Schaie's stages of life span development
Part 2
Reintegration Stage
This is the cognitive stage, which a person reaches on attaining the age of 70
years. At this age, there is little need for acquisition of knowledge as
in earlier stages or active utilisation of such knowledge. There is also no
necessity of making decisions with long term consequences. Since the individual,
by that age would retire from public life, there would not be any executive
monitoring also. The elders, in this age, do not like to waste their time on
issues, which do not concern them. Also, they will be less inclined to solve
problems unless those problems are similar to those which they might have faced
in their earlier stages or the problems are such that they require only one time
solutions. The lifestyle of the people in this stage is moulded by reintegration
of knowledge, values, interests and attitudes to an extent more than any time of
their earlier stages.
Legacy creating stage
Legacy
creating stage can be considered the last stage of cognitive development. This
stage often starts with the individual making an effort to conduct a review of
his life (Butler, Lewis, & Sunderland, 1998). Women, who in their early stages
of cognitive development passionately and assiduously collected some prized
possessions and took pride in owning them, now lose interest in them. People,
get interested in leaving their earthly interests. They now try to put those
things in order and distribute them among their friends and relatives. They also
finalize plans for distribution of things, which, they cannot, themselves,
distribute. Literate people and those, who distinguished themselves with success
in professional and public lives have a lot to ruminate about their past
achievements. They may indulge in writing their autobiographies or revising
their old ones. One can find many of those very old people trying to narrate
their younger times to youngsters and children.. It is not uncommon to find
people making arrangements for their own funerals. Donation of their limbs and
bodies to hospitals for medical research and revision of their ‘wills’ are some
of the things that take place during this stage.
Conclusion
It should be noted that Schaie’s stages of cognitive development need not be
gone through by every individual in his/her life. Some persons may not
experience some stages while in case of some persons, there may be overlapping
of the stages.
Part 1 of the Schaie's stages of life span
development with Acquisition Stage, Young adult stage, Achieving Stage,
Responsible stage, Executive stage, Reorganizational stage available at
http://assignmentdesign.com/schaies-stages-of-life-span-development.aspx