Havightst development tasks, what are they

Development tasks, as Havighurst (1973) defined, are all those actions and activities that appear in a certain period of the individual's life, whose successful fulfillment leads to happiness and well -being, and whose non -successful compliance would lead to unhappiness, social disapproval and frustration, in addition to not allowing you to successfully perform the tasks of the following time. Havightst proposed developmental tasks for youth, adulthood and old age

Content

• Development tasks in youth
• 9 Development tasks in adulthood and old age
  • 1. Adjust to the physical changes of median age
  • 2. Find satisfaction and success in professional life
  • 3. Assume civic and social responsibility
  • 4. Bring children to a happy and responsible adult life
  • 5. Revitalize marriage
  • 6. Reorient towards parents who age
  • 7. Reorient sexual roles
  • 8. Develop new social groups and activities to enjoy free time
  • 9. Find a new meaning to life
  • Bibliographic references

Development tasks in youth

In youth you have to fulfill four different development tasks to achieve happiness and lay the foundations for the following time (Páez, 2014):

1. Independence or autonomy: be independent. There are four types of independence:
   • Economic
   • Emotional: stay in your emotion, recognize your emotion. My emotions are mine and not others.
   • Social: Being able to be and do things alone.
   • Cognitive: Be critical and self -critical, keep your opinions, decision making. To be critical you have to know richly on the subject.
2. Identity: is to answer who you are. Who am I and how am I?. Have an idea of ​​my qualities, possibilities, vocations, limitations. 
3. Profession: Very connected to identity. Some call it deferred or projected identity. One is what projects in the future, the profession that wants to be. If you don't know what you want to be, you don't know who you are, you don't know your identity. We must have a feeling of competition, which we have to have continuously in the head. 
4. Privacy: We differentiate three types of intimacy:

• • Couple intimacy: What do I do with the relationship. Show what you are to the other person, but you have identity, you show something false or become the other if you have identity. To have a relationship there must be two identities, although these relationships work more complicatedly than a relationship in which one or both have no identity.
  • Friends/Pares: They are selected according to what they give you, it suits you, with what you feel good ... friendships change in adolescence
  • Parents: You see them differently. You are not just a child and they are not just your parents.

9 Development tasks in adulthood and old age

Becoming an adult demands successfully a series of development tasks (Havightst, 1973). Once those tasks are fulfilled, the individual can enter another period or phase of life. The tasks of adulthood and old age are:

1. Adjust to the physical changes of median age

The day comes when many adults realize that they are out of form; They cannot run so fast, load pesos or perform a lot of physical exercise without getting tired. Some women equate the loss of reproductive capacity that takes place in menopause with the loss of sexuality and youth. Those physical changes make it necessary to be performed psychological adjustments in lifestyle and health habits To stay as healthy as possible.

2. Find satisfaction and success in professional life

The mature age is the most fruitful period of professional and creative work. Medium -age people become those with more experience and maturity, although medium age can also be a time of unsatisfied expectations. Upon realizing that they no longer find that their work is interesting, adults can begin to reconsider what they want to do during the second half of their life. They can modify their dreams in terms of new addresses or locations in their current ones, or in terms of a totally different career.

3. Assume civic and social responsibility

To adults of 40 to 60 years They have been called "ruling class "or" generation in command", since they are those who have control of society and its social institutions. They are the ones who establish the norms, who make the decisions and who direct the offices. His participation in community life is essential for society's progress. In general, interests and community participation increase during those years.

4. Bring children to a happy and responsible adult life

Before the home exit occurs, long years have passed in which they must prepare children for independent adult life. In general, the dependence of children with respect to parents decreases gradualand And paternal control fades little by little until children are able to handle their own lives. At this point, part of the development tasks consists of give up the responsibility and control of children

5. Revitalize marriage

Marriage needs depend on what the marriage has experienced over the years. It is common for marriage satisfaction to decrease at the beginning and in the middle years of the life cycle. A couple whose children are already independent now only have each other, and face the task of solving problems, eliminating resentments, getting to know each other again and approach once again.

Goldstine (1977) suggests that In most marriages there are three cycles: fall in love, forsake and fall in love again, And that the last cycle is the most difficult and the most rewarding. Some cannot be revitalized and the couple can divorce into the mature age. Sometimes, they get married again and start over.

6. Reorient towards parents who age

At the time when adults reach 40, their parents have between 58 and 80, with the most common ages between 65 and 70 years. Therefore, during the mature age the children see their parents aging, retiring and perhaps getting sick and dying. Middle -aged people acquire responsibility for provide support to their parents who age: financial support, personal care, transport, food, company, medical help, house care or a place to live.

7. Reorient sexual roles

Since the children are independent, the Crossing sexual roles adults becomes more evident. Once the children have left, the women have greater freedom, They are no longer tied and some who did not work accept a job away from home. This greater personal and economic independence gives them greater authority, and it is necessary for the husband to take care of some tasks that the wife previously performed. Some husbands object to the independence of their women and their new roles.

8. Develop new social groups and activities to enjoy free time

Medium age brings a change in the focus of social activities. Who previously participated in family -centered activities feel the growing need to participate in activities centered on the couple. Teenagers go out with friends, older children move from the house and leave the couple to their own resources. As a result, adult friendships acquire greater importance.

9. Find a new meaning to life

Maturity can bring a greater interest in fun, to address their own interests and hobbies or develop totally new activities to occupy free time. It is not strange that mature people explore interests that had ignored during the years they dedicated to raising their children. Some travel to the places they had always wanted to visit. A goal of mature age is to find a new meaning to life.

This can be an introspection period in which the feelings, attitudes, values ​​and goals are examined. There is a need to define one's identity again and answer questions like who am I?, Where do I go from here? Those years can be a time of rejuvenation of the self and enrichment of one's life.

The 7 stages of cognitive development of the life cycle. W. Schaie

Bibliographic references

• Páez, m. L. (2014). Youth affective links: dilemmas and convergences between parents and children. Latin American Family Studies, 6, 114-129. https: // magazinesojs.UCALDAS.Edu.CO/INEX.PHP/REVLATINOFAMILIA/ARTICLE/VIEW/4147
• HAVIGHURST, R. J. (1973). History of Developmental Psychology: Socialization and Personality Development Through the Life Span. Life-Span Developmental Psychology (pp. 3-24). Academic Press. https: // www.Scientedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/b9780120771509500071
• Goldstine, d. (1977). The Dance-Away Lover: and other roles we play in love, sex, and marriage. William Morrow.