Nichowilliam
Schaie’s Developmental Theory of Adult Cognitive Adjustment and Early Adulthood
K. Warner Schaie has studied how health, demographic, personality, and envi- ronmental factors influence individual differences in successful cognitive aging. Schaie’s (2005) and Schaie and Willis’s (2000) developmental theories divide the lifespan into several stages: acquisitive, achieving, responsibility and executive, reorganizational, reintegrative, and legacy leaving. These stages describe cognitive phases throughout the lifespan. Since this chapter focuses on early adulthood, let us discuss the stages falling within this phase of life.
The achieving stage begins in early adulthood. This substage depicts early adulthood as the time when the individual uses cognitive skills to acquire success in life situations such as on the job, in marriage, and in raising children. Previously learned skills are strengthened and decisions are considered with regard to how they affect other life issues.
The responsibility stage occurs once a family is established and decisions require a consideration of others. For example, the person in the responsibility stage must consider family needs and make decisions accordingly. Knowing that one’s decisions affect others in the family or community creates a need for open mindedness and thoughtfulness in choices.
The executive stage affects approximately 25% of early- and middle-aged adults. These adults are those who attain professional positions requiring high levels of leadership and who must make responsible executive decisions affecting numerous people’s lives and careers (Schaie, Willis, & Caskie, 2014). People at this level must learn skills related to societal hierarchies, conflict resolution, diversity, and loyalty.
As part of his studies on cognitive aging, Schaie also stated that four of six intellectual abilities (inductive, spatial, vocabulary, and verbal) are highest in the mid-40s to early 50s. Perceptual speed declines in the 20s and numerical ability falls in the 40s (Lyons et al., 2009). More studies are needed to determine exactly how intellectual and cognitive abilities decline after early adulthood. One thing that is certain, however, is that degeneration and memory loss are factors associated with aging.
1. Acquisitive stage—Acquisitive stage spans all of childhood and adolescence. During this stage, a person acquires and accumulates knowledge (Schaie, 2005).
2. Achieving stage—Achieving stage occupies the early adulthood of a person. During this period, a person applies his/her intelligence and accumulated knowledge to attain career and family goals (Schaie & Willis, 2002).
3. Responsible stage—Responsible stage is gone through by a person during and after the passage from early to middle adulthood. During this stage one performs the task of protecting one’s career and family (Schaie, 2005).
4. Executive stage—Executive stage occurs during middle adulthood. This stage is characterized by broadening of one’s focus from personal domain to the community or societal level. The stage occurs later than the responsible stage. This stage, however, may not be experienced by all the persons (Schaie, Willis & Caskie, 2004).
5. Reorganizational stage: Reorganisational stage occurs past adulthood, In this stage adults entering retirement, reorganize their lives around activities not related to their routine work (Schaie, 2005).
6. Reintegrative stage: Reintegrative stage is one in which older adults have only limited energy and focus on tasks which are relevant to them (Schaie, 2005).
7. Legacy-creating stage: This is a stage in which very old people spend twilight of their lives doing tasks like narrating their life stories and distributing their possessions (Schaie& Willis, 2002).
An observation of the lives of our parents and grandparents clearly indicates that every person passes through almost all the stages. The lives of the adults in the society around us also strengthen our observation. This is not surprising because theories of cognitive development emerged from observation of human lives.