What Are the Major Developmental Tasks?

The term development task is repeatedly mentioned in the discipline of developmental psychology. As the name suggests, the development task mainly refers to the development of the qualities that a child should have at this stage under the influence of psychological, social, and physical factors in each stage of the child's psychological development. As Eric Erickson puts forward in his psychosocial development theory, a person's life can be divided into eight stages, each of which consists of a pair of conflicts and forms a crisis of psychological development, and in each Each stage has a core task of development, and children need to complete the development task of this stage by responding to the crisis ^[1] .

On the basic issues of developmental psychology, there have been disputes among various schools. These disputes mainly focus on the following three aspects:

1. The role of genetics and the environment in psychological development

2. Internal and External Causes of Psychological Development

3. Continuity and stage of psychological development

The development task is closely related to the third issue. Different scholars have different interpretations of this problem. Among them, psychologists who think that psychological development is staged include Piaget (the theory of cognitive development) and Erikson (the theory of psychosocial development).

Take Erikson's theory of stages of psychosocial development as an example:

Development task

The first stage (0-1 years old) development tasks: to cultivate children's basic trust in people and the world, and to obtain the quality of "hope"

This is the stage of gaining basic trust and overcoming basic distrust. The so-called basic trust is that the baby's needs are consistent with the outside world's satisfaction of his needs. At this stage, the baby expresses trust in the mother or other agents. The baby feels that the environment in which he is located is a safe place, and people around him can be trusted. This will expand the trust of the average person. At this stage, if the baby does not get the care and care of the people around him, he will be afraid and skeptical of the outside world, especially the people around him, which will affect the smooth development of the next stage.

The second stage (1-3 years) development tasks: develop children's autonomy, overcome shyness, and acquire the quality of "will"

This is the stage to gain a sense of autonomy and avoid suspicion and shame. In the first stage, individuals are in a state of strong dependence and everything is taken care of by adults. In the second stage, children began to have independent requirements, such as wanting to dress, eat, walk, take toys, etc., they began to explore the world around them. At this time, if parents and other adults who take care of them, allow them to do what they can do independently, and praise them for the work they have done, they can cultivate their willpower and give them a sense of autonomy and control. Yourself.

Conversely, if adults take care of them too much and arrange them instead, they don't need them to do anything; or if they are too severe, this is not allowed, and they will ruthlessly reprimand even use corporal punishment. For example, if a child accidentally breaks a cup and wets his pants, the adult will scold him, causing the child to experience many failures all the time, and he will feel self-doubt and shame.

The third stage (3-6 years old) Development tasks: tasks to cultivate children's initiative, enterprising, and obtain the quality of "purpose"

This is the stage to gain initiative and overcome guilt. At this stage, the individual's muscle movement and speech ability develop rapidly. They can participate in sports such as running, jumping, riding a bike, can say some coherent words, and can expand their activities beyond the scope of their families. In addition to imitating behavior, the individual is full of curiosity about the surrounding environment (including his own body), knows his gender, and knows that the animal is male or female. He often asks this and moves that. At this time, if adults' curiosity and exploration of children are not obstructed, they will have more opportunities to participate in various activities freely, and patiently answer various questions they ask instead of mocking; prohibition, not even accusation, Then, the child's initiative will be further developed; showing great enthusiasm and initiative.

Conversely; if parents take a negative and repressive attitude towards children, they will make them think that their games are bad, the questions they ask are clumsy, and they will hate them in front of their parents; this will cause the children to feel guilt and failure (The so-called guilt is to think that you have done something wrong and done something bad). This feeling of guilt and failure will also affect the development of the next stage.

The fourth stage (7-11 years old) development tasks: the key is to study diligently, to gain a sense of ability and value, and to obtain the quality of "ability"

This is the stage of gaining a sense of diligence and avoiding inferiority. In the early school age, children's intelligence is constantly developing, especially the logical thinking ability is developing rapidly. The questions they ask are very wide and have a certain depth. Their abilities have also grown, and activities they have participated in have expanded beyond society. At this time, it is not the parents but the peers or neighbors who have the greatest influence on them, especially the teachers in the school. They are very concerned about the structure, use and nature of objects, and they are also interested in tool technology. If these aspects can be supported, helped and praised by adults, they can further strengthen their sense of diligence and make them more interested in these aspects.

Erikson advises parents not to treat children's diligence as trouble, otherwise children will develop a sense of inferiority and consider themselves inferior to others. Children should be encouraged to work hard to achieve success, work hard to accomplish tasks, and stimulate their diligence and competition Heart and confidence to get good results; also encourage them to do their best to connect with people around them and engage in social interactions to make them believe that they are capable and smart and can do everything well, even if they participate I also think that I run fast. In short, they feel a sense of accomplishment.

Fifth stage (12-18 years old) Development task: gain the same feeling and overcome the chaos of identity, and obtain the quality of "faithfulness"

The core issues at this stage are the determination of self-awareness and the formation of self-role. The concept of "identity" is an important part of Erikson's theory of self-development, and it has a very broad meaning. It can be understood as the unity of the society and the individual, the unity of the individual's subject and object, the recognition of the individual's historical task and its subjectivity. The unity of desires; it can also be understood as being able to fully understand that the subject of consciousness and action is yourself, or that you can grasp yourself, that is, the "true self" in any case. , Also known as the "core self."

Adolescents have new observations and new ways of thinking about the world around them. They often consider what kind of person they are. They gradually recognize themselves from others' attitudes towards him and from various social roles they play. At this time, they gradually alienated their parents, freed from their dependence on their parents, and established a close friendship with their companions, thereby further understanding themselves and producing about their past, present, and futurean inherent kind of The sense of continuity also recognizes the similarities and differences in appearance and character between oneself and others. Knowing the relationship between your present and future in social life, this is the identity, that is, the psychosocial identity.

Stage 6 (18-25 years) development tasks: gain intimacy, avoid loneliness, and gain the quality of "love fight"

This is the stage to build a family life, this is the stage to gain intimacy and avoid loneliness. Intimacy is the intimate relationship between people, including friendship and love. The intimate social meaning is that individuals can share their common interests and caring with each other. Intimacy often develops into a relationship of mutual obligation in critical situations, and it is established in the process of jointly accomplishing tasks.

The seventh stage (25-50 years old) development tasks: gain a sense of reproduction, avoid a sense of stagnation, and obtain the quality of "care"

This is to gain a sense of creativity and avoid the "self-focused" phase. At this stage, there are two possibilities for development. One may be to develop in a positive way. In addition to caring for family members, individuals will expand to care about other people in the society and the happiness of the next generation and even future generations. They have the courage to create work and pursue the success of their careers, not only to meet personal needs; another possibility is to develop to the negative side, the so-called "self-focused", which is to care for the happiness of themselves and their families, but not others Difficulties and pains, even if they are created, are entirely for their own benefit.

The eighth stage (50 to death) development tasks: openly accept life and obtain the quality of "wisdom"

This is old age, that is, mature period. This is the stage to get a sense of perfection and avoid disappointment. If there are more positive elements than negative elements in the first seven stages, it will bring together a sense of perfection in old age. Looking back-students feel that this life has been very valuable and life is meaningful. On the contrary, if there are more negative components than positive components, then you will feel disappointed, feel that you have lost many opportunities in your life, went in the wrong direction, and want to start again, it is too late, and the pain is so painful, it produces a kind of- Feeling hopeless, lethargic, and sober.