Describe and evaluate one theoretical approach to understanding adult development.

As a field of study, adult development refers to the study of early and middle adulthood; later adulthood usually falls under the fields entitled aging or gerontology.  How one approaches the study of adult development, however, depends on ones theoretical orientation, and how one subsequently defines the term adult development.

This can be best illustrated within the typology offered by Merriam and Caffarella (1999) as it illustrates what each cluster seeks to accomplish.  Building on the work of Permutter and Hall (1985) and Bee (1996), Merriam and Caffarella (1999) developed a schema consisting of four components: biological, psychological, socio-cultural, and integrative models….(short extract)