Changes_in_Adulthood

Paper on Changes in Adulthood Amylyn Thomas University of Phoenix Change is a word that is said often but not many realize how much it affects their lives. As people grow, they change in each stage. The changes that occur during early, middle, and late adulthood are physical, emotional, cognitive, and developmental. As people grow, these changes help them to form personalities, and views on life. They go to college, get married, have children of their own, work for many years, and retire. It is smart to remember that change is a part of life and development and without it we do not become the people that they become. The first stage that will be discussed is early adulthood. There are many changes that occur during this stage because this is when the person goes from high school to college which is a new experience. This is the transition into adulthood because they start to think about their future. They decide on the degree that will impact what job field they will go into, start their finical stability and start to develop intimate and professional relationships. The physical aspect of early adulthood is biological aging. Biological aging begins in early adulthood and continues until death. There are many theories to biological aging. One theory is that the existence of aging genes that control the biological changes. These genes can control menopause, gray hair and the determination of body cells. One physical aspect is cardiovascular and repistroy systems. There are not as many heart related changes as one can expect at this stage of life. The respistory system begins to fully expand and strengthen during this time because of the work it continues to do. Substance abuse becomes more prominent because the factors of alcohol and cigarettes along with the street drugs come into play. Many students who attend college experiment with alcohol and drugs and most start smoking to relieve the pressure of classes and stress. Though it is not healthy many adults begin smoking and some quit smoking after college. Alcohol becomes a main factor for two reasons. The first is that it supplies comfort and the second and dangerous one is that it can lead to addiction. The same goes for drug use. Cognitive development is also a change that happens during young adulthood. There are three theories that are important in this stage. These theories are William Perry’s theory, Schaie’s theory and Labouvie-Vief’s theory. William Perry’s theory regards knowledge as made up separate units. His theory is based on highly educated young adults. The main point of the theory is that the movement from dualism to relativism is limited to people confronted by the viewpoints of a college education. Most young adults give up the possibility of absolute truth in favor of multiple truths. Shaie’s theory is based on the knowledge of different stages. In early adulthood this is called the achieving stage. In this stage, people must adapt their cognitive skills into situations such as marriage and employment. Young adults have profound implications for achieving their long term goals. However, how the individual handles the situations can affect their entire life course. For this to work young adults must attend to both the problem and its context not just the problem. Labouvie-Vief’s theory, with this theory the young adult needs to specialize to motivate change. They start to accept inconsistencies as a part of life and start to develop ways of thinking that thrive on imperfection and compromise. The next stage of change is Middle adulthood. This is the stage where most adults have already found someone and have gotten married, has established a carrier, most have started having children and establishing housing. In this stage it seems to start coming all together. My personal philosophy on this change is that they start to notice what middle adulthood is. Many people at this stage start to experiences different aspects. Women at this stage start the begging of menopause and most males start to hit mid life crisis. I perceive these changes as a part of growing older. Most people in middle adulthood start to obsess over their weight and start to exercise more and eat healthier. Their relationships become more solid because they have been married for a longer amount of time and those that don’t work out find out a way to achieve being a single parent. My experience comes from my mother. She and my father got divorced and then my father was killed by a drunk driver so my mom learned how to be a single parent by herself. I can’t say she did a great job but she did try. She tried to go back to college and helped by working and providing me with the best she could. ‘ The last stage that will be discussed is late adulthood. This is a stage of reflection of their lives. Most people are retired by this stage and have grandchildren and sometimes great-grandchildren. They start to travel, join more communities, and spend more time doing the things that they couldn’t do in early and middle adulthood. Also in later adulthood they spend more time with their families than they did in their earlier years. My personal philosophy on this change is that people want to do everything that they could not do when they were younger because they were busy with careers and family and bills. This is a time when they get to rest and relax. I perceive changes because they start to travel more. My grandparents traveled from the day the retired for about seven years. They were able to travel almost all the way through the United States except for Hawaii. Relationships also become closer in this stage because they tend to want to do right by their grandchildren. My paternal grandparents helped raised me and they treated me the same as they did with their own children. That made it easier for me to transition between stages. The main focus is that everyone goes through changes in adulthood. There are many cognitive, emotional, and physical changes that go on through all stages of life. They help develop the personalities and ways in which they can reflect in later life. I look forward to experiences middle and late adulthood and I don’t reject it but accept it as a part of life. References Berk, L. E. (2004)Development through the lifespan (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon