Outline and discuss the five characteristics of lifespan development. Offer examples from your life experience which fit with each of these five characteristics.
The appication section of this question is very important!
5 Characteristics of Development are:
1. Multidirectional
- Life is multidirectional and consistency is rare making development a dynamic process which brings about unexpected twist and turns.
- I.E. The Butterfly Effect: the idea that even the smallest tiny event can have an enormous impact on one’s future.
· The main girl in the butterfly effect has my name which was very exciting for me and why I went and saw the movie! (This as far as I know have any more of an effect than taking money out of my possession and give me a second movie to know with the girl name Kayleigh in it. The other one was Quest for Camelot!)
· What life experience can I put that had an adverse or off reaction? When I was in my Junior year of High School I was checking out colleges and fell in love with Texas Tech when I went to their Fair. I chose it, got accepted, my parents put up the money to get me into the dorms I wanted, and I was all set to go. I guess it could be considered a huge decision to mess all those plans up for “the love of my life”, which has long since ended but I chose to cancel everything and stay in the city with my High School till my boyfriend graduated so we could live together and move on together. So really it was a smaller choice that got me their which was to take a pill or not take a pill that led to our relationship and the epic downfall of my education plans but also brought up my investment in life because I had a load of fun. Life is unpredictable. Just think of it this way….what if Alice decided to never go down the rabbit hole?
2. Multi contextual
- The Multi contextual characteristic of development includes ones Social, historical, and socioeconomic context or backgrounds.
· Some events that have affected my life include Hurricane Katrina because the victims were put all around are area so I got to meet some cool people through that, September 11th happened 20 minutes after I got to my public speaking class Freshman year and I watched the 2nd tower get hit live which made the people in my grade a little more obsessive about public events and an unmatchable event which my class endured was the “suicide” of Akbar Ahmad the beginning of Senior year, which introduced me to the death of a well known close friend. He was line back of the Varsity football team, had a job at Best Buy, and a party star that endured an intolerant dad at home –which led to the suicide, and the other jerks around who called him gay because he had a fashion sense. His girlfriend was my best friend and I was supposed to hang out with him earlier that day but I got drunk with some other friends instead. This also goes along with multidirectional : What if I had gone home and done my homework and met him up that day? Oh fun. I have the pleasure to be the end product of Generation X which offered me an awesome music taste that includes love of the late 80’s to early 90’s alternative and grunge, like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and Sublime.
3. Multicultural
- The Multicultural aspect of development is the commonality or belonging to different groups which have the same experiences, customs, values, or lived through the same time period. This includes the groupings of age, neighborhoods, disabilities or abilities, ethnicity, or college community.
- Culture is the patterns of behavior that are passed from one generation to the next.
· People in general are influenced by more than one culture no matter where they are, and I am not void of this fact. I am a English speaking American with ties from my ancestors to Irish and European descent. I grew up in a highly Hispanic part of Texas up to 7th grade. I went to a Roman Catholic Preschool where we also attended church and I also went to Presbyterian church with my Grandma, mom, and brother as well as frequently attending my best friends church who I stayed every other weekend with, up till 6th grade, at a Baptist and then southern Baptist church. In high school I went to Catholic Church every once and a while but if one couldn’t already tell my religious parts of my life have been ever changing….but still have input different things in my person. When I moved to a new town that was a richer area I had further influences from seeing friends with money and found myself with a Chinese and Mexican best friend. I have been lucky to be immersed into others cultures and languages. From moving to a new neighborhood I experienced lower-middle to upper-middle class and since living without parents I have dwelled many types of places and met and been around many types of people.
4. Multidisciplinary
- Includes the 3 domains of biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial development. Biosocial development is considered to include all the growth and change that occurs in one’s body and the genetic, nutritional, and health aspects that affect growth and change.
· My mother was always on a diet when I was younger and kept thin and my dad was diagnosed with diabetes so I am very aware of everything I eat because of how I was conditioned. I anxiety problems like my grandma used too and problems with stress too.
- Cognitive Development which includes mental processes one uses to obtain knowledge or to think about the environment
· I had good parents, coaches, teachers, bosses, coworkers, and learned some harmful, useful, and some fun things from peers. These range from math to knowing party fouls and beyond.
- Psychosocial development includes development of emotions, temperament, and social skills.
· My parents are on the quieter side so I am naturally more inward then outgoing. I have trouble interrupting people because I was raised not doing that. I have an idea what a good marriage is and the troubles within them that could come also because of my parents because I grew up with them fighting about me, my brother, and money while my husbands parents did not air their problems to him.
5. Plasticity
- Involves the aspect that human traits can be molded while maintaining durability of identity,
· Plasticity is the best and most obvious that one does not turn out exactly like their biological makeup or their upbringing would have one if plasticity was not a strong factor. Every year I change more and more because of the things that I choose to value so it is obvious no one is destined to be a certain way because we control our own level of plasticity.
