Life Span Development Life-Span Development: Term Paper

Discussion

Every one goes through many stages in life beginning at the time of conception, throughout life, and finally in death. Human development is important to psychologists because it can provide insight about a person and the stage he or she may be experiencing in life based on age-related changes in behavior, emotions, personality, and thought processes (Boyd & Bee, 2009). The interest of changes throughout a person's life, from childhood through adulthood, has developed into a psychological area of study called the lifespan perspective. This modern perspective believes that interdisciplinary research is important in the understanding of lifespan development as well as understanding that each individual, of all ages, can change and develop through many different contexts (Boyd & Bee, 2009).

The following stages, according to Annenberg Media Learner (2010), start at birth.Although Boyd & Bee (2010) state that prenatal is the very first stage of development. While going through the website Learner's (2010) periods, put in parentheses will be the label that Boyd & Bee (2009) give to each stage. The first period is birth to age two (infancy), second is ages two through six (early childhood), third is ages seven to nine (middle childhood), fourth is 10 to 12 (middle childhood), fifth is 13- 15 (adolescence), and sixth is 16 to 19 (early adulthood). These first six stages are all under 20 years of age. A large amount of development is going on during these years.

The seventh period is ages 20 to 40 (emerging adulthood), eighth period is 40 to 65 (middle adulthood), and the last period is.....