Lifespan Development, Global Edition

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German psychologist Paul Baltes, a leading expert on lifespan development and aging, developed one of the approaches to studying development called the lifespan perspective. This approach is based on several key principles:

Thinking in Context: Intersectionality coverage is integrated within chapters to emphasize the role of context in diversity and the many forms that diversity takes, including sex, gender, race and ethnicity, ability, socioeconomic status, and more. Each section within a chapter concludes with related critical thinking items. Lifelong development means that development is not completed in infancy or childhood or at any specific age; it encompasses the entire lifespan, from conception to death. The study of development traditionally focused almost exclusively on the changes occurring from conception to adolescence and the gradual decline in old age; it was believed that the five or six decades after adolescence yielded little to no developmental change at all. The current view reflects the possibility that specific changes in development can occur later in life, without having been established at birth. The early events of one’s childhood can be transformed by later events in one’s life. This belief clearly emphasizes that all stages of the lifespan contribute to the regulation of the nature of human development. Are we who we are because of nature (biology and genetics), or are we who we are because of nurture (our environment and culture)? This longstanding question is known in psychology as the nature versus nurture debate. It seeks to understand how our personalities and traits are the product of our genetic makeup and biological factors, and how they are shaped by our environment, including our guardians, peers, and culture. For instance, why do biological children sometimes act like their parents—is it because of genetics or because of early childhood environment and what the child has learned from the parents? What about children who are adopted—are they more like their biological families or more like their adoptive families? And how can siblings from the same family be so different? The text is pretty modular. The only issue is that it comes as a single PDF document, which leaves the student to "jump" between sections. An instructor can't just post a link to a section, though the Table of Contents does make navigation simple.Stages of Development As discussed at the beginning of this chapter, developmental psychologists often divide our development into three areas: physical development, cognitive development, and psychosocial development. Mirroring Erikson’s stages, lifespan development is divided into different stages that are based on age. We will discuss prenatal, infant, child, adolescent, and adult development. Although I cannot say I read the entire text word-for-word, I did read within each unit section. I noticed Table 1.2 is missing "middle adulthood"- ages 40-45 through 65. That's a significant omission. Instead, emerging adulthood (ages 18-25) was put in its place. :o( Another error I noticed was the reported smallest baby ever to survive. "Baby Saybie" born in the US in 2018 is mentioned there. Yet, there was a smaller baby born in Singapore in 2020. Agreeably, this is a hard stat to stay current on. This text pays attention, as it should, to the significance of context and culture on development. The text presents the importance of context in the very first chapter and stresses the effects of context on development such as “status hierarchies” continuously throughout and within each chapter. Furthermore, throughout the text, many developmental topics are explored/explained and presented from differing cultural perspectives and the language for the material that I read appeared to be inclusive and unbiased. Someone learning human development from this text would have a clear understanding that context and culture affect development and that “universals” are challenged within this field and throughout this text. Later in this chapter, you will learn about several experiments in which toddlers and young children observe scenes or actions so that researchers can determine at what age specific cognitive abilities develop. For example, children may observe a quantity of liquid poured from a short, fat glass into a tall, skinny glass. As the experimenters question the children about what occurred, the subjects’ answers help psychologists understand at what age a child begins to comprehend that the volume of liquid remained the same although the shapes of the containers differs. Early in the text, the authors use the term "gestational parent" (singular), but then talked about "their" eggs (plural). As is happening in the discussion of gender today, we hear mismatched pronouns ("they" instead of "him/her"). I suppose most textbooks will use this. ?? Otherwise, I did not detect any grammar issues in the other portions of this source that I read. I may with a more comprehensive read. ??

Stage theories hold that the sequence of development is universal. For example, in cross-cultural studies of language development, children from around the world reach language milestones in a similar sequence (Gleitman & Newport, 1995). Infants in all cultures coo before they babble. They begin babbling at about the same age and utter their first word around 12 months old. Yet we live in diverse contexts that have a unique effect on each of us. For example, researchers once believed that motor development follows one course for all children regardless of culture. However, child care practices vary by culture, and different practices have been found to accelerate or inhibit achievement of developmental milestones such as sitting, crawling, and walking (Karasik, Adolph, Tamis-LeMonda, & Bornstein, 2010).Reviewed by Kelli Rogers, Assistant Professor Practice, University of Texas at Arlington on 12/12/22 The textbook appears to be accurate. Some of the publications are a bit dated, but still provide empirical evidence to support the scope of what is being discussed. I did not notice any glaring omissions or issues with the content. Lifespan in Developmental Psychology involves the study of an individual's development over the course of their life as they age. It is related to the study of evolution and life factors that affect the growth and aging process. There are multiple ways that researchers study the human lifespan. Longitudinal Research Infancy and Toddler Stage: from birth to three years of age. This stage displays rapid changes in different areas, including physical, socio-emotional, language, and cognitive development. Completing milestones helps lay the foundation for independence and a healthy sense of self.

Naturalistic observations involve observing behavior in its natural context. A developmental psychologist might observe how children behave on a playground, at a daycare center, or in the child’s own home. While this research approach provides a glimpse into how children behave in their natural settings, researchers have very little control over the types and/or frequencies of displayed behavior. The reading level and flow of this source is appropriate. Topic are presented in an easy-to-understand manner. The arrangement of the topics covered appears to be chronological, but the actual contents really are not. It appears these author decided where to put the topic, but commented on all age groups within that topic. For instance, under the unit called "Adolescence", the reader reads about infants and young children. The unit heading are misleading. Understand the three major issues in development: continuity and discontinuity, one common course of development or many unique courses of development, and nature versus nurtureAssignable video (available with SAGE Vantage) is tied to learning objectives and curated exclusively for this text to bring concepts to life. Watch a sample video now. Overall, the content of this text, and the theories and concepts presented, are accurate. The authors are thorough in their coverage in a way that many texts are not, especially as it relates to adulthood and aging. The chapters related to adulthood and aging were thorough and accurate in outlining the dominant perspectives as it relates to adult development. Whereas other texts often cram a lot of demographics and stats as it relates to aging and cover concepts related to aging in a very shallow manner, this text presents theoretical concepts related to adulthood that has been well-researched and that offer a much fuller understanding of the changes taking place in adulthood. With that being said, there does appear to be a significant typo in Table 1.2. In this table, middle adulthood (ages 45-65) is erroneously omitted. It is clear it is just a simple error because there is an entire section devoted to covering this period in the lifespan. The stability vs. change argument is about whether a person stays the same from childhood to adulthood (stability) or changes as a result of developing and evolving throughout the lifespan (change). Stability is the idea that people generally remain the same throughout life. Their personal qualities in childhood indicate what qualities they will continue to have later in life.