Positive Adult Development

Positive Adult Development is one of the four major forms of adult developmental study that can be identified. The other three forms are directionless change, stasis, and decline. Positive adult developmental processes are divided into at least six areas of study: hierarchical complexity (orders, stages), knowledge, experience, expertise, wisdom, and spirituality.

The achievement of complete development at the end of adolescence was suggested by Freud, Piaget, and Binet among others. Research in Positive Adult Development questions not only that development ceases after adolescence, but also the notion of decline after late adolescence postulated by many gerontologists. Positive development does occur during adulthood. Recent studies indicate that such development is useful in predicting things such as an individual's health, life satisfaction, and degree of contribution to the society.

Read more about Positive Adult Development:  Directions of Change in Positive Adult Development, Measurements in Positive Adult Development

Famous quotes containing the words positive, adult and/or development:

    Property is the fruit of labor—property is desirable—is a positive good in the world.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    Every genuine boy is a rebel and an anarch. If he were allowed to develop according to his own instincts, his own inclinations, society would undergo such a radical transformation as to make the adult revolutionary cower and cringe.
    Henry Miller (1891–1980)

    The proper aim of education is to promote significant learning. Significant learning entails development. Development means successively asking broader and deeper questions of the relationship between oneself and the world. This is as true for first graders as graduate students, for fledging artists as graying accountants.
    Laurent A. Daloz (20th century)