Stages of Human Development: The Life-Span Approach and Related Applications and Comparisons

Abstract

Two and a half decades ago Paul B. Baltes (Dev Psychol 2.1(5):611–626, 1987) suggested a life span approach for the human development stages. In this paper we examine these theoretical assumptions based on a theory of the health state proposed in previous publications starting from the paper by Janssen and Skiadas (Appl Stoch Models Data Anal 11(1):35–49, 1995) on the The Health State Function of a Population. The applications refer to the estimation of the health state for USA (2000) males and females and for eight countries (USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Japan). Another study refers to 35 countries (Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA) for the time period (1998–2002). The related findings for the health state are compared with results for the chess, golf, and athletics performance along with comparisons with characteristic psychological parameters and it is demonstrated that the health state findings are in agreement with these results. Another important study by Laura T. Germine, Bradley Duchaine, Ken Nakayama (Cognition 118(2):201–210, 2011) concludes that cognitive development and aging meet. They suggest a classification of cognitive development which is in accordance to our studies related to a health state function developed from population and death data sets. Even more we are able to define the periods of the life span by estimating the health state of the population and the first, second and higher order differences of the health state. Shu-Chen Li, Ulman Lindenberger, Bernhard Hommel, Gisa Aschersleben, Wolfgang Prinz, and Paul B. Baltes (Psychol Sci 15(3):155–163, 2004) with their paper on: Transformations in the Couplings Among Intellectual Abilities and Constituent Cognitive Processes Across the Life Span, provide adequate support in explaining the interrelations of the cognitive development and the health approach. Finally we give Tables classifying the life span to special life periods as is adolescence, adulthood and old age periods and provide comparisons with the periods proposed by the Erikson, Sullivan and Piaget schools. The related theory and applications along with the estimation programs are given in several publications and in the web at http://www.cmsim.net and http://www.cmsim.net/id27.html.

Appendix

The related theory and applications along with the estimation programs are given in several publications and in the web at http://www.cmsim.net.

A snapshot of the Human Development Program in Excel is given in Fig. 8.7. The program provides the human development stages from death and population data for males, females and total (both). If mortality data μ _x are available it should be inserted in column R starting from R26 Cell. There are four Excel worksheets: the main called Ski-6-Parameters, the supporting Gompertz model, the USA-Deaths+Population-1933–2007 including the death and population data for USA from 1933 to 2007 and the 7-Countries-2000 including the death and population data for seven countries for the year 2000 (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and UK). The data for a specific year for males or females including 111 data points from age 0 to 110 are copied and then pasted in the main Excel worksheet Ski-6-Parameters in P and Q columns starting from P26 and Q26 cells. The program is semi-automatic and the main starting parameters are arranged according to the data for the main developed countries in the last decade. The only needed is to change the value of the parameter in Cell C2 to achieve a minimum for the sum of squared errors in Cell D3. The program provides very many characteristic parameters useful in several scientific fields as are the life expectancy and the healthy life expectancy, the health state and an estimate for the total health state and several Tables and Figures.

Fig. 8.7

Snapshot of the human development program in excel

The Human Development Stages based on the health state of the population are presented in the table included in Cells K17 to AC21. To the right of the spreadsheet in Cells AF17 to AT20 the Human Development Age Groups based on the Deterioration Function are presented in the related Table (see Table 8.9). In this Table further analysis of the human development ages in the middle and old ages is given. The estimates included in this table along with the related from the healthy life expectancy table give enough information for the human development age groups after the health state peak when the human deterioration is growing. The following Tables 8.10 and 8.11 summarize the estimates for US States (1999–2001) for Life expectancy, Healthy life expectancy and Loss of healthy life years along with the Expected healthy age, the Maximum health state and the Total Health State.

Table 8.9 Human development age groups based on the deterioration function

Table 8.10 Estimates for US States (1999–2001, male)

Table 8.11 Estimates for US States (1999–2001, female)