Lifespan Development Experimental Research

Lifespan Development Experimental Research

Abstract

This paper contributes to the study of lifespan development. It emphasizes the idea that one of the best ways to learn about life and gain perspective is to compare one’s experiences with others. The researcher interviews older women, examining the inferences of their major life events and their effects on their view of change. The text describes several connotations of human development, including multidimensionality, plasticity, and the disposition that development is multidirectional, multidisciplinary, and multi-contextual. The study utilizes the research results to show how the nature and prevalence of particular life events at an early age affect one’s well-being later in life.

Keywords: Lifespan development, multidimensional, multidirectional, multidisciplinary, multi-contextual, plastic, wellbeing, late life.

Literature Review

There is a considerable body of work on lifespan developmental psychology. Wetstein et al. (2022) state that this discipline employs experiments, observation, case studies, and other research methods to gain more insight into the nature of life. These approaches relate to this study’s principal objective seeking to understand the innumerability of people’s behaviors in their natural setting and their psychosocial and physical states. Grainger et al. (2022) support this notion, alluding to the multidimensional lifespan development theory. This theory states that human growth takes several aspects, including emotional, biological, and intellectual facets. The theory explains the relationship between these elements of life as they can affect an individual’s decision-making and its outcomes (Wettstein et al., 2022). For example, an older person may be fixated on negative thoughts of the end of life, leading to depression and loneliness. The changes in this context include the biological aspect of old age, the cognition associated with thoughts about death, and the resulting emotional shifts.

Grainger et al. (2022) explain the importance of learning human development. The text states that besides its multidimensionality, development is lifelong, multidirectional, multidisciplinary, and plastic. Grainger et al. (2022) state that development encompasses an individual’s lifespan from conception through death. This contention shows that all stages of the lifespan define the nature of growth. In addition, this kind of change is multidirectional, as human development does not always follow a straight line. Wettstein et al. (2022) support this notion, saying that multidirectional development is dictated by the advancement and decline of such human features as physical growth and wisdom or knowledge. According to Grainger et al. (2022), development is multidisciplinary as it varies from one person to another. Plasticity is there to express this intrapersonal variability and emphasize that the impacts of one’s significant events could potentially be changed or prevented. These articles facilitate this paper’s disposition that life events at any phase may affect a person’s well-being in later life.

Method and Results

Method

            For this exercise, the researcher interviewed and assessed MD, a 66-year-old White female living with her husband in the country. At the beginning of the experiment, the researcher explained the purpose of the exercise, providing MD with a few details and overview of the assessment. The interview was conducted face-to-face. Both parties found the conversation absorbingly riveting as it comprised important reflections and digressions that enabled the researcher to learn more about life and development. Additionally, it was pertinent that the researcher modified questions or the variables to suit MD’s context. Still, focusing on the study’s objectives, the investigator performed a thorough content analysis, classifying and discussing the meaning of certain words and sentences. To get the full picture of MD’s development, the researcher did a thematic and discourse analysis, closely examining the interviewee’s mode of communication and relating the findings to the social context. In the end, however, the exercise was successful and all questions were answered satisfactorily.

Results

            The answers provided engulfed and reinforced the experiment’s primary concern on human development. MD focused on social, personality, intellectual, and emotional growth. She highlighted how she had lived in two completely different settings and how the move from the city to the country affected her social life. She describes how she entered adulthood, navigated middle age, and what she thought would help her face the onset of old age. MD explains how her development has been a continuous teaching moment that helped her better understand herself and equipped her with adequate knowledge and skills for a more fulfilling life. These and other findings explain each participant’s take on life, decisions, demeanor, and understanding of growth. MD confirms Else-Quest & Hyde’s (2022) contention that understanding lifespan development and the aging process prepares one for the issues associated with growing older. The following segment clarifies these results’ implications on human development.

Discussion and Further Study

Discussion

            The exercise describes the nature of later life, a period that encompasses mostly adverse life events, including bereavement, widowhood, loss of social roles, risk of severe health conditions, and loss of social functions (Pachana & Wells, 2017). In this light, the analysis went as per the researcher’s expectations, as the results show that life events in one phase of life play an integral role in the state of one’s well-being later in life. The findings align with Grainger et al.’s (2022) multidimensional and multidirectional human development concept. Critical life events must disrupt a person’s life course, both positively and negatively. In most cases, these situations demand a distinct process of specified adjustment. Else-Quest & Hyde (2022) support this, saying that the outcomes of these events may impact a person’s biological, emotional, and cognitive functioning. Overall, people’s major life events are those that had the most effect, as they might have been those that were intrinsically difficult to cope with.

            Pachana & Wells (2022) demonstrate that at least five dimensions determine the nature of life events and the severity of their impacts later in life. These dimensions include the source of the occurrence, their magnitude, valence, centrality, and their association with physical exhaustion. According to Wettstein et al. (2022), physically taxing events with the highest magnitude, valence, and centrality have significant mental and physical health implications among older adults. Most scholars have focused on how an adverse life event is associated with symptoms of depression in later life. Life psychosis, cognition, and memory issues have also received considerable attention. Pachana & Wells (2022) highlight an interesting finding, stating that stress may accumulate and “spill over” from one aspect of life to another, meaning that one’s emotional reaction to a severe biological issue may affect their wellness in old age. Generally, the exercise proves the link between the impacts of particular events in different phases of life.

Suggestions for Further Study

            Certain identified limitations in this study necessitate the need for additional research into the various concepts of human development. Firstly, the annotation that negative life events in childhood mean adverse outcomes in late life, is utterly biased and generalized. The results confirm Wettstein et al.’s (2022) idea that life is plastic. In this light, it is possible that dealing with the adversities of specific unpleasant events strengthens a person’s resilience. This development may help them transition into a wholly fulfilling life in old age. Another limitation pertains to the notion that development is contextual (Pachana & Wells, 2022). This was not representative of the target population, as the difference in the setting did not affect the study results.

            Grainger et al. (2022) state that development is multidisciplinary. This is an important consideration as this study has shown that a single discipline’s view or account cannot possibly express everything about a person’s development across the lifespan. Therefore, scholars should seek the input of psychologists, educators, sociologists, economists, neuroscientists, medical researchers, historians, and anthropologists, among others. Additional knowledge should be integrated into creating a new, enriched comprehension of human development. Further, it would be fitting to discuss how an individual’s culture has impacted their growth and how cultural differences affect their interaction with others.

References

Else-Quest N. & Hyde J. S. (2022). The Psychology of Women and Gender: Half the Human

Experience (Tenth). SAGE Publications.

Grainger, S. A., Crawford, J. D., Riches, J. C., Kochan, N. A., Chander, R. J., Mather, K. A., ...

& Henry, J. D. (2022). Aging Is Associated With Multidirectional Changes in Social Cognition: Findings From an Adult Life-Span Sample Ranging From 18 to 101 Years. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B.

Pachana, N. A., & Wells, Y. (2017). Life Events and Older People. In Encyclopedia of

Geropsychology (1st ed., pp. 1381–1389). essay, Springer Nature.

Wettstein, M., Wahl, H. W., & Schlomann, A. (2022). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

on trajectories of well-being of middle-aged and older adults: a multidimensional and multidirectional perspective. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23(7), 3577-3604.

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