Introduction
Every human being evolves throughout all his/her life and acquires new habits, attitudes, and preferences. That is why each stage of a persons development becomes crucial as it cultivates particular skills and knowledge. Moreover, periods have their unique peculiarities preconditioned by the needs an individual has at the moment and his/her goals. It is difficult to emphasize one or another stage as they all play a fundamental role in the formation of character; however, early adulthood seems the most interesting among other ones.
The fact is that a person has already formulated perspectives on future life and goals that should be achieved (“Human development through the life span,” n.d). At the same time, he/she experiences the lack of sources and competences needed to achieve these goals. Under these conditions, a persons development becomes attractive from a researchers perspective as it is preconditioned by such factors as motivation, peculiarities of character, skills, resources, etc.
The efficiency of chosen approaches and the nature of goals a person wants to achieve impact his/her further evolution. If he/she manages to attain success, his/her life alters significantly. Otherwise, he/she has to make an additional effort and start from nothing. Furthermore, a persons ability to face challenges and overcome them shapes his/her mentality and affects his/her further evolution (Lesack, Bearss, Celano, & Sharp, 2014).
For this reason, the stage of early adulthood acquires an academic interest. For instance, as a researcher, I could conduct a qualitative study to determine the primary moving forces or stimuli that affect an individual and precondition the appearance of specific behavioral patterns. Moreover, an investigator could also analyze the correlation between goals a person establishes and the peculiarities of his/her character. This data could be used to describe the essential peculiarities of lifespan development and outline the role of its stages in a persons evolution.
Lifespan Development
The importance of the issue mentioned above is evidenced by the fact that the lifespan development is touched upon in numerous research papers. For instance, Toplak, West, and Stanovich (2014) in their article conduct a correlational study that is focused on defying the existing developmental trends. The investigators try to clarify how particular rational thinking tasks correlate with thinking dispositions or fail to correlate with cognitive ability (Toplak et al., 2014).
The primary purpose of the research is to analyze the impact such factors as age, intelligence, and thinking dispositions might have on a persons other side thinking, resistance to framing, etc. (Toplak et al., 2014). Regarding the complicated character of the task, the authors use a specific test distributed among students from suburban and urban schools. The choice of this research method is preconditioned by the need to investigate the way cognitive processes among this age group occur and find out factors that result in the appearance of differences between participants. Using this method, the authors conclude that there are significant differences between age groups related to all variables of the study (Toplak et al., 2014).
Additionally, the differences in the measures of cognitive ability are also significant. In such a way, the authors conclude that all three measures of cognitive sophistication differ in their relations with traditional thinking measures (Toplak et al., 2014). Furthermore, all results are related to age as one of the leading factors that impact a persons intelligence. The authors were limited in the number of respondents chosen for the research; however, it had not deteriorated the relevance of findings. On the contrary, the selected data collection method could be considered the papers strength as it provides credible data and minimizes the probability of mistake.
Colonnesi, Napoleone, and Bogels (2014) are also interested in the investigation of different stages of lifespan development and the way peoples feelings alter. For this reason, the main purpose of their research is to study alterations in peoples mentality that promote change in attitudes to shyness. The authors think that this feeling is mainly considered a negative emotion (Colonnesi et al., 2014). However, this concern appears among adults, whereas toddlers have a different emotional response.
To conduct their study, the researchers used a descriptive approach. Children participating in the investigation were asked to observe their facial expressions related to shameful feelings (Colonnesi et al., 2014). At the same time, the authors also noted emotions that were demonstrated by the participants. The choice of this research method is preconditioned by the suggested hypothesis which states that age is one of the leading factors that impact the attitude to age.
The longitudinal study which involved one hundred and two first-born children could be considered the main strength of the paper as it offered the relevant information that could be used in the discussion. At the end of the research work, the authors conclude that there are significant differences in the way children and adolescents respond to particular emotions (Colonnesi et al., 2014). Additionally, positive and negative expressions of shyness depended on the age of respondents and the approach used to note facial expressions (Colonnesi et al., 2014).
Conclusion
Altogether, different stages of the lifespan development remain attractive for investigators. Numerous factors precondition the appearance of one or another unique feature peculiar to a person. In this regard, the further investigation of the issue of age and peoples evolution at different stages of their lifespan could be considered the primary task today.
References
Colonnesi, C., Napoleone, E., & Bogels, S. (2014). Positive and negative expressions of shyness in toddlers: Are they related to anxiety in the same way? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(4), 624-637.
Human development through the life span. The life span perspective. (n.d.). Web.
Lesack, R., Bearss, K., Celano, M., & Sharp, W. (2014). Parent–child Interaction therapy and autism spectrum disorder: Adaptations with a child with severe developmental delays. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 2(1), 68-82.
Toplak, M., West, R., & Stanovich, K. (2014). Rational thinking and cognitive sophistication: Development, cognitive abilities, and thinking dispositions. Developmental Psychology, 50(4), 1037-1048.