The Stages of Development

and Developmental Tasks

Dennis Abila
Introduction
Adjust to decreasing physical strength and health,
society plays an important role in the overall
development of its individuals. Each society has its
own demands and expectations from children at
different stages of development. The codes and
expectations vary from culture to culture, and the
child learns these at different stages of development.
The society aims to transmit these expectations to all
its members. These social platforms are known as
“developmental tasks” is generally credited to the
work of Robert Havighurst (1972).
Robert James Havighurst

(June 5, 1900 – January 31, 1991)

was a chemist and physicist,
educator, and expert on human
development and aging. Havighurst
worked and published well into his
80s. He died of Alzheimer's
disease in January 1991
in Richmond, Indiana at the age of
90.
He decided to change careers in 1928, so
he went into the field of experimental
education. He became an assistant
professor at the University of Wisconsin–
Madison. In 1940, he became an
education professor at the University of
Chicago in the University's Committee on
Human Development. He worked in the
field of aging. Again, in the same year he
was interested in international and
comparative aspects of education. He
wrote several books and published many
papers. His best-known book called
"Human Development and Education".
He was named a member of the National
Academy of Education in 1965. He retired
in 1983.
He defined developmental tasks as
“a task which arises at or about a
certain period in the life of an
individual , successful achievement
of which leads to his happiness and
success with later tasks, while
failure leads to unhappiness in the
individual, disapproval by society,
and difficulty with later tasks.”
From this definition we understand
that developmental tasks have a
profound impact on the person’s
adjustment and success.
Purposes of Developmental Task
1. They act as guidelines to make parents and teachers
aware of what children should learn at a given age and
what will be expected of children. Knowing that a
youngster of a certain age is encountering one of the
tasks of that period (learning an appropriate sex role)
helps adults to understand a child’s behaviour and
establish an environment that helps the child to master
the tasks.

2. They serve as motivating forces for children to learn

what the social group expects them to learn at that age.
Purposes of Developmental Task

3. They reveal to the individual about what happens in the further

stages and hence the person is prepared to act accordingly.
Children who are quick at mastering developmental tasks are
rewarded by social approval (i.e., their achievements put such
children in line for leadership roles) and self approval. They also
benefit from self approval as they develop self confidence and
strong motivation to live up to social and self expectations. On the
other hand, failure to complete developmental tasks has three
consequences:
1. It makes the child feel inferior, and this leads to unhappiness.
2. It results in social disapproval, which is accompanied by social
rejection (immature and babyish).
3. It can also make the mastery of new developmental tasks difficult.
Havighurst’s framework identifies three resources of
developmental tasks:

1. Tasks that arise from physical maturation

- These include learning to walk, talk, control of bowel
and urine, behaving in an acceptable manner to the
opposite sex and adjust to menopause.

2. Tasks that arise from personal values

- Examples include choosing an occupation and figuring
out one’s philosophical outlook.
Havighurst’s framework identifies three resources of
developmental tasks:

3. Tasks that have their source in the pressures of society

- For instance, we are required to learn to read and learn
to be responsible citizen.
(Ages 0-6) Infancy and Early Childhood

• Learn to walk
• Start to crawl
• Learn to take solid food
• Start to talk
• Learn to control the elimination of body wastes
• Understand sex differences and sexual modesty
• Get ready to read, and
• Form concepts and learn language in order to describe
social and physical reality.
(Ages 0-6) Infancy and Early Childhood

During infancy (birth to 18 months), babies are dependent

upon adults for meeting all their needs. They do not
differentiate themselves from their parents, and they gain
a sense of themselves by taking in their caretakers’
feelings about them.

Children (18 months – 3 years) are very active and move

back and forth between wanting to be independent and
wanting the security of their parents. They become
frustrated easily, and their frequent tantrums are an
expression of that frustration as well as their lack of
communication skills and abilities. They don’t want to
share things.
(Ages 0-6) Infancy and Early Childhood

Children (aged 4-5 years), are active and ask a lot of

questions (how, why, when, how long) as they try to
understand the world. They can be resistant to their
parents’ instructions as they experiment with power in
relationships. They also like to be involved in many
different activities and they begin to be quite social.
(Ages 6 - 12) Middle Childhood

• Learn physical skills necessary for ordinary games

• Learn to get along with age mates
• Build wholesome attitudes toward oneself as a growing
organism
• Understand the appropriate masculine or feminine
social role
• Develop concepts necessary for everyday living
• Develop conscience, morality and a scale of values
• Achieve personal independence, and
• Develop attitudes toward social groups and institutions
(Ages 6-12) Middle Childhood

Children (6 – 11 years) also ask a lot of questions as they gather

information about the world and how it works. They are very
interested in rules and why they exists . They want people to obey
rules even though they do not necessarily abide by them. They may
test rules, disagree with them, break them or try to set them as they
learn to internalise them. They use their more mature reasoning
abilities to understand the values that underlie the rules and to
differentiate wants and needs. Along with exploration of rules and
the beginnings of a cooperative spirit, games become prominent in
their play. Six to eleven year-olds are eager to learn new skills,
including social skills.
(Ages 12-18) Adolescence

• Achieve new and more mature relations with age mates

of both sexes
• Develop a masculine or feminine social role
• Accept one’s physique and using the body effectively
• Achieve emotional independence from parents and
other adults
• Prepare for marriage and family life
• Acquire a set of values and an ethical system as a guide
to behaviour and,
• Desire and achieve socially responsible behaviour
(Ages 12-18) Adolescence

The major task during adolescence is to create a

stable identity and become complete and
productive adults. Adolescents find their role in
society through active searching which leads to
discoveries about themselves. Following are the
developmental tasks that enable adolescents to
create identity.
(Ages 12-18) Adolescence
1. Achieving new and more mature relations with others
Physical maturity plays an important role in peer relations.
Adolescents who mature at a slower or faster rate than
others will be dropped from one peer group and generally
will enter a peer group of similar maturity. For early
maturing girls, entering into a peer group of similar
physical maturity can mean a greater likelihood of early
sexual activity.

2. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role

Adolescents develop their own definition of what it means
to be male or female. However, most adolescents conform
to the sex of roles of our cultural view of male (assertive
and strong) and female (passive and weak) characteristics.
(Ages 12-18) Adolescence

3. Accepting one’s physique

The beginning of puberty and the rate of body changes for
adolescents varies tremendously. How easily adolescents
deal with those changes will partly reflect how closely
their bodies match the well-defined stereotypes of the
“perfect” body for young women and young men.

4. Achieving emotional independence from parents and other adults

Adolescents deal with their emotions independently and
move toward self-reliance. Children derive this strength
from internalising their parents’ values and attitudes.
(Ages 18-30) Early Adulthood

5. Preparing for marriage and family life

Sexual maturation is the basis for this developmental task and it is
usually not achieved until late adolescence or early adulthood

6. Preparing for an economic career

In our society, an adolescent reaches adult status when he or she is
financially independent.

7. Acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to

behaviour
-Developing an ideology – Adolescents’ abstract thinking and
hypoetico-deductive reasoning help them to develop their own set
of values and beliefs.
(Ages 12-18) Adolescence

8. Desiring and achieving socially responsible behaviour

An adolescent defines the world from her/his new social role once
he/she becomes a member of the larger community through
employment (financial independence) and emotional independence
from parents. As adolescents become independent they must learn
to be responsible.
(Ages 18-30) Early Adulthood

1. Select a mate
2. Learn to live with a parter
3. Start a family
4. Bring up children
5. Manage one’s home
6. Get started in an occupation
7. Take on civic responsibility, and
8. Find a congenial social group
(Ages 30-60) Middle Age

1. Assist teenage children in becoming responsible and

happy adults
2. Achieve the adult social and civic responsibility
3. Reach and maintain satisfactory performance in one’s
occupational car
4. Cope with retirement and reduced income
5. Adjust to the death of a spouse
6. Establish an explicit affiliation with one’s age group
7. Adopt and adapt to social roles in a flexible way, and
8. Establish satisfactory physical living arrangements
(Ages 30-60) Middle Age

- Prior to entering the adult world it is important that the

adolescent achieves a sense of what Erik Erikson termed as
Identity: a sense of one’s self

Intimacy – The task of living with another person in an

interdependent, reciprocal, committed, and contented fashion for a
decade or more, often seems neither desirable nor possible to the
young adult.

Career consolidation - Mastery of this task involves expanding one’s

personal identity to assume a social identity within the world of
work. This permits the adult to find a career that is both a valuable
to society as well as to him /her.
(Ages 30-60) Middle Age

Generativity – involves a broader social circle through which one

manifests care for the next generation. It reflects a different sort of
capacity – to be in relationships where one “cares” for those
younger than oneself and, simultaneously, respects the autonomy of
others. Research reveals that between the of 30 – 45 years the need
of achievement declines and the need for community and affiliation
increases.

Keeper of the meaning – This tasks involves passing on the traditions

of the past to the next generation. It is epitomised by the role of the
wise judge as the focus of the keeper of the meaning is on
conservation and preservation of the collective products of mankind
– the culture in which one lives and its intuitions - rather than on
just the development of children . Becoming keeper of the meaning
allows one to link the past with the future.
(Ages 30-60) Middle Age

Integrity – This is the last of life’s

developmental tasks. It entails the task of
achieving some sense of peace and unity
with respect both to one’s own life and to the
whole world. The virtue of integrity is
wisdom. Erik Erikson described integrity as
“an experience which conveys some world
order and spiritual sense.”