Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline.

Abstract

Life-span developmental psychology involves the study of constancy and change in behavior throughout the life course. One aspect of life-span research has been the advancement of a more general, metatheoretical view on the nature of development. The family of theoretical perspectives associated with this metatheoretical view of life-span developmental psychology includes the recognition of multidirectionality in ontogenetic change, consideration of both age-connected and disconnected developmental factors, a focus on the dynamic and continuous interplay between growth (gain) and decline (loss), emphasis on historical embeddedness and other structural contextual factors, and the study of the range of plasticity in development. Application of the family of perspectives associated with life-span developmental psychology is illustrated for the domain of intellectual development. Two recently emerging perspectives of the family of beliefs are given particular attention. The first proposition is methodological and suggests that plasticity can best be studied with a research strategy called testing-the-limits. The second proposition is theoretical and proffers that any developmental change includes the joint occurrence of gain (growth) and loss (decline) in adaptive capacity. To assess the pattern of positive (gains) and negative (losses) consequences resulting from development, it is necessary to know the criterion demands posed by the individual and the environment during the lifelong process of adaptation.The study of life-span development is not a homogeneous field. It comes in two major interrelated modes. The first mode is the extension of developmental studies across the life course without a major effort at the construction of metatheory that emanates from life-span work. The second mode includes the endeavor to explore whether life-span research has specific implications for the general nature of developmental theory. The second approach represents the topic of this article.Specifically, the purpose of this article is twofold. First, after a brief introduction to the field of life-span developmental psychology, some "prototypical" features of the life-span approach in developmental psychology are presented. Second, these features are illustrated by work in one domain: intellectual development. Although the focus of this paper is on life-span developmental psychology and its theoretical thrust, it is important to recognize at the outset that similar perspectives on developmental theory have been advanced in other quarters of developmental scholarship as well (Hetherington & Baltes, in press; Scan;. There is, however, a major difference in the "gestalt" in which the features of the theoretical perspective of life-span psychology are organized.

Memory plasticity across the life span: Uncovering children's latent potential.

“…Baltes, 1987;Baltes et al, 2006;Denney, 1984) as well as previous findings on developmental differences in the effects of training on memory performance during childhood (e.g., Bjorklund et al, 1997;P. H. Miller, 1990; also see reviews above) and adulthood (Kliegl et al, 1989;Lindenberger, Mayr, & Kliegl, 1993;Singer et al, 2003), this study tested three main hypotheses:…”

“Still the same and better off than others?”: social and temporal comparisons in old age

“…On the other hand, there is evidence that gain dimensions exist as well in old age (at least till the fourth age; Baltes 1987;Baltes and Smith 2003). These may permit downward temporal comparisons stating that one is better off than in former time, which then should have a self-enhancing effect.…”

“…In a second step, comparison directions will be inspected across four age groups ranging from 50 to 90 years. Here, it is expected that especially temporal upward comparisons will increase across age groups reflecting the unfavourable balance between losses and gains in old age (Baltes 1987); again no clear-cut hypothesis with respect to the prevalence of certain judgements is formulated for social comparisons. In a third step, the relation between social and temporal comparisons and self-esteem will be explored by investigating groups high and low in self-esteem with respect to predominant comparison directions.…”

Plasticity of memory for new learning in very old age: A story of major loss?

“…B. Baltes & Willis, 1982) usually refers to learning gain (e.g., pretest-posttest difference scores); to levels of performance after instruction and practice in performance-enhancing skills, strategies, or techniques; or to both (P. B. Baltes, 1987). Two major results emerge from memory training research using techniques such as the MoL, the name-face mnemonic, or the pegword mnemonic (for memory training studies, see Verhaeghen et al, 1992; for training programs in fluid intelligence, see P. B. Baltes & Lindenberger, 1988;Schaie & Willis, 1986).…”