Toward a broader conceptualization of development: The role of gains and losses across the life span

Abstract

Developmental psychologists traditionally have conceived of childhood primarily as a time of positive change, or gain, and old age primarily as a time of negative change, or loss. Life-span developmental psychologists recently have challenged these assumptions, asserting that gains and losses are ubiquitous across the life span. While generally supporting this assertion, we suggest that the relation between developmental gains and losses needs to be considered in more depth. Even life-span developmentalists seem to have assumed that gains and losses are causally related, and that the direction of causality is determined by age. In this paper, we review previous considerations of gains and losses. Then, we show that losses during early life are not necessarily responses to gains, and that gains during later life are not necessarily responses to losses. Finally we suggest criteria and methods for assessing four alternative models (unrelated phenomenon, spurious phenomenon, suppression, and compensation) relevant to the causality and directionality of the relation between developmental gains and losses.