Learning Objectives

Following the completion of this chapter, students will be able to:

1. Define development and explain what developmentalists study.
2. List and describe the key principles of the lifespan developmental approach.
3. Discuss the periods of adulthood and the ways in which age may be characterized.
4. Describe the influence of heredity and environment on adult development and aging.
5. Define and discuss the major influences on adult development and aging including normative age-graded influences, normative history-graded influences, and nonnormative life events.
6. Define and discuss Bronfenbrenner's five levels of environmental influence described in his ecological approach to development.
7. Discuss the role of cross-cultural research in explaining adult development and aging.
8. Describe the images of aging in relation to culture and the shifting demographics of the middle-aged and aging adult population.
9. Define ageism and discuss the origins and perpetuation of aging stereotypes.
10. Discuss the shifting demographics of aging in the United States between the first and last decades of the 20th century.
11. Describe the changing global population trends expected by during the first half of the 21st century.
12. Describe current and future characteristics of the aging population in relation to gender, race and ethnicity, living arrangements, socioeconomic status, education, and health.
13. Describe Western and Asian views on aging from a historical perspective and current practice.
14. Describe the differences in economic development and concerns faced by developed and developing nations in caring for older adults.
15. Define and explain the concept of productive aging as described by the United Nations General Assembly in 1999.