Lifespan Development Have Altered Peoples Perception of the Life Course - Coursework Example

A Critical Assessment of How Studies of Lifespan Development have Altered People’s Perception of the Life Introduction Lifespan development is an exploration of the biological, cognitive, and psychosocial changes occurring across different stages of life. Taking a life course perspective means adopting an approach in which the whole of a person’s life is considered as offering opportunities for growth, change, and development. The use of the term life course has been favored over the term cycle by psychosocial and sociological perspectives since the latter can be criticized for implying a circular process whereby in the later years of life, the individual returns to dependency of childhood, which is disputed by life-span models. Leonie Sugarman (1986) adopts the term life-span development as she tackles life-span development psychology, contributing to the field of the life-span process. Prior to the onset of the fields of social sciences, particularly psychology and sociology, understanding the development of the life course was not a popular undertaking. Now that lifespan theorists have explained systematically that a person goes through an organized process of lifespan development, studies began emphasizing its importance. Perhaps, this importance is geared towards understanding the process of change and development that occur within the course of life, alongside understanding the whys and hows of this development. A common problem with the social sciences is the idea that since they deal with aspects of human life, they tackle what is supposed to be the obvious and the already known, and their tasks are simply an elaboration of these. They use different ways on how to present the stages of growth and decline, which is but a mere rehash of the obvious facts of life. This assertion may sound true, but upon studying the lifespan development concept, it will link us to the greater truth that alters our perception of the life course. The central thinking to this assertion is that through the lifespan studies, man’s thinking is influenced by lifespan development, reflecting on his own life after looking at the lives of others and being knowledgeable of the processes that he or she goes through in his or her own life course. Lifespan development models were able to develop knowledge and ideas on different ages, gender, levels of ability, race, ethnic and cultural background. In understanding the impact of human growth and development, it is necessary that one looks at his own life course development and appreciate the importance of the key events that shape him/her as a person. Critical Assessment of Life-Span Development Models A common problem in the social sciences is the idea that since they deal with aspects of human life they deal with what in a sense is ‘already’ known and that as a result they are simply the elaboration of the obvious. They may use fancy words and difficult concepts but basically, everyone knows that every individual is born, then develops in a variety of ways and then experiences a period of gradual but inevitable decline. There is some truth in this assertion but truth also in the opposite view that studying life span development does actually alter our perception of how humans and thus, our individual selves develop. The central argument then is that although it is difficult if not impossible to measure the precise extent to which our thinking may have been influenced by LSD studies it is not unreasonable to suggest that it has. In addition, it is suggested that the main way in which this influence works is by individuals reflecting on their own lives after looking at the lives of others. Due to the onset of life-span development models, a significant importance is now given to the concept of self-esteem, needs, achievement, growth, change, development, and the like, which play a significant role in the life course. It must be noted however, that unlike Freudianism, whose emphasis is only on the issues of ‘growth’ period associated to childhood and adolescence, life span development concept extends to stages previously dismissed as a ‘decline.’ In this context, Erikson, Sugarman, Maslow, and Levinson were able to provide a good stronghold of a theory on lifespan development as they tackle the entire course of the human life. It is for this reason that LSD is humanistic, positive, pluralistic, and empowering. Perhaps the single most important claim of LSD, both in its status as a discipline and its claim to improve and not merely study human lives, is its focus on the whole of an individual’s life. Erikson suggests that man goes through a series of development stages in which he necessarily encounters a conflict between a desirable outcome and an undesirable one, of which he needs to emerge ‘victorious’ for acting upon the desirable one (i.e. industry vs. inferiority, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, etc.). Throughout his life stages from birth to the so-called ‘decline’ (old age), the individual is confronted by these crises, which Erikson considers not a catastrophe or chaos, but a turning point of increased vulnerability and enhanced potential (Erikson, 1982). Erikson does not believe that the proper solution to a stage crisis is always completely positive since some exposure to negative end is at times inevitable. He however, posits that in the healthy solution to a stage crisis, the positive resolution dominates (Erikson, 1982). According to him, man’s life consists of these positive-negative surges, which aid man in the development process. Erikson (1963) writes about the life course from a psychosocial approach, which he termed psychosocial development. This approach enables the individual to consider the connection between his inner world and the social environment in which he lives (Howe, 1987). In making their claims for a new science of human growth, LSD theorists not only argue against an existing academic approach ( classic Freudianism) but importantly, what they regard as a ‘common sense’ understanding of life summarized by the term growth, maturation decline. Levinson’s constructed model of the seasons of a man’s life supports life-span development concept with his developmental theory, which consists of universal stages that extends from infancy to the elderly state. This is again different from most development theories such as Freud’s psychosexual development theory and Piaget’s cognitive development theory, which end in the adolescent stage of life and do not include the latter life stages. Levinson’s stage theory, just like Erikson’s, altered the general perception of the life course because it goes beyond most theories in its assumption that development continues throughout the lifespan (Levinson, 1978). Levinson’s concept of life structure revolves in the individual’s participation in his socio-cultural world. His lifespan development model is almost aligned to Erikson’s concept in terms of the same baseline of making crucial choices in life, which he calls the stable period, and an end of a particular stage to begin a new one, called transitional period (Levinson 1977). Clearly, both Erikson and Levinson suggest that there is still ‘life’ even when the individual is already at the twilight of his life, and that time is not too late yet for any change or development to take place. This is because their models of life-span development do not stop in the adolescent stage, but extend to the life course, describing the development necessarily encountered by an individual from birth to the old age stage. Likewise, Maslow (1970) emphasized that individuals are confronted by needs that are to be satisfied in a particular phase of their development, such as satisfying cognitive needs when esteem needs have been fulfilled. Maslow emphasised that experiencing a certain need and its subsequent fulfillment is impossible if the individual is not within the stage that necessitates such need. Therefore, if an individual lacks the protection of a home and transfers from one place to another in a nomadic manner, it is not possible for him to feel the need of venturing into the arts out of a pursuit of expressing himself aesthetically. It is because satisfaction of a physiological need (in this case, shelter) needs to be attended first; after which, the individual will satisfy the next need - the need to belong and be loved, and the next level of need follows thereafter. In addition to be anti ‘common sense’ in studying the whole of life, LSD studies also distance themselves from common sense in terms of how this extended period of human life is studied. LSD studies then claim to replace common sense by scientific understanding, in which the human being goes through a process that common for all for the entire life course. The understanding of the life-span development models will allow one to understand the current life phase that a person currently is. McAdams reinforced the importance of the life process with his interview of Margaret when she says, “You can’t tamper with a foundation and have expectations about being a fulfilled human being” (MacAdams 1993). This indicates that one cannot jump from one stage to another in order to side step the development process, indicating the necessity of the process, which is systemic. Most people would undo some of the damage brought on their own lives by giving their children what they never had, or treating them in a manner that they perceive as proper and correct (McAdams, 1993). Again, this is probably the result of a missed stage, which an individual thinks can be fulfilled in their children or loved ones. In this case, the child or the loved one might accept his or her early life as a basis of his or her own parenting, suggesting that one of the values of life-span development through its empirical studies is showing the variability of human experience. It does not however imply that the person will be unhappy throughout life given the insistence of his or her parent, or will go back to the missed stage in childhood like what Freud suggests in his psychosexual development theory. In making their claims as a new science of human growth, life-span development theorists do not only argue about an existing academic approach to development (classic Freudianism), but more importantly, their common sense understanding of life based on the growth-maturation-decline model. Individuals have taken this concept as an ‘obvious’ phenomenon of the human life, but an extensive description of the life course by life-span development models emphasize the old age stage as the heightened stage of the human life. In classic Freudianism, childhood is set as the most important phase in the life process, in which Freud emphasized that in case a certain stage of a child is neglected or overindulged, a fixation will manifest in a latter part of his life (Bustos 1996). This suggests of childhood being the prime phase of a man’s life to which he or she should always look back on in a scrutiny of a current wrong behaviour - which might be a fixation. Contrary to this assertion, the life-span development theories bring no fixative concepts but are forward-looking in their stages, culminating in the old age stage as the most heightened stage of the process (self-actualization (Maslow), integrity (Erikson), reflecting upon successes and failures and enjoying the rest of life (Levinson). The old age is a potential stage for developing wisdom, acquired by man through the right choices he obtained in all the stages, and developing a sense of oneness with the world and humanity. However, LSD has its certain weaknesses as well, and one of them is that it is based on white American males. It also gives too much onus on the individual and does not recognize class, inequality, and racism. There is no clear account if these may affect how a person can become self-actualized or how he may attain wisdom given that he is an exploited proletariat in a social system that capitalizes on the human labour or exploits the Blacks in a feudal setting. The LSD is silent about concepts pertaining to social stratification, neither about its possible effects if a person is positioned in the lower stratum of the social class continuum, in the middle class or the upper class. Conclusion Lifespan development models are able to present a more extensive explanation of the life course, which includes the infancy stage up to the old age stage, debunking other theories of development like Freudianism. This extension suggests the importance of all phases of life, culminated in old age in which one can possibly experience a positive and happy stage. Throughout the entire process of life, man encounters both good and bad experiences, which must not be taken as ‘chaos’ since these experiences contribute to his stability and potential. However, despite the similar life-span process that individuals go through, dissimilarity in life experiences vary in which men respond to life-span processes. What used to be perceived as the ‘obvious’ and ‘common sense’ about the life cycle in non-LSD theorists are apparently disputed by life-span development models with its assertion of the life course extending to the old age stage alongside a forward-looking stance of its stages. The LSD has apparently contributed to one’s self development, self-awareness, speculations about one’s own life and/or understanding of others, affecting organizations pertaining to age concern. References Bustos, Alicia S. and Espiritu, Socorro C., 1996. Psychological, anthropological, and sociological foundations of education. Katha Publishing Inc. Erikson, Erik, 1963. Childhood and society. Revised ed. Penguin. Erikson, E., 1982. The life cycle completed a review. London: WW Norton Howe, D., 1987. An introduction to social work theory. Aldershot: Arena. Levinson, Daniel J., 1977. The mid-life transition: a period in adult psychosocial development. Psychiatry, vol. 40 May, 99-112. Levinson, Daniel, 1978. The seasons of a man’s life. Random House. Maslow, Abraham, 1970. Motivation and personality. Harper and Row McAdams, Dan, 1993. The stories we live By. Guilford Press. Sugarman, Leonie, 1986. Life-span developmental concepts, theories and interventions. London: Routeledge. Read More