The Cambridge Handbook of Lifespan Development of Creativity

This handbook focuses on the development and nurturance of creativity across the lifespan, from early childhood to adolescence, adulthood, and later life. It answers the question: how can we help individuals turn their creative potential into achievement? Each chapter examines various contexts in which creativity exists, including school, workplace, community spaces, and family life. It covers various modalities for fostering creativity such as play, storytelling, explicit training procedures, shifting of attitudes about creative capacity, and many others. The authors review research findings across disciplines, encompassing the work of psychologists, educators, neuroscientists, and creators themselves, to describe the best practices for fostering creativity at each stage of development.

A Lifespan Development Theory of Insecure Attachment and Internalizing Symptoms: Integrating Meta-Analytic Evidence via a Testable Evolutionary Mis/Match Hypothesis

Attachment scholars have long argued that insecure attachment patterns are associated with vulnerability to internalizing symptoms, such as depression and anxiety symptoms. However, accumulating evidence from the past four decades, summarized in four large meta-analyses evaluating the link between insecure attachment subtypes and internalizing symptoms, provide divergent evidence for this claim. This divergent evidence may be accounted for, at least in part, by the developmental period under examination. Specifically, children with histories of deactivating (i.e., insecure/avoidant) but not hyperactivating (i.e., insecure/resistant) attachment patterns in infancy and early childhood showed elevated internalizing symptoms. In contrast, adolescents and adults with hyperactivating (i.e., insecure/preoccupied) but not deactivating (i.e., insecure/dismissing) attachment classifications showed elevated internalizing symptoms. In this paper, we summarize findings from four large meta-analyses and highlight the divergent meta-analytic findings that emerge across different developmental periods. We first present several potential methodological issues that may have contributed to these divergent findings. Then, we leverage clinical, developmental, and evolutionary perspectives to propose a testable lifespan development theory of attachment and internalizing symptoms that integrates findings across meta-analyses. According to this theory, subtypes of insecure attachment patterns may be differentially linked to internalizing symptoms depending on their mis/match with the developmentally appropriate orientation tendency toward caregivers (in childhood) or away from them (i.e., toward greater independence in post-childhood). Lastly, we offer future research directions to test this theory.

A Lifespan Development Theory of Insecure Attachment and Internalizing Symptoms: Integrating Meta-Analytic Evidence via a Testable Evolutionary Mis/Match Hypothesis

Attachment scholars have long argued that insecure attachment patterns are associated with vulnerability to internalizing symptoms such as depression and anxiety symptoms. However, accumulating evidence from the past four decades, summarized in four large meta-analyses evaluating the link between insecure attachment subtypes and internalizing symptoms provide divergent evidence for this claim. This divergent evidence may be accounted for, at least in part, by the developmental period under examination. Specifically, children with histories of deactivating (i.e., insecure-avoidant) but not hyperactivating (i.e., insecure-resistant) attachment patterns in infancy and early childhood showed elevated internalizing symptoms. In contrast, adolescents and adults with hyperactivating (i.e., insecure-preoccupied) but not deactivating (i.e., insecure-dismissing) attachment classifications showed elevated internalizing symptoms. In this paper, we summarize findings from four large meta-analyses and highlight the divergent meta-analytic findings that emerge across different developmental periods. We first present several potential methodological issues that may have contributed to these divergent findings. Then, we leverage clinical, developmental, and evolutionary perspectives to propose a testable lifespan development theory of attachment and internalizing symptoms that integrates findings across meta-analyses. According to this theory, subtypes of insecure attachment patterns may be differentially linked to internalizing symptoms depending on their mis/match with the developmentally appropriate orientation tendency toward caregivers (in childhood) or away from them (i.e., toward greater independence in post-childhood). Lastly, we offer future research directions to test this theory.

Advantages of a Developmental Psychopathology Approach to Studying the Antecedents of Physical Health

Although the field of developmental psychopathology has traditionally focused on mental health, there has been increasing interest in exploring how psychological and developmental factors are associated with physical health. I argue that the principles of developmental psychopathology may be particularly useful for understanding physical health across development. I discuss how researchers can apply the following developmental psychopathology principles to the study of physical health: 1) dimensional measurement of stress exposure, 2) the multifaceted nature of risk and resilience, 3) focus on processes and pathways, and 4) lifespan development and intergenerational effects. I provide several future directions and considerations for work in this area, many of which are consistent with the new goals of Infant and Child Development.

Advantages of a Developmental Psychopathology Approach to Studying the Early Origins of Health

Although developmental psychopathology has traditionally focused on mental health, there has been increasing interest in the field in exploring how psychological and developmental factors are associated with both mental and physical health. I argue that the principles of developmental psychopathology may be particularly useful for understanding physical health across development. I discuss how researchers can apply the following principles to the study of physical health: 1) dimensional measurement of stress exposure, 2) the multifaceted nature of risk and resilience, 3) children as active agents in their development, 4) focus on processes and pathways, and 5) lifespan development and intergenerational effects. I provide several future directions and considerations for work in this area, many of which are consistent with the new goals of Infant and Child Development.