Читать книгу Lifespan Development - Tara L. Kuther - Страница 9

Development does not occur in a vacuum but is a function of dynamic transactions among individuals, their biological makeup, and myriad contextual influences. We are all embedded in multiple interacting layers of context, including tangible and intangible circumstances that influence and are influenced by our development, such as family, ethnicity, culture, neighborhood, community, norms, values, and historical events. The contextual approach of Lifespan Development: Lives in Context emphasizes the intersection of context and diversity and the many forms that diversity takes (gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc.).

Lifespan Development: Lives in Context emphasizes how individual factors, combined with the places, sociocultural environments, and ways in which we are raised, influence who we become and how we grow and change throughout the lifespan. This theme is infused throughout the text and highlighted specifically in two types of boxed features that appear in each chapter: Lives in Context and Cultural Influences on Development. Examples of Lives in Context features include the effects of maternal depression on emotional development in infancy and toddlerhood, transgender children, and the effects of exposure to war and terrorism in childhood. The Cultural Influences on Development feature examines cultural perspectives on biological changes such as birth, menarche, menopause, and death. This feature also examines cultural influences on individuals’ development and how they understand their world, such as language development, theory of mind, views of aging, and susceptibility to dementia.