Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Adult Development

Along with aging, human development occurs. Contemporary definitions characterize development as systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur between conception and death. Development is implied to be predictable and continuous with pattern and order. Counseling is developmental and strength-based, and the counselor aids an individual, couple, or family through normative developmental adjustments and transitions. Because counseling is concerned with normative stresses, adjustments, and life transitions, rather than pathologies of the individual, knowledge of development is essential.

The Nature of Development

The developmental process occurs at psychological, biological, and social levels. In psychological development, the perceptions of a person change, as do other mental processes. Biologically, a person's body and organs tend to decline in efficacy while aging. The social aspect of development includes interpersonal relationships and skills and roles played in the larger society. A developmental approach examines the interplay of environmental and individual factors on a person. Developmentally, a person is always in the process of change, influenced by the interplay of outside influences on his or her life.

Maturation and learning are the two processes that underlie developmental change. Maturation is the biological unfolding of the individual according to the heredity of his or her parents and the passing on of genes. Learning is the process through which experience brings about changes in a person's thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Development occurs in historical and cultural context that influences the rate and intensity of how an individual's development occurs. A broader context for discussing adult development follows; it examines some early influences on the developmental perspective.

Historical Synopsis

According to some, developmental psychology began nearly 4 centuries ago, as evidenced in the works of literary artists, like Shakespeare, who viewed development as extending beyond adolescence, well into adulthood. In the 20th century, others began to think of development as continuing throughout a person's life. The objectives were to measure changes over a person's life span rather than to focus on the process of change itself.

Developmental systems encompass the entire life span of the individual and offer evidence that development in a person proceeds by stages. While there are several theories of human development that agree on some points and disagree on others, development is not so much a single theory as it is a way of looking at a person's life, in which theories can be integrated within a framework. The shift to a life-span view of the developing individual was solidified with the developmental perspective of Erikson, who sought to understand the psychosocial challenges confronting the individual at each stage of life. Building on Freud's ideas, Erikson and others broadened the developmental perspective by including psychosocial trends evidenced by a crisis or turning point in each stage of human development. This shift resulted in a renewed focus on issues related to the “whole” individual, including such factors as spirituality, family environment, socioeconomic considerations, and the impact of groups on the individual's developmental process.

Theories of Adult Development

The primary tension in theories of adult development is between the ontogenetic perspective, which posited that developmental forces are internal and biologically based, and the sociogenic perspective, which argued that change in adulthood is due primarily to social influences. Ontogenetic proponents were mostly from Germany, while the sociogenic proponents were influenced by French sociologists, such as Durkheim. One person who may be classified as part of the ontogenetic school of thought was Freud. Freud published a number of works emphasizing the role of sexuality in human life. Influenced by the philosophers of his era (i.e., Schopenhauer and Nietzsche), Freud saw human beings as guided by passion as well as reason. Freud went beyond the traditional Victorian views of sexuality by identifying such theories as the Oedipus complex (named for the legendary king of Thebes who killed his father and married his mother) and the Electra complex (named for the mythological Greek who avenged her father's murder by killing her mother). Freud disclosed in conceptual terms what literary poets had espoused all along and stated those themes in mythopoetic terms. Even the naming of the two aforementioned theories was indicative of how Freud's character was influenced by the passionate figures in mythology as well as of his own passion to become an intellectual force in his own right.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution