The concept of “age” can be considered from various aspects: from the point of view of the chronology of events, biological processes of the body, social formation and psychological development.
Age covers the whole life path. Its countdown begins at 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 - these are all periods of a person’s life, of which the whole earthly path is composed. Having been born, a man began his first stage, and then, over time, all of them will pass in succession.
Classification of age periods in terms of biology
A single classification does not exist, at different times it was compiled differently. The differentiation of periods is associated with a certain age, when significant changes in the human body occur.
The age periods of a person’s life are the periods between key “points”.
Passport or chronological age may not coincide with the biological. It is from the latter that one can judge a person ’s capabilities: how he will do his job, what loads his body can withstand. Biological age can either lag behind the passport or be ahead of it.
Consider the classification of life periods, which is based on the concept of age on the basis of physiological changes in the body:
Age periods| age | period |
| 0-4 weeks | newborn |
| 4 weeks - 1 year | chest |
| 1-3 years | early childhood |
| 3-7 years old | preschool |
| 7-10 / 12 years old | primary school |
| girls: 10-17 / 18 years old | teenage |
| boys: 12-17 / 18 years old |
| young men | 17-21 year | youthful |
| girls | 16-20 years old |
| men | 21-35 years old | adulthood, 1 period |
| women | 20-35 years old |
| men | 35-60 years old | adulthood, 2 period |
| women | 35-55 years old |
| 55 / 60-75 years | elderly age |
| 75-90 | senile age |
| 90 years and more | centenarians |
The views of scientists on the age periods of human life
Depending on the era and country, scientists and philosophers have proposed different criteria for gradation of the main stages of life.
For instance:
- Chinese scientists divided human life into 7 phases. “Wanted,” for example, was the age of 60 to 70 years. This is the period of development of spirituality and wisdom of man.
- The ancient Greek scientist Pythagoras identified the stages of human life with the seasons. Each lasted 20 years.
- The ideas of Hippocrates became fundamental for the further determination of periods of life. He singled out 10, each 7 years long, starting from birth.
The periods of life according to Pythagoras
The ancient philosopher Pythagoras, considering the stages of human being, identified them with the seasons. He singled out 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 is the heyday of 40 to 60 years.
- Winter is fading, from 60 to 80 years.
The periods of human life according to Pythagoras had a duration of exactly 20 years. Pythagoras believed that everything on Earth is measured by numbers, to which he treated not only as mathematical symbols, but also endowed them with a certain magical meaning. Numbers also allowed him to determine the characteristics of the cosmic order.
Pythagoras also applied the concept of “foursome” to age periods, because he compared them with eternal, unchanging natural phenomena, for example, elements.
The periods of human 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 develops according to its 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, with pleasure absorbing new knowledge. He is interested in everything, but so far everything is happening as a game. The baby is blooming.
- Summer is a period of growing up. A man is blooming, he is attracted by everything new, still unknown. Continuing to flourish, a person does not lose his childish fun.
- Autumn - a man has become an adult, balanced, past gaiety has given way to confidence and leisurely.
- Winter is a period of reflection and debriefing. Man has gone most of the way and is now considering the results of his life.
The main periods of the earthly journey of people
Considering the existence of the individual, we can distinguish the main periods of human life:
At each stage, a person acquires something new, revises his values, changes his social status in society.
The basis of existence is periods of human life. The features of each of them are associated with growing up, changes in the environment, state of mind.
Features of the main stages of the existence of personality
The periods of a person’s life have their own characteristics: each stage supplements the previous one, brings with it something new, something that has not yet happened in life.
Youth is characterized by maximalism: the dawn of mental, creative abilities occurs, the basic physiological processes of growing up are completed, the appearance and well-being are improving. At this age, a system of life values ​​is established, time begins to be valued, self-control rises, and others are reassessed. A person determines 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, values ​​today, can forgive mistakes made to himself and others, realistically evaluates himself and others. This is the age of achievement, conquering peaks and getting maximum opportunities for their development.
Old age is more associated with losses than with acquisitions. 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 this happens more on the 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, nervousness appear.
Psychologist E. Erickson identifies 8 crisis periods of human life:
- Teenage years.
- Man's entry into adulthood is thirty years old.
- Transition to the fourth dozen.
- The fortieth anniversary.
- The middle of life is 45 years.
- Fiftieth anniversary.
- Fifty-fifth anniversary.
- Fifty-sixth birthday.
Confident overcoming of "critical points"
Overcoming each of the periods presented, a person goes to a new stage of development, while defeating the difficulties that arose on his way, and striving to conquer new heights in his life.
In the teenage period, the child breaks away from his parents and tries to independently find his own direction in life.
In the third ten, people are revising their principles, changing their views on the environment.
Approaching the fourth ten, people try to gain a foothold in life, climb the career ladder, and begin to think more rationally.
In the middle of life, a person begins to wonder whether he lives correctly. There is a desire to do something that will leave a memory of him. There is disappointment and fear for my life.
At 50, a slowdown in physiological processes affects health, age-related changes occur. However, a person has already correctly set life priorities, his nervous system works stably.
At age 55, wisdom appears, a person enjoys life.
At 56, a person thinks more about the spiritual side of his life, develops his inner world.
Doctors say that if one is prepared and aware of critical periods of life, then overcoming them will happen calmly and painlessly.
Conclusion
A person decides by what criteria he shares his life periods, and what he puts in the concept of "age." It could be:
- A purely external attraction that a person seeks to extend in all available ways. And considers himself young, as long as appearance allows.
- The division of life into "youth" and "end of youth." The first period lasts while there is an opportunity to live without obligations, problems, responsibility, the second - when problems arise, life difficulties.
- Physiological changes in the body. A person clearly follows the changes and identifies his age with them.
- The concept of age is associated with a state of mind and consciousness. Man measures his age with a state of mind and inner freedom.
As long as a person’s life is filled with meaning, a desire to learn something new, and all this is organically combined with the wisdom and spiritual wealth of the inner world, a person will be forever young, despite the weakening of the physical capabilities of his body.