their own innate ways of handling situations around themselves (Beyerstein, 2001).

There are three major views that aid towards understanding developmental patterns. One view implies the original sin view, where the child is said to have experience abuse, violence and even criminal activities, thus developing inclinations towards evil. The second implies table rasa view, which suggests that the child is born without any capabilities, thus creating room for learning through experiences and identifying his or her own unique set of abilities and traits. Finally, the last is the innate goodness view, which implies that the child is born inherently good. To support this claim made above, one of the most important psychological contributions have been made by Sir Erik Erikson. Erikson and his eight (8) developmental stages have ...