Book Analysis: Exploring Lifespan Development by Berk

The important points in Chapter One are: 1) Developmental Science is a field of study which is dedicated to investigating changes and constancy throughout the lifespan. 2) Development of a human being is lifelong and occurs in the form of stages. 3) Development is influenced by multiple, interactive forces.

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Developmental Science is a field of study which is dedicated to investigating changes and constancy throughout the lifespan. Development in itself may take two forms, either continuous or discontinuous. Continuous development is associated with the gradual process of perfecting and advancing a particular skill or characteristic. This comes with long periods of practice and repetition. Discontinuous development, on the other hand, refers to adopting new ways and skills to deal with emerging issues. I feel that study of development serves to explain certain actions by man.

Development of a human being is lifelong and occurs in the form of stages. These stages refer to the qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behavior. It is important also to note that the stages do not have similar results for everyone. This is because human beings develop about context which may result in different paths of change. For instance, the development of a shy child will follow a different contextual path in comparison to an outgoing child. I understand that each development stage comes with challenges before moving on to the next stage but at the end of it all, development takes a lifetime and never ends (Berk, 2016).

Multiple, interactive forces influence development. For instance, the theory of history-graded influences explains why people of a similar age group tend to have the same preferences and characteristics in comparison to people of a different age group. Another concept is that of Age-graded influences which refer to events that are mutually related to date and time. This makes the events predictable as to when they will re-occur and how long the event will last. Culture is also another source of influence. Personally, I find it true that there are several influences which set out the path for development in life and for this reason I find it an essential point to mention.

Part 2 - Opinion

The author focuses on development being plastic in nature. Many at times, people associate the development of the human being only with physical growth. In my opinion, I believe that the development aspect involves a far much wider scope including physical, cognitive, mental and emotional aspects. I agree that all these forms of development exhibit plasticity with the changes being gradual throughout life from the time of birth until death.

I believe that personally, my development so far has been multidimensional as well as multidirectional. For instance, my biological nature and genetics have dictated my body size and physical growth. On the other hand, the environment has been responsible for shaping me psychologically into a social being. The fact that I have encountered several ups and downs means that development has been multidirectional. On the mental aspect, I have been in situations where I could handle but at the end of the day it turned out I was not ready. From such situations, I have come to agree with the author that the challenges we face today may turn out to be walkovers in the future. On the cognitive aspect, I have come to realize that making life decisions on critical matters is not something one may learn at an instant. In our development, we hope to make the right choices, but this is not the case. This is the reason as to why everybody has regrets at times and at times we celebrate for having made the right decisions. At the end of the day, my understanding is that lifetime development is necessary to advance and every human being has to learn to adapt so as to nurture abilities and to appreciate the life lessons handed to us.

References

Berk, L. E. (2016). Exploring lifespan development. Pearson.