Life Span Development

Term Paper # 118793

Psychology
Psychology > Piaget

A brief look at the definition, stages and impact of life span development.

955 words () | 2 sources | APA | 2010 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how in the contemporary context, life span development can be defined as a scientific study of psychological and physiological age-related changes and progressions towards endpoints commonly defined as maturity and self-actualization. The paper looks at how different theorists of human development name several life stages varying from four (Piaget) to eight (Erikson), ranging from birth to old age beyond 65. The paper concludes by examining contemporary concepts related to life span development.

Outline:
Introduction
Definition of Life Span Development and Stages
Contemporary Concepts Related To Life Span Development

From the Paper:

"Probably the most lasting impact on developmental science was left by Piaget's cognitive theory of children's use of logical thinking in forms of schemes. However, his theory does not completely explain the fact that children can apply some concrete operational thinking in the earlier age than they were supposed to, and it was seen as too rigid by the later researchers. Following Piaget's ideas, researchers tried to give a better explanation by constructing information-processing model of human memory, comparing it to the computer operational system. According to this theory, memory operates by encoding, storing and retrieving information, much like computer does. First, all stimuli goes through the sensory memory as a constant stream before entering short-term, or working memory. But because working memory has a very limited capacity (up to seven items, or chunks of information) much of the incoming sensory stimuli is dropped, so as not to overwhelm cognitive processes. "

Sample of Sources Used:

Boyd, D. & Bee, H. (2006). Lifespan Development (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Allyn Bacon.
Lifespan development and lifelong learning (2008). Retrieved September 18, 2008 from http://www.infed.org/biblio/lifecourse_development.htm