Normative Lifespan Theory

Paul Baltes was a German born psychologist who challenged the traditional view of development, with his life span perspective of development theory. It states that no age cohort dominates development; rather, development occurs throughout all periods of life (Boyd, 2003). Growth and change are brought about through sociocultural and biological influences that occur out a person life span, these influence can be normative and non-normative (Dunn & Craig, 2013).

Normative age-graded influence is both social and biological change that occurs in a person’s life span (Dunn & Craig, 2013). Essential these changes occur at about the same age for each person with in a society. Some examples are puberty, menopause, marriage, retirement, entering college,

My sister and I grew up in the same house, with the same parents and the same opportunity, however my life, experience and perspective are quite different than hers. She is a married, mother of 3 with a successful husband and a beautiful house, essential she lives the “American dream”. I, on the other hand, am a single mother of 2, with only failed relationship in my past, in recovery for both drug addict and bulimia and at the age of 43 just getting my life together. For the most part my sister and I being only 17 months apart had the same Normative age and history grade experience, we both grew up in the 70 and 80’s, when we were young in New York City, we both experience the major black out and snow storm, the crazy gas price situation causing lines down several city block, the strike of the public transportation system causing many including my father to ride a bike across the Queensboro bridge. Why the drastic differences between our adult lives, the unpredictable non-normative influences. The things that happened to us individually, my sister had a fairy tale upbringing, the favorite that was smart, pretty and just the right size. I was not the favorite; I was the problem child from the “get”, colicky as an infant and prone to wild tantrum, and huge growth spurts that would cause me to be clumsy and frequent ER visits, also experience some traumatic event, in my adolescence, mugging and