A Lifespan Model Of Cognitive Development

Acquisitive Stage
- childhood and adolescence
- children and adolescents acquire info and skills mainly for their own sake or as preparation for participation in society.
Achieving Stage
- late eens or early twenties to early thirties
- young adults no longer acquire knowloedge merely for its own sake; they use what they know to pursue goals, such as career and family.
Responsible Stage
- late thirties to early sixties
- middle-aged people use their minds to solve pratical problems associated with responsibilities to others; such as family memebers or employess
Executive Stage
- thirties or forties through middle age
- people may overlap with the achieving and responsible stages, are responsible for societal systems. They deal with complex relationship on multiple levels.
Reorganizational Stage
- end of middle age, begining of late adulthood
- people who enter retirement reorganize their lives and intellectual energies around meaningful pursuits that take the place of paid work.
Reintegrative Stage
- late adulthood
- older adults, who may have let go of some social involvement and whose cohnitive functioning may be limited by biological chnage, are often more selective about what tasks they expend offort on. They focus on the purpose of what they do and concentrate on tasks that have the most meaning for them.
Legacy-creating Stage
- advanced old age
- near the end of lfie, once reintegration has been completed, older people may create instructions for the disposition of prized possessions, make funeral arrangements, provide oral histories, or write their life stories as a legacy for their loved ones. All of these tasks involve the exercise of cognitive competencies within a social and emotional context.