ADULT DEVELOPMENT

Erik Erikson

Student of Anna Freud’s. His work grew out of interest in psychoanalysis and case
studies. Is more of a set of observations and ideas than a theory.

Most work focused on adolescents. Kicked off interest in adult development.

Maturity occurs in a series of universal stages governed by a genetic ground plan.

Ground plan determines when certain developmental issues become ascendent in the
individual life course.

Biological factors interact with personal, cultural, and historical forces to produce central
issues/conflicts. Views development as product of interaction and conflict, therefore
created dialectical framework.

Conflict at each stage Emerging value Period of life

Basic trust vs. Mistrust Hope Infancy

Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt Will Early childhood

Initiative vs. Guilt Purpose Play age

Industry vs. Inferiority Competence School Age

Identity vs. Role confusion Fidelity Adolescence

Intimacy vs. Isolation Love Young adulthood

Generativity vs. Stagnation Care Maturity

Integrity vs. Despair Wisdom Old Age

Life Stage Management Development Activities

Intimacy (21-35)
• high energy, creativity
• trying to crystallize identity
Acquire competence and skills
Allow creativity / testing new ideas and practices
Career counseling
Mentoring / Coaching
Rotational assignments

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Life Stage
Generativity (35-55)
Integrity (55 +)
• combating isolation and
obsolesence
• coming to terms with
career and personal legacy
Management Development Activities
Upgrade skills
Understand role as mentor
Rethink one’s future; possible shift in values
Mentoring
Demonstrations of esteem; appreciation for contrib.s
Retirement planning

Daniel Levinson

Based on longitudinal studies of men.

Differs from stage theorists by using life cycle and life course as framework.
Development is seen as sequential, but not progressive or hierarchical. Involves both
growth and decline; progression, stasis, and decline. (Seasons).

Conceives of life cycle as a sequence of eras, which are both universal and age-related.
Everyone goes through the same basic sequence, which implies an underlying order. Life
cycle encompasses life course.

Life course is the way a life unfolds over time as an integrated, evolving pattern.

Life structure is the underlying pattern or design of a person’s life at a given time. It
both mediates and grows out of the relationship between the individual and the
environment.

Equal weight is given to the structures (building and maintaining a life structure) and the
transitions (questioning and modifying the structure).

Structures last about 5-7 yrs. and are followed by transitions, which last about 5 yrs.

Era
Preadulthood (conception - 22)
Early Adulthood (17-45)
Middle Adulthood (40-65)
Late Adulthood (60 +)
Description
Growth from being highly dependent and
undifferentiated to beginnings of being independent
and responsible.
Greatest energy and also greatest contradiction and
stress. Emphasis on forming pursuing aspirations,
establishing a niche in society, and raising a family.
Become “senior” members of own worlds.

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Robert Kegan

Draws largely from Piaget, though he believes that development involves both cognition
and affect.

“Constructive-developmental” theory because he’s concerned with the way people

construct reality and also with the way they develop over the lifespan.

Primarily concerned with the evolution of meaning. What evolves amounts to evolving
systems of meaning. Meanings shape our experience. It’s not so much what happens to
us but what we make of what happens to us.

The two universal human yearnings are the yearning to be included and the yearning to
be autonomous. We move back and forth between this tension of inclusion and
autonomy throughout life (continuous theme of finding and losing). Each developmental
stage resolves this tension in a different way.

Stage Description Tasks

Incorporative Self Experiences of deep
(0-9 mos) attanchment with mother.
Impulsive Balance Impulses and perceptions are
(9 mos. - school age) immediate and totally
subjective; need immediate,
Inclusion concrete rewards.
Imperial Balance Self concept begins to emerge;
(5-adolesence) child becomes more self-
contained; self-esteem and
Independence competence gain importance.
Interpersonal Self acquires a plurality of
Balance voices which is embedded in
the context of other people.
Inclusion Emphasis on approval from
others.
Institutional Balance Relationships become rooted
in and reckoned by institutions.
Independence Ideaology and regulation rule
over mutuality.
Tendency to dichotomize
(work vs. private life).
Differentiate what is “me” and
“not me”.
Learning impulse control.
Ability to coordinate one set of
needs with another in order to
create mutuality; a relationship.
Move from “I am my
relationships” to having
relationships. Maintain integrity
of self as relationships change.
Move from having self be the
institution to having self run the
institution/organization.

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Stage Description Tasks
Interindividual Abandon “shoulds” and standard You’re there.
Balance conventions and replace with broader
concepts; ie. doing what is “just” more
important than what’s “legal.” One no
Inclusion longer is the career but has a career. Greater
ability to embrace paradox and conflict.
Recipricol relationships marked by
interdependence.

Carl Jung

Development of consciousness (not a stage theory).

Basically divides life into two “halves.” First half = adjusting to social world, developing
persona, etc. Second half = becoming more true to yourself; individuation.

First Identity = Childhood (parent-child relationship)

Second Identity = First adulthood (ego-world)

Confusion and dependence on instructions of parents and social world.

Middle Passage = transition (approx. 35-45)

Former beliefs about control and rightness of social mores come into question.
Experience of being humbled. Builds bridge between ego-consciousness and
unconscious; persona-orientation to Self-orientation. Acquiring a dual sense of
limitations and larger purposes and tasks.

Third Identity = Second adulthood (ego-Self)

Does not occur until more of life is behind you than before you (40 +). Experience a
sense of calling / larger purpose. Power and authority shift from external (parent,
institutions) to internal (Self). Increasing individuation. Follow the larger journey of the
soul.

Fourth Identity = Mortality (Self-God)

Coming to terms with our mortality and learning to live with the mystery of death. Belief
that we are related to something infinite.

4
Catherine Fyock, America’s Work Force is Coming of Age

Assumes workers 50 yrs. +

Similarities with younger workers

• want supportive, friendly environment
• want to apply what they’ve learned
• what to know why they’re learning
• want to build on experiences

Differences
• speed of reaction time declines therefore performance with tasks which require speed
declines; reduction in fluid intelligence
• crystallized intelligence is maintained (intellectual capacities built on cumulative
information learned through experience)
• experience ==> high levels of tacit knowing
• wisdom = exercising judgment with questions which can’t be reduced to simple
problem-solution alogrithms
• may fear technology (reliance on speed and volume of data)

Guidelines
• allow self-paced learning and time for reflection
• easy to read manuals
• break skills into small tasks
• use analogies and metaphors which link to experience
• use older adults to teach younger (emphasis on high touch rather than high tech)
• build on life experiences