Approaches to Lifespan Development
Preparation
If you have not already done so, complete the studies for this unit. The second study asked you to choose one of the following influential themes in lifespan development theory and read a scholarly resource (journal article or book chapter) that addresses it:
Nature versus nurture.
Critical periods and plasticity.
Continuity and discontinuity.
Universality and specificity.
Qualitative and quantitative change.
Activity and passivity.
Instructions
For your initial discussion post, address the following:
Clearly summarize the theme you chose and the main issues, oppositions, or controversies in differing approaches to it.
What are the similarities and differences in the contrasting approaches?
Are these approaches appropriate in light of what the researcher seeks to understand or predict? Why or why not?
Describe specific lifespan development theories that are associated with the theme you analyzed.
Evaluate to what extent the scholarly article you used in your analysis met the criteria for credibility, using an appropriate combination of these criteria:
Detailed and clear information.
Accuracy of information.
Support of conclusions.
Relevancy to the field.
Credibility of author or authors.
Publication date (timeliness or current relevancy).
Studies
Readings
Use your Broderick and Blewitt textbook, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping Professionals, to complete the following:
Read Chapter 1, "Organizing Themes in Development." This chapter introduces lifespan developmental theorists, including Freud, Erikson, and Piaget; learning theories, such as behaviorism and social learning; multidimensional theories, including Bronfenbrenner's theory; and the concept of nature-nurture.
Use the Capella library to complete the following:
Read Baltes and Smith's 2004 article, "Lifespan Psychology: From the Developmental Contextualism to Developmental Biocultural Co-constructivism," from Research in Human Development, volume 1, issue 3, pages 123-143.