After reading the first chapter what really caught my interest
was the Life-span perspective. It had struck my interest due to doing some past
work and research on Erick Erickson and his stages of human development. I grew
to appreciate what he had laid as a sound look at the interactions of different
forces that affected a person not just the Penal stage and Oedipus complex of Freud.
Though a student of his Erick was able to look at more of the interactions it
would help make along with others the Life-Span Perspective. This perspective
looks at all aspects of life and studies them in detail not just the adult and
child stages. I like the diagram that was used to describe all aspects of this
perspective, it paints a wonderful idea of how all it comes at a person and
shows where it comes from (p.11 Kathline Stassen Berger). It than looks at the five
steps that help define steps in human development and explain how they change.
The five of them are as follows: Multidirectional, Multicontextual, Multicultural,
Multidisciplinary, and lastly Plastic (p.1011 Kathline Stassen Berger). The
text goes into detail on each of the disciplines and explains why they are
important. This was well written and shows a different perspective which the
next section goes into the science method which does something completely different.
I see this as a great way to see how aspects like cultural, race, gender, and
other forces define and shape people. How they even with the entire life of a
person can change through time and different exposure to life’s challenges.
