You go through different stages in life. You start out wondering if someone is going to feed you on a regular basis. Then, you gain some words and start wondering how far you can go before someone tells you to shush. Shortly after, you’re zipping around in a car and there are no adults in sight. Then you move on and get a desk-job. Life happens.
All along these stages, your expectations change. You ask yourself different questions and live your life with different rules.
A psychologist named Erik Erikson extensively studied these stages and came up with a nice summary. His results detail the age ranges, the biggest troubles for each age, what main life questions are asked, and how society plays into it all. I threw a chart together to capture the gist of his work. Below is a small piece – the full Erikson Psychosocial Development Chart is linked a little later in the article.