In order to analyze the developmental tasks proposed by Havighurst, 12 elderly people were submitted to the life history method. They told their stories in group interviews and reported them in written texts. Early childhood was disregarded because autobiographical memories of that phase are limited. A thematic content analysis of the verbalizations and texts revealed that only four out of the 40 tasks of the remaining life course phases - middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle age and later maturity - were not mentioned. The results suggest the need of altering five of the six tasks originally proposed by the author. It is also necessary to include new demands for later maturity which denote the contextual and historical character of the process. Havighurst's developmental tasks showed ecological validity evidence for the Brazilian context, though.
Human development; Havighurst; life course; developmental tasks; elderly
