The Lifespan Perspective

Lifespan development involves the exploration of biological, cognitive, and psychosocial

changes and constancies that occur throughout the entire course of life. It has been
presented as a theoretical perspective, proposing several fundamental, theoretical, and
methodological principles about the nature of human development. An attempt by
researchers has been made to examine whether research on the nature of development
suggests a specific metatheoretical worldview. Several beliefs, taken together, form the
“family of perspectives” that contribute to this particular view.

German psychologist Paul Baltes, a leading expert on lifespan development and aging,
developed one of the approaches to studying development called the lifespan
perspective. This approach is based on several key principles:
 Development occurs across one’s entire life, or is lifelong.
 Development is multidimensional, meaning it involves the dynamic interaction of factors
like physical, emotional, and psychosocial development
 Development is multidirectional and results in gains and losses throughout life
 Development is plastic, meaning that characteristics are malleable or changeable.
 Development is influenced by contextual and socio-cultural influences.
 Development is multidisciplinary.

Development is lifelong

Lifelong development means that development is not completed in infancy or childhood

or at any specific age; it encompasses the entire lifespan, from conception to death. The
study of development traditionally focused almost exclusively on the changes occurring
from conception to adolescence and the gradual decline in old age; it was believed that
the five or six decades after adolescence yielded little to no developmental change at
all. The current view reflects the possibility that specific changes in development can
occur later in life, without having been established at birth. The early events of one’s
childhood can be transformed by later events in one’s life. This belief clearly
emphasizes that all stages of the lifespan contribute to the regulation of the nature of
human development.

Many diverse patterns of change, such as direction, timing, and order, can vary among
individuals and affect the ways in which they develop. For example, the developmental
timing of events can affect individuals in different ways because of their current level of
maturity and understanding. As individuals move through life, they are faced with many
challenges, opportunities, and situations that impact their development. Remembering
that development is a lifelong process helps us gain a wider perspective on the meaning
and impact of each event.
Development is multidimensional

By multidimensionality, Baltes is referring to the fact that a complex interplay of factors

influence development across the lifespan, including biological, cognitive, and
socioemotional changes. Baltes argues that a dynamic interaction of these factors is
what influences an individual’s development.

For example, in adolescence, puberty consists of physiological and physical changes

with changes in hormone levels, the development of primary and secondary sex
characteristics, alterations in height and weight, and several other bodily changes.
But these are not the only types of changes taking place; there are also cognitive
changes, including the development of advanced cognitive faculties such as the ability
to think abstractly. There are also emotional and social changes involving regulating
emotions, interacting with peers, and possibly dating. The fact that the term puberty
encompasses such a broad range of domains illustrates the multidimensionality
component of development (think back to the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial
domains of human development we discussed earlier in this module).

Development is multidirectional

Baltes states that the development of a particular domain does not occur in a strictly
linear fashion but that development of certain traits can be characterized as having the
capacity for both an increase and decrease in efficacy over the course of an individual’s
life.

If we use the example of puberty again, we can see that certain domains may improve
or decline in effectiveness during this time. For example, self-regulation is one domain
of puberty which undergoes profound multidirectional changes during the adolescent
period. During childhood, individuals have difficulty effectively regulating their actions
and impulsive behaviors. Scholars have noted that this lack of effective regulation often
results in children engaging in behaviors without fully considering the consequences of
their actions. Over the course of puberty, neuronal changes modify this unregulated
behavior by increasing the ability to regulate emotions and impulses. Inversely, the
ability for adolescents to engage in spontaneous activity and creativity, both domains
commonly associated with impulse behavior, decrease over the adolescent period in
response to changes in cognition. Neuronal changes to the limbic system and prefrontal
cortex of the brain, which begin in puberty lead to the development of self-regulation,
and the ability to consider the consequences of one’s actions (though recent brain
research reveals that this connection will continue to develop into early adulthood).

Extending on the premise of multidirectionality, Baltes also argued that development

is influenced by the “joint expression of features of growth (gain) and decline
(loss)”[1] This relation between developmental gains and losses occurs in a direction to
selectively optimize particular capacities. This requires the sacrificing of other functions,
a process known as selective optimization with compensation. According to the process
of selective optimization, individuals prioritize particular functions above others,
reducing the adaptive capacity of particulars for specialization and improved efficacy of
other modalities.

The acquisition of effective self-regulation in adolescents illustrates this gain/loss

concept. As adolescents gain the ability to effectively regulate their actions, they may be
forced to sacrifice other features to selectively optimize their reactions. For example,
individuals may sacrifice their capacity to be spontaneous or creative if they are
constantly required to make thoughtful decisions and regulate their emotions.
Adolescents may also be forced to sacrifice their fast reaction times toward processing
stimuli in favor of being able to fully consider the consequences of their actions.

Development is plastic

Plasticity denotes intrapersonal variability and focuses heavily on the potentials and
limits of the nature of human development. The notion of plasticity emphasizes that
there are many possible developmental outcomes and that the nature of human
development is much more open and pluralistic than originally implied by traditional
views; there is no single pathway that must be taken in an individual’s development
across the lifespan. Plasticity is imperative to current research because the potential for
intervention is derived from the notion of plasticity in development. Undesired
development or behaviors could potentially be prevented or changed.

As an example, recently researchers have been analyzing how other senses

compensate for the loss of vision in blind individuals. Without visual input, blind humans
have demonstrated that tactile and auditory functions still fully develop and they can use
tactile and auditory cues to perceive the world around them. One experiment designed
by Röder and colleagues (1999) compared the auditory localization skills of people who
are blind with people who are sighted by having participants locate sounds presented
either centrally or peripherally (lateral) to them. Both congenitally blind adults and
sighted adults could locate a sound presented in front of them with precision but people
who are blind were clearly superior in locating sounds presented laterally. Currently,
brain-imaging studies have revealed that the sensory cortices in the brain are
reorganized after visual deprivation. These findings suggest that when vision is absent
in development, the auditory cortices in the brain recruit areas that are normally devoted
to vision, thus becoming further refined.

A significant aspect of the aging process is cognitive decline. The dimensions of

cognitive decline are partially reversible, however, because the brain retains the lifelong
capacity for plasticity and reorganization of cortical tissue. Mahncke and colleagues
developed a brain plasticity-based training program that induced learning in mature
adults experiencing age-related decline. This training program focused intensively on
aural language reception accuracy and cognitively demanding exercises that have been
proven to partially reverse the age-related losses in memory. It included highly
rewarding novel tasks that required attention control and became progressively more
difficult to perform. In comparison to the control group, who received no training and
showed no significant change in memory function, the experimental training group
displayed a marked enhancement in memory that was sustained at the 3-month follow-
up period. These findings suggest that cognitive function, particularly memory, can be
significantly improved in mature adults with age-related cognitive decline by using brain
plasticity-based training methods.

Development is contextual

In Baltes’ theory, the paradigm of contextualism refers to the idea that three systems of
biological and environmental influences work together to influence development.
Development occurs in context and varies from person to person, depending on factors
such as a person’s biology, family, school, church, profession, nationality, and ethnicity.
Baltes identified three types of influences that operate throughout the life course:
normative age-graded influences, normative history-graded influences, and
nonnormative influences. Baltes wrote that these three influences operate throughout
the life course, their effects accumulate with time, and, as a dynamic package, they are
responsible for how lives develop.

Normative age-graded influences are those biological and environmental factors that

have a strong correlation with chronological age, such as puberty or menopause, or
age-based social practices such as beginning school or entering retirement. Normative
history-graded influences are associated with a specific time period that defines the
broader environmental and cultural context in which an individual develops. For
example, development and identity are influenced by historical events of the people who
experience them, such as the Great Depression, WWII, Vietnam, the Cold War, the War
on Terror, or advances in technology.

This has been exemplified in numerous studies, including Nesselroade and Baltes’,
showing that the level and direction of change in adolescent personality development
was influenced as strongly by the socio-cultural settings at the time (in this case, the
Vietnam War) as age-related factors. The study involved individuals of four different
adolescent age groups who all showed significant personality development in the same
direction (a tendency to occupy themselves with ethical, moral, and political issues
rather than cognitive achievement). Similarly, Elder showed that the Great Depression
was a setting that significantly affected the development of adolescents and their
corresponding adult personalities, by showing a similar common personality
development across age groups. Baltes’ theory also states that the historical socio-
cultural setting had an effect on the development of an individual’s intelligence. The
areas of influence that Baltes thought most important to the development of intelligence
were health, education, and work. The first two areas, health and education,
significantly affect adolescent development because healthy children who are educated
effectively will tend to develop a higher level of intelligence. The environmental factors,
health and education, have been suggested by Neiss and Rowe to have as much effect
on intelligence as inherited intelligence.
Nonnormative influences are unpredictable and not tied to a certain developmental
time in a person’s development or to a historical period. They are the unique
experiences of an individual, whether biological or environmental, that shape the
development process. These could include milestones like earning a master’s degree or
getting a certain job offer or other events like going through a divorce or coping with the
death of a child.

The most important aspect of contextualism as a paradigm is that the three systems of
influence work together to affect development. Concerning adolescent development, the
age-graded influences would help to explain the similarities within a cohort, the history-
graded influences would help to explain the differences between cohorts, and the
nonnormative influences would explain the idiosyncrasies of each adolescent’s
individual development. When all influences are considered together, it provides a
broader explanation of an adolescent’s development.

Other Contextual Influences on Development: Cohort, Socioeconomic Status, and Culture

What is meant by the word “context”? It means that we are influenced by when and
where we live. Our actions, beliefs, and values are a response to the circumstances
surrounding us. Sternberg describes contextual intelligence as the ability to understand
what is called for in a situation (Sternberg, 1996). The key here is to understand that
behaviors, motivations, emotions, and choices are all part of a bigger picture. Our
concerns are such because of who we are socially, where we live, and when we live;
they are part of a social climate and set of realities that surround us. Important social
factors include cohort, social class, gender, race, ethnicity, and age. Let’s begin by
exploring two of these: cohort and social class. 
A cohort is a group of people who are born at roughly the same time period in a
particular society. Cohorts share histories and contexts for living. Members of a cohort
have experienced the same historical events and cultural climates which have an
impact on the values, priorities, and goals that may guide their lives.
Another context that influences our lives is our social standing, socioeconomic status, or social
class. Socioeconomic status is a way to identify families and households based on their shared
levels of education, income, and occupation. While there is certainly individual variation,
members of a social class tend to share similar lifestyles, patterns of consumption, parenting
styles, stressors, religious preferences, and other aspects of daily life.

Culture is often referred to as a blueprint or guideline shared by a group of people that

specifies how to live. It includes ideas about what is right and wrong, what to strive for,
what to eat, how to speak, what is valued, as well as what kinds of emotions are called
for in certain situations. Culture teaches us how to live in a society and allows us to
advance because each new generation can benefit from the solutions found and passed
down from previous generations.

Culture is learned from parents, schools, churches, media, friends, and others
throughout a lifetime. The kinds of traditions and values that evolve in a particular
culture serve to help members function in their own society and to value their own
society. We tend to believe that our own culture’s practices and expectations are the
right ones. This belief that our own culture is superior is called ethnocentrism and is a
normal by-product of growing up in a culture. It becomes a roadblock, however, when it
inhibits understanding of cultural practices from other societies. Cultural relativity is an
appreciation for cultural differences and the understanding that cultural practices are
best understood from the standpoint of that particular culture.

Culture is an extremely important context for human development and understanding

development requires being able to identify which features of development are culturally
based. This understanding is somewhat new and still being explored. So much of what
developmental theorists have described in the past has been culturally bound and
difficult to apply to various cultural contexts. For example, Erikson’s theory that
teenagers struggle with identity assumes that all teenagers live in a society in which
they have many options and must make an individual choice about their future. In many
parts of the world, one’s identity is determined by family status or society’s dictates. In
other words, there is no choice to make.

Even the most biological events can be viewed in cultural contexts that are extremely
varied. Consider two very different cultural responses to menstruation in young girls. In
the United States, girls in public school often receive information on menstruation
around 5th grade, get a kit containing feminine hygiene products, and receive some sort
of education about sexual health. Contrast this with some developing countries where
menstruation is not publicly addressed, or where girls on their period are forced to miss
school due to limited access to feminine products or unjust attitudes about
menstruation.

Development is Multidisciplinary

Any single discipline’s account of development across the lifespan would not be able to
express all aspects of this theoretical framework. That is why it is suggested explicitly by
lifespan researchers that a combination of disciplines is necessary to understand
development. Psychologists, sociologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, educators,
economists, historians, medical researchers, and others may all be interested and
involved in research related to the normative age-graded, normative history-graded, and
nonnormative influences that help shape development. Many disciplines are able to
contribute important concepts that integrate knowledge, which may ultimately result in
the formation of a new and enriched understanding of development across the lifespan.

Lifespan development is the scientific study of how and why people change or remain
the same over time. As we are beginning to see, lifespan development involves multiple
domains and many ages and stages that are important in and of themselves, but that
are also interdependent and dynamic and need to be viewed holistically. There are
many influences on lifespan development at individual and societal levels (including
genetics); cultural, generational, economic, and historical contexts are often significant.
And how developmental research is designed and data are collected, analyzed, and
interpreted can affect what is discovered about human development across the lifespan.
In this module, we mentioned the “Up” Series several times, which followed individuals
beginning from age 7 on through, in the most recent program, age 63. What can we
learn about lifespan development from the interviews conducted every seven years and
depicted in the series? One analyst summarized the life lessons from the series as the
following:

1. Life goes on.

2. Count your blessings.
3. Relationships matter—a lot.
4. Money also matters—but only up to a point.
5. Don’t compare yourself to others.[1]

Would you agree or disagree with these conclusions? Why or why not? Keep in mind
what you’ve learned about variables of culture, social class, time in history, cohort, and
gender. Do you see examples of normative age-graded, normative history-graded, and
nonnormative influences on the development in the “Up” Series? How much have the
individuals changed and how much have they stayed the same? Has social class
defined them and the trajectories of their lives? If you were to conduct your own
longitudinal research, what would you aim to discover? Keep these questions in mind as
we continue to dig deeper into the study of the lifespan.