Institute for Psychology, University of Hildesheim, Universitaetsplatz 1, 31141, Hildesheim, Germany.
Integr Psychol Behav Sci. 2023 Dec;57(4):1119-1139. doi: 10.1007/s12124-023-09767-y. Epub 2023 Apr 25.
This paper argues that the project of a lifespan perspective in developmental psychology has not yet been systematically pursued. Overall, the number of age-specific papers far outweighs the number of lifespan approaches, and even approaches that focus on the lifespan as a whole are often restricted to adulthood. Further, there is a lack of approaches that examine cross-lifespan relationships. However, the lifespan perspective has brought with it a "processual turn" that suggests an examination of developmental regulatory processes that are either operative across the lifespan or develop across the lifespan. Accommodative adjustment of goals and evaluations in response to obstacles, loss, and threat is discussed as an example of such a process. Not only is it prototypical of efficacy and change of developmental regulation across the lifespan, but at the same time it makes clear that stability (e.g., of the self)-as a possible outcome of accommodation-is not an alternative to, but a variant of development. Explaining how accommodative adaptation changes, in turn, requires a broader perspective. For this purpose, an evolutionary approach to developmental psychology is proposed that not only views human development as a product of phylogenesis, but also applies the central concepts of the theory of evolution (adaptation and history) directly to ontogeny. The challenges, conditions, and limitations of such a theoretical application of adaptation to human development are discussed.
本文认为，发展心理学中的寿命观视角项目尚未得到系统的研究。总体而言，特定年龄的论文数量远远超过寿命观方法的数量，即使是关注整个寿命观的方法也往往局限于成年期。此外，缺乏跨寿命观关系的研究方法。然而，寿命观视角带来了“过程转向”，这表明需要对跨寿命观或跨寿命观发展的发展调节过程进行研究。以适应目标和评价的适应性调整为例，讨论了这样一种过程。这种过程不仅是跨寿命观的发展调节的效能和变化的典型范例，而且同时也清楚地表明，稳定性（例如，自我的稳定性）——作为适应的可能结果——不是发展的替代，而是发展的变体。反过来，解释适应的适应性调整如何变化，需要更广阔的视角。为此，提出了一种进化的发展心理学方法，该方法不仅将人类发展视为系统发生的产物，而且还将进化理论的核心概念（适应和历史）直接应用于个体发生。讨论了将适应理论应用于人类发展的理论应用的挑战、条件和限制。
