Robert Havighurst, in delineating developmental tasks for various stages of life from infancy through older adulthood, has provided a framework for conceptualizing human development over the life span. Although widely accepted by psychologists and educators as reflective of stages of development and as bases for planned learning experiences, there exists no study of the tasks in terms of their basic components. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which the tasks of young adulthood, middle age, and old age are separate and discrete units. Five hundred and forty men and women representing three income levels and three age groups were asked to rank the importance of each of the adulthood tasks on a 5-point Likert-type male. Using the 180 age-appropriate respondents for each set of adulthood tasks, item scores were intercorrelated and then subjected to factor analysis. Three factors--Family Concerns. Work and Community, and Soeial Affiliatio-merged hom the eight young adulthood tasks. Two fadorsSocial Living Concerns and Later Life Adjustments--were found to be characteristic of older adulthood. The seven tasks of middle age, however, failed to cluster into separate factors. This analysis provides insight into the configuration of concerns pertinent to today's adults.
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