Life-span Development: Frameworks, Accounts and Strategies

This thorough revision of the highly successful first edition of Life-Span Development offers the reader a wide-ranging and thought provoking account of human development throughout the lifespan. The lifespan approach emphasises that development does not stop when we cease to be adolescents but goes on throughout adulthood and into old age.

In initial chapters Leonie Sugarman outlines the issues surrounding the notion of development and how it can be studied, including reviews of the work of key theorists Erikson, Levinson and Gould. She goes on to consider the different ways in which the life course can be construed: as a series of age-related stages; as a cumulative sequence; as a series of developmental tasks; as a series of key life events and transitions or as a narrative construction which creates a sense of dynamic continuity. A final chapter looks at how people cope, the resources that are available and the theoretical and practical issues regarding interventions to assist them in the process.

New to this edition is increased coverage of the topical issue of successful ageing and a new chapter on the increasingly popular narrative approach to lifespan development. This edition is also more student-friendly with exercises in self-reflection that encourage the reader to look at the development of their own lives or those of their current or future clients. Boxed material highlighting major theories and clarifying concepts is also included. This book will be invaluable for students of developmental and occupational psychology and professionals in the fields of health management, education and social work.

Léonie Sugarman is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, specialising in the area of adult development. She is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at St Martin’s College, Lancaster, where she teaches aspects of life-span development, stress management and individual change to students and practitioners in a range of professions.