Adaptive Development
We all have an innate desire to feel we are a part of our larger social organism. To connect with stories of people whose lives weave the tapestry of our modern world. This is an exploration of the way we convey meaning through change. It’s about our relationship to an underlying set of concepts. A way to describe movement across the life-span.
In our brief time on this planet, human beings have shared millions of images and beliefs about the nature of life-long change. There is something alchemical about change, and it’s relationship to the age- structure of society. Vivid examples of this timeless dance are found in the arts, philosophical, and religious texts.
The Jewish Talmud, Greek and Egyptian philosophy, and literary works by Shakespeare and Cervantes. This evolving process from birth till death, and perhaps before and beyond, has fascinated the likes of poets and polymaths from Qu Yuan to Rumi.
In this piece on adaptive development, I will review seven theoretical propositions. My goal is to provide verbal context for these fundamental patterns.
These patterns can be thought of as axioms of movement, reflecting the exchange of energy and information beyond time.
I should share that these concepts are not entirely my own. They are adapted from the work of Paul B. Baltes, one of the world’s most eminent developmental psychologists. Dr. Baltes was a German psychologist who lectured in both the United States and Europe before his death. He was the Director of the Center of Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Among his many contributions to the field, he was well known for his work on wisdom and theories about successful aging.
These seven concepts form a family of perspectives. Each thread weaving a more coherent narrative of adaptive development and our lives on Earth.
The raison d’étre for individual, social, and moral development:
Holism
Central to our understanding of ontogenic development is the concept of holism across the life-span. This means change in physical, cognitive, emotional, social spheres of experience. But holism is also an ontological concept. Illuminating the relationship with our environment. Or how individuals, groups, or cultures within our environment form one unified whole. Holism implies that no singular period, phase, or experience holds supremacy over another.
This is to say that, while birth is a requisite for death, life appears to be a process of change whose patterns differ in terms of timing, but not value.
Developmental tasks may vary in their onset, order, duration, direction and termination. These tasks involve a series of challenges and adaptations in life. Developmental tasks are often presented in the form of biological development, social expectations, and personal action.
Multidimensional Knowing
Baltes describes at great length the relationship between fluid and crystallized intelligence. Exemplars of the multidimensionality and multidirectionality of change. Originally proposed by Horn & Cattell in the early 1970s, these intelligences involve both fluid mechanics and crystallized pragmatics. Meaning that knowledge is both a form of basic information processing and a cultural interpretation.
I find it helpful to imagine the multidimensional nature of development by looking through a crystal prism. As light refracts through the prism and bends across the different planes and angles. Differentiating One light into many wavelengths of color. Each of us a unique hue within the infinite cosmic tapestry of possibility.
Expansion and Contraction
Instinctively one can view the process of growth and decline as emblematic of two fundamental forces. These forces, expansion and contraction, draw parallels in the realms of both physics and psychology.
The idea here is that development is not a simple movement toward higher order. Life, in all of her divine beauty, always consists of the joint occurrence of gain and loss, growth and decline, expansion and contraction. A dance that plays out in a relative way over time.
As we go about building new adaptive capacities we will inevitably encounter loss of previous ones to some degree. Our responsibility is to engage this dynamic within ourselves and others with equanimity and respect. Progression through life, at least in part, involves a dialectic between these polarities.
Plasticity
Plasticity refers to the potential that everyone has for variability in development. The central proposition of plasticity is reflected both in the physical structures of our brain and through life experience.
One may argue that the key function of the dynamic of plasticity is an exploration of what is possible. That is to say, the quest for one’s range of plasticity or the boundary conditions of experience. Plasticity represents the art of discovery between now and then.
Historical Embeddedness
It would be difficult to argue that change across the life-span is not substantially influenced by historical and cultural conditions. The conditions of slavery, for example, impact present-day generations of Black American’s multitudinously. The same historic reality is expressed and experienced differently for white-bodied persons of European ancestry.
Just as it would be for many other dimensions of experience over the totality of human life on Earth.
These historic impacts are seen within- and between-groups. They have implications for things like life-expectancy, disease rates, and economic opportunity. The conditions of our ancestors influence the course of our shared development. As do present day geopolitical and socio-cultural realities. Like the present iteration of neocolonialist extraction practices operating in the Congo. Or the relationship between childhood obesity, processed foods, and government food aid. What about the strategic disinformation campaigns designed to sow seeds of mistrust amidst our huddled masses? Still yearning to breathe free…
Contextualism as Paradigm
The simplest way to say this is: context matters. Contextualism represents the relationship between age, time, and non-normative influences. Through this lens it becomes possible to view individuals, couples, families, communities, and even entire civilizations more holistically.
Contextualism allows for greater perspective-taking and compassion for self- and other. Navigating this change-dynamic involves cultivating a sense of curiosity about yourself and our world. Engaging in an exploration of your role in the larger arc of collective evolution.
Transdisciplinarian
If our human civilization is to survive this stage of change in our development, we must invoke a transdisciplinary movement. We must go beyond classical boundaries. And begin to push the edges of where scientific rigor meets societal relevance. This means putting aside differences, joining hand in hand, and weaving a narrative to galvanize us all toward greater purpose.
May we each remember that we are created to Thrive.
