Leonie Sugarman’s book on Counselling and the Life Course
presents a number of different theories regarding lifespan and development,
though the focus is more on what these implications might mean when counseling a
person. An individual’s present placement within their lifespan or their
current stage of development can result in a number of different issues that
may be more salient for them, or it can influence how certain life events may
affect them. For instance, losing a parent during childhood or adolescence will
have different implications for a person than if this were to occur during
their middle age.
Meanwhile, Evie Bentley’s book largely focuses on adulthood,
and the different subsets of stages and ages within. This also includes the
somewhat newer theory of there being an “emerging adulthood” between
adolescence and adulthood, as in contemporary society a large number of people
who are adults remain in a stage of limbo during these early adult years while
they go through post-secondary school, still live at home, and generally
display characteristics that are a mixture of adult and older adolescent etc. But
we all knew that that was a more common things these days, didn’t we? Each
subset within adulthood has different issues or intrinsic “conflicts” that will
be more common, and Bentley presents these as they may pertain to different
ages.
Both books point out that most of the research in their
theories (particularly that of Erickson, who is a major voice in the field)
focuses on that of male development, and within a Euro-centric context. Social,
personal, racial, and economic factors can also influence how a person
develops, among other things, as well as how they adapt to changes in their lives.
Both authors also make sure to point out that development is extremely
variable, even between individuals that appear to be extremely similar in
almost all respects. What this means for taking a Lifespan perspective for
therapy is that essentially, while people may differ greatly in their
development and progress through life, a person’s current life stage may simply
provide clues as to what they may be going through or what internal conflicts
they may be experiencing at that time.
All in all, these books are informative, though really feel
like general surveys of information that you can then get more in-depth with.
So they would be good for a bit of an introductory examination of the lifespan
or even just the span of adulthood and what may be involved therein in terms of
understanding the lifespan perspective of human development.
[Be sure to visit the Cannonball Read main site!]
