The concept of "age" can be viewed from different aspects: from the point of view of the chronology of events, the biological processes of the organism, social formation and psychological development.
Age covers the whole life path. Counting it starts from birth and ends with a physiological death. Age shows the period of time from birth to a specific event in a person's life.
Birth, maturation, development, old age - allthese are the periods of a person's life, of which the entire earthly path consists. Having appeared in the world, a person began his first stage, and further, with the passage of time, all of them will pass consistently.
A single classification does not exist, at different times it was compiled in a different way. The distinction between periods is associated with a certain age, when significant changes occur in the human body.
Age periods of a person's life are periods between the key "points".
Passport, or chronological age can notcoincide with the biological one. It is on the latter that one can judge about the capabilities of a person: how he will perform his work, what loads his body can withstand. The biological age can both lag behind the passport one and outstrip it.
Consider the classification of life periods, based on the concept of age on the basis of physiological changes in the body:
age | period | ||
0-4 weeks | newborn | ||
4 weeks - 1 year | thoracic | ||
1-3 years | early childhood | ||
3-7 years | preschool | ||
7-10 / 12 years | junior high school | ||
girls: 10-17 / 18 years | teenage | ||
boys: 12-17 / 18 years old | |||
young men | 17-21 | youthful | |
girls | 16-20 years old | ||
men | 21-35 years old | mature age, 1 period | |
women | 20-35 years old | ||
men | 35-60 years old | mature age, 2 period | |
women | 35-55 years | ||
55 / 60-75 years | elderly age | ||
75-90 | old age | ||
90 years and more | centenarians |
Depending on the era and the country, scientists and philosophers have proposed various criteria for grading the basic life stages.
For example:
The ancient philosopher Pythagoras, considering the stages of human existence, identified them with the seasons. He singled out four of them:
Periods of human life according to Pythagoras hadthe duration is exactly 20 years. Pythagoras believed that everything on the Earth is measured by numbers, to which he relied not only as a mathematical symbol, but also gave them some magical meaning. The numbers also allowed him to determine the characteristics of the cosmic order.
By the age of Pythagoras also used the concept of "quaternary", because he compared them to the eternal, unchanging phenomena of nature, for example, elements.
Periods of human life (according to Pythagoras) and theiradvantages are based on the doctrine of the idea of eternal return. Life is eternal, as successive seasons, and man is a part of nature, lives and develops according to its laws.
Identifying age intervals of a person's life with the seasons, Pythagoras emphasized that:
Considering the existence of an individual, one can single out the main periods of a person's life:
At each level a person acquires something new, revises their values, changes the social status in society.
The basis of existence is the periods of a person's life. The characteristics of each of them are associated with growing up, changes in the environment, the state of the soul.
Periods of a person's life have their own characteristics: each stage complements the previous one, brings with it something new, something that has not been in life yet.
Youth is characterized by maximalism: there is a dawn of intellectual, creative abilities, the basic physiological processes of growing up are completed, the appearance, well-being improves. At this age, the system of life values is established, time begins to be valued, self-control increases, and reassessment of others takes place. A person is determined with the direction of his life.
Having reached the threshold of maturity, a person has already reachedcertain vertices. In the professional sphere, he takes a stable position. This period coincides with the strengthening and maximum development of the social status, decisions are taken deliberately, the person does not avoid responsibility, appreciates today, can forgive himself and others for perfect mistakes, realistically evaluates himself and others. This is the age of achievements, the conquest of peaks and the obtaining of maximum opportunities for its development.
Old age is more associated with losses than withacquisitions. A person finishes his labor activity, his social environment changes, inevitable physiological changes appear. However, a person can still engage in self-development, in most cases it happens more on the spiritual level, on the development of the inner world.
The most important periods of a person's life are connected withchanges in the body. They can also be called critical: the hormonal background changes, which causes changes in mood, irritability, nervousness.
Psychologist E. Erickson identifies 8 crisis periods of a person's life:
Overcoming each of the presented periods, a person passes to a new stage of development, thus wins the difficulties that have arisen in his path, and strives to conquer new heights of his life.
In the teenage period the child breaks away from his parents and tries to find his own direction in life independently.
At the third ten people reconsider their principles, change their views on the surrounding.
Approaching the fourth ten, people are trying to get stronger in life, climb the career ladder, they start to think more rationally.
In the middle of life a person starts to wonder if he lives right. There is a desire to do something, that will leave a memory of him. There is frustration and fear for your life.
At the age of 50, the slowing down of physiological processesaffects the health, there are age-related changes. However, the person has correctly set life priorities, his nervous system works stably.
In 55 years, wisdom appears, a person enjoys life.
In 56 years, people think more about the spiritual side of their lives, develops the inner world.
Doctors say that if you are ready and aware of the critical periods of life, their overcoming will be calm and painless.
The person himself decides by what criteria he shares his life periods, and what he puts into the concept of "age". It can be:
While human life is filled with meaning, desireto learn something new, and all this is organically combined with the wisdom and spiritual wealth of the inner world, man will be eternally young, despite the weakening of the physical capabilities of his organism.
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