Maturation is the development of a clear identity and power of choice; it includes the ability to communicate with others. Coping skills increase with self-esteem.

The components of self-esteem are security, belonging, competence, direction, and selfhood. To build self-esteem and increase communication, family roles need to be identified and this knowledge used to build relationships. One intervention is a family life chronology (three generations).

Types of Worldviews:

1. "Threat and Reward" - with rigid rules, this type of view divides people into rule-makers and rule-followers
2. "Seed" - each person has the innate potential for growth

Different perspectives help explain different theories of human growth and development. These approaches include:

1. Behavioral - similar to viewing life as a television melodrama, this worldview considers a person's actions to be mostly a reaction to environmental factors. Since the concept of being the master of one's fate is an illusion, social and other environmental influences are paramount. Cognition, mind, and biology are minimized.

2. Organismic - like the dramatic protagonist presenting character as fate, this view sees people as cognizant actors shaping their own destinies. Environment provides the setting for biological factors which drive development.

3. Maturational - growth and differentiation are bounded, but not caused, by environmental circumstances.

4. Structural - a person creates his/or her own development by mindfully interacting with the environment.

5. Interactional - development is marked by change in an ever-changing world. A contextual view, the interactional process sees people (as neither gods nor pawns) reacting to and acting upon changing biological, social, cultural, historical, and other environmental contexts. Rather than providing congruity, achievement increases challenge.