Lifespan Development

LO1: Explanation On Variations in Concepts of Health Stages of Human Lifespan

Concepts of Health
Health is a combination of mental, physical, and social wellbeing and not simply a
nonappearance of disease or illness.

Holistic Concepts
The holistic concept of Health is an ancient attitude to health
familiarized by Jan Christiaan Smuts in 1926. It highlights the
connection between body, mind, and spirit. The theory suggests
not only to alleviate or address the symptoms and diseases but
also handle and treat the grounds of the symptoms to maintain
optimal health (Bazerman, 2018). Factors including posture,
climatic factors, rest microbiomes, diet, sexual health, exercise,
stress, purposefulness, and toxins, etc. are vital components that
influence optimal human health in connection with the interactive
relationship with those factors. Moreover, one can attain optimal
health with stable arrangements among surrounded factors.
According to the holistic concept, human health is a combination
of 5 interrelated fundamentals. Holistic health concept believes
that unconditional affection and love is the most influential healer
and people holds inborn healing controls. Instruction on lifestyle,
harmonizing and complementary therapies, and allopathic
treatments and surgical actions are the common treatment in this
concept. This holistic health concept is applied in the American
Holistic Health Association (AHHA) and the expert committee
by Dept. of AYUSH in India (Harkness, 2013).
Biopsychosocial Concept
The biopsychosocial model debates that one factor is not enough to influence human health
rather interaction among people's psychological (mental fitness), biological (genetic
maquillage), and social factors control the cause, consequence, manifestation of wellbeing and
disease. This framework established by George L. Engel. Biological impacts on health
comprise an entity’s genetic greasepaint and record of physical shock or trauma. Many
syndromes are a congenital genetic vulnerability. For example, the risk factors for
schizophrenia could be inherited with the risk level of 6.5%, 40% by monozygotic identical
twins with schizophrenia (Bee, Boyd and Johnson, 2014). Social factors are comprised of
socio-economic status, expectations, belief, culture, and religion and contribute to diverse
pervasiveness rates and sign the appearance of disorders. For example, losing a job or
termination of a romantic relationship could endanger human health by increasing the jeopardy
of stress, anxiety, and illness. However, the influence of social influences is broadly
recognized in psychological illnesses. Psychological aspects can aggravate a biological
susceptibility by tapping a genetically vulnerable individual in jeopardy for supplementary
peril actions (KATO, 2016). For example, depression won’t directly affect liver problems
rather it increases alcohol consumption which leads to liver damage eventually.
Developmental psychology
The theory of development psychology offers an agenda
about human development, growth, and knowledge. It is
based on a set of directorial philosophies and theories that
elucidate human development. Human development is the
organized psychological modifications that an individual
experience throughout his life span. The theory includes
cognitive, emotional physical, social, perceptual,
intellectual, and personality growth throughout the human
lifespan. It also aspects of distinctive psychological
structures against knowledge by experience, or how an
individual's features interrelate with environmental
elements and how this influences improvement (Lifespan
Development | Department of Psychology, 2020). Factors
include problem-solving skills, self-concept, acquiring
language, motor skills, identity formation, personality,
moral understanding, and emotions.
Explain, describe, and optimize development are the main
focus of developmental psychology (Weadick and Sommer,
2016). Explanation about the variations in normative
courses and individual variances is the first goal of this
theory. Both classic outlines of change and on individual
disparities in shapes of change are used to define
development. Finally, the optimization of development in
different life stages is ensured by the implementation of
theories in practical situations. It focuses on development in
every stage of lifespan from infants to the older stage and it
has great significance on an individual's entire lifespan.
The lifespan of people aged between 20 to 65 years is called
Adulthood adulthood. It can be divided into 3 divisions including early adults
(20–36), middle-aged adults (36 – 55) and grownup adults (55–
65). In this phase full intellectual as well as physical maturity is
flourished and individuals establish their families and continue the
life sequence. The lifespan stage constitutes the chief share of the
human life cycle (Jones, 2017). The young adults are superior in
organizing novel information whereas the older adults are superior
to remember common evidence and traditional knowledge. The
productivity and speed of functioning are declining from the peak
with ages. The physical stability at early and mid-aged adults is
high which begins to deteriorate slowly at the old adulthood stage
and then they require health care services more.
An individual after 65 years old is considered at the last stage of
the human lifespan. Human life ends at this stage. The average Old Person
life expectancy is based on overall health which rangers from 70
to 85 years (Janacsek, Fiser and Nemeth, 2012). In this part, an
individual has to admit the reality of his life based on
disappointment, successes, and the achievement of past life. This
stage is the combination of several life events including
retirement, the birth of grandchildren, the death of a partner and
relatives. They must have to cope with losses like loss of income,
abilities, and partners. With the declining health condition of old
persons increases dependency on others. The intellectual
functions decline in old age due to memory loss, change of
attention and lack of reasoning skills.
LO2: Explanation of Psychological Theories and Its Relation
with Lifespan Stages
Cognitive psychology
The cognitive psychological theory focuses on inner conditions including enthusiasm,
perceptions, skills of attention, decision-making, and problem-solving. It discloses the
process in which mind process, store and use information. The theory studies individuals
thought, perception, communication and memory skill.
Therefore, it is closely connected to neuroscience, linguistics, and philosophy (A NEW
FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING LIFESPAN COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT, 2016). Setting up educational agendas, treatment for learning
disorders, sessions to cope with memory disorders for the improvement of learning, and
utilization of memory and ensure precision in decision-making. For example,
psychologists introduce rehearsal strategy to transfer information from short term
memory at long-term stable and durable memory as well as improve the memory
performance. It is also enriched with other popular instruments including eyewitness
testimony and cognitive therapy. Piaget's cognitive developmental theory explained
about children’s understanding of the world through four phases of intellectual
development. Moreover, the theory is generally related to the childhood stage of the
human lifespan.