The ancient Greek lawgiver Solon divided the human life cycle into ten stages of seven years each: 0-7 – A boy at first is the man; unripe; then he casts his teeth; milk-teeth befitting the child he sheds his 7th year; 7-14 – Then to his seven years God adding another seven, signs of...Read More
In The Analects, Confucius provides us with one of the earliest maps of human development. The Master said, at 15 I set my heart upon learning At 30, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground. At 40, I no longer suffered from perplexities. At 50, I knew what were the biddings of heaven....Read More
From the movie City Slickers: “Value this time in your life kids. Cuz this is the time in your life when you still have your choices. And it goes by so fast. When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Thirties, you raise your family,...Read More
The Tibetan Book of the Dead or Bardo Thodol provides a map of the stages of life, which in this case, occurs not in a straight line but in a circle: The Chi-Kha Bardo – this state occurs at the moment of death, when the dying person has the potential to perceive The Clear Light...Read More
In Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King, a monster called the Sphinx was killing travelers on the road to Thebes who could not answer its riddle: “What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?” Finally, the hero of the play, Oedipus, came along and correctly solved...Read More
Swiss philosopher Jean Piaget conceived of four cognitive stages of human development. They are as follows: Birth to Age Two – The Sensori-Motor Stage: infants develop their thinking processes solely through the body; in the course of moving their arms, legs, and torsos around, infants make things happen accidentally, and want to make them happen...Read More
Founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud created a psychosexual model of human development based upon the erogenous zones of the body. He believed that as these zones matured neurologically, they activated the emotional world of the child (largely resident in the unconscious), and in the course of doing so, created the basis for later emotional health...Read More
Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg created a theory of moral development (or more properly, “moral reasoning”) based upon Jean Piaget’s stages of cognition. There are three basic levels: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional, and two stages within each level. The six stages are as follows: Level 1 (Preconventional) 1. Obedience and Punishment Orientation – at this stage of...Read More
According to the ancient Romans, there are five stages of human development: 0-15 years – Pueritia – early childhood and latent period of early school years 15-25 – Adulescentia – puberty and adolescence 25-40 – Luventus – first adulthood 40-55 – Virilitas – second adulthood 55+ – Senectus – old age For more about the...Read More
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