...According to Baltes, (1996), the entire life cycle has four eras. These eras, he says, take an approximate time of 20-25 years. Levinson goes further to identify the developmental periods as childhood and adolescence, early childhood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. At this point in time, it is formal to simplify various terminologies that relation to human development. This is because they will feature constantly in the preceding sections. First and foremost is development. This is simply a change characterized by movement from one state to another. Usually, development leads to transitions. Development, as will be used in this paper, will refer to growth, and progression through certain stages, commonly termed as “maturity.” Another term of significance is stage. This refers to sections that differentiate the various phases of growth. The phases involve changes which are either physical or intellectual and their subsequent impact on life events and experiences. This paper examines the wider field of lifespan development. It begins by exploring the stages of human development. As regards, the stages, the paper focuses on seven main stages i.e. the infancy stage, early childhood, middle childhood, Adolescence, early adulthood, middle...
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...Social Development Research Purposeful Aging: Teleological Perspectives on the Development of Social Interest in Late Adulthood By Jeffrey M. Penick * Explain why you chose this topic and article Being a child of young parents had enabled me to view my elders in a different light. Social Media has left what I perceive the middle aged, 65 to 75 years of age, behind the times. People are living longer and the perception of “old” is outdated. Social interests need to be met for all ages 80, 90 and yes 100 years old. * Key points of the article One of the key points of the article was the discussion of the expectations of change in social interest late in adulthood and how these changes are and will continue to augment the fabric of later social development. Another key point made was that social interests and needs are changing with the largest demographic, whose center and purpose is degrading with the release of day-to-day parenting duties, spouse or intimate partner loss, and the decline in health and career and employment demands. These fore mentioned factors have been driving your early adult life for many years and to have a sudden decline with no replacement or substitution, will drive the desire for innovative social interests and inspirations. Lastly, later in life, with many burdensome conditions lifted, there is a lot of time for self-reflection and expression of interest in real or synthetic communities. The article made valid points that purposeful...
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...The article that I chose was “Romantic Relationships and Substance Use in Early Adulthood: An Examination of the Influences of Relationship Type, Partner Substance Use, and Relationship Quality” by Charles B. Fleming, Helene R. White, and Richard F. Catalano. This article covered the effects that varying type of relationships have on substance use, and being as I went through these different stages right out of high school so I can relate and appreciate the data. This article was very easy to relate too and to understand how relationships can change you for worst or better, and the way that the data is delivered was straight forward and clear cut so I was able to interpret it clearly. The information that is given in this article was well researched and delivered, and being that this was a research paper it would give good starting points for where I should begin my own research. Although this paper was focused on a limited age range (early adulthood 18-20) it was extremely thorough in retrieving data and offers many areas where you could continue the research and look more into a specific relationship type. This paper covers the opposing affects that differing stages of relationships play on drug use, heavy drinking, and smoking, but this study only focuses on the transition between graduating high school and entering college and gives a small glimpse into what the roles play later in life. The most interesting piece of data that this article had was not only does being in...
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...Social Development Research PSY/172 Essentials of Psychology Social Development Research Article Title: Adulthood Link: http://www.credoreference.com/entry/worldsocs/adulthood I chose this article because it provided an interesting theory of how sociological changes have influenced and delayed the transition into adulthood. The article focused on the impact of modern technological and industrial changes to societal attitudes toward adult rites of passage. In the modern-day industrial society, the introduction of formal education as well as the need for higher education in the twentieth-century postponed adulthood by introducing an adolescent and post-adolescent phase prior to adulthood. By comparison, in the agricultural society of the medieval era, people transitioned from infancy to adulthood as soon as they could work alongside their elders. Some interesting key points of the article, Adulthood, describe both formal and informal transitions in a person’s life that indicate the achievement of adult status. Formal indicators that a person has achieved adult status are: 1. Completion of formal education 2. Economic independence 3. Moving out of the parent’s home 4. Voting 5. Full-time employment 6. Marriage Informal transitions into adulthood are behavioral patterns assumed by an adolescent in an attempt to attain adult status. These behaviors include: 1. Drug and alcohol use 2. Smoking 3. Sexual activity 4. Teenage pregnancy...
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...Social Development Research on: Intimate Relationship Development: During the Transition to Adulthood: Differences by Social Class PSY/201 October 22, 2011 Shawna Harlin-Clifton I chose the article “Intimate Relationship Development: During the Transition to Adulthood: Differences by Social Class” because I have believed there was a difference in intimate relationships when it came to different social classes. This article had various data graphs that informed me of the percentages of teen relationship experiences, teen sexual experiences as well as the percentage of early cohabitation and marriage by family income. It was very interesting to see that in adolescence, class differences shape intimate relationships such as in holding hands, kissing on the mouth or telling someone you loved her. While class differences in relationship experience are not that different, there are vast differences in sexual experiences. Concerning sexual experiences those with higher incomes are least likely to have had sexual experiences and that was the particular trend amongst the males. Class differences are also evident in early marriage and cohabitation rates. According the Study of Adolescent Health Data, collected in 2001, approximately 28 percent of youth who had lower income have cohabited by the age of 20 compared to 15 percent of higher income youth. This is also true concerning marriage. Youth in the lower income category are more likely to arrive at marriage...
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...The issue of social development in adulthood has much important information that stems from the transition of adolescence to adulthood. In the article, Intimate Relationship Development During the Transition to Adulthood: Differences by Social Class by Ann Meier and Gina Allen, social development in adulthood has many variables of determining factors such as age, sex, race, financial position, sexual orientation, and militant experience. In a study taken by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, research was conducted to see who in the last 18 months had a special romantic relationship. After receiving the data it was noted that lower income families have children that produce the majority of unintentional pregnancies. Upper class children tend to wait until later in life. This data shows that lower income families develop or participate in early sexual behavior at a younger age than upper income families. Even though lower income families have sexual encounters at earlier ages the data also shows that they marry at younger ages as well. This is a main cause for the high divorce rate. These two situations are primarily due to lack of education and resources from a family of poverty. Marriage patterns also follow the parents’ example. For instance, children from higher educated and income families follow the traditional marriage example. This means that they marry first then become parents. And the opposite follows for children with “less-than” backgrounds of their...
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...This research paper discusses a published article titled, Major Depression in the Transition to Adulthood: Risks and Impairments that reports on the effects and risks of major depression in the transition to adulthood. It also explores the factors that cause depression in adolescents, such as poor quality of family life that includes neglect and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse within the family, which can have a profound impact on a child’s mental health and well-being. Health factors and illnesses can also contribute to depression. There are studies included that discuss the links between the effects and these harmful activities. These effects include psychosocial impairments in early adulthood, including poor overall functioning, interpersonal...
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...PSY121 Textbooks: Berk, L. E. (2014). Exploring lifespan development (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-205-95738-5 Course Objectives: Developmental Psychology is perhaps the most interdisciplinary field within psychology. It encompasses genetics, learning, physiological psychology, perception, cognitive psychology, intelligence, personality, gender issues, social influences, and psychological disorders. It uses a similar methodology as other fields but also utilizes some innovations specific to human development research. This course is a lifespan development course. That is, it will examine in detail how we develop physically, mentally, morally, and socially from the moment of conception through adulthood and old age. Our objective is to explore the interrelations listed above and to develop literacy in terms of developmental issues and research. It is important that students understand the interrelations of psychological research as they are applied to the domain of life-span development. In this course, development is viewed from many perspectives. Thus adequate treatment of issues in regard to parents,...
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...As humans, we develop constantly throughout our entire lives. The four stages of development are prenatal and newborn, infancy and childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Each individual may develop in a way unique to how they function as a person, but overall there are many strategies humans can follow or enforce in order to develop in what psychologists consider a healthy way. These strategies can include acts such as breastfeeding, exposing children to enriched environments and the “just right” parental style, participation in volunteer work or service learning, and last but not least, maintaining a healthy diet along with exercise. This paper will highlight these strategies. Breastfeeding has many known benefits to the development of children in their prenatal/newborn stage. When compared to formula-feeding, breastfeeding has been found to prevent infection, chronic disease and allergies in the child, enhance their...
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...Thinking about social-development issues in adults always leads me down the road of men and their mid-life crisis. This article looks at how a difficult childhood could possibly be a cause for a mid-life crisis later in life. Three cases are examined to support the thesis of this study that an emotional deprived childhood is a contributing factor in a male mid-life crisis. In an emotional deprived childhood the child would develop a poor sense of self. This poor sense of self might be hidden down deep until a certain age like our early 40’s where we begin to reflect back on our life. Missing a maternal love as a child has repercussions in adulthood that can result in no success being good enough to satisfy the adults need to compensate for the missing maternal love. A mid-life crisis is a topic that has always interested me. Some men and women use the term mid-life crisis as an excuse for any bad behavior or mistakes they make in their early to mid-40’s. The cause behind a mid-life crisis has always interested me, knowing that someone did not wake up one day and decide to spend an obscene amount of money on a little sports car or commit adultery after a very loving marriage. In a male child’s life, a mother plays a very large role in creating a healthy sense of self and belonging. It only makes sense that for any male that is lacking a loving maternal relationship will suffer social-development setbacks at some point in their life. When reaching a certain point in...
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...Later Adulthood Development Report Adriane McClendon BSHS/325 - HUMAN SYSTEMS AND DEVELOPMENT November 2, 2015 Susan W. Jernigan Over the time in their lives, most people can acquire protected attachments; cognitively, socially, and morally, and produce families and discover good jobs. Ultimately, though, as an individual enter into their 60s and beyond, getting older leads to quicker changes in our bodily, cognitive, and social capabilities and desires, and life starts to approach its natural ending, resulting in the last life stage, beginning in the 60s, known as late adulthood. "Social changes affect a person's decision. If they move, for example, to be closer to family, they will need to make new friends in the new environment, to cope with the loss of old friends, and to deal with the changing roles within the family dynamics as one becomes older." ("End-of-Life Decisions and Late Adulthood," 2007). When an individual enters late adulthood, they start to go through various changes in their role and social position in society. At one point in their life, they were young and had a prominent role in the decisions they made for themselves and others. Many elderly people are parents and grandparents and at one point had the role of being the caretaker of their offspring. During this time of their life this position changes, and it is usually their children taking care of them now. They do not have as much power over their life as they used to have and may not have...
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...Early and Middle Adulthood Paper Kimberly Smith PSY/280 August 17, 2015 Mrs. Barch Early and Middle Adulthood Paper Early to middle adulthood is more of a challenging ever-changing process. People in their early and middle adulthood go through transitions such as deciding to go to college, starting a family, getting married and establishing social and health-affecting habits. As a man and woman grow, these different changes will help him or her to form a wide variety of views on life. How social and intimate relationship has changed over time and identification of various roles changes during early and middle age. Lastly the direct and future influence the healthy and unhealthy behaviors experienced during early and middle adulthood. Social and Intimate relationship change In early adulthood, it’s a time of independence, identity seeking, and lifestyle forming. During this time, kids are graduating leaving their parents home starting new relationships and developing a life of their own. Erikson believed that people need constant contact with others throughout their lives, from birth to death, whether that contact is romantic intimacy or a relationship with friends and family. The time has changed where young adults were getting married fresh out of high school. Now middle adults are waiting until mid thirty’s are longer to have children and get married. Parents who waited longer to have children and who had highly educated degrees have a greater loss in happiness following...
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...LIFE EPSY 5460 Introduction The concept of a “midlife crisis” has been a well-known way of describing a time of stress and difficulties that may occur during middle adulthood. This study discusses views of the concept of midlife crisis in the past and the present. It will also compare and contrast Carl Jung, Elliott Jaques, Erik Erikson and Robert Peck’s view of middle age development. One of the most popular contradictions in society has been whether middle age is a peak period of life or the beginning of a downward slide. Many people change careers at midlife. Is this change because of a decrease in self-esteem or because one wants to find a new outlook on life and greater satisfaction? This paper will argue that middle age is not a time of loss and crisis but of new possibilities and fulfillment. The most common view of a midlife crisis has been a male in his 40’s who leaves his wife for a younger woman and runs off in a sports car; or a woman in her 40’s or 50’s that gets a face lift, breast lift and tries to reinvent herself. These views have been promoted in magazines, television shows and movies. Our society as a whole has promoted youth and beauty as one of the most important things in life. The purpose of this study is to provide information contrary to this popular belief. This paper proposes that the knowledge and confidence that comes with age is actually more important to most middle age people than physical appearance and trying to appear youthful. ...
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...Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a mental condition that affects ~5-10% of children with symptoms such as inattentiveness, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity. While both children and adults can have ADHD, it is typically diagnosed in children around the age of seven. Along with inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness, ADHD is also thought to lead to other behavioral issues including substances use/abuse and addiction. Since ADHD can continue through adolescence and into adulthood, it is important to learn if this disorder puts individuals at risk substance use. The object of one study conducted by Brooke S.G. Molina and William E. Pelham, Jr. was to clarify the magnitude of risk for early substance use and SUD in clinic-referred children with ADHD compared to children without ADHD. Their results were published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2003, Vol.112, No.3, in their paper titled, “Childhood Predictors of Adolescent Substance use in a Longitudinal Study of Children with ADHD”. The research was performed by two distinguished psychologists, Dr. Molina and her mentor, Dr. Pelham, both of whom have significant experience in studying ADHD in children. The article reference section was lengthy and covered numerous topics of children behavior specific to ADHA issues. The authors themselves had several other publications included in the References. The longitudinal study followed two sets of children: one set of 142 clinical-referred children with ADHD and one set of...
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...Though often discussed as though it were a discrete event, puberty comprises one segment of a larger developmental continuum and is notable for rapid transformation across a multitude of domains. Research suggests that an earlier rate of pubertal maturation in girls correlates with a number of detrimental outcomes compared with on-time or later maturation. The present review synthesizes the research on negative psychological sequelae of early pubertal timing in adolescent girls. Emphasis is on three theoretical perspectives by which precocious development is believed to affect the emergence of adverse outcomes: biological, psychosocial, and selection effects. Consequences of early pubertal timing As a developmental milestone, puberty is notable for its rapid and near-simultaneous transformation across biological, social, and psychological domains. As physical appearance matures, individuals must navigate changing social norms and expectations. This often necessitates a confrontation and, perhaps, reorganization of identity and self-perception. Aberrance in maturational timing seems to increase risk for emotional and behavioral problems during adolescence and early adulthood (Peterson & Taylor, 1980). In particular, girls who mature earlier than their peers seem to find pubertal adjustment especially challenging and are more likely to experience detrimental sequelae (e.g., Caspi & Moffitt, 1991; Ge, Conger & Elder, 1996). Just as puberty itself is multiply determined, the negative...
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