Peck: Three Developmental Tasks for Older Adults

Pecks three developmental tasks for older adults are (1) differentiation versus role preoccupation, (2) body transcendence verses preoccupation, and (3) ego transcendence versus ego preoccupation. Differentiation versus role preoccupation deals with retirement. Older adults must redefine their worth in terms other than work roles. Most define themselves by their occupations. I am going to be a teacher so when people ask about myself I would be very proud of all the schooling I endured, the degrees I earned, and the employment of being a teacher. What Peck is saying is that once retirement sets in one has to find a new way of defining themselves like “I am a mother of two,” “I am a wife,” “I am the greatest grandmother alive!” Then body transcendence verses preoccupation deals with the fact that older adults must cope with declining physical well-being. One has to realize that if you were an Olympic gymnast, a cross country runner, or even a bowler, that as you age you aren’t able to do the same activities as you could in earlier life. One might have to take up swimming if gymnastics is too stressful on their bones. And finally, ego transcendence versus ego preoccupation is the concept that death is inevitable. Then one must assess what they have contributed to the future through vocation, children, and ideas and look at it in a positive way. They might look at it as “life wasn’t meaningless; I married I raised 3 beautiful children who have grandchildren and I made that possible and my memory and love will live on in them and they will have ideas and ways to change the world themselves.”