The Future of Lifespan Developmental Psychology: Perspectives from Control Theory

Abstract

Develops future perspectives for lifespan developmental psychology on the basis of propositions of the lifespan theory of control. Four propositions about key issues in lifespan research are addressed. First, the issue of criteria for adaptive development is discussed in light of the debate about primary control striving as an anthropological constant versus as an age- and culture-dependent characteristic of human functioning. Second, processes of control and regulation in development are directed not only at the external world but also at internal representations and most important the motivational resources of the individual. These latter processes of secondary control are indispensable components of developmental regulation. Third, human ontogeny requires regulation to realize developmental potential. The three major forces - biology, culture and society, and the individual - share this regulatory requirement in different constellations of relative power across different times during the human lifespan, as well as across historical time and sociocultural setting. However, it is proposed that there is a limited set of adaptive constellations of biological, cultural and societal, and individual regulations which are characterized by positive tradeoffs between the three forces and simultaneously minimal overdetermination. Such constellations yield systems of developmental regulation which are both stable and productive. Fourth, an agenda for process-oriented developmental research is outlined. Key processes in developmental regulation (such as goal engagement, goal disengagement, selection and compensation) are not only recognized as potentially adaptive but are identified as tailored to specific developmental ecologies and orchestrated for specific developmental goals.