Towards a Life-span Perspective

‘ I Love a Broad Margin to My Life …’ I love a broad margin to my life. Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around, or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in these seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. They were not times subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance. Henry David Thoreau , Walden KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS Positivism Paradigm Intimacy versus isolation Generativity versus stagnation Ego integrity versus despair Authentic identity Introduction Methods of child study are evolving and being adapted to better capture the broader influences that shape the developing individual. This chapter highlights recent developments in the study of children and adolescents, including changes in methodology and related changes in the way in which we see the growing child in the broader contexts of family life and the culture to which the family belongs. Furthermore, although this text focuses on the development of children and adolescents, it is important to appreciate that the individual continues to grow beyond adolescence. To this end, the methods used to study child and adolescent development may have to be further refined to identify the nature of changes occurring during adulthood and old age.