Age periods of human life

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 are all 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.

Classification of age periods from the point of view of biology

A single classification does not exist, at different times it was made differently. 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 may not coincide with biological. 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. 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:

The views of scientists on the age of human life

Depending on the era and the country, scholars and philosophers have proposed various criteria for grading the basic life stages.

For example:

• Chinese scientists divided the human life into 7 phases. "Desired," for example, was the age from 60 to 70 years. This is the period of development of spirituality and wisdom of man.
• 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, a length of 7 years each, starting from birth.

Periods of life in Pythagoras

Ancient philosopher Pythagoras, considering the stages of human existence, 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 - youth, from 20 to 40 years.
• Autumn - flowering, from 40 to 60 years.
• Winter - extinction, from 60 to 80 years.

Periods of human life according to Pythagoras had a duration of 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 a certain magical meaning. The numbers also allowed him to determine the characteristics of the cosmic order.

By the age of Pythagoras also applied the notion of "quaternary", because he compared them to the eternal, unchanging phenomena of nature, for example, the 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, as successive seasons, and man is a part of nature, lives and develops according to its laws.

The notion of "seasons" for Pythagoras

Identifying age intervals of a person's life with the seasons, Pythagoras emphasized that:

• Spring - the time of the beginning, the origin of life. The child develops, absorbing new knowledge with pleasure. He is all around interesting, but everything is still in the form of a game. The child blooms.
• Summer is the period of growing up. Man blooms, it attracts everything new, still unknown. Continuing to blossom, a person does not lose his child's fun.
• Autumn - the person became an adult, balanced, the former gaiety gave way to confidence and slow pace.
• Winter - a period of reflection and summing up. The man has gone through most of the way and is now considering the results of his life.

The main periods of people's earthly journey

Considering the existence of an individual, we can distinguish the main periods of a person's life:

• youth;
• Mature age;
• old age.

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.

Features of the basic stages of the existence of personality

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 mental, creative abilities, 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 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 reached certain peaks. 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 the present day, 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 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 it happens more at the spiritual level, on the development of the inner world.

Critical points

The most important periods of a person's life are related to changes 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:

• Teenage years.
• The entry of a man into adulthood is the thirtieth anniversary.
• Go to the fourth decade.
• Fortieth anniversary.
• The middle of life is 45 years.
• Fiftieth anniversary.
• The fifty-fifth anniversary.
• Fifty-six years.

Confident overcoming of "critical points"

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 seeks to conquer new heights of his life.

In the teenage period the child breaks away from the parents and tries to find their 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 whether he lives right. There is a desire to do something that will leave a memory of him. There is frustration and fear for his life.

In 50 years, the slowing down of physiological processes is reflected in health, age changes are taking place. 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.

Conclusion

The person himself decides by what criteria he shares his life periods, and what he puts into the concept of "age". It can be:

• Purely external attractiveness, which a person seeks to extend by all available means. And he considers himself young, as long as the appearance allows.
• The division of life into "youth" and "the end of youth." The first period lasts until there is an opportunity to live without obligations, problems, responsibility, the second - when there are problems, life difficulties.
• Physiological changes in the body. A person clearly follows the changes and identifies with them his age.
• The concept of age is associated with the state of the soul and consciousness. Man measures his age with the state of the soul and inner freedom.

While human life is full of meaning, desire to 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.