Schaie's stages of life span development
Part 1
Warner K. Schaie,
Professor of psychiatry and behavioural
science, University of
Washington, Seattle,
WA, conducted several studies on different
types and areas of intellectual functioning in adults. These studies helped him
in his research about the similarities and differences in cognitive development
among adult family members. From these researches, he proposed his theory of
stages in cognitive development in human adults.
The stages proposed by Schaie are discussed below.
Acquisition Stage
The period of childhood
and part of adolescence can be termed as the acquisition stage in human life
according to Schaie. During this stage, a person acquires knowledge about
various aspects surrounding him/her and also through experience. The focus of
the individual during this stage is more on acquisition rather than on
utilisation of the acquired knowledge
Young adult stage
A person enters the
young adult stage after completing the acquisition stage. There is no
further acquisition of knowledge in this stage. The focus shifts to application
of knowledge acquired during the acquisition stage. Such application
enables him / her to pursue long term goals, career progress and development of
family. Educational pursuit is the main outcome during this stage.
Regarding problem
solving ability, it is in the blossoming state in young adulthood stage. During
the acquisitive stage, the solutions to their problems are closely monitored by
the society and parents. But in this stage, they have the freedom to solve their
problems on their own. Since they are exposed to problem- solving exercise for
the first time in life, their performance needs close attention because the
solutions to some problems arising in this stage have long-term consequences in
future life. Attending to problem-solving in this stage may be considered
similar to decision-making in health care, where a decision can lead to either
saving a life or terminating it (Lawton 1997, Schaie &Kapp, 1996).
Achieving Stage
The period in the late
teens or that between 20 and 30 years of age can be said to be the
Achieving Stage. An individual completes his/her education
and enters this stage. The environmental pressure persuades the young person to use
the problem-solving abilities, learnt in the acquisitive stage in a
goal-directed way to facilitate achievement of independent social functioning.
This stage represents the period during which the individual applies the
acquired knowledge in situations, which have profound consequences for achieving
long term goals. The intelligence exhibited in such circumstances is similar to
that utilised for fulfilling the educational tasks. It should, however, be noted
that careful attention is to be bestowed on the problem-solving process, because
of the long-term nature of the consequences.
Responsible stage
This is the stage next
to achieving stage. During the achieving stage the individual
might have mastered the skills required for monitoring his/her own behaviour and
played an independent role in the society. In this stage, a person will accept
the responsibility for others like a family unit or workplace. The person
becomes less self-centred and takes into account the demands and needs of
others, while embarking on his own actions. The individual adapts certain
cognitive processes during this stage like greater flexibility and consideration
of the implications of his actions for the family unit or the society around.
Normally the responsible stage occurs when a family is established and the need
for meeting the requirements of spouse and / or children arises. Attending to
problem solving in this stage may be considered similar to decision making in
health care where a decision can lead to either saving a life or terminating it
(Lawton1997, Schaie &Kapp199).
Executive stage
Executive stage is a
part of the responsible stage. Some individuals face exceedingly complex
responsibilities during their responsible stage. They hold several responsible
and prestigious positions like Deans of academic institutions, Presidents of
business enterprises and officials of churches. They face the responsibility of
monitoring the organisational activities but also supervise the functioning of
the employees of the organisations. They have to ensure that the policy
decisions of the organisations are implemented properly at lower levels. They
have also to deal with the future plans of the organisations. Such
responsibilities descend on to them depending on their exposure to various
opportunities which give chance to them to develop and practise the relevant
skills (Avolio1991, Smith,
Staudinger& Baltes,1994).
Reorganizational stage
Reorganizational stage was not one among the Schaie’s cognitive stages in the
earlier proposition. But human longevity in the traditional old age warranted
classification of the old age in to distinct sub-stages. There is classification
of old age as young old age, middle old age and oldest old age in
research literature (Brim, 1992). Reorganizational stage was proposed for
life towards the end of, and immediately after the responsible stage. In
industrialised societies, it is quite common for people to have post retirement
life extended to 15 to 30 years. Activities in the reorganizational stage are
directed towards planning utilisation of resources for the remaining period of
life. Such activities include making housing arrangements or even changing the
place of residence, making or changing one’s ‘will’, executing advanced medical
directives, providing durable powers of attorney and creating trusts or suitable
financial arrangements for protecting resources for use during the final years
of life or to meet the requirements and needs of the family members. The
activities aim at planning for that period of life when one may have to depend
on others for maintaining the required quality of life when one faces increasing
fragility in the old age. The activities also aim at visualising life in a clear view for maintaining the
quality of life during the final
years without becoming a burden for
one’s family. The objective of these activities is, thus, uniform in several
individuals atleast in developed countries and this stage is designated as
reorganizational stage since the attention of the individual gets moved to
organizing future for himself in place of organising for family and institutions
during the responsible and executive stages.
Continued in part 2 for
Reintegration Stage and
Legacy creating stage at
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