What are the three sets of developmental tasks in Levinson's model?

What are the three sets of developmental tasks in Levinson's model?

• A. Build, modify, and enhance life structure; form and modify single components of the life structure such as life dream, occupation, love-marriage, family relationships, mentor, and forming mutual relationships; and develop and partake in tasks to become more individuated.
• B. Developing social skills, forming friendships, and pursuing education.
• C. Focusing on early career success, marriage, and parenthood only.
• D. Addressing biological aging, cognitive changes, and social roles.

Answer: (A)

Levinson’s model describes adult development in three interrelated task sets. First, you build, modify, and sustain the life structure—the overall pattern of roles, relationships, and daily routines that give a person’s life its architecture. Second, you form and adjust the components within that life structure, such as your life dream, occupation, love/ marriage, family relationships, a mentor, and mutual connections. Third, you undertake tasks that promote becoming more individuated—developing a clearer sense of self and autonomy while remaining embedded in relationships. This framework shows how adults shape their life pattern, tailor its parts, and continually work toward greater self-definition. Other options don’t fit this threefold framework. They either focus narrowly on social skills or education, emphasize only early-life milestones like career start or marriage, or center on aging and cognitive changes rather than the broader life-structure and individuation processes Levinson describes.

Levinson’s model describes adult development in three interrelated task sets. First, you build, modify, and sustain the life structure—the overall pattern of roles, relationships, and daily routines that give a person’s life its architecture. Second, you form and adjust the components within that life structure, such as your life dream, occupation, love/ marriage, family relationships, a mentor, and mutual connections. Third, you undertake tasks that promote becoming more individuated—developing a clearer sense of self and autonomy while remaining embedded in relationships. This framework shows how adults shape their life pattern, tailor its parts, and continually work toward greater self-definition.

Other options don’t fit this threefold framework. They either focus narrowly on social skills or education, emphasize only early-life milestones like career start or marriage, or center on aging and cognitive changes rather than the broader life-structure and individuation processes Levinson describes.