The concept of "age" can be considered from different aspects: from the point of view of the chronology of events, the biological processes of the body, social formation and psychological development.
Age covers the entire life path. Its countdown starts from birth and ends with physiological death. Age shows the period of time from birth to a specific event in a person's life.
Birth, growing up, development, old age - all these are periods of a person's life, of which the entire earthly path consists. Having been born, a person began his first stage, and then, over time, he will pass through all of them sequentially.
Classification of age periods in terms of biology
There is no single classification, at different times it was compiled differently. The delimitation of 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 key "points".
Passport, or chronological age may not coincide with the biological. It is from the latter that one can judgehuman capabilities: how he will do his job, what loads his body can withstand. Biological age can either lag behind the passport age or be ahead of it.
Let's consider the classification of life periods, which is based on the concept of age based on physiological changes in the body:
| age | period | ||
| 0-4 weeks | newborn | ||
| 4 weeks - 1 year | chest | ||
| 1-3 years | early childhood | ||
| 3-7 years | preschool | ||
| 7-10/12 years old | junior school | ||
| girls: 10-17/18 years old | teenage | ||
| boys: 12-17/18 years old | |||
| boys | 17-21 years old | 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, 2nd period | |
| women | 35-55 years old | ||
| 55/60-75 years old | old age | ||
| 75-90 | old age | ||
| 90 and over | centenarians | ||
Views of scientists on the age periods of human life
Depending on the epoch and country, scientists and philosophers proposed different criteria for grading the main stages of life.
For example:
- Chinese scientists divided human life into 7 phases. “Desirable”, for example, was called the age from 60 to 70 years. This is a period of development of human spirituality and wisdom.
- The ancient Greek scientist Pythagoras identified the stages of human life with the seasons. Each lasted 20 years.
- The ideas of Hippocrates have become fundamental for the further definition of periods of life. He singled out 10, each 7 years long, starting from birth.
Life periods according to Pythagoras
Ancient philosopher Pythagoras, considering the stages of human existence, identified them with the seasons. He identified four of them:
- Spring is the beginning and development of life, from birth to 20 years.
- Summer is youth, from 20 to 40 years old.
- Autumn - heyday, 40 to 60 years old.
- Winter - fading, 60 to 80 years.
The periods of human life according to Pythagoras lasted exactly 20 years. Pythagoras believed that everything on Earth was measured by numbers, which he treated not only as mathematical symbols, but also endowed them with some kind of magical meaning. Numbers also allowed him to determine the characteristics of the cosmic order.
Pythagoras also applied the concept of “four” to age periods, because he compared them with eternal, unchanging natural phenomena, for example, the elements.
The periods of a person's life (according to Pythagoras) and their advantages are based on the doctrine of the idea of eternal return. Life is eternal, like successive seasons, and man, a piece of nature, lives and developsaccording to her laws.
The concept of "seasons" according to Pythagoras
Identifying the age intervals of a person's life with the seasons, Pythagoras focused on the fact that:
- Spring is the time of the beginning, the birth of life. The child develops, absorbing new knowledge with pleasure. He is interested in everything around him, but everything is still happening in the form of a game. The baby is blooming.
- Summer is the period of growing up. A person blossoms, he is attracted by everything new, still unknown. Continuing to flourish, a person does not lose his childish fun.
- Autumn - a person has become an adult, balanced, former gaiety has given way to confidence and slowness.
- Winter is a period of reflection and summing up. Man has come most of the way and is now considering the results of his life.
The main periods of the earthly path of people
Considering the existence of an individual, we can distinguish the main periods of a person's life:
- youth;
- mature age;
- old age.
At each step, a person acquires something new, reconsiders his values, changes his social status in society.
The basis of existence is the periods of human life. The features of each of them are associated with growing up, changes in the environment, the state of mind.
Features of the main stages of the existence of a personality
Periods of human life have their own characteristics: each stage complements the previous one, brings withsomething new, something that has never been in life.
Youth is inherent in maximalism: there is a dawn of mental, creative abilities, the main physiological processes of growing up are completed, appearance and well-being are improving. At this age, a system of life values is established, time begins to be valued, self-control increases, and others are reassessed. A person is determined with the direction of his life.
Having reached the threshold of maturity, a person has already reached certain heights. In the professional field, he occupies a stable position. This period coincides with the strengthening and maximum development of social status, decisions are made deliberately, a person does not avoid responsibility, appreciates today, can forgive himself and others for mistakes, realistically evaluates himself and others. This is the age of achievement, conquering peaks and getting the maximum opportunities for your development.
Old age is more about loss than gain. A person ends 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 a spiritual level, on the development of the inner world.
Critical points
The most important periods of a person's life are associated with changes in the body. They can also be called critical: the hormonal background changes, due to which changes in mood occur, irritability and nervousness appear.
Psychologist E. Erickson identifies 8 crisis periods in a person's life:
- Adolescence.
- The entry of a person into adulthood is the thirtieth birthday.
- The transition to the fourth decade.
- Forty years.
- Midlife - 45 years.
- Fiftieth Anniversary.
- Fifty-fifth anniversary.
- Fifty-Sixth Anniversary.
Confidently overcoming "critical points"
Overcoming each of the presented periods, a person moves to a new stage of development, while overcoming the difficulties that have arisen on his way, and strives to conquer new heights of his life.
During adolescence, a child breaks away from his parents and tries to find his own direction in life.
In the third decade, a person reconsiders his principles, changes his views on the environment.
Approaching the fourth ten, people try to gain a foothold in life, climb the career ladder, begin to think more rationally.
In the middle of life, a person begins to wonder if he lives right. There is a desire to do something that will leave a memory of him. Disappointment and fear for your life appear.
At the age of 50, a slowdown in physiological processes affects he alth, age-related changes occur. However, the person has already correctly set life priorities, his nervous system works stably.
At 55, wisdom appears, a person enjoys life.
At 56, a person thinks more about spiritualside of your life, develops inner peace.
Doctors say that if you are prepared and aware of the critical periods of life, then they will be overcome calmly and painlessly.
Conclusion
A person decides by what criteria he divides his life periods, and what he puts into the concept of "age". It could be:
- Purely external attractiveness, which a person seeks to prolong by all available means. And considers himself young, as long as appearance allows it.
- The division of life into "youth" and "the end of youth". The first period lasts as long as there is an opportunity to live without obligations, problems, responsibility, the second - when problems, life difficulties appear.
- Physiological changes in the body. A person clearly follows the changes and identifies his age with them.
- The concept of age is connected with the state of the soul and consciousness. A person measures his age by his state of mind and inner freedom.
As long as a person's life is filled with meaning, the desire to learn something new, and all this is organically combined with the wisdom and spiritual we alth of the inner world, a person will be forever young, despite the weakening of the physical capabilities of his body.
