Periods of rapid growth and change can be confusing; there a lots of conflicts, pulls and pressures from the previous patterns of living, as well as pulls and pressures from the developmental themes (i.e., classroom lessons) emerging, which naturally require different patterns of living.

Whereas a major psyche-socio theme in adolescence is exploring options and developing a sense of individuality and self esteem, in early adulthood building a sense of connection and belonging to/with others, and to a larger whole, is more dominant.

As a person, you may be in late adulthood, enmeshed in the emerging late adulthood themes of  accepting, synthesizing and finding meaning in the many relationships that have made your life what it has been, even while the nation, of which you are a part,  as a twenty year old,  in it’s  21st century, is enmeshed in the emerging early adulthood themes of building meaningful relationships.

Of course, one of the hallmark traits of adolescence is not listening to the wisdom of the elders….So, whether its on the personal level or the national level, adolescence is often filled with addled lessons.

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

and one man is his time plays many parts,

his acts being seven ages…”

William Shakespeare, in addition to being a master poet and playwright, was quite an astute psychologist. This excerpt from his comedy As You Like It, suggests what is  now referred to as Stages of Psychosocial Development, or simply, Developmental Stages.  Shakespeare goes on in the full passage to give witty one sentence descriptions of these seven developmental stages such as “…the infant, mewling and pucking in the nurse’s arms…” and “…the whining schoolboy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping unwillingly to school…”

However, what is of  more interest is his reference to 7 ages, or stages, of development. In modern terms, these seven stages are infancy, earlier childhood, later childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood and later adulthood. These developmental periods are each characterized by tasks and challenges and not entirely age-based. That is, it’s not at all uncommon to find a person in their middle adulthood years  working on incompleted  adolescent tasks and challenges. This is sometimes referred to as the “mid life crisis.” The “late life crisis” is less well known, but exists.

The nice thing about psyche-social developmental stages is we can count on them….they are as structured as the motion of the sun and moon; we keep on movin’ through one phase of development, one stage,  to the next, learning, growing and becoming…..Shakespeare’s point is…..all the word is a developmental stage….