This book rebuts these erroneous ideas, but it does not replace them with idealized views of adulthood and old age. Rather, it paints an accurate picture of what it means to grow old today, recognizing
that development across adulthood brings growth and opportunities as well as loss and decline. To begin, we consider the life-span perspective, which helps place adult development and aging into the
context of the whole human experience. Aft erward, we consider the fundamental developmental forces, controversies, and models that form the foundation for studying adult development and aging. In
particular, we examine the biological, psychological, sociocultural, and life-cycle forces, and the nature– nurture and continuity–discontinuity controversies. We consider some basic defi nitions of age, and you will see that it can be viewed in many diff erent ways. Finally, by examining various research methods we show how the information presented in this book was obtained.