[Transitional phases in human development (author's transl)]

Abstract

Transitional phases in the course of Human Development which divide the course of development into different steps, have been searched far from the old. These transitional phases are very often seen to be at least initiated by physical resp. biological changes and accompanied by psychological or mental changes. The results of the Life-span-Psychology and especially the findings of the biographical studies of our Psychological Institue, which were started in the Fifties, shows that there are Transitional phases which neither related to biological change nor to role change nor to the change from the one decade of life to the other one. Much more important are very personal experiences which very often lead to a reorientation. - These findings are in agreement with cognitive theory of personality, according to which human behavior is dependent more on the situation as perceived, than on the stimulus-pattern contigent with this situation. Therefore the study of these situational concepts of individual is relevant for the Life-span-Psychology and specially for the analysis of transitional phases.