1. Psychosocial development—interplay of biology with social factors, encompassing total life span, from birth to death, in progressive developmental tasks.
2. Stages of life cycle—life consists of a series of developmental phases (Table 6-2 and Table 6-4).

a. Universal sequence of biological, social, psychological events.
b. Each person experiences a series of normative conflicts and crises and thus needs to accomplish specific psychosocial tasks.
c. Two opposing energies (positive and negative forces) coexist and must be synthesized.
d. How each age-specific task is accomplished influences the developmental progress of the next phase and the ability to deal with life.

1. Beliefs regarding emotional health based on a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to human problems, involving all aspects of functioning.

a. Premise: mental illness cannot be understood without prior knowledge of mental health.
b. Focus: positive aspects of human behavior (e.g., contentment, joy, happiness).

2. Hierarchy of needs—physiological, safety, love and belonging, self-esteem and self-recognition, self-actualization, aesthetic. As each stage is mastered, the next stage becomes dominant (Figure 6-1).
3. Characteristics of optimal mental health— keep in mind that wellness is on a continuum with cultural variations.

a. Self-esteem: entails self-confidence and self-acceptance.
b. Self-knowledge: involves accurate selfperception of strengths and limitations.
c. Satisfying interpersonal relationships: able to meet reciprocal emotional needs through collaboration rather than exploitation or power struggles or jealousy; able to make full commitments in close relationships.
d. Environmental mastery: can adapt, change, and solve problems effectively; can make decisions, choose from alternatives, and predict consequences. Actions are conscious, not impulsive.
e. Stress-management: can delay seeking gratification and relief; does not blame or dwell on past; assumes self-responsibility; either modifies own expectations, seeks substitutes, or withdraws from stressful situation when cannot reduce stress.

1. Assumptions—child development is steered by interaction of environmental and genetic influences; therefore focus is on environmental and social forces. (See Table 6-4 for comparison with other theories.)
2. Key concepts

a. Assimilation: process of acquiring new knowledge, skills, and insights by using what they already know and have.
b. Accommodation: adjusts to change by solving previously unsolvable problems because of newly assimilated knowledge.
c. Adaptation: coping process to handle environmental demands.

3. Age-specific development levels—sensorimotor, preconceptual, intuitive, concrete, formal operational thought (Table 6-3).

D. E. M. Duvall—Family Development (1971)—developmental tasks are family oriented, presented in eight stages throughout the life cycle (also see Family Therapy, p. 402).

a. Experiencing changes in energy.
b. Continuing development as couple, parents, family.
c. Establishing own family traditions without guilt related to breaks with tradition.

a. Young adults launched with rites of passage.
b. Changes in couple’s relationship due to empty nest and increased leisure time.
c. Changes in relationship with children away from home.