Life Stages

Let’s look at each of the life stages, along with their key developmental tasks. There are very significant things that happen at every stage of life to both men and women:

Birth to age 30, childhood, and youth: We grow up, go to school, and reach adulthood. These are the years in which little girls actually want to look older. That desire does not continue!

Ages 30 to 60, adulthood and midlife: These are the years in which most of us marry, have children, raise a family, establish our work lives and careers, build our communities, and usually make our mark in the world. We think of this period as “the prime of life.” They are very busy years.

Ages 60 to 90+, the third third (our mature period, our “senior” or “elder” or “wellderly” years): These years extend longer than ever before. Women now have an average life expectancy of 80.4 years! This has never happened in recorded history. (It’s 75.2 years for men.) Therefore, we must seize this opportunity to reinvent this period of time, using new mental models.

Erik Erikson, the preeminent psychologist of the mid-20th century who
is credited with being the father of life cycle theory, has told us
that the primary developmental task of life after 60 is to choose
between generativity and stagnation. Erikson, his colleagues, and many
writers who have followed—Daniel Levinson, Gail Sheehy, Betty Friedan,
Bernice Neugarten, Bill Bridges, George Vaillant, and even myself—have
focused on the characteristics and common issues of each stage of life.
And as we have grown older, we have continued our research and writing
into our own older years.