Life Course Perspective: Understanding Human Development

“Act your age,” a common reprimand we have all heard or been told at one point in our lives. Many people believe that getting older guarantees a higher level of maturity. However, someone’s maturity does not depend on their age, but rather on their environment and mentality. Not all children are raised in a perfect and loving family; some children are forced to “grow up” faster due to difficult family situations. Children are heavily impacted by the environment they were raised in, for it affects people’s mind psychologically, thus causing different levels of maturity in each individual.

The Developmental Perspective views the life course of all people as taking after a pathway that may be littered with danger

Furthermore, they usually highlight the bad features of society and juxtapose them to the family’s worth, so the elders give the younger generation coping strategies to function in society the best way they know (385). These three factors have an impact on people’s personalities and their futures because how a person assesses a situation leads to opportunities. Both authors

Thus, the formation of connections to others during teenage years are imperative to healthy mental growth, as shown by Holden

At the same time, the brains of young adults may evolve differently than before thanks to the life-stage Henig calls “emerging adulthood,” during which “the rate of societal maturation can finally fall into better sync with the maturation of the brain” (205). Konnikova talks about the biological limit of friendships we can sustain. Konnikova states “On the flipside, groups can extend to five hundred, the acquaintance level, and to fifteen hundred, the absolute limit-the people for whom you can put a face to a name. While the group sizes are relatively stable, their composition can be fluid. Your five today may not be your five next week; people drift among layers and sometimes fall out of them altogether” (236).

and institutional changes that we have encountered (O’Rand, 2012). More specifically, Riley’s new life course model is now “age-integrated” and “multiplex” (O’Rand, 2012, p. 199). This life course model also considers the opportunity and constraints different groups experience due to inequalities (O’Rand, 2012). Despite these changes, there is still some room for improvement.

I. INTRODUCTION Life Course Theory (LCT) is an approach to public health which draws from a large variety of disciplines, such as biology, sociology, and psychology, in order to examine how health and disease develop over the course of a lifetime (1). This lens is used to examine health disparities, examine factors which contribute to the achievement of optimal health, and develop interventions. The goal of life course-based intervention goes beyond the prevention of disease and seeks to create conditions in which people are able to thrive, or achieve their full potential for health and wellness, throughout their entire lives (2, 3). According to LCT, health is dynamically produced across the lifespan in response to behavioral, social, and

All three authors make clear that maturity drives one’s ability to cope with life’s challenges. While the speaker in

Through life, everyone even animals go through the evolution and growing up process. From infant all the way to the walk of a cane, aging is a process in our lives that everyone dreads going through. We all have to learn how to grow up and take on responsibilities that we as adults will face later on in our lives. “What Is It about 20-Somethings” by Robin Henig gives insight into the life of young adulthood and the phenomenon of adults being “stuck”. Whether people like it or not, you’re going to have to grow up and start your own life.

Chapter five talks about life course theory, latent trait theory and trajectory theory. These theories are the development of crime and delinquency. Life Course theory suggest that delinquent behavior is influenced by individual characteristics. Another influence is social experiences, and they can provoke antisocial behaviors in the future. Family, jobs, and peers can affect their behavior in a positive or negative way.

Theories of late adulthood development are quite diverse in later adulthood than at any other age. They include self-theory, identity theory and stratification theory. The self-theory tries to explain the core self and search to maintain one’s integrity and identity. The older adults tend to integrate and incorporate their various experiences with their vision and mission for their respective community (Berger, 2008). Also, the older people tend to feel that their attitude, personalities and beliefs have remained in a stable state over their lives even as they acknowledge that physical changes have taken place in their bodies.

The life span of an individual goes through developmental stages in life, from conception to death. The majority of the stages we pass are biological, socio-economical and psychological birth rights. This essay will focus on the two stages, drawn from the eight stages of Erikson Theory, namely: Trust vs Mistrust and Generativity vs Stagnation. The essay will further discuss authoritative parenting and attachment styles. The eight stages which a healthy person should undergo from infancy to late adulthood, are built on the success of mastering the previous stage.

The Life Course Perspective is an approach to human behavior that recognizes the influence of age, but also acknowledges the influences of historical time and culture (Hutchison, 2013, p. 795). It is an approach that is used to evaluate

DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY: REFLECTIVE ESSAY In life of an individual there are several developmental changes or events which occur as continuity of span of life. Some of life developmental stages include infantile, adolescence, maturity, and adulthood. These phases have biological, social, psychological and physiognomic reasons to which an individual completed the course of life. Psychological analysis upon the developmental stages include the focus on characterization, demarcation and the social interaction of individual’s life (Baltes & Schaie, 2013).

My Personal Development Timeline A person and their personality are consistently undergoing change. These changes occur due to many variables including environmental, social, or biological variables. I personally belief is that these are important factors that play a role in how a person develops. Even more importantly, I feel that personal experiences have a tremendous role in shaping personality.