Describe four key features of the life-span perspective. How do these features speak to the three recurring issues in developmental psychology?

What will be an ideal response?

Multidirectionality states that development involves both growth and decline. For example, people's vocabulary tends to increase throughout life, but their memory skills weaken. Multidirectionality supports nature, discontinuity, and universal development. Plasticity states that one's capacity is not predetermined or carved in stone. Many skills can be learned or improved with practice, even late in life. Plasticity supports nurture, discontinuity, and universal development. Historical context states that each of us develops within a particular set of circumstances determined by the historical time in which we are born and the culture in which we grow up. Historical context supports nurture, context-specific development, and does not address the continuity-discontinuity issue. Multiple causation states that our development is the result of biological, psychological, sociocultural, and life-cycle forces. Multiple causation supports both nature and nurture, context-specific development, and does not address the continuity-discontinuity issue.