Developmental Tasks

Robert Havighurst (1972).

“…A
TASK WHICH ARISES AT OR
ABOUT A CERTAIN PERIOD INTHE
LIFE OF AN INDIVIDUAL.
PURPOSES OF DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS

 They act as guidelines to make parents and teachers

aware of what children should learn at a given age
and what will be expected of children.
 They serve as motivating forces for children to learn
what the social group expects them to learn at that
age.
 They reveal to the individual about what happens in
the further stages and hence the person is prepared
to act accordingly.
THREE SOURCES OF DEVELOPMENTAL
TASKS
 Tasks that arise from physical maturation: : These
include learning to walk, talk, control of bowel and
urine, behaving in an acceptable manner to the
opposite sex and adjusting to menopause.
 Tasks that arise from personal values: Examples
include choosing an occupation and figuring out
one’s philosophical outlook.
 Tasks that have their source in the pressures of
society: For instance, we are required to learn to
read and learn to be a responsible citizen.
SIX MAJOR STAGES IN HUMAN LIFE

 1. Infancy & early childhood (Birth till 6

years)
 2. Middle childhood (6-12 years)
 3. Adolescence (13-18 years)
 4. Early Adulthood (19-30 years)
 5. Middle Age (30-60 years)
 6. Later maturity (60 years and over)
DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS OCCURRING IN
EACH STAGE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
(Ages 0-6) Infancy & early childhood
• Learn to walk
• Start to crawl
• Learn to take solid food
• Start to talk
• Learn to control the elimination of body wastes
• Understand sex differences and sexual modesty
• Get ready to read, and
• Form concepts and learn language in order to describe
social and physical reality
(AGES 6-12) MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
• Learn physical skills necessary for ordinary games
• Learn to get along with age mates
• Build wholesome attitudes toward oneself as a
growing organism
• Understand the appropriate masculine or feminine
social role
• Develop concepts necessary for everyday living
• Develop conscience, morality and a scale of values
• Achieve personal independence, and
• Develop attitudes toward social groups and
institutions
(AGES 12-18) ADOLESCENCE
• Achieve new and more mature relations with age
mates of both sexes
• Develop a masculine or feminine social role
• Accept one’s physique and using the body
effectively
• Achieve emotional independence from parents
and other adults
• Prepare for marriage and family life
• Acquire a set of values and an ethical system as a
guide to behaviour, and
• Desire and achieve socially responsible behaviour
(AGES 18-30) EARLY ADULTHOOD
• Select a mate
• Learn to live with a partner
• Start a family
• Bring up children
• Manage one’s home
• Get started in an occupation
• Take on civic responsibility, and
• Find a congenial social group
(AGES 30-60) MIDDLE AGE
• Assist teenage children in becoming responsible
and happy adults
• Achieve the adult social and civic responsibility
• Reach and maintain satisfactory performance in
one’s occupational car
• Cope with retirement and reduced income
• Adjust to the death of a spouse
• Establish an explicit affiliation with one’s age
group
• Adopt and adapt to social roles in a flexible way,
and
• Establish satisfactory physical living arrangements