ABSTRACT
The key statement of the model of productive processing of reality in socialisation theory that personality development continues during the entire life course. The life course is subdivided into consecutive life stages with specific developmental tasks. The traditional standard biography concept, in which old age is characterised by retreat and withdrawal from active life, only becomes reality at the very end of life. Increased longevity and the changing social and economical conditions have altered the structure of the life course and the sequence of the individual life stages. Childhood is becoming ever shorter because the onset of puberty is occurring at an increasingly stage in the life course and with it, adolescence. The entire life course was dominated by the professional and family life of adulthood. As the illustration shows, in 1900 the life course in highly developed societies only consisted of the stages childhood and adulthood.
