PSYC 350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Paul Baltes, Longitudinal Study, Cerebral Cortex
Document Summary
The life-span perspective: the life-span perspective: divides human development into two phases: 1). early phase (childhood and adolescence) and 2). later phase (young adulthood, middle age, and old age). Early phase= rapid age-related increases in people"s sizes and abilities. Ex. people"s voice ability tends to increase throughout life, but reaction time tends to decrease: plasticity: one"s capacity is not predetermined or set in concrete. Many skills can be trained or improved with practice, even in late life. Development is shaped by biological, psychological, sociocultural, and life-cycle forces: life-span perspective emphasizes that human development takes a lifetime to complete**, baltes argued that life-span development consists of the dynamic interactions among growth, maintenance, and loss regulation: As people grow older, they show an age-related reduction in the amount and quality of biologically based resources. There is an age-related increase in the amount of quality of culture needed to generate continuously higher growth.
