Lifespan Development and Personality
Development does not only start as soon as we are born, but does not end with adolescence as some may think. Adults also experience cognitive, physical, and social changes along with going through modifications. It has been suggested that adulthood starts at the age of 18, but adulthood can actually be divided into three different periods; early adulthood (18 to 40), middle adulthood (41 to 60), and late adulthood (60 and up).
In early adulthood, a persons’ body is still developing. The chest range increases, shoulder length, and height, along with each individual continues to expand his or her physical capabilities. Through the mid-thirties just about everyone will have some type of hearing loss, but during this time most people would will say this these years are the best part of adulthood.
In middle adulthood, physical modifications slowly appear. The one that is most common is the loss of sensory sharpness. Individuals become more sensitive to light, more accurate at noticing differences in the distance, and he or she is slower and less able to consider factors. At the age of 40, an individual has more caution then before. In a woman’s late 40’s or early 50’s, a woman will go through menopause, which is the shutdown of her reproductive capability. Estrogen and progesterone also decrease, and her menstrual cycle eventually stops.
Most individuals are well into the delayed adulthood before his or her physical functions start to show any signs of slowing down. At this time there is a greater chance for heart disease and bone mass is deteriorating. Females become about two-inch’s smaller in height, and males become about an inch smaller in height. This is due to his or her cartilage between the spinal column becomes thinner and his or her stance transforms. Adults that are older tend to go to sleep earlier, but find it hard to sleep through the night because he or she is awakened to use the restroom.
Increased buildups of fat on the artery walls and coagulation of heart vessels may lead to a heart disorder. Also the digestive scheme decelerates and becomes more proficient. Both heart infection and digestive disorders can come from difficulties in diet, not enough fiber, not enough fluid, too much fat consumed and little activity. Along with this the brain does start to shrink. The few reflexes that have remained from birth, such has the knee-jerk reflux do disappear or weaken. The body fluid flow starts to slow down to the brain. These changes can be delayed or weakened by exercise and a good diet.
Even with the maturing of the mind, cognition knowledge changes very small until later into adulthood. In reality older individuals may function just as well as a younger adult individual, and this could be due to the lessons and talents that the older adult has learned. AN example of this is a skilled educator may be able to deal with a unruly student better then a newer educator. In reality a older adult as been able to accumulate and categorized data so that he or she can be more clever, competent, and perform better then an younger adult.
By the age of 60 an adult has significant cognitive capabilities increase. By this time in an adult’s life he or she is better on checks of general information, language, and understanding especially if he or she uses these in his or her every day life. Younger and middle-aged adults are able to learn new skills and data; he or she is also able to recall data and skills they have learned before. He or she will also try and put in his or her best performance of their lives on complex mental tasks such as reasoning, verbal memory, and vocabulary. They glimpse life’s contradictions as an inescapable part of truth, and they are inclined to weigh distinct answers to difficulties other than just acknowledging the first one that jump to mind.
Adulthood is a time when changes appear in situations and social connections. These changes are the result of experiences that each individual has had and learned from. Examples of these are being fired from a job, being hospitalized, divorce, getting arrested, going back to school, losing a spouse to death, moving back home, remarrying, or retiring are just a few of the turning points that can send the person in a whole new direction with his or her life.
Males and females whom have been raised in the western cultural tend to enter the mature world in his or her 20’s. He or she chooses an employment, or most of the time obtain a degree, and then become involved with his or her profession. At this time he or she is also more concerned with the matter of love. The sixth of Ericson’s stages of psychosocial development that a young person’s become adept to consign themselves to another individual or they evolve a sense of isolation and seem they have no one in the world but themselves. This intimacy may include friendship, mutual intellectual, or stimulation sexual intimacy. The intimacy may lead to a committed relationship, or even marriage. All this comes at a time in his or her life when he or she has become separated from their parents; young adults may also be experiencing loneliness and. He or she could also view the future with a mixture of anticipation, fear and insecurity.
Depending on how adept and eager an individual is to make an intimate commitment will depend on his or her previous relationships. It has been discovered that young adults view intimate relationships kind of like infant attachment. If his or her outlook reflects a protected addition, he or she is inclined to seem affectionate, treasured, and worthy of support. Closeness becomes easy; and have connections distinguished by believing, commitment and delight. If his or her outlook reflects an insecure addition, he or she are inclined to be preoccupied with connections and may seem concerned about being abandoned, misread, and under appreciated. His or her connections are often contradictory, jealous, and obsessive. Because of this he or she may be unable to commit to a partner, unable to trust, and unapproachable. The changes seen in family life over the past several decades have made it more challenging than ever to successfully navigate the years of early adulthood.
Sometimes around the age of 40, individuals may go through a midlife change. He or she may change and reappraise his or her affiliations and habits. Many individuals may seem invigorated and liberated and may glimpse his or her midlife as an opening for his or her development, but other individuals may seem distressed and have a “midlife crisis.” It is not known how many individuals have a crisis during the midlife change, but it is believed to be a smaller number of people then once thought. The comparing between youth and middle age may be disturbing for men who have matured early and were athletic and sociable other then being intellectual. Once the midlife change is past, the middle years of adulthood are more of a time of approval and happiness. An essential inquiry in developmental psychology distresses the family member control of nature and nurture. “Gesell pressured personality in his theory of growth, recommending that adulthood is maturation the normal describing of capacities with age. Watson obtained the conflicting outlook, declaring that maturity is knowledge, as outlined by the external environment” (Staudinger, U., & Kunzmann, U. 2005). In his theory of cognitive growth, Piaget illustrated how nature and nurture perform jointly. Now a day’s individuals understand the notion that both nature and nurture influence growth and inquire not if, but how and what degree each contributes (Nakagaki, 2011). Research in behavioral genetics displays that convoluted traits, for example character and understanding leveraged by numerous ecological factors genes, and by numerous genes.

References
Chui, H., Hay, E., Labouvie-vief, G., Lumley, M., & Diehl, M. (2009). Longitudinal Change in Coping and Defense Strategies in Adulthood. Retrieved from PsycEXTRA database.
Staudinger, U., & Kunzmann, U. (2005). Positive Adult Personality Development: Adjustment and/or Growth?. European Psychologist, 10(4), 320-329. doi:10.1027/1016-9040.10.4.320.
Nakagaki, A. (2011, December). The Significance and Potential of Piaget's Developmental Stage Theory. Japanese Journal of Develoment Psychology, 22(4), 369-380. Academic Search Complete.